'A beautiful soul': Funeral held for baby boy killed in wrong-way crash on Highway 401
A funeral was held on Wednesday for a three-month-old boy who died after being involved in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 in Whitby last week.
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.
A funeral was held on Wednesday for a three-month-old boy who died after being involved in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 in Whitby last week.
Toronto police say a man was taken into custody outside Drake's Bridle Path mansion Wednesday afternoon after he tried to gain access to the residence.
U.S. President Joe Biden said for the first time Wednesday he would halt shipments of American weapons to Israel, which he acknowledged have been used to kill civilians in Gaza, if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders a major invasion of the city of Rafah.
Independent U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had a parasite in his brain more than a decade ago, but has fully recovered, his campaign said, after the New York Times reported about the ailment.
There is currently a whooping cough epidemic in Europe, with 10 times as many cases compared to the previous two years. While an outbreak has not been declared nationwide in Canada, whooping cough is regularly detected in the country.
Pfizer has agreed to settle more than 10,000 lawsuits about cancer risks related to the now discontinued heartburn drug Zantac, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the deal.
Quebec Premier Francois Legault is defending his comments about a new history museum after he was accused by a prominent First Nations group of trying to erase their history.
British Columbia's human rights tribunal has awarded a neurodigergent actor, who was diagnosed with sensory and learning disorders, more than $55,000 after finding that a Kelowna theatre company discriminated against him because of his disabilities.
It's not quite clear who is supposed to be regulating so-called sovereign cannabis stores or even ensure they're benefiting Indigenous communities.
The stakes have been set for a bet between Vancouver and Edmonton's mayors on who will win Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
A grieving mother is hosting a helmet drive in the hopes of protecting children on Manitoba First Nations from a similar tragedy that killed her daughter.
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.
A P.E.I. lighthouse and a New Brunswick river are being honoured in a Canada Post series.
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.