The Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC) has shared a Facebook video of the recovery of Darlene, the first patient to be admitted to PRHC with COVID-19.

Darlene spend 25 days in the intensive care unit on a ventilator, as well as three weeks on an inpatient unit.

She was recently discharged to go home after testing negative for COVID-19.

The video shows Darlene being clapped out of the hospital as she thanks PRHC staff.

“Everybody was determined I was going to live — and I did,” Darlene says in the video.

“The fight and determination from the ICU and from Jen (nodding to the woman sitting beside her). You guys are fabulous, just fabulous.”

“Ah, the light of day!” Darlene says as she leaves the hospital.

Watch the video below.

VIDEO: Darlene goes home after COVID-19

kawarthaNOW is providing a daily report of COVID-19 cases in the greater Kawarthas region.

Here’s today summary: there are 73 confirmed positive cases in the Peterborough area, 140 in the City of Kawartha Lakes, 14 in Northumberland County, 7 in Haliburton County, and 42 in Hastings County and Prince Edward County.

That’s an increase of 1 case from yesterday’s report, with 1 new case in Kawartha Lakes.

There have been a total of 39 deaths. The most recent death was reported on May 7 by Hastings Prince Edward Public Health.

Outbreaks have been declared over at Pinecrest Nursing Home in Bobcaygeon and at Hastings Manor in Belleville. A new outbreak at Kawartha Lakes Retirement Residence in Bobcaygeon was declared on May 12 after one staff person tested positive.

Province-wide, there are 21,494 confirmed cases, an increase of 258 from yesterday, with 16,204 cases resolved, an increase of 359 from yesterday. There have been 1,798 deaths, an increase of 33 from yesterday. A total of 492,487 tests have been completed, an increase of 17,429 from yesterday, with 17,578 tests under investigation, an increase of 4,183 from yesterday.

This report is based on data supplied by the province’s integrated Public Health Information System (iPHIS), as well as any additional information supplied by hospitals. This information is at least 24 hours old, so it is not real-time data.

We publish the daily report, usually by late afternoon, with the most current information released by health units. Note that each health unit reports the information in a different way.

Peterborough Public Health

Peterborough Public Health’s service area is the City and County of Peterborough and the Hiawatha and Curve Lake First Nations.

Confirmed positive: 73 (no change from May 13)
Confirmed negative: Data currently unavailable*
Results pending: Data currently unavailable*
Deaths: 2 (no change from from May 13)
Resolved: 67 (increase of 3 from May 13)
Total tests completed: Over 6,250*
Institutional outbreaks: St. Joseph’s at Fleming, Kawartha Heights Retirement Living (no change from May 13)**

*Peterborough Public Health and its partners are currently testing in long-term care homes and retirement homes. This is rapidly increasing the number of tests performed and causing a delay in the health unit’s ability to accurately report these figures. Current data will be provided as soon as possible.

**Number of cases not provided.

Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit

The Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit’s service area is the City of Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland County, and Haliburton County.

Confirmed positive: 161, including 140 in Kawartha Lakes, 14 in Northumberland, 7 in Haliburton (increase of 1 from May 13)
Probable cases: 5 (increase of 1 from May 13)
Hospitalizations: 11 (no change from May 13)
Deaths: 32, including 28 in Pinecrest Nursing Home in Bobcaygeon (no change from May 13)
Resolved: 129 (increase of 2 from May 13)
Institutional outbreaks: Caressant Care Lindsay, Maplewood Nursing Home in Brighton, Kawartha Lakes Retirement Residence in Bobcaygeon*

*An outbreak at Kawartha Lakes Retirement Residence in Bobcaygeon was declared on May 12 after one staff person tested positive for COVID-19. An outbreak at Pinecrest Nursing Home in Bobcaygeon was declared over on May 14.

Hastings Prince Edward Public Health

Hastings Prince Edward Public Health’s service area is Hastings County (including Bancroft) and Prince Edward County.

Confirmed positive: 42 (no change from May 13)
Probable cases: 182 (no change from May 13)
Deaths: 5 (no change from May 13)
Hospitalized: 1 (no change from May 13)
Hospitalized and in ICU: 1 (no change from May 13)
Hospitalized and in ICU on ventilator: 0 (no change from May 13)
Recovered: 27 (increase of 1 from May 13)
Total tests completed: 5,312 (increase of 281 from May 13)
Institutional outbreaks: None*

*An outbreak at Hastings Manor in Belleville was declared over on May 13.

