'It could be catastrophic': Woman says natural supplement contained hidden painkiller drug
A Manitoba woman thought she found a miracle natural supplement, but said a hidden ingredient wreaked havoc on her health.
Canada has no immediate plans to follow the lead of the U.S. and shorten the isolation period for those who contract COVID-19 from 10 to five days.
The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) told CTVNews.ca in a statement on Wednesday that officials are aware of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) updated guidance and the body will inform Canadians should there be similar steps taken north of the border.
While isolation and quarantine rules may vary across the country based on the directives of local public health experts, federal authorities recommend an isolation period of a minimum of 10 days from the onset of symptoms for a symptomatic case, or from the time of receiving a positive test for an asymptomatic case.
The CDC’s Monday announcement applies to Americans who have tested positive for the virus but are asymptomatic. While not required to isolate after day five, they must be masked when outside of the home for the subsequent five days.
Similarly, those who have come into contact with an individual who has contracted the virus are now able to halve their quarantine period.
However, the new guidance is not a mandate; it's a recommendation to employers and state and local officials. It comes following a decision last week by U.K. officials to reduce the self-isolation period for vaccinated people who test positive for COVID-19.
The CDC said the change in rules is in keeping with growing evidence that people with the coronavirus are most infectious in the two days before and three days after symptoms develop.
“We followed numerous areas of science in making this important decision. One of course was how the virus behaves, how much virus do you still have that you could potentially transmit after five days and we generally know that most of your transmission potential happens in those one to two days before you have symptoms and those two to three days after,” said CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky.
“So by the time five days of isolation have occurred, you probably have about 85 to 90 per cent of all of our transmission potential behind you.”
Dr. Kashif Pirzada, a Toronto-based emergency physician, says shortening the isolation period is still “a bit dangerous,” and should only be implemented if other public health precautions are enforced.
“The issue is if you’re going to put these infected workers back in, you haven’t implemented airborne precautions, and they’re having lunch together, they’re going to spread it to more workers who are going to get COVID-19,” he said.
“It can be done if you do all the safety things like airborne precautions and N95 masks.”
A host of sectors are raising concerns of staffing shortages due to the highly infectious Omicron variant. On Tuesday, Quebec announced that some health-care workers who have tested positive for COVID-19 will be able to stay on the job.
The CDC made a similar recommendation last week should hospitals face a dip in staff.
With a file from The Associated Press.
A Manitoba woman thought she found a miracle natural supplement, but said a hidden ingredient wreaked havoc on her health.
Hospital chaplain J.S. Park opens up about death, grief and hearing thousands of last words, and shares his advice for the living.
The World Health Organization is likely to issue a wider warning about contaminated Johnson and Johnson-made children's cough syrup found in Nigeria last week, it said in an email.
Canada called for 'all parties' to de-escalate rising tensions in the Mideast following an apparent Israeli drone attack against Iran overnight.
A woman who recently moved to Canada from India was searching for a job when she got caught in an online job scam and lost $15,000.
More money will land in the pockets of some Canadian families on Friday for the latest Canada Child Benefit installment.
The World Health Organization and around 500 experts have agreed for the first time on what it means for a disease to spread through the air, in a bid to avoid the confusion early in the COVID-19 pandemic that some scientists have said cost lives.
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer, one of two men charged in the killings of a Canadian couple in Dominica, has been denied bail.
Group of Seven foreign ministers warned of new sanctions against Iran on Friday for its drone and missile attack on Israel, and urged both sides to avoid an escalation of the conflict.
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a grade four student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.
When Les Robertson was walking home from the gym in North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale neighbourhood three weeks ago, he did a double take. Standing near a burrow it had dug in a vacant lot near East 1st Street and St. Georges Avenue was a yellow-bellied marmot.
A moulting seal who was relocated after drawing daily crowds of onlookers in Greater Victoria has made a surprise return, after what officials described as an 'astonishing' six-day journey.
Just steps from Parliament Hill is a barber shop that for the last 100 years has catered to everyone from prime ministers to tourists.
A high score on a Foo Fighters pinball machine has Edmonton player Dave Formenti on a high.
A compound used to treat sour gas that's been linked to fertility issues in cattle has been found throughout groundwater in the Prairies, according to a new study.