Nearly half of Ontario’s ‘Covid-19 patients’ admitted for reasons unrelated to virus

Canadian province to start differentiate between coronavirus patients and Covid-19 positive patients admitted for other reasons

Canada’s Ontario province has acknowledged that many of the people reported to be hospitalized with Covid-19 were actually admitted because of other health conditions and were incidentally found to be infected with the virus.

Of the 3,220 people hospitalized with Covid-19 in the province, 54% were admitted because of the virus, Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott said on Tuesday. The other 46% were at hospitals for medical treatments unrelated to the pandemic, but they tested positive for the virus.

While this doesn’t change the serious situation in Ontario’s hospitals, it is important to share this data to provide additional context on the state of the pandemic.

This information will begin to be reported on https://t.co/dVoqvQLuFb tomorrow.

— Christine Elliott (@celliottability) January 11, 2022

Elliott said that starting on Wednesday, hospitalization data will be broken down to show cases that were incidental to admission, such as asymptomatic infections. “While this doesn’t change the serious situation in Ontario’s hospitals, it is important to share this data to provide additional context on the state of the pandemic.”

The announcement comes as Covid-19’s Omicron variant has caused infections to surge around the world, including in Ontario. Multiple studies have found that the variant is easier to spread than previous strains, although it might be milder than its predecessors. Hospitalization figures that lump in incidental cases without any delineation of cause do not appear to factor that distinction in.

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Among Ontario’s intensive-care patients with Covid-19, about 17% are incidental cases, Elliott said. More than 70% of patients were fully vaccinated against the virus before being hospitalized. A further 5.4% had received one jab, while the remaining 24% were unvaccinated. Nearly 45% of Covid-19 patients in intensive-care units were unjabbed. More than 88% of Ontario residents are fully vaccinated against the virus.

Patients who are admitted to hospitals are typically tested for Covid-19 as part of routine screenings.While some experts have suggested that the variant could help bring an end to the pandemic by increasing the rate of natural immunity, Covid-19 infections, whether symptomatic or not, strain health care systems because hospitals must employ isolation measures to prevent spreading the virus to other people.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul earlier this month asked hospitals in her state to start breaking down their Covid-19 data to show incidental cases. NYU Langone Health told the New York Times that about 65% of its Covid-19 patients were found to be infected after being admitted for other reasons.

US states to host simulated ‘guerilla war’

Residents in two US states were told to watch out for “occasional flares” and mock gunfire as the military gears up for “realistic” combat drills

The US military is set to hold expansive combat drills across North and South Carolina, warning residents that special operations trainees may fire off blank rounds and flares while simulating battle against “guerrilla” forces.

Dubbed ‘Robin Sage,’ the “unconventional warfare exercise” will be held between January 22 and February 4 on private land in dozens of counties in the American south, the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School said in a statement cited by local media. 

The drill will stage a mock fight with a “resistance movement” made up of “guerrilla freedom fighters” in the fictional nation of “Pineland,” the warfare center said, noting they will act as “realistic opposing forces” to the special ops candidates. Robin Sage serves as the final test in the elite Special Forces Qualification Course, an intensive training program for the Army’s Green Berets. 

Trainees will be placed in an environment of “political instability characterized by armed conflict,” which will force soldiers to “analyze and solve problems” in a “real-world” setting – all the while facing down “guerrillas” selected from Fort Bragg, as well as some specially trained civilian volunteers who will act as “role players” to add “realism” to the drill.

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The special warfare center was quick to warn that “residents may hear blank gunfire and see occasional flares” during the exercise, adding that “controls are in place to ensure there is no risk to persons or property.” Though variations of the Robin Sage drill have been held since 1974, a previous iteration in 2002 saw a local sheriff’s deputy fatally shoot one soldier and seriously wound another, mistaking them for criminals. Since then, the military has prioritized advance public notice of the combat simulation in an effort to avoid similar tragedies, telling any concerned residents to “contact local law enforcement officials, who will immediately contact exercise control officials.” 

Other safety measures to be implemented for this year’s drill include formal written notification to local police and sheriff’s departments and thorough briefing to all participants on what to do if they make contact with law enforcement, while students will also wear “distinctive” armbands to show they are taking part in the exercise.

While the special forces school did not specify exact locations where the drill will be held, it noted that it would take place across 25 counties in North Carolina – including Wake County, its largest region by population – as well as three others in South Carolina.


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