Updates to Federal Government’s COVID-19 Response in British Columbia

Updated: December 15, 2020

Overview:

Canada

• Over 12.5 million Canadians have been tested for COVID-19 to date.
• Over 5.6 million Canadians have downloaded the COVID Alert app.
• As of December 8, over 704,000 individuals across all provinces and territories have accessed Wellness Together Canada in over 2 million distinct web sessions.
• Six federal labs are up and running to support provincial lab testing capacity.
• In last 7 days, over 500,000 surgical masks in PPE were delivered to provinces and territories
• Over 8.6M rapid tests have been sent to provinces and territories to date
• We have also now established a COVID-19 Federal Rapid Surge Capacity initiative to help Provinces and Territories respond to outbreaks and mitigate transmission in hot zones where Provinces and Territories’ capacity has been exceeded. This Surge capacity includes:.
  • Health care system capacity;
  • Testing and contact tracing; and
  • Other social services to support Canadians.
• We are currently providing support to Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, Manitoba, and Nunavut and we are in discussion with all provinces and territories on their needs that could be addressed through this initiative.
• Our current support includes:
  • Approximately 441 Canadian Red Cross staff deployed in long-term care homes:
    • In Manitoba, 56 staff in 3 homes
  • Supporting Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec with contact tracing calls with over 3,000 per day.
    • Federal staff are making approximately 300 daily calls in Alberta
    • Federal staff are making approximately 650 daily calls in Manitoba
• $100 million committed for safe voluntary isolation sites across the country with two in Ontario

British Columbia:

• In BC, 974,780 (923,900 Panbio, 50,880 ID NOW) tests have been sent to the province
• Six federal labs are up and running to support provincial lab capacity in Winnipeg, Guelph, Moncton, Lethbridge, Vancouver, Ottawa.
• Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) shipped in the past 30 days:
  • Pairs of Gloves: 434,000
  • Face Shields: 56,000
  • Respirators: 1,397,000
  • Surgical Masks: 1,259,750

Long-Term Care Facility Outbreaks:

• We need to protect those living and working in long-term care.
• We provided $740M through the Safe Restart Agreement to provinces and territories to bring in measures to control and prevent infections, including in long-term care.
• We announced an additional $1B in the Fall Economic Statement to create the Safe Long-Term Care Fund.
• We’re working closely with the provinces and territories to protect those in care by providing guidance to prevent and address outbreaks and working with them to set new, national standards.

Investment details from FES:

1. • Government of Canada is committing up to $1 billion for a Safe Long-term Care Fund, to help provinces and territories protect people in long-term care and support infection prevention and control.
   • The Government is committing $6.4 million over two years, starting in 2020-21, to the Canadian Foundation for Health Improvement to expand its LTC+ initiative, which allows long-term care facilities and seniors residences to register via an online portal and submit self-assessment, making them eligible for coaching and see funding to help address gaps. The additional funding is expected to allow LTC+ to expand its reach to about 1000 facilities across the country.
     • The government is also committing $38.5 million over two years to support training up to 4,000 personal support worker interns through an accelerated 6-233k online training program combined with a 4-month work placement, to address acute labour shortages in long-term care and home care.

CIHR research announcement:

1. • GOC and partners are investing $1.8M to fund 14 Implementation Science Teams of researchers across Canada to strengthen pandemic preparedness in long-term care and retirement homes. The research teams will partner with LTC and retirement homes to study the effectives of promising practices, interventions, and policy options designed to keep the residents, their families and caregivers, and staff at these homes safe from COVID-19.
   • NR: https://www.canada.ca/en/institutes-health-research/news/2020/12/government-of-canada-and-partners-invest-18m-in-strengthening-pandemic-preparedness-in-long-term-care-and-retirement-homes.html