Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - October 7, 2020, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A3 ADVANCING MENTAL HEALTH Victoria General Hospital FOUNDATION HEALTHIER FUTURES BUY TICKETS NOW LGCA 2390-RF-34768 YOU PLAY OUR COMMUNITY WINS! 50/50 RAFFLE Tickets on sale until Oct. 16 at 9 a.m. Jackpot starts at $2,500! COVID-19 PANDEMIC ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR: STACEY THIDRICKSON 204-697-7292 ● CITY.DESK@FREEPRESS.MB.CA ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM A3 WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 7, 2020 COVID-19 AT A GLANCE Cases: MANITOBA Confirmed: 2,246 Resolved: 1,441 Deaths: 24 Active: 781 CANADA Confirmed: 170,946 Resolved: 1413,766 Deaths: 9,527 (As of 2:36 p.m. Tuesday) The latest from Manitoba: ● The province reported Tuesday that 1,904 lab tests had been completed Monday. Manitoba’s five-day COVID-19 test positivity rate was 2.4 per cent. Of the 56 new cases reported Tuesday, 31 were in Winnipeg, 22 in Interlake–Eastern, two in Southern Health, and one case in Prairie Mountain. ● Public health officials reported additional possible virus exposures at two Winnipeg schools: Andrew Mynarski V.C. and Dufferin School; both on Sept. 28-29. There is no evidence of in-school transmission or that a case was acquired in the schools, officials said. Public health reminded residents, starting today, the requirement for non-medical face masks in all Manitoba health facilities will extend to doctors’ offices and community service providers affiliated with the health regions. The latest from elsewhere: ● Tens of thousands of Muslims descended upon Senegal’s holy city this week for the annual Grand Magal pilgrimage, a tradition in West Africa that some fear could become a super- spreader event for COVID-19. The Magal honours the founder of the Mouride Brotherhood, Senegal’s most influential religious order. In previous years, as many as 3 million people have travelled to the city of Touba during Magal, with many coming from neighbouring Gambia. With Senegal’s land borders still closed, fewer pilgrims attended the main events Tuesday. Closely packed lines queued up to enter the Grand Mosque of Touba, though hand sanitizer and masks were required to enter. ● New York state will reinstate restrictions on businesses, churches and schools in and near areas where coronavirus cases are spiking, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday, saying the severity of shutdowns would vary by proximity to the hot spots. ● Stephen Miller, a senior White House adviser responsible for some of President Donald Trump’s most extreme immigration policies, tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday, he told the New York Daily News in a statement. Miller, 35, said he has been working from home since Friday, when Trump shocked the nation by announcing that he and the first lady had tested positive for the respiratory virus that’s killed more than 210,000 Americans. Miller’s diagnosis, which was first reported by NBC News, brings the total number of Trump staffers, associates and relatives to test positive since last week to at least 23. ● The United States’ top military leaders were under self- quarantine Tuesday after a senior Coast Guard official tested positive for the coronavirus, the Pentagon said. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, and the vice chairman, Gen. John Hyten, were among those affected, U.S. officials said. Military leaders who were in contact with Adm. Charles W. Ray, the vice commandant of the Coast Guard, were told Monday evening that he had tested positive. The news stunned officials at the Pentagon. Top leaders there have largely remained free of the virus, although there have been a number of outbreaks across the active-duty force and the reserves around the nation and overseas. ● With absentee voting underway, attorneys for civil rights groups urged the Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday to ease re- quirements for those concerned about the coronavirus by allowing anyone to vote remotely without needing to notarize their ballots. Quote: “Saying no to friends and close ones is an act of love” — Canada Health Minister Patty Hajdu on Tues- day, regarding family gatherings for Thanksgiving Download the COVID Alert app: wfp.to/covidapp OTTAWA — The Canadian Armed Forces is lifting the veil of secrecy over the number of troops with COVID-19, as the military gets ready for fresh calls to help out during the second wave of the pandemic. In its first full update since mid-March, the military revealed Tuesday that a total of 222 Canadian service members have contracted COVID-19 since the pandemic began. That includes 24 active cases. The others have been resolved. Defence Department spokesman Daniel Le Bouthillier said no military members had died from the illness. This is the first time the public has known the scope of infections in the Canadian Armed Forces since March 20, when officials said they would stop sharing such details. There were three cases at that time. The military did later reveal that 55 of the more than 1,600 soldiers deployed into long- term care facilities in Ontario and Quebec in the spring had become infected with the novel coronavirus. But it refused to provide overall figures for the nearly 100,000-strong force, with officials expressing concern the information could be used by foreign adversaries hoping to take ad- vantage of the pandemic. “Leadership is closely monitoring the extent of COVID-19 in the defence team,” the Depart- ment of National Defence said on its website Tuesday after publishing the new figures. It went on to credit “the rigorous application of public health measures” and other risk-miti- gation strategies for “effectively containing the spread of the virus amongst our person- nel.” The release of the figures came as senior defence officials told the Armed Forces to be ready for new orders as the number of cases of COVID-19 across Canada continues to rise. In a message to the troops, chief of defence staff Gen. Jonathan Vance and Jody Thomas, deputy minister at the Defence Department, warned the situation “is different and more complex than we faced in March.” As a result, they said, new orders are com- ing soon “to refocus our efforts, and position National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces for success this fall.” In the meantime, “we must accept that we now live in an environment that will remain altered by COVID-19 for the foreseeable fu- ture. To succeed in this environment, we must reject complacency.” — The Canadian Press More than 220 troops caught COVID-19: military LEE BERTHIAUME O TTAWA — Shortly after Health Canada approved the first rapid antigen test for COVID-19, the federal government said more than 8.5 million of them would arrive by the end of the year. Abbott Rapid Diagnostics