COVID-19

A team from Lawson Health Research Institute is seeking 500 Canadian health care workers to participate in a study on moral distress and psychological wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants will complete online surveys once every three months for a total of 18 months. The goal is to better understand the pandemic’s impact on health care workers in order to minimize moral distress and support wellbeing during future pandemic events.

For most jurisdictions where they were legal, alcohol and marijuana were available at every stage of the pandemic. In North America, the shops selling marijuana and alcohol were deemed an “essential service” which meant that they were open throughout the pandemic, in the same way as grocery stores and pharmacies were open.

Katrina Philopoulos, the Nova Scotia Health Authority's director of physician recruitment, told the CBC the pandemic has caused delays bringing new doctors to the province. Indeed, in April the CBC reported that 13 doctors from the United Kingdom, South Africa and the United States that were due to start working in the province were held up at the border due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. But Philopoulos said since then four IMGs have been allowed in.

During COVID-19, most doctors have set up virtual offerings for patients so we need to double down on our efforts to ensure continuity of care

The federal government is ordering more than 75 million syringes, alcohol swabs and bandages so it can inoculate Canadians as soon as a COVID-19 vaccine is ready. Procurement Minister Anita Anand says Ottawa intends to stockpile enough vaccine supplies to give at least two doses to every Canadian whenever a vaccine is available.

While doctors were hailed as heroes early in the pandemic, some say they now feel more like cannon fodder in a war that has become increasingly divisive

More people are testing positive for COVID-19 in British Columbia, including a baby in a neo-natal intensive care unit in a Vancouver hospital.