Generous donation helps Niagara Health Foundation in search of third MRI machine
The Niagara Health Foundation and Tom Rankin have striven to raise $2,770,000 for the installation of Niagara Health’s third MRI machine. The current wait times for an MRI in Niagara are 27% longer than the provincial average.
Barbara Cornelius and her family recently donated $1,000,000 to support the installation of this much needed addition to Niagara’s medical imaging capabilities. The MRI will be set up at St. Catharines General. The gift was made in honour of her husband, Kerry Cornelius, who passed away in 2017. Barbara stated that Kerry cared deeply for both the people and institutions that make Niagara such a wonderful community.
In honor of this gift, Niagara Health will name the 4th floor outpatient Clinics at the St. Catharines Site the “Kerry Cornelius outpatient Clinics.”
Niagara school boards receive funds for protection against COVID-19
Between the provincial and federal governments, the District School Board of Niagara will receive $13,041,255 and the Niagara Catholic District School Board will receive $7,089,000. The funds are provided through the COVID-19 Reliance Infrastructure Stream of the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program, set aside for upgrading local school’s infrastructure to protect against COVID-19. Infrastructure alterations will include HVAC renovations to improve air quality, space reconfigurations to enhance physical distancing and more. This money is in addition to previous grants for the same purpose, awarded by the province to the school boards last year.
Public input wanted for Niagara Falls housing strategy
Niagara Falls officials have led a public study guided by a technical advisory committee consisting of city staff, regional representatives, agency participants and city councillors to identify a strategy for the direction of housing in Niagara Falls. Both public and stakeholder input are imperative to identifying the current housing situation in order to analyze future demographic trends, estimate future housing needs, highlight gaps, as well as provide recommendations to address these gaps. The overall objective is to have the ability to provide a range of affordable housing in the years to come, as affordable housing has become a significant issue within the community, like many other communities in Ontario.
The survey remains open until April 27th, and all residents are encouraged to take part: https://surveys.niagarafalls.ca/s3/Niagara-Falls-Housing-Direction-Survey
St. Catharines police looking for answers related to Monday’s homicide
Late Monday evening, Niagara Regional Police found a 32-year old man with gunshot wounds in the parking lot at Oakridge Public School in the area of Marsdale Drive and Glendale Avenue, St. Catharines. He was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
Police are asking the public for video footage that may have been captured on residential surveillance systems from 6:00pm to 10:00pm that evening. They are specifically searching for a newer model four-door black or dark blue Mercedes Benz, E- or S-class; a four-door grey Dodge Ram pick-up truck with an Ontario licence plate BE 95676 and the word ‘REBEL’ written on the side of the bed of the truck. The suspects are two black males around 6 feet tall, slim builds. They were last seen walking south on Marsdale Drive toward Glendale Ave.
One man was arrested, but charges have yet to be laid. There is no reason for the detectives to believe there is an ongoing threat to public safety. This is the third homicide in Niagara this year.
COVID-19 keeps Ontario schools closed following spring break
After record-breaking numbers of COVID-19 cases and intensive care admissions, along with 27% of all schools province-wide recording at least one active COVID-19 case, Premier Doug Ford and Education Minister Stephen Lecce made the announcement on Monday to keep Ontario schools closed indefinitely to in-person learning. Classes will be conducted online starting Monday April 19th, after this week’s spring break.
Private schools will transition to remote learning by April 15th. Child care for non-school aged children will remain open, while before and after school programs will be closed. Eligible health-care and frontline workers will continue to be able to send their children to free emergency child care for school-aged children, and those students with special education needs requiring additional support will continue in-person learning with provisions.
ICU capacity being tested as COVID-19 cases continue to rise
The ICU beds in Niagara’s hospital system have reached 88% capacity. Niagara Health has added three more ICU beds, as 53 of 60 ICU beds were full on Monday, with 12 of those patients having COVID-19. The number of COVID-19 positive patients in the hospital increased from 11 to 39 in two weeks, with 17 of these patients under the age of 64, and 6 of these patients under the age of 50.
The virus has been affecting more young individuals and the transmission of variants has increased. Hospitals in Niagara have also postponed some non-emergency and non-urgent surgeries, like most hospitals across the province.
More Niagara pharmacies receive vaccinations for distribution
More than 1,400 pharmacies across Ontario began distributing vaccines last week, and the province has added 700 more, with 19 of these new locations in Niagara. Niagara will now have 41 pharmacies distributing the AstraZeneca vaccine in Pelham, Beamsville, Grimsby, St. Catharines, Niagara Falls, and Niagara-on-the-Lake.
Last week 5,651 doses of AstraZeneca were administered to Niagara residents aged 55 and older.
Niagara hopeful for its population to be 40% vaccinated by May 6
Premier Doug Ford set out a goal for Niagara to have 40% of the population vaccinated by May 6th. Over 116,500 doses of the vaccine have been administered in the Niagara Region, and with 3,270 new doses administered Wednesday alone. With more pharmacies and doctors administering vaccines, the goal seems attainable.
93% of residents 80+ have been vaccinated. Within the next week, 90% of residents 75-79 will be vaccinated, and 75% of residents aged 70-75 will be vaccinated soon thereafter.
Niagara Health and Niagara Region Public Health have focused on residents 60+, front-line health-care workers and emergency responders, and those at-risk/most vulnerable. This week 6,000 educational workers are receiving vaccines. Those 55+ can get their vaccination at some local pharmacies. Those 50+ living in Niagara Falls, postal code L2G, are currently eligible to receive the vaccine as the area is considered a ‘hot spot’.
COVID-19 weekly update
The Niagara Region has 1,213 active cases as of April 14th, with 174 new cases and 77 new resolved cases. In total there have been 11,300 cases, 9,709 resolved, and 378 deaths. Niagara has reported its first death under the age of 40. From April 7th to 14th new cases have been reported as 132, 113, 116, 122, 149, 105, 150, and 174.
There are now 992 total variant cases, 975 variants detected on screening, and 17 confirmed UK variant cases.
St. Catharines has a staggering total of 314 active cases, with Welland and Niagara Falls following at 274 and 196 cases. West Lincoln and Wainfleet are on the low end with 17 and 9 total active cases.
95.6% of cases are isolated at home, 3.7% are hospitalized, and 0.7% are admitted into intensive care. There are also 30 active outbreaks that have been tracked by Niagara’s public health.