in Ger- many got the green light from Health Canada Tuesday to sell its Panbio anti- gen rapid test in Canada — the first antigen-based COVID-19 tool to get such approval. “Antigen tests are expected to have a few advantages, including being easier to perform with limited training, and being able to be done at the point of care with generally more rapid results,” fed- eral Health Minister Patty Hajdu said Tuesday at a briefing in Ottawa. Antigens are molecules specific to a certain virus that sit outside the virus and trigger an immune response when the body detects them. The Panbio test looks for the COVID-19 specific antigen in samples taken from the back of the nose or throat. Procurement Minister Anita Anand said Canada signed a contract with Ab- bott to get 8.5 million Panbio tests by the end of the year, and has an option for 12 million more in 2021. She said buying the second allotment will happen only if the government finds the tests have proven to be helpful in Canada. All of the tests previously approved by Health Canada are polymerase chain reaction tests, or PCR, which search for the presence of the virus’s genetic material. Most of those tests have to be completed in a laboratory, after a sample is taken from a patient. Canada has approved three rapid ver- sions that can be analyzed on site and don’t need a laboratory. That includes the ID Now test from Abbott Diagnostics in the United States, which Health Canada approved last week. The federal government has a contract to buy 7.9 million of them. The first shipment is set to arrive next week and 2.5 million are expected by the end of December. Health Canada will distribute the tests to the provinces and territories, based on an agreement to ensure equit- able distribution that takes into account what provinces need. Health Canada approved Cepheid’s GeneXpert last spring. It produces re- sults in less than an hour and has been deployed in small numbers to remote northern communities in Manitoba, Quebec and Nunavut. The BCube from Hyris was approved in September, and the company reports being in talks with Canadian buyers in both the public and private sectors. It produces a result in about 90 minutes. Deputy chief public health officer Dr. Howard Njoo said the public health guidance for how antigen tests can be used in Canada is coming soon, but that in general, they are used to comple- ment the existing lab tests, not replace them. A work camp or a meat-packing plant where workers need to be regularly tested to prevent a massive outbreak, would be examples of where they could be used, said Njoo. Schools, long-term care facilities, and hospitals are other locations mentioned as potential loca- tions for rapid tests to be deployed. Those suggestions mimic the recom- mendations made by the World Health Organization for antigen tests in Sep- tember. Early in the pandemic, the WHO warned antigen tests should not be used outside of research settings, but in September issued guidance for clinical use as well. The WHO is also buying and distrib- uting 120 million antigen rapid tests to low and middle-income countries, with the Panbio test among those it intends to buy. Conservative health critic Michelle Rempel said Tuesday the Canadian government lacks a strategy to use the rapid tests to help ease the long waits for testing and disruptions to people’s lives. It is not clear when the rapid tests will be put to use in Canada, only that the first ID Now tests are to arrive at a Canadian warehouse from the United States next week. The ID Now tests came under some scrutiny in the United States over the weekend when it was revealed they were used at the White House to test staff almost daily, whether they had symptoms or not. The White House is now the site of an outbreak of COVID-19 that has affected U.S. President Donald Trump, his wife Melania, and multiple members of his staff. Dr. Supriya Sharma, the senior med- ical adviser to the deputy minister of health, said that in Canada, the tests are approved only for use on patients who are showing symptoms of COVID-19, and only within the first seven days af- ter symptoms appear. She said Health Canada is confident in the studies that show ID Now tests accurately diagnose a positive case 92.9 per cent of the time, and that negative results are accurate more than 98 per cent of the time. — The Canadian Press 8.5M antigen rapid tests ordered MIA RABSON Easier to perform, results available faster OTTAWA — The Trudeau government says it will pay for and provide Mani- toba with rapid COVID-19 tests, but is insisting on final say over the allocation of supplies to the provinces. The federal Liberals are also pushing back on the Manitoba government’s ac- cusations that Ottawa seized a shipment of N-95 masks in the spring and blocked a recent order of rapid tests. “We have not, and will not, block any provincial orders on (personal pro- tective equipment) or any other items, including tests,” federal Procurement Minister Anita Anand told the Free Press Tuesday. “On the contrary, our objective is to work with the provinces.” Last week, Health Canada approved the use of a rapid saliva test, and Mani- toba Central Services Minister Reg Helwer said the province immedi- ately placed an order. He said the sup- plier, Abbott, replied that Ottawa “had blocked direct sale of rapid tests to provinces.” Health Minister Patty Hajdu said Tuesday that her department intention- ally bought tests in bulk for Canada to get a cheaper, faster shipment while avoiding duplication by provinces. “The premier can rest assured that those tests will be available to Mani- tobans in accordance with the agree- ment that we negotiate,” she said, add- ing that most COVID-19 equipment is allotted to provinces on a per capita basis, with some left over for surge cap- acity. “Those devices will be provided to the province free of charge,” Hajdu said. Helwer also claimed last Friday a spring order of two million N-95 res- pirators was blocked by American cus- toms at the request of the federal gov- ernment and diverted to Ottawa. The Manitoba government said Tues- day the US$12 million order was for masks made by 3M and handled by a third-party vendor. The government said it could not immediately provide the date of the seizure, but said it oc- curred early in the pandemic. Federal bureaucrats said Tuesday they haven’t been able to find any rec- ord of the shipment since Helwer raised the allegation last Friday. Anand said she was “somewhat surprised” by it. dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca Ottawa to buy, have final say on Manitoba’s tests DYLAN ROBERTSON BERNAT ARMANGUE / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES A German firm’s antigen test was the first to be approved by Health Canada. Ottawa will buy a second shipment of 12 million tests, if needed. A_03_Oct-07-20_FP_01.indd A3 2020-10-06 9:01 PM ;