Indian envoy warns of 'big red line,' days after charges laid in Nijjar case
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
As COVID-19 continues to infect tens of thousands of Canadians every day, a Toronto doctor is worried that that could also result in an explosion of people with long-haul COVID-19 symptoms, potentially creating a "mass disabling event."
Long COVID-19, also known as post COVID-19 condition, occurs when symptoms of the disease continue to linger for weeks or months after the initial recovery period. For some patients, the symptoms are so debilitating, they're unable to work.
"Because COVID-19 is a multi-system illness, people can have extreme fatigue to the point of not being able to get out of bed or find it very hard to engage in physical activity," palliative care physician Dr. Amit Arya told CTV's Your Morning on Thursday.
Other possible long COVID-19 symptoms include cardiovascular issues, respiratory symptoms such as shortness of breath and even memory impairment.
While it's still unclear how many people with COVID-19 end up with long-term symptoms, Arya says the estimates are as low as 10 per cent to as high as one in three, citing data collected before the rise of the Omicron variant. A Lancet study from July 2021 also found that 96 per cent of people with long COVID-19 can experience symptoms for longer than three months.
"It could be even up to half a million Canadians who have experienced long COVID," he said.
Many of these people who experience long COVID-19 never require hospitalization. "We might assume that they have mild illness, but that is not the case for people who are suffering from the impacts of long COVID," Arya said.
A May 2021 survey of more than 1,000 COVID-19 long-haulers in Canada found that 60 per cent of respondents had to take time off from work due to their long-term symptoms and 69 per cent had to reduce their workload. Health Canada also says 10 per cent of those with long COVID-19 are left unable to return to work in the long term.
"The symptoms can fluctuate, but once again … there's many people who cannot return to work and may be living with a severe disability," Arya said.
Given that surging COVID-19 cases could result in an increase in the number of Canadians living with disabilities due to long-haul symptoms, Arya says it underscores the need to strengthen disability supports such as access to rehabilitation centres and social assistance.
"We're not seeing that people have access to those resources. And of course, for people with who are living with a disability, whether it's long COVID or not, we need to empower them with the resources and the tools that they need to survive this Omicron wave and beyond," he said.
Last summer, the federal government introduced Bill C-35, which would create the Canada Disability Benefit and provide a basic income support for low-income Canadians with disabilities. Disability advocates are urging the feds to fast-track the bill.
"People with disabilities cannot wait for consultations. They need to be able to pay for basic pain medications. They shouldn't have to make difficult choices in this pandemic, just because they live with a disability and are finding themselves in deep poverty,” said Rabia Khedr, national director of Disability Without Poverty, in an interview with CTV's Your Morning on Thursday.
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S.
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
Accused killer Jeremy Skibicki could have a challenging time convincing a judge that he is not criminally responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women, a legal analyst says.
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
Two Nova Scotia men are dead after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Annapolis River in Granville Centre, N.S., on Monday.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
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.