Province of Ontario

Confirmed positive: 21,494 (increase of 258 from May 13)
Hospitalized: 1,026 (increase of 8 from May 13)
Hospitalized and in ICU: 184 (decrease of 5 from May 13)
Hospitalized and in ICU on ventilator: 141 (decrease of 1 from May 13)
Deaths: 1,798 (increase of 33 from May 13)
Total tests completed 492,487 (increase of 17,429 from May 13)
Tests under investigation: 17,578 (increase of 4,183 from May 13)
Resolved: 16,204 (increase of 359 from May 13)

For more information about COVID-19 in Ontario, visit covid-19.ontario.ca.

The COVID-19 outbreak at Pinecrest Nursing Home in Bobcaygeon is now over.

The home’s administrator Mary Carr made the announcement in an email on Thursday afternoon (May 14).

“It is with great pleasure that I can announce the outbreak in our home is over,” Carr writes. “Earlier this morning, Public Health confirmed with our Director of Care that all residents have been free of symptoms for 14 or more days. ”

VIDEO: Pinecrest Nursing Home celebrates end of COVID-19 outbreak

Since it was first declared on March 18th, the COVID-19 outbreak has claimed the lives of 28 residents at the home. The last death of a Pinecrest resident occurred on April 9th.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is the greatest challenge we have seen in our home,” Carr writes. “I want to thank the Bobcaygeon community, our dedicated staff, residents’ families, and health system partners for their support. I’ve mentioned previously that we will get through the outbreak by standing together, and today, this has proven true.”

Carr says that, despite the positive news, all ongoing infection control and prevention measures will remain in place to ensure the continued health and safety of residents and staff. The home will remain closed to non-essential visitors, and meals will continue to be served to residents in their rooms.

The home will also continue its daily screening procedures, and residents will be asked to remain in their rooms unless out for walks. Staff members wearing full personal protective equipment will continue to deep clean all resident areas in the building with the support of Ross Memorial Hospital’s environmental services team.

This story has been updated to include a video supplied by Pinecrest Nursing Home.

The Ontario government has announced that golf courses, private campgrounds, and marinas are among the businesses that will be allowed to reopen on Saturday (May 16), just in time for the Victoria Day long weekend.

Premier Doug Ford made the announcement at Queen’s Park on Thursday afternoon (May 14) along with health minister Christine Elliott, finance minister Rod Phillips, economic development minister Vic Fedeli, and labour minister Monte McNaughton.

“During the last several weeks, the people of Ontario have been called on to make incredible sacrifices to help us stop the spread of COVID-19, including staying home from work, closing down businesses and going without a regular paycheque,” Ford said. “However, we are reopening even more of our businesses beginning this long weekend. We are taking a cautious, balanced approach to our economic reopening, to protect the health and safety of everyone.”

Beginning at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, May 16th:

• Golf courses will be able to open, with clubhouses open only for washrooms and restaurants open only for take-out.
• Marinas, boat clubs, and public boat launches may open for recreational use.
• Private parks and campgrounds may open to enable preparation for the season and to allow access for trailers and recreational vehicles whose owners have a full-season contract.
• Businesses that board animals, such as stables, may allow boarders to visit, care for, or ride their animals.

The government also announced that stage one of Ontario’s framework to reopen the economy will begin just after midnight on Tuesday (May 19), when retail stores that are not in shopping malls and have separate street-front entrances can reopen.

These businesses will be required to have measures in place that can enable physical distancing, such as limiting the number of customers in the store at any one time and booking appointments beforehand or on the spot. Clothing retailers will only be able to use fitting rooms with doors, not curtains, to facilitate disinfecting. Retailers would restrict use to every second fitting room at any one time to allow for cleaning after use and ensure physical distancing.

Seasonal businesses and recreational activities for individual or single competitors, including training and sport competitions conducted by a recognized national or provincial sport organization, can resume. This includes indoor and outdoor non-team sport competitions that can be played while maintaining physical distancing and without spectators, such as tennis, track and field, and horse racing.

Animal services — specifically pet care services including pet grooming, pet sitting, dog walking, and pet training — can resume. Off-leash dog parks can reopen. Veterinarians can resume all services by appointment.

Indoor and outdoor household services that can follow public health guidelines can also resume business. These include housekeepers, babysitters, cooks, house and window cleaning, and general repairs.

Other businesses that can fully reopen include vehicle dealerships and retailers, as well as office-based media operations that cannot be done remotely (such as film and television studios and video game studios — although filming and other on-site activities requiring the gathering of workers, performers, and others are not allowed under stage one) and general maintenance and repair services (such as appliances).

