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Education Minister orders review of provincewide testing

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A review of the provincewide testing of grade 3, 6, 9, and 10 students is underway.

Education Minister Paul Calandra has established an advisory panel in hopes of understanding why many students are not meeting provincial standards.

“While there has been progress in recent years, too many students are still not meeting provincial standards,” states Calandra in a release.

“Our government will continue using every tool available to keep Ontario’s education system focused on accountability and a back-to-basics approach to support student achievement, so that students can reach their full potential and be prepared for good-paying, rewarding careers.”

The panel will examine all aspects of the testing, including the tests themselves.

It will also look at how Ontario is supporting student learning, focusing on math, reading and writing, and closing achievement gaps.

The government is also looking for a review of the root causes behind recent test results, and that panel come up with recommended actionable strategies to better support teachers, parents and students.

The Ministry of Education states that the recommendations will ensure teachers have the tools they need to do their best work and that students have every opportunity to succeed.

The most recent testing revealed many students continue to struggle with math, with only 51% of grade 6 students and 58% of grade 9s meeting provincial standards.

Only 56% of grade 3 students met the provincial standards in the writing test.

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PCR Tests Officially Axed

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Short cross-border trips will soon no longer require a negative COVID-19 PCR test.

The new rule only applies if you’re fully vaccinated and your excursion is less than 72 hours.

The change will come into effect Tuesday, November 30th as announced Friday by officials from the Federal Government.

If your trip is longer than 72 hours, you will still need to provide a negative test which could cost between $150-$300 each. Antigen tests will not be accepted for entry.

Canada opened the borders back in October to fully vaccinated non-essential international travellers and to American visitors in August.

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COVID-19 Testing Ramped Up In Dryden

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The Dryden Regional Health Centre is opening the doors to more COVID-19 testing at its Assessment Centre.

Anyone who has symptoms, people who don’t have symptoms but are concerned about exposure and essential workers can now get tested.

Hospital Chief Executive Officer Doreen Armstrong-Ross says they expected a provincial announcement like this to happen at some point.

“We had some preliminary conversations about how we were going to deal with this. So we were able to get our Assessment Centre team together immediately on Monday and come up with our process for the expanded testing.”

Armstrong-Ross stresses staff at the centre have been doing a great job during the pandemic.

She says the same two nurses, a RPN and a an RN, have been on-site since the beginning and they have been wonderful.

“It’s been a really smooth process for the patients. They (nurses) have it working like a well-oiled machine over there.”

You must book an appointment to receive a COVID-19 test.

You can email assess@drhc.on.ca or call 223-3737.

The Assessment Centre is open Monday to Friday from 8:00am-4:00pm.

 

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Canada Surpasses One Million COVID-19 Tests

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Labs across the country have now tested over one million people for COVID-19.

That’s the latest update from Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Doctor Theresa Tam.

“There are now 63,895 confirmed cases, including 4,280 deaths,” says Doctor Tam, “Over 28-thousand, or 44 per-cent, have now recovered.”

She explains that the total confirmed cases work out to around six per-cent of all tests.

Doctor Tam adds that over the past week, there have been an average of over 25-thousand people tested every day.

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Audio: Dr. Cook Comments On PPE And Testing

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The Chief of Staff at the Dryden Regional Health Centre says their Personal Protective equipment inventory is doing well.

Doctor Bruce Cook says they actively keep track of their numbers for gowns, surgical masks, N96 masks and gloves.

However, Dr. Cook says “In the past little bit we have noticed a decline in availability of re-stocking the equipment that we have. That is a present concern of ours right now and this is equipment that is used by everyone who works at our hospital.”

He notes it’s a provincial issue and they are looking for alternative supplies at the moment.

Dr. Cook stresses they have received amazing outside support.

“Industries that have made donations. There’s been groups in the community who have been sewing masks for us and donating those. There’s lots of support and we’re very appreciative of all of that. I think Dryden has really been pitching in to help people in the hospital.”

A Canadian Medical Association survey found close to 90% of physicians indicated that a greater availability of PPE would help reduce their anxiety around the pandemic.

