COVID-19

New options will allow specialists and family physicians in the province to offer more comprehensive virtual visits, giving them more time to take a full patient history, review test results with patients and discuss treatment options.

The typical in-person meet and greet and tour put on each year by the Kitchener-Waterloo chamber of commerce was instead held using an online platform.

New technologies like continuous glucose monitoring are one way to keep diabetes patients from needing to be physically present with their physicians to manage their health, said Dr. Jeremy Gilbert, an endocrinologist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto.

On Thursday, Ontario's government said it's spending $2.5 billion more in the hospital sector this year to help fight the pandemic.

The abilities to connect and communicate that such programs are meant to foster are all the more important in the pandemic's context.

The change came within 24 hours of Canada's Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam updating recommendations to say that masks with three layers—two cloth plus a filter—are ideal over two-layer face coverings.

Dr. Lynora Saxinger, an associate professor in the department of medicine, wrote on Twitter "what fresh hell is this'' when she first heard about the case in central Alberta.