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16 more people die of COVID-19 in B.C., as 1,785 new cases recorded over last 3 days
303 people in hospital, with 80 in intensive care
The number of patients in hospital with COVID-19 continues to rise in B.C., as health officials announced 16 more deaths from the disease and 1,785 new cases over the last three days.
Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry provided the first update on the pandemic since Friday, revealing that the number of patients in hospital with the novel coronavirus is now at 303, including 80 people who are in critical condition. This marks the first time since Jan. 27 that the province's hospitalization numbers have surpassed 300.
There are now 5,290 active cases of the virus across the province, the highest total since Jan.10.
Henry expressed concern about the rising numbers but did not give a clear answer about whether B.C. has hit its third wave of the pandemic.
"People ask if we're in our third wave," she said. "We've come down from the peak of our second wave but we have levelled out for many weeks now and it's a slow and steady increase."
Henry urged everyone to make sure any gatherings are held outdoors, in physically distanced groups of 10 or fewer.
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As supply of N95-style respirators grows, some say it's time to upgrade our masks
Since the pandemic began, masking recommendations in Canada have centred on the idea of protecting others: my mask protects you, your mask protects me. However, more contagious and potentially more dangerous variants of COVID-19 have some asking if it's time for an upgrade, so that people can rely on their masks to protect themselves as well as others.
Until recently, the supply of high-grade masks such as N95 respirators was limited, so they were mainly reserved for front-line health workers. The public was urged to rely on cloth masks to help limit the potential spread of droplets containing the virus from the nose and mouth.
However, the supply of N95 respirators for front line-medical staff has now caught up to demand in Canada and imports are more prolific. As a result, N95s and their international equivalents — such as the KN95 from China and KF94s from Korea — are becoming more widely available to average consumers. This has some advocating for their wider use in the community, and calling on Health Canada to change its messaging around which masks the public wear.
"In Canada we've always been reactive. We've always done things a little too late, a little too little," said Dr. Kashif Pirzada, an emergency physician in Toronto.
Pirzada is the co-founder of a group called Masks4Canada, which pushed to make public masking mandatory early in the pandemic. More recently, the group co-wrote an open letter to the government urging it to acknowledge what Masks4Canada, along with over 600 Canadian and international experts say is an overwhelming amount of evidence showing the virus is airborne.
"It's one of the best explanations of why it's spreading. And if we remember a very related virus, SARS-CoV-1, was airborne as well," Pirzada said. "Even if it's not airborne, we know [COVID-19] is more transmissible, so at least we can be more proactive about it and a higher quality mask may help. I think that's enough to really promote it right now."
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Miami Beach extends COVID-19 curfew in bid to control rowdy spring break crowds
Miami Beach officials voted on Sunday to extend an 8 p.m. curfew and emergency powers for up to three weeks to help control unruly and mostly maskless crowds that have converged on the party destination during spring break.
Thousands of people have packed the city's Art Deco Cultural District causing bedlam and lawlessness in recent days when university students typically celebrate spring break, leading some businesses to close voluntarily out of concern for public safety.
Mayor Dan Gelber told an emergency meeting of the city commission that all manner of out-of-town and out-of-state visitors, not just college students, were filling the streets since Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Feb. 26 called the state an "oasis of freedom" from coronavirus restrictions. "It looked like a rock concert. All you could see was wall to wall people," interim city manager Raul Aguila told the commission.
"This is not a typical spring break crowd.... These are individuals coming into the city ... to engage in lawlessness and anything goes party attitude."
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4 Winnipeg schools notified of possible exposures to more transmissible coronavirus variants
Manitoba's five-day test positivity rate up to 5.2%, 3.7% in Winnipeg
Four Winnipeg schools have been notified of possible exposures to more transmissible coronavirus variants.
Letters have gone out to affected students and staff at St. Paul's High School, Our Lady of Victory School, Highbury School and École Rivière-Rouge, Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba's chief public health officer, said at a news conference on Monday.
The affected classes and other close contacts are isolating, he said.
Roussin also announced an additional case of a variant of concern, a B117 variant case in the Prairie Mountain Health region. The person has recovered.
There are also 66 new COVID-19 cases and another death, he said.
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Expert calls for lockdown amid rising variant cases in Regina
Cases are spreading so quickly that the Saskatchewan capital is now at a critical point
The number of COVID virus cases with variants of concern (VoC) in Regina is spiking and has led one infectious diseases doctor to call for a local lockdown.
In total, 141 of all 156 confirmed VoC cases in Saskatchewan were in Regina, as of March 21. There were 625 presumptive VoC cases in the province and 527 of those were in the capital. That compares with eight VoC cases in the province, six of which were in Regina, two weeks ago on March 8.
The variant cases are spreading so quickly that Regina is now at a critical point, and needs to act right away to stop it, said Dr. Alex Wong, an infectious disease doctor in the capital.
"It's already causing real strain on our acute-care capacity, on our ICU capacity," Wong said. "There's no way that we are going to be able to have the capacity and the wherewithal to be able to control what it is that we're dealing with now in the city."
Pandemic expected to get worse
Not only are there more critically ill patients and hospitalizations, but Wong said he thinks the situation will escalate and be worse than anything Saskatchewan has seen so far in this pandemic.
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