Amid concerns over a surge in the number of kids with respiratory ailments in hospitals, Toronto’s public health board has told the city’s top doctor to “urgently explore” reissuing mask mandates, starting with local schools.
The board tasked Dr. Eileen de Villa on Tuesday after a presentation that included data about slightly rising COVID-19 levels in the city along with an increase in cases of influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
The board approved a motion from member Kate Mulligan: “To reduce the spread of respiratory viruses and protect the capacity of pediatric health care services, the board of health requests that the medical officer of health urgently explore all avenues toward reissuing mask mandates, starting with schools.”
My girlfriend is in the hospital today for clinicals. In the ER last week 2/16 patients were covid patients, this week it’s 9/16. Three of the remaining seven are there for post-covid complications due to past infections.
The numbers are even fuzzier these days as we no longer wonder of the number of positive tests reported / recorded, rather the number of peeps bothering to test symptoms for covid at all. I doubt many bother in the UK with no free testing anymore.
The UK is still running that ‘test the same 10,000 (?) households fortnightly’ to keep a handle on trends FWIW
So my 10 month old is sick, almost certainly RSV. I get the whole bringing in your sick kid who is fine to the ER now. This fucking blows. Doesn’t help to simultaneously be thinking about how she’s fine and the 5 or so RSV kids you’ve admitted in the past few days.
My wife and I are finally burning through the tests we bought earlier in the year so I went to score some more free federal ones only to find out that program wrapped up in September because of lack of funding. Can’t wait to navigate the insurance reimbursement process.
You don’t need to navigate the insurance reimbursement process. Walk into any drug store and tell them you want to get the 4 free insurance provided tests. They’ll run it through your insurance and give them to you for free. I think you can do it once per month per person? I’ve done it multiple times now.
I’m seeing 3-7 rsv kids per shift. I see 20-25 patients per shift. I’m admitting 1-2 RSV kids per shift. I usually admit 1-2 kids per month. Sick kids are so hard on everyone. I’m fucking over it.
