Medical Officer of Health & CEO of the Hastings Prince Edward Public Health Unit, Dr. Ethan Toumishey, shared a number of topics in his report to the Board of Health on Wednesday.
Among them included COVID-19 and Influenza activity in the community as the holiday season approaches.
Dr. Toumishey urged residents to stay on top of their COVID-19, flu and RSV immunizations as it anticipates an increase in respiratory illness activity.
Once again, you are asked to wear a mask in crowded indoor spaces, and when recovering from illness. Its also asked that residents wash their hands often and clean high touch surfaces.
Another major focus of the report was the recent swath of drug poisonings in the area.
Back in early November, there were a reported 90 drug poisonings in the area with the majority in the Belleville region.
On average, Hastings Quinte Paramedics Services respond to five to 10 opioid-related calls in a week.
Dr. Toumishey says the health unit as well as community partners continue to be concerned about the drug supply circulating in the area and continue to work to to reduce drug poisonings in the community both in the short and long term.
He says a monitoring plan has been developed with community partners to support a “coordinated notification of community members.”
The partnership will also be updating its Opioid Response Strategy.
Those who do have to take drugs are reminded to avoid mixing drugs, try a small amount first, don’t use alone, and have multiple Naloxone kits on hand.
If you do have to use alone, you can call the National Overdose Response Service’s confidential overdose prevention hotline 24-hours-a-day at 1-888-688-6677.
Also discussed was the Healthy Schools Program Annual Report for 2022-2023 as well as alerting residents about the Safe Driving Campaign.
