{"id":430,"date":"2022-11-18T18:31:24","date_gmt":"2022-11-18T23:31:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/?p=430"},"modified":"2023-01-25T17:29:05","modified_gmt":"2023-01-25T22:29:05","slug":"as-cheo-emergency-worsens-community-still-uncertain-about-covid-19-regulations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/2022\/11\/18\/as-cheo-emergency-worsens-community-still-uncertain-about-covid-19-regulations\/","title":{"rendered":"As CHEO emergency worsens community still uncertain about COVID-19 regulations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By: Zuhra Jibril & Rowan McCarthy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CHEO\u2019s emergency, inpatient, ICU and mental health units are currently overwhelmed, CHEO\u2019s chief of staff and chief medical officer Dr. Lindy Samson said during a press conference Friday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been seeing 241 children a day. Our emergency department is set up and built to treat 150 children a day,\u201d Samson said. The hospital is currently operating at 200 per cent capacity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The emergency situation of young children contracting respiratory viruses, influenza and COVID-19 cases is unlike anything the hospital has seen before, said Alex Munter, CHEO’s chief executive officer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the longer term, I think we are setting the stage here, the context for a child and youth health system that is undersized to meet the demand of our population,” Munter said. “The gap between where we were and where we need to be is significant.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The respiratory syncytial virus, commonly known as RSV, has primarily affected young children and babies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a time that we should all be thinking about how we can keep our children safe,\u201d said Samson, who is an infectious disease specialist. The best advice is to \u201cpractice what we know works,\u201d  which includes masking indoors, staying home when sick, getting vaccinated and practicing frequent handwashing, she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the briefing, Dr. Ken Farion, vice-president of quality, strategy and family partnership, described the types of scenarios that should prompt parents to bring their children to emergency departments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Babies under three months with fevers, babies and young children with difficulty breathing and children of all ages with underlying health conditions who get sick should be brought to the emergency department, he said. More extensive guidelines are available on CHEO\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Ontario Premier Doug Ford urged citizens to wear a mask earlier this week, the Ford government has not yet implemented any regulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo one told me they wanted mandatory masking,\u201d said Ford in a press conference last Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Citizens are defaulting to personal preventive measures due to the absence of government regulations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Masks are available at a pharmacy in Old Ottawa South. (Zuhra Jibril\/Reloading News)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI do carry a mask with me all the time \u2026 I am wearing it more often, but I am not necessarily saying that I will always have my mask on,\u201d said Zein Ghazal, a student at Carleton University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have all my shots and I used to wear my mask, but masks are getting harder to find,\u201d said Chisom Adabanya, 20. \u201cIf they bring back the restrictions I will wear a mask \u2026 I don\u2019t necessarily feel the need to be hugely protected because I have all my shots.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Others say more regulations would not only help improve the situation but would also make them feel safer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alyaah-Meghan Muhorakeye said she uses her mask in certain cases like when she\u2019s in crowds, on the bus or feeling unwell and hopes others would do the same. \u201cSome people, I don\u2019t know what their conditions are, so I would feel safer [if mask mandates returned],\u201d said Muhorakeye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople in the healthcare services are absolutely exhausted, they are understaffed, and then you have got the RSV \u2026 I think it is criminal that they have not made masks compulsory,\u201d said Donald Swartz, a former public policy professor at Carleton University. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swartz felt that the government needed a much larger campaign to get people third and fourth doses of vaccines as well as making masking mandatory in group settings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For local businesses, the situation is even more complex. With a lack of government regulations, stores are balancing employee, customer and business interests often coming to differing conclusions about what is best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen there are these mandates everyone is on edge,\u201d said Melissa Woodhouse, the manager of Alta Vista Flowers. She said that employees and customers were often confused because government guidelines were unclear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Woodhouse said that now that masks are no longer mandatory, \u201cnobody is really angry \u2026 Everyone comes in and they do what they want and I’m finding that is a good thing right now,\u201d she said. \u201cEveryone is doing what makes them feel comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Noor El-Khalili, a supervisor at Bridgehead, said that while the cafe used to enforce mask mandates and proof of vaccination, this protocol was removed when governments stopped enforcing it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThings have gotten a lot less precautionary since the mask mandate and the vaccination proof were lifted,\u201d said El-Khalili. \u201cI don\u2019t personally blame the company for that, I think they just go with the flow of what the government says.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the lack of regulations from the government, Samson said the community is central to solving the problem. She emphasized the need for a collaborative approach to containing the spread of respiratory viruses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s happening in the community is dictating what\u2019s happening here at CHEO,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThis is a time that we should all be thinking about how we can keep our children safe,\u201d said Samson, who is an infectious disease specialist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":445,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,5],"tags":[65,64,9],"ppma_author":[26,27],"class_list":["post-430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home","category-news","tag-cheo","tag-health","tag-ottawa"],"authors":[{"term_id":26,"user_id":6,"is_guest":0,"slug":"zuhrajibril","display_name":"Zuhra Jibril","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/IMG_20221115_124550_489-1-scaled-e1668651180215.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/IMG_20221115_124550_489-1-scaled-e1668651180215.jpg"},"user_url":"","last_name":"Jibril","first_name":"Zuhra","description":"Zuhra is a passionate storyteller who believes everyone has a story to tell. During the pandemic, she noticed that many felt voiceless, and in 2022, Zuhra began her graduate studies in journalism. Her new normal involves reporting on stories that matter and seeing the world through a new lens."},{"term_id":27,"user_id":7,"is_guest":0,"slug":"rowanmccarthy","display_name":"Rowan McCarthy","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/IMG_20221115_124233_596-1-scaled-e1668651818429.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/IMG_20221115_124233_596-1-scaled-e1668651818429.jpg"},"user_url":"","last_name":"McCarthy","first_name":"Rowan","description":"Rowan is an Ottawa-based journalist passionate about hockey and sports journalism. A part-time gig as an on-air broadcaster for Jr. B hockey made him realize journalism was what he wanted to do. Rowan\u2019s new normal involves not just calling Jr. B games but also coaching."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":863,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430\/revisions\/863"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}