“China eats weird animals disease”

Ontario is reporting 3,422 cases of #COVID19 and nearly 60,200 tests completed. Locally, there are 1,035 new cases in Toronto, 585 in Peel, 254 in Windsor-Essex County, 246 in York Region and 186 in Niagara.

— Christine Elliott (@celliottability) January 17, 2021

Uptake for the COVID-19 vaccine has been high among Toronto’s long-term-care home residents. For staff, not so much

They’re on the front-line of the COVID-19 pandemic, among the most at risk, and one of the first priorities for the rollout of the vaccine.

But vaccine uptake among employees of city-run long-term-care homes in Toronto has been spotty, and a lack of hard numbers in other regions is making it difficult to know exactly how many are on their way to being protected.

On Friday, the city announced a milestone, that vaccines have been administered at all long-term-care homes, ahead of next week’s goal. But according to Toronto Public Health, less than half, or 43 per cent, of the roughly 3,000 workers in city-owned homes have received the first dose of the vaccine or given consent to be vaccinated at an upcoming clinic. That’s compared to 91 per cent of residents within the city homes who opted to get the voluntary jab.

Mom is being transferred to a physio rehab today. It reached the point where I told the planner last week I would consider taking her home rather than have her imprisoned at the hospital. It was doing her more harm than good as conditions at the hospital were far from ideal. Broken hearing aids, stressed staff resulting in occasionally hostile nurses, it looked all too much like one of Ontario’s alleged care homes. I refuse to send Sainted Irish Mudda to one of those charnel houses.

Hospitals in Greater Toronto are transferring critically ill patients further and further away and in ever greater numbers to cope with the ongoing crush of COVID-19 patients needing intensive care.

This past week, Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital transferred patients to Burlington. Peel’s William Osler Health System sent patients to Kitchener. And Scarborough Health Network was forced to transport patients more than 100 kilometres east to Peterborough — and is exploring options as far away as Kingston — as critical care units overflow with COVID-19 cases.

Sainted Irish Mudda Update.

Mom ended her 2 week Covid isolation last week at the hospital and the physio/rehab clinic has a bed for her. She was exposed to a staffer who tested positive but she did not catch the Kung Flu. She’ll be transferred tomorrow.

And guess what! The rehab she’s headed to has contained their Covid outbreak to the 4th floor and that means I can’t visit her for 2 weeks as she’ll be in isolation again.

Her hearing aids were dropped at the hospital and now don’t work. I was able to get them looked at last week and was told they are toast.

Got her a Pocket Talker and it works surprising well so that’ll do until we get her new hearing aids.

Several researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology fell ill with symptoms similar to those caused by the CCP virus in the Autumn of 2019, contradicting claims by a senior researcher from the institute who said there were no infections among the staff scientists.

The revelation is part of a fact sheet released by the U.S. Department of State on Jan. 15 which slams the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for obsessive secrecy around the origin of the CCP virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus.

Some 13 people have experienced mild facial paralysis as a side effect after taking the COVID-19 vaccine, the Health Ministry reported, and estimates are that the number of cases could be higher.

Health officials have raised questions about whether or not to administer the second dose to these individuals, but the Health Ministry is recommending that the second dose be given.