Around one third of doctors in community practices said they had less than two days worth of PPE’s.

Chief of Staff Dr. Bruce Cook also believes there is enough COVID-19 testing being done in our community.

He says the main issue here is the speed at which they can get results, especially for those who are waiting to travel for other services.

Dr. Cook notes they are stuck for days waiting for results.

“If we suspect someone has COVID-19 and we are waiting for a swab. We are gowning, masking, gloving as if they do have it every single day that we are waiting for that test result.”

Dr. Cook states “The struggle in turn around time for our test results actually affects our PPE issue. I think we are doing adequate testing here but we’re just not getting the results that we need as quick as we need. That’s something that we are hoping to get some help with from the provincial level.”

The Canadian Medical Association survey found 84% of physicians indicated more testing would help ease their concerns.

To hear more from Chief of Staff Dr. Bruce Cook, visit the Audio link below.

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Ontario Leading The Way In COVID-19 Testing

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Ontario is making significant progress in testing for COVID-19.

Premier Doug Ford says they have beat their target of 16,000 tests per day by May 6th.

“By May 1st we hit 17,000 tests a day. The good news is we are leading the country in daily testing volumes, both in total tests and per capita.”

Ford says over 342,000 tests have been completed in Ontario to date.

“We rapidly increased testing in our long-term care homes. We’re testing those in group homes, homeless shelters, women’s shelters and other congregate settings.”

Health Minister Christine Elliott says “We did so by forming a province-wide COVID-19 testing network that includes over 20 organizations. This has allowed us to eliminate the backlog of 11,000 tests and turn our focus to testing priority groups and vulnerable populations.”

Premier Doug Ford adds “This important milestone provides a strong foundation for gradually reopening our economy and getting people back to work, while protecting the health and safety of all Ontarians.”

However, he stresses they still have a lot of work to do.

 

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COVID-19 Testing On The Rise

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Ontario’s Minister of Health admits she doesn’t know if the province has peaked in term of case of COVID-19.

Christine Elliott says they are conducting over 9,000 tests a day and that’s skewing things.

“I think we are still waiting to see very carefully what’s happening. Because we are doing more testing, we are also seeing more people being diagnosed with COVID-19. So I think the Chief Medical Officer of Health as well as the people who do the modelling are waiting to see where this is going to settle out.”

Premier Doug Ford “We’ve hit our first target and we are going to keep ramping our efforts until we hit 14,000 tests a day by the end of this month.”

Meantime, the Ford government is freeing up more beds to help hospitals deal with the pandemic.

Christine Elliott says they are adding 1,035 acute care beds and 1,492 critical care beds.

Elliott says the province is also in a position to add another 4,200 beds by April 30th if needed.

The government has also announced they are taking steps to ensure hospitals have the staff available to care for a sudden surge of patients.

The measures include:

-Redeploying surgical nursing staff who can now work with medicine units.
-Sharing highly trained emergency department and intensive care unit nursing staff across units.
-Sharing physician resources across hospitals in a given region.
-Recruiting family doctors to complete shifts within the hospital.
-Recruiting retirees, including nursing and support services.

The province has released statistics on the impact of COVID-19 on hospitals.

As of April 13th, the average hospital occupancy rate was 69.1% (64.1% for acute care only), a significant decrease from 96.2% (97.3% for acute beds) before COVID-19 measures There are over 7,300 acute care beds unoccupied and over 2,000 critical care beds currently available across Ontario.

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Ontario Ramps Up COVID-19 Testing

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Ontario will test more people for COVID-19, including pro-actively testing groups it deems a priority.

Those include first responders, hospital patients, long-term care home residents, and chemotherapy or hemodialysis patients.

Remote, isolated, rural and Indigenous communities will also be a priority.

Health Minister Christine Elliott says it will be up to the physician you see to decide if you are tested, adding they are still focusing on people who are showing symptoms.

The province aims to test 8,000 people per day by April 15, and 14,000 each day by April 29.