PHEIC

Government of Canada continues to monitor and invest in COVID-19 wastewater monitoring

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, May 30, 2023

The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) continues to use innovative science and research to inform the sustainable approach to the ongoing management of COVID-19 in Canada by investing in wastewater monitoring across the nation.

Key Points: 
  • The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) continues to use innovative science and research to inform the sustainable approach to the ongoing management of COVID-19 in Canada by investing in wastewater monitoring across the nation.
  • By translating the most up-to-date science and research and consolidating expertise, this investment will help public health authorities, communities, government agencies, and researchers to successfully interpret and communicate COVID-19 wastewater monitoring data.
  • CWN is a non-profit organization and a leader in the rapidly evolving field of wastewater monitoring across Canada.
  • "COVID-19 continues to circulate in Canada and around the world and investing in wastewater technology is helping us better monitor its impacts.

Encouraging vaccine confidence through community-led initiatives by the Métis Nation Saskatchewan

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, May 24, 2023

Through the Immunization Partnership Fund (IPF), PHAC invested $200,000 in a project led by Métis Nation-Saskatchewan: Improving Métis-specific Immunization Access and Promotion in Saskatchewan.

Key Points: 
  • Through the Immunization Partnership Fund (IPF), PHAC invested $200,000 in a project led by Métis Nation-Saskatchewan: Improving Métis-specific Immunization Access and Promotion in Saskatchewan.
  • This project supported COVID-19 vaccine confidence, education, and uptake among Métis people in Saskatchewan.
  • These initiatives helped to bring resources to Métis communities in Saskatchewan, providing individuals with unique opportunities to learn about vaccination in comfortable and accessible settings.
  • By increasing vaccine confidence, this initiative worked to protect the health of individuals, communities, and our healthcare system as a whole."

Learning from COVID-19: The global health emergency has ended. Here's what is needed to prepare for the next one

Retrieved on: 
Sunday, May 14, 2023

However, it would be a mistake to assume that this is a mere formality.

Key Points: 
  • However, it would be a mistake to assume that this is a mere formality.
  • A PHEIC, like the one adopted for COVID-19 on Jan. 30, 2020, is declared if a public health event is determined to constitute:
  • A PHEIC means the WHO is sounding the loudest possible alarm to national governments to act together with urgency.
  • However, the heightened state of emergency under a PHEIC is not meant to be sustained indefinitely.

Significance of the end of the COVID-19 PHEIC

    • Moreover, the phrase “no one is safe until everyone is safe” may have become a familiar tagline during the pandemic.
    • Yet, many people, mostly in low- and middle-income countries, still struggle to access COVID-19 vaccines, diagnostics and treatments.
    • Second, the standing down of the PHEIC declaration is accompanied by an understandable desire — and necessity — to “move on” from COVID-19 after three difficult years.
    • The lack of real-world authority by the WHO to enforce the legally binding IHR has become abundantly clear.

Global co-ordination fell short

    • Still, what ensued fell far short of a co-ordinated global effort.
    • Read more:
      COVID-19 vaccine inequity allowed Omicron to emerge

      The need for collective action during global public health emergencies like COVID-19 has only been reinforced by the past three years.

    • Additionally, travel measures implemented in response to COVID-19, and in previous PHEICs, fell inequitably upon different population groups.
    • Meanwhile, a new pandemic may already be on the horizon as the global and interspecies spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza is raising growing alarm.

STATEMENT - Update on mpox in Canada - May 11, 2023

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, May 11, 2023

The WHO Director General considered the advice offered by the Committee and determined that mpox no longer constitutes a PHEIC.

Key Points: 
  • The WHO Director General considered the advice offered by the Committee and determined that mpox no longer constitutes a PHEIC.
  • Since the beginning of the mpox outbreak, the Government of Canada has taken swift action to protect the health and safety of people in Canada.
  • Efforts continue with provincial/territorial partners to increase vaccine uptake across Canada for those most at risk of mpox.
  • Although the WHO Director General determined the current mpox situation is no longer a PHEIC, the Government of Canada recognizes that mpox is still circulating globally.

Alameda Health System Publishes the AHS COVID-19 Memory Archive

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, May 11, 2023

OAKLAND, Calif., May 11, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Alameda Health System (AHS) has published an AHS COVID-19 Memory Archive to commemorate the end of the COVID-19 state of emergency on May 11, 2023. Earlier in the year, the Health Officer of Alameda County rescinded its declaration of the local COVID-19 health emergency and Governor Gavin Newsom terminated the State of California's COVID-19 state of emergency. On May 4, 2023, the World Health Organization declared that COVID-19 no longer constitutes a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC). These four actions at the County, State, Federal, and global levels effectively end the state of emergency phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in Alameda County.

Key Points: 
  • OAKLAND, Calif., May 11, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Alameda Health System (AHS) has published an AHS COVID-19 Memory Archive to commemorate the end of the COVID-19 state of emergency on May 11, 2023.
  • Earlier in the year, the Health Officer of Alameda County rescinded its declaration of the local COVID-19 health emergency and Governor Gavin Newsom terminated the State of California's COVID-19 state of emergency .
  • On May 4, 2023, the World Health Organization declared that COVID-19 no longer constitutes a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC).
  • It is one safety-net health care system's collective memory of serving and caring for its community through the global pandemic.

