COVID-19

An employee at a Shoppers Drug Mart in Kelowna, B.C., tested positive for COVID-19, according to a list of cases maintained by Loblaws, Shoppers' parent company.

The government of Alberta has given patients the ability to create their own secure messaging account to connect with healthcare providers. Brightsquid Secure-Mail has been integrated into the provincial MyHealth Records (MHR) portal. Patients registered for MHR can create their own Secure-Mail account to communicate virtually with community healthcare providers.

Until recently, few had heard of this obscure code. Recently the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) disclosed that during the pandemic, a at least $623 million had been paid to civil servants—especially in the Canada Revenue Agency and Correctional Services. According to Yves Giroux of the PBO (Jennifer Chevalier, CBC News, July 24, 2020), this amount of lost productivity was the “absolute minimum.” Federal employees were permitted to stay at home during the pandemic and receive full pay while not working—all thanks to the pay code 699 policy. This involved at least 76,000 persons, or a quarter of all government employees. Randall Denley (Ottawa Citizen, July 29, 2020) put this number at 79,000. (By comparison, there are 86,000 practising physicians in Canada.)

The province wants to collect and examine data for at least another week before deciding whether the Windsor-Essex can move ahead in the reopening process

Adracare, a leading provider of telemedicine and practice management solutions based in Toronto, announced the launch of its self-serve platform, available to Canadian and U.S.-based clients immediately. With the Adracare self-serve platform now fully functional, healthcare professionals can sign-up and start running their virtual practice in under 90 seconds

The program is funded 75% by the federal government but each province gets to determine which workers are eligible

Siemens Healthineers announced the availability of its molecular Fast Track Diagnostics (FTD) SARS-CoV-2 Assay test kit used to detect the severe respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus that causes the COVID-19 disease.

Health Canada has approved the use of remdesivir to treat patients with severe symptoms of COVID-19. The federal agency says the antiviral drug may be used to treat patients who have pneumonia and require extra oxygen to help them breathe. It's the first drug that Health Canada has authorized for the treatment of COVID-19. Health Canada approved its use in adults and adolescents.