COVID response costs Ottawa Public Health an extra $77 million in 2022
Ottawa Public Health is expecting to spend an additional $77 million this year, as staff continue to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and administer vaccines.
A report for Monday's Board of Health meeting says the Omicron wave in the winter required the "maximum response capacity to date" for outbreak management, case management and delivery of booster doses.
Staff say while OPH has been reducing resources spent on the COVID-19 response over the first half of the year, the health unit is projecting $77 million of additional spending in its 2022 budget.
Ottawa Public Health began reducing operations in areas such as case management, outbreak management, and other back office/shared services through the winter and spring, and staff say operations were further reduced in July due to the decrease of severe COVID-19 in the community.
The release of the bivalent COVID-19 vaccine this fall will require continued staffing resources and expenditures, according to the health unit.
"OPH's revised projected total expenditures are $38M for the COVID-19 General Program and $40M for the COVID-19 Vaccine Program," the report says.
Ottawa Public Health says the Ministry of Health has provided all health units with an assurance that there will be a process to request reimbursement of 2022 COVID-19 Extraordinary Costs, and the budget is expected to be balanced at the end of the year.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Feds 'not interested' in investing in LNG facilities: energy minister
Energy and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson says the federal government is 'not interested' in subsidizing future liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects, including the electrification of projects currently in the works.
Chants of 'shame on you' greet guests arriving for the annual White House correspondents' dinner
An election-year roast of U.S. President Joe Biden before journalists, celebrities and politicians at the annual White House correspondents' dinner Saturday.
Global measles cases nearly doubled in one year, researchers say
The number of measles cases around the world nearly doubled from 2022 to 2023, researchers say, presenting a challenge to efforts to achieve and maintain elimination status in many countries.
Fair share: the right office solution can take finding the right partner
The rise of remote and hybrid work has made it harder to justify a full office, so more are leaning on co-working spaces that they share with many others for convenience and cost savings. The choice, however, comes at the expense of privacy and control.
What Trudeau's podcast appearances say about the Liberals' next ballot box question
Trudeau recently appeared on four podcasts as he travels the country talking up the Liberals' latest budget, which he's pitching as a plan to inject more economic fairness into society for those under 40 — a cohort that has kept Trudeau in power since 2015 but is increasingly turning to Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.
Aerial photos show wide devastation left by tornado in China's Guangzhou
Aerial photos posted by Chinese state media on Sunday showed the wide devastation of a part of the southern city of Guangzhou after a tornado swept through the day before, killing five people, injuring dozens others and damaging over a hundred buildings.
Russian drones set a hotel ablaze in a Ukrainian Black Sea city
Russian drones early Sunday struck the Black Sea city of Mykolaiv, setting a hotel ablaze and damaging energy infrastructure, the local Ukrainian governor reported, while ammunition shortages continued to hobble Kyiv's troops in the more than two-year-old war.
A munitions explosion at a Cambodian army base kills 20 soldiers, but its cause is unclear
Security was tight around a military base in southwestern Cambodia on Sunday, a day after a huge explosion there killed 20 soldiers, wounded others and damaged nearby houses.
Deadly six-vehicle crash on Highway 400 sparked by road rage incident
One person was killed in a six-vehicle crash on Highway 400 in Innisfil Friday evening.