Libraries can now offer pick-up and delivery.

Certain health and medical services can also resume, such as in-person counselling and scheduled surgeries. This is based on the ability to meet the conditions outlined in the framework announced by the Ontario government on May 7th. That framework requires hospitals to have a stable number of COVID-19 cases, a stable supply of personal protective equipment, a stable supply of medications, adequate capacity of inpatient and intensive care unit beds, an adequate capacity of health human resources, and the availability of post-acute care outside the hospital that would be required to support patients after discharge.

Non-essential professional services related to conducting research and experimental development in physical, engineering, and life sciences (such as biotechnology, agriculture and industrial research and development labs) can resume.

Emissions inspection facilities will be allowed to conduct heavy vehicle emissions testing.

Essential construction limits will also be lifted, allowing all construction in Ontario to resume, including land surveyors.

“I want to be clear that businesses should open only if they’re ready — I’ll repeat that — only if they’re ready,” Ford said. “We need to keep in mind that all of this is dependent on the numbers. The truth is, we can’t fully predict where things will go, so we need to be ready to react if we see a sudden increase in cases. We cannot let our guard down now. We must watch the trends like a hawk.”

To support business owners and workers, the Ontario government has launched a website to provide businesses with information on personal protective equipment (PPE) suppliers. The Workplace PPE Supplier Directory has an up-to-date list of Ontario companies and business associations that are ready to supply personal protective equipment.

The government says that Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health will closely monitor the situation to advise the government when certain public health restrictions, including adjustments to social gatherings, can be gradually loosened or if they need to be tightened.

In the past two weeks, the Ontario government has already eased restrictions on selected businesses, allowing garden centres and nurseries and hardware and safety supply stores to open and all retail stores with a street entrance to offer curbside pick-up and delivery. Ontario also reopened provincial parks for limited day use only.

The Ontario government will be providing an update on school closures and child care early next week.

PDF: “A Framework for Reopening our Province – Stage 1” – Government of Ontario

This story has been updated with additional details about the stage one reopening of Ontario’s economy.

On Wednesday (May 13), Port Hope lifted restrictions on municipally owned property, including beside the Ganaraska River and East and West Beach, but is reminding residents that gatherings of more than five people are prohibited — and that there is a ban on the use of fireworks on the Victoria Day weekend and on open-air burning in the urban area.

Access to municipal green spaces, trails, and paths along the Ganaraska River are open to the public for pass-through use only.

However, all conservation areas north of Molson Street owned by the Ganaraska Region Conservation Authority (GRCA) remain closed. GRCA’s Ganaraska Forest and conservation areas will open to hiking only on May 22nd.

People are also now permitted to use East Beach and West Beach as additional pass-through areas.

Physical distancing measures remain in effect, including staying two metres away from other people, and loitering or gathering is not permitted in these spaces. The provincial prohibition on events and gatherings of more than five people is still in effect. Residents who do not comply with these regulations may face fines.

The sale and use of fireworks in Port Hope is not permitted for the Victoria Day holiday weekend. The municipal ban not only reflects the limitation on gatherings of more than five people, but it will prevent essential fire and emergency services resources from being required to respond to complaints and accidents associated with the discharge of consumer fireworks.

Open-air burning is also prohibited in the urban area of Port Hope. This includes wood burning chimineas, screened fire bowls or containers, fire pits, and barrels. Urban residents are permitted to use natural gas or propane outdoor appliances, provided they are listed for use in Canada and are installed following the manufacturer’s instructions.

In the rural area of Port Hope, burn permits are required, with specific conditions for any controlled burning, as per by-law 15/2006. Burn permits can be issued for property owners in the rural area by contacting the fire administration office at 905-753-2230.

The minimum penalty for unauthorized or uncontrolled open-air burning is $485, and residents who contravene the by-law may also be required to pay the full cost of fire department vehicles, equipment, and staff that respond to unauthorized or uncontrolled open-air burning.

GreenUP’s NeighbourPLAN program thrives on building community connectedness and bringing together diverse voices to re-imagine public spaces, streets, and sidewalks. With public spaces and community gatherings as our purview, the COVID-19 pandemic has presented us with some unique challenges as we all stay home and help flatten the curve.

NeighbourPLAN uses a resident-centred approach to envisioning more active, sustainable, and livable communities. Typically, our program involves a lot of time working directly in communities: hosting monthly resident committee meetings, doing pop-up engagement sessions, animating public spaces, and using dozens of co-design tools to spark discussions about urban planning and design.

While we cannot meet with residents, we are exploring ways to continue building community connections in the midst of the pandemic. We have also been using this time to review what was learned through resident engagement and create tools that help articulate residents’ visions for their neighbourhoods, including Portrait of the Talwood Neighbourhood and Vision for the Downtown Jackson Creek Neighbourhood.

These documents are now available at greenup.on.ca/program/neighbourplan/.

In Talwood, we are proud to present Portrait of the Talwood Neighbourhood. We have been working with residents in the Talwood community since last summer, and have compiled thoughts, feelings, and concerns of over 300 people to create this portrait.

We have loved getting to know the Talwood community and watching connections grow as the NeighbourPLAN project progresses in Talwood.

“I’ve really enjoyed the opportunity to connect with neighbours and develop some friendships through events hosted by NeighbourPLAN,” says Jackie Sherry, one of the members of our core resident group for the Talwood neighbourhood. “It is nice to see public space in this neighbourhood used to bring neighbours together.”

The Talwood portrait highlights some of the unique assets of the area, such as the vibrant Talwood and Whitefeild community gardens, the abundant greenspace in the Parkway Corridor, and the access to amenities like shopping, medical services, and more. It also identifies some of the areas for improvement identified by residents, including crossings in areas where drivers’ speed or visibility is poor, and areas in need of a community clean-up.

The Talwood portrait serves as the guiding foundation for the next phases of the NeighbourPLAN project, where residents and built environment professionals will work together to develop creative visions to address resident concerns.

As the NeighbourPLAN team prepares to move into the next phase of the project in the Talwood neighbourhood, we are adapting our tools and approaches to respond to the COVID context. Typically, we would host a day-long resident and professional design workshop to bring residents together with professionals in urban planning, transportation, public health, urban design, and more.

We’re trying something a bit different this time: throughout the last two weeks of June, we will be hosting a series of virtual mini design workshops to discuss four key focus areas. We invite all residents of the Talwood community to attend these workshops, and also invite any professionals working in the built environment and public health disciplines to share your expertise.

Though we miss gathering with our friends in the Talwood neighbourhood, we are continuing to connect with residents in the ways available to us. We have been having bi-weekly resident meetings online, and we’ve enjoyed having the space to check-in with the Talwood community.

If you would like to stay in the loop and receive a formal invitation to the workshop, or if you live in the Talwood area and would like to join our virtual meetings, email NeighbourPLAN coordinator Laura Keresztesi at laura.keresztesi@greenup.on.ca.

The Downtown Jackson Creek neighbourhood is further along in the NeighbourPLAN process. They have just completed and are working on the release of the beautifully designed Vision for the Downtown Jackson Creek Neighbourhood.

This document is visionary, expressing common goals, principles, and hopes for the public spaces in their neighbourhood. It presents design solutions for focus areas in the neighbourhood, including Reid and Rubidge streets, Park Street, Rubidge Park, and the Trans Canada Trail.

The Downtown Jackson Creek vision also explores ways to foster creative and sensitive redevelopment in the area, and ways to support vulnerable communities through harm reduction and addressing stigma. Some of the design concepts can be achieved through mobilizing small groups of residents, while others are long-term aspirations.

The Downtown Jackson Creek vision is not an official plan for the neighbourhood, but the NeighbourPLAN tools are useful to both residents and partner organizations alike.

“For Peterborough Public Health, the NeighbourPLAN portrait and vision documents are valuable tools for us to understand the social and demographic makeup of particular neighbourhoods, and to have deeper knowledge of residents’ desires for public space in their communities,” says Janet Dawson from Peterborough Public Health. “These documents are useful when we are considering programming and interventions in these neighbourhoods.”

Although we had planned to launch this vision at a community event this spring, we are still brainstorming ways to celebrate the ideas put forward in this document. We are also hoping to support residents this summer and fall to help some of their visions come to life, once we are able to gather in public spaces.

We look forward to seeing what can happen over the next few years. Residents can use the Downtown Jackson Creek vision as a tool to advocate for change they’d like to see in their neighbourhood. City staff and community organizations can use the vision to inform decisions they make, as related to the projects and services taking place in our neighbourhoods.

At its heart, NeighbourPLAN is a program about public space, and one that relies on community connections. We have struggled, as many folks have, to adapt our programming to our new context. Although we miss gathering and celebrating public space, we are working to keep connections alive in our communities, and to prepare for a post-COVID world with more vibrant, active, and liveable public spaces.

VIDEO: Active Neighbourhoods Canada: Spotlight on Peterborough