Stamp prices rise for the third time in five years amid financial woes for Canada Post
Canada Post is increasing stamp prices for the third time since 2019, a move the Crown corporation says is a "reality" of its sales-based revenue structure.
A new study suggests there may be a need for increased monitoring of COVID-19 patients after they're discharged from hospital, with data showing these patients are at a greater risk of readmission and death.
U.K. researchers conducted a statistical analysis of electronic health records from the database OpenSAFELY, evaluating data on nearly 25,000 patients who had been discharged after being hospitalized for COVID-19 in 2020.
The study then compared this data with more than 100,000 members of the public. To account for risks after hospitalization for an infectious disease, researchers also analyzed more than 15,000 patients who had been hospitalized for influenza between 2017 and 2019.
The analysis reports that patients who had been hospitalized for COVID-19 and lived for at least one week after discharge had twice the overall risk of hospital readmission or death in subsequent months, compared to the general population. The study found that these patients also had nearly five times the risk of death from any cause following discharge.
"Our findings suggest that people who have had a severe case of COVID-19 requiring a hospital stay are at substantially elevated risk of experiencing further health problems in the months after their hospitalization," said London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine professor Krishnan Bhaskaran in a press release.
Researchers warn this could have "significant" impacts on public health even after the pandemic ends.
"Given high rates of current and past SARS-CoV-2 infection in many countries, understanding risks to health beyond acute infection is vital to support resource planning and inform measures to mitigate and reduce risks," the study's authors wrote.
The findings were published Tuesday in peer-reviewed journal PLOS Medicine.
To help clarify long-term health risks for people infected with COVID-19, the study focused on those who had been hospitalized for the disease.
The analysis found that COVID-19 patients faced a "slightly lower combined risk" of hospitalization or death overall, but had a greater risk compared to influenza patients of death from any cause, hospital readmission or death resulting from the initial infection, and a greater risk of death due to dementia.
Researchers say these risks could be mitigated by raising further awareness of potential complications of COVID-19 and increasing monitoring of patients after hospitalization, including through primary care physicians.
"It is important that patients and their doctors are aware of this so that any problems that develop can be treated as early as possible," Bhaskaran said in the release.
In addition, Bhaskaran said the analysis underscores the effectiveness of vaccines in the fight against COVID-19.
"Our findings also highlight the importance of getting vaccinated, which is the best tool we have for preventing severe COVID-19 in the first place," he said in the release.
The study's authors say the findings coincide with other research showing greater risks of subsequent health issues for those who have been infected with COVID-19. However, they stress that evidence on the topic remains "limited."
Researchers say future studies should look at whether these patterns persist amid emerging new variants and increased rates of vaccination.
Canada Post is increasing stamp prices for the third time since 2019, a move the Crown corporation says is a "reality" of its sales-based revenue structure.
Defence lawyers for Jeremy Skibicki have told the court the accused unlawfully caused the death of four women, but argue he is not criminally responsible due to mental disorder.
H5N1 or avian flu is decimating wildlife around the world and is now spreading among cattle in the United States, sparking concerns about 'pandemic potential' for humans. Now a health expert is urging Canada to scale up surveillance north of the border.
Italy's mafia rarely dirties its hands with blood these days. Extortion rackets have gone out of fashion and murders are largely frowned upon by the godfathers.
After his adopted parents died, Dave Rogers set out to learn more about his birth mother. DNA results and a little help from friendly strangers would put him on a path to a small town in England.
The judge presiding over Donald Trump's hush money trial fined him US$1,000 on Monday for violating his gag order once again and sternly warned the former president that additional violations could result in jail time.
As Canadians brace themselves for summer temperatures, forecasters say a weakening El Nino cycle doesn’t mean relief from the heat.
Researchers in Israel are turning to artificial intelligence to comb through piles of records to try to identify hundreds of thousands of Jewish people killed in the Holocaust whose names are missing from official memorials.
Russia plans to hold drills simulating the use of battlefield nuclear weapons, the Defense Ministry announced Monday, days after the Kremlin reacted angrily to comments by senior Western officials about the war in Ukraine and Moscow warned that tensions with the West are deepening.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.