30 new deaths from Swine Flu raise Canada’s toll to 309

Dark blue shading shows highest Swine Flu activity.

By Salim Jiwa

OTTAWA – 16 more Ontario residents have died along with 14 in other provinces, including 6 in Alberta and two in B.C. to take the national death toll to 309.

The Public Health Agency of Canada said the deaths were reported between Nov. 24 and 11 a.m. EST on Nov. 26. It listed 16 new deaths in Ontario, 6 in Alberta, 5 in Quebec, 2 in B.C. and one more in Saskatchewan.

Just last week, an Ontario government report showed a slight dip in flu rates but authorities have warned there is still a lot of flu around and people should get vaccinated. Ontario’s deaths have been reported in clusters and infections seem to hit pockets of populated communities.

“Eleven health units reported ‘widespread’ influenza activity and thirteen health units reported ‘localized’ activity for the current reporting week,” said an Ontario health report released earlier which was accurate to Nov. 18. “Eighteen new deaths were reported from November 12 to November 18 compared to 24 new deaths reported
from November 4 to November 12.”

However, the clusters of illness hitting different communities at different times account for the high death toll, authorities believe. So while overall provincial figures may decline, community level flu activity may rise but be lost in the averages.

With the additional deaths, Ontario’s total fatalities are up to 95 – mostly during late October and early November, Quebec went up to 83, Alberta jumped to 51, and two more deaths take B.C.’s total fatalities to 36.

Saskatchewan has a total of 12, Manitoba 9, New Brunswick 6, Nova Scotia 5, Newfoundland and Labrador 8, Yukon 2 and Northwest Territories and Nunavut have one each.

A federal report issued for Nov. 14 indicated a high concentration of illness across much of the country with 1,674 hospitalizations, 261 ICU admissions and 84 deaths in a one-week period – with the death toll surpassing the figure for deaths that occurred during the first phase of the pandemic.

Between Aug. 30 and Nov. 14, 3,965 people were hospitalized, with 576 in ICU – a substantial number needing life support.  A new government report on hospitalizations and dynamics and demographics of infections is to be released on Friday.

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5. U.S. pediatric deaths continue to mount from Swine Flu

Posted by News Editor on Nov 26 2009. Filed under Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry