COURTNEY MCCLURE Intern to The Standard
DURHAM: The Durham District School Board (DDSB) has donated over 155,000 pieces of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) to local hospitals. Acting Director of Education at the DDSB, Norah Marsh, said the staff are happy to help the medical community. Lakeridge Health is still asking for more donations of PPE from Durham Region residents. “Having the appropriate PPE and other equipment to protect our teams from exposure to COVID-19 and to treat and care for patients with COVID-19 is essential,” explained Public Relations and Digital Communications Manager for Lakeridge Health, Sharon Navarro. The PPE must be up to hospital-grade standards and commercially produced. Items they need are protective gloves made of vinyl or rubber, safety goggles, N95 masks and hospital gowns. Further specifics for these items are available on the Lakeridge Health website. Donations can be dropped off at the shipping and receiving area at the Port Perry hospital from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. According to Ms. Navarro, Lakeridge Health has seen a rise in community spread of COVID-19 in Durham Region. She predicts there will be a rise in cases in the coming weeks.
In Durham Region, there have been a total of 173 cases of COVID-19 as of April 3rd, which is recorded on Durham Region Health’s website. They extract the data for these numbers at 1 p.m. on a daily basis. The dashboard, as the Durham health’s website, refers to the data as, covers eight municipalities in Durham Region: Pickering, Ajax, Oshawa, Clarington, Scugog, Uxbridge and Brock. There have been a total of 118 home isolations, 31 hospitalizations, 15 resolved cases (patient tested negative) and nine deaths. Four out of the nine deaths were patients in long-term care or retirement homes. According to Durham Health Department, someone with a confirmed case of COVID-19 is someone who is tested by professionals at a lab. Ontario Premier Doug Ford speculated that COVID-19 will effect 80,000 people in Ontario by the end of April. He expressed that residence in Ontario must take these numbers seriously because it will save lives. Premier Ford suspects roughly 50 people will die per day. “We’re in a full out battle, every single day,” said Ford. Ontario Minister of Health, Christine Elliot predicts, there will be 1,600 deaths because of COVID-19 by the end of the month. To assist hospitals and staff, they have given every hospital in Ontario permission to use the means they need to expand their capacity, stated Ms. Elliot. Public health officials, and government officials, are telling Ontario residents to continue to social distance and to refrain from going out as much as possible.