Federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq and other top health officials have warned that the H1N1 virus is once again on the rise across Canada.
In Ontario, the province's chief medical officer said on Friday that the number of people in hospital with the virus has risen from 14 to 31.
"We are seeing that more people are visiting their health-care providers with influenza-like illness and more people are being hospitalized with complications from the flu in Ontario," Dr. Arlene King said.
Twenty-eight people who contracted the virus in Ontario have died since April, she said, while there have been 439 reported cases of the virus so far in the province.
Dr. Vivek Goel, the president and CEO of the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion, echoed King's statements.
"Over the last couple of weeks there's certainly been an increase of activity in terms of requisitions coming into the labs for testing as well as through other means that we have: hearing about visits to emergency rooms (and) absenteeism from schools and workplaces," Goel said.
Elsewhere, Manitoba confirmed 13 new cases of the flu strain this week. There have been new outbreaks of suspected swine flu in Edmonton, with public schools reporting absentee rates as high as 36 per cent. And last Friday, B.C. health officials said the second wave of H1N1 had arrived in that province.
Vaccinations
Ottawa approved the H1N1 vaccine on Wednesday, paving the way for the largest immunization campaign in Canadian history.
On Thursday, New Brunswick officials said local public-health staff who will run immunization clinics will be the first in the country to get the vaccine.
In Montreal, health officials are setting up 17 facilities across the city in large shopping malls and other well-known locations such as the Olympic stadium. When the vaccination campaign gets underway there next week, each site will reportedly be capable of vaccinating hundreds of people per hour.
In Ontario, about 720,000 doses of the vaccine were slated for delivery to local public health units by late Friday, King said.
Vaccination shots will be made available to vulnerable groups in Ontario starting Monday, through the province's network of local health units. The vulnerable groups include:
- adults younger than 65 years of age who have chronic health problems
- health-care workers and caregivers for high-risk groups
- people who live in remote or isolated areas of the province
- pregnant women
- healthy children between the age of six months and five years
Meanwhile, the Ontario Medical Association has asked those who become sick with the flu to stay home rather than seek a doctor's note while ill, which many companies require.
"Employers need to recognize that by requiring a sick note, they are encouraging those who are experiencing their worst symptoms and are most infectious to go out, when they should just be home in bed," the association's president, Dr. Suzanne Strasberg, said in a statement released on Friday.
With files from The Canadian Press