What does ending the emergency status of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US mean in practice? 4 questions answered

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, May 10, 2023

The COVID-19 pandemic’s public health emergency status in the U.S. expires on May 11, 2023.

Key Points: 
  • The COVID-19 pandemic’s public health emergency status in the U.S. expires on May 11, 2023.
  • And on May 5, the World Health Organization declared an end to the COVID-19 public health emergency of international concern, or PHEIC, designation that had been in place since Jan. 30, 2020.
  • While the global emergency status has ended, COVID-19 is still an “established and ongoing health issue,” he said.

1. What does ending the national emergency phase of the pandemic mean?

    • Ending the federal emergency reflects both a scientific and political judgment that the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis has ended and that special federal resources are no longer needed to prevent disease transmission across borders.
    • In practical terms, it means that two declarations – the federal Public Health Emergency, first declared on Jan. 31, 2020, and the COVID-19 national emergency that former President Donald Trump announced on March 13, 2020, are expiring.
    • Declaring those emergencies enabled the federal government to cut through mountains of red tape to respond to the pandemic more efficiently.

2. What domestic policies are changing?

    • Another analysis projected that as many as 24 million people will be kicked off the Medicaid rolls.
    • Before the pandemic, states required people to prove every year that they met income and other eligibility requirements.
    • In March 2020, Congress enacted a continuous enrollment provision in Medicaid that prevented states from removing anyone from their rolls during the pandemic.
    • In a December 2022 appropriations bill, Congress passed a provision that ended continuous enrollment on March 31, 2023.
    • The array of telehealth services that Medicare began covering during the pandemic will continue to be covered through December 2024.

3. What does this mean for the status of the pandemic?

    • But declaring an end to the emergency doesn’t mean a return to business as usual.
    • She called for more federally funded research into therapeutics and durable vaccines that protect against many variants.
    • With the end of the emergency, the CDC is also changing the way it presents its COVID-19 data to a “sustainable national COVID-19 surveillance” model.

4. How will state and local pandemic measures be affected?

    • Most U.S. states, however, have ended their own public health emergency declarations.
    • Marian Moser Jones receives funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and The American Public Health Association.
    • In the past she has received funding from the National Institutes of Health and the American Association for the History of Nursing, as well as the State of Maryland.

STATEMENT - Update on the COVID-19 situation in Canada - May 5, 2023

Retrieved on: 
Friday, May 5, 2023

The WHO Director General originally declared that the COVID-19 pandemic constituted a PHEIC on January 30, 2020.

Key Points: 
  • The WHO Director General originally declared that the COVID-19 pandemic constituted a PHEIC on January 30, 2020.
  • Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Government of Canada's top priority has been protecting the health and safety of all Canadians.
  • Even though the WHO Director General determined the current COVID-19 situation no longer constitutes a PHEIC, the Government of Canada recognizes that the SARS-CoV-2 virus is still circulating across Canada and worldwide.
  • PHAC will continue to provide public updates as new information related to our domestic situation arises.

GPHC: Good Start but Accountability Gap Undermines Potential of Pandemic Treaty

Retrieved on: 
Friday, February 3, 2023

Yesterday, the intergovernmental negotiating body (INB), the entity tasked with drafting and negotiating a pandemic treaty, published its “zero draft” for countries to consider before negotiations officially kick off at the end of this month.

Key Points: 
  • Yesterday, the intergovernmental negotiating body (INB), the entity tasked with drafting and negotiating a pandemic treaty, published its “zero draft” for countries to consider before negotiations officially kick off at the end of this month.
  • While the Panel strongly supports the INB’s commitment to equity, there are worrying gaps in its effort to ensure accountability mechanisms are agreed from the start.
  • Accountability is one of the most sparingly used terms in the treaty, and when it is used, it’s clear that real decisions on compliance will be kicked down the road.
  • Countries must know what they are responsible for and who they are responsible to before the treaty is finalized, not after.

Global Monkeypox Treatment Market 2023 to 2035 - Featuring ACON Laboratories, altona Diagnostics, Jiangsu Bioperfectus Technologies and Elabscience Among Others - ResearchAndMarkets.com

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, January 31, 2023

In May 2022, multiple cases of the disease were reported in several non-endemic countries, thereby making monkeypox a disease of global concern.

Key Points: 
  • In May 2022, multiple cases of the disease were reported in several non-endemic countries, thereby making monkeypox a disease of global concern.
  • Consequently, in July 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared global monkeypox outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).
  • Presently, more than 25 therapeutics / vaccines are commercialized / under development for the treatment and prevention of monkeypox.
  • Due to the surge in monkeypox cases in 2022, globally, there is a growing demand for monkeypox vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostic kits.

Update on mpox in Canada - February 15, 2023

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, February 15, 2023

Ottawa, ON, Feb. 15, 2023 /CNW/ - The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) is issuing this statement to provide an update on the ongoing response to mpox.

Key Points: 
  • Ottawa, ON, Feb. 15, 2023 /CNW/ - The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) is issuing this statement to provide an update on the ongoing response to mpox.
  • The WHO Director General declared that mpox is a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) on July 23, 2022.
  • The WHO Director General considered the advice offered by the Committee and determined that mpox outbreak continues to constitute a PHEIC.
  • The Government of Canada acknowledges the WHO Director General's determination that mpox remains a PHEIC.