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The world as we know it is changing All the general systems of how we get our food, paint and socialize have been interrupted due to the new coronavirus pandemic.
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Tyee’s reports provoked local food movements, replaced legislation and began mandatory talks. As our society evolves as a result of COVID-19, the time has come to communicate ambitious solutions.
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The global as we know it is changing All the general systems of how we get our food, we paint and socialize have been interrupted due to the new coronavirus pandemic.
We want means to not only report on what is happening today, but also on what might be imaginable for tomorrow. Since 2003, The Tyee has been doing in-depth reporting, presenting voices that do not appear regularly in the media, and proposing imaginable responses to our most urgent problems.
Tyee’s reports provoked local food movements, replaced legislation and began mandatory talks. As our society evolves as a result of COVID-19, the time has come to communicate ambitious solutions.
We need to make these kinds of reports based on solutions and make them available to everyone, as we are backed by a strong core of Tyee readers.
If you need more independent, solution-oriented reports, sign up for Tyee Builders today.
Jen St. Denis is a journalist at Tyee’s Downtown Eastside. Find her on Twitter . This reporting rate is made imaginable through the Local Journalism Initiative.
The president of a union representing many workers in the Downtown Eastside says enough is being done to inform citizens and staff about the highest levels of COVID-19 exposure in the neighborhood.
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Downtown Eastside has noticed few cases in the spring and summer, however, recent weeks have noticed an increase in the network that houses many of the city’s poorest and most vulnerable people.
The British Columbia Indian Chiefs Union today warned of a “wave” of instances in the neighborhood, with instances shown between citizens and frontline workers. UUBCIC called for transparency in the Vancouver Coastal Health component and an “urgent, transparent, public and culturally appropriate action plan that provides without delay and safe housing for others who test positive and want a position to recover. “
UBCIC also calls for a “commitment to publicly report any case in the DTES so that citizens of the densely populated neighborhood can take precautions for their health and safety. “*
Andrew Ledger, president of CUPE 1004, told Tyee that a lack of instance data affects other people who live and paint in the neighborhood.
“We are learning anecdotally that a resident or perhaps a fellow employee has tested positive for COVID-19,” he said. “And other people worried and nervous, knowing that they might have been in contact with that person. But the employer’s position” is clear: it will not accentuate any data, it submits to the fitness authority. “
The union represents about 700 workers at PHS Community Services, a social facilities company that manages 19 sets of support homes and shelters and also operates several drug sites.
MIcheal Vonn, CEO of PHS, showed that the number of instances is increasing. “I would say that very recently is when we started to get this increase,” he says.
Ledger stated that PHS refused to tell workers that a user in his office tested positive, which has led others to be informed about the exposure imaginable through word of mouth or social media posts, which fuels anxiety, he said.
Vonn said PHS followed the example of public fitness officials and left contacts and decisions about whether to inform Vancouver Coastal Health residents, staff and consumers.
Sometimes this means that Vancouver Coastal Health informs others directly if they have been in close contact with who has tested positive for the virus. In other cases, the fitness authority publishes a paper notice.
Vonn stated that he did not know if workers who are on leave or absent from the site are informed that they may have been exposed. Vancouver Coastal Health says reviews of possible exposure “be shared with staff, informing them of the exposure and asking them to self-monitor for symptoms. “
All workers deserve to be screened for symptoms, he said.
Ledger said he was involved in the that the citizens of Downtown Eastside were not well informed about the risks, i. e. given their vulnerability and the difficulty in locating contacts to stop the spread of the virus.
Employees can paint at various community sites, increasing the threat of transmission, he said. And many consumers use it anonymously, making touch tracking impossible.
Dr Brian Conway, director of the Vancouver Center for Infectious Diseases, said initial tests show that COVID-19 was probably more prevalent than in the idea past in Downtown Eastside and among those not housed in the center of the center.
Conway began testing other people to see if they had antibodies to the virus as a component of an assignment of studies on whether COVID-19 is spreading more widely among other vulnerable people than was known in the past.
“There are some positive tests for the antibody. So, in places where we thought there was probably no exposure to COVID, there was,” Conway told Tyee.
“And it will be a major precedent for us in the long run: what happened and we will analyze it. “
Residents and network advocates feared that an outbreak of COVID-19 in downtown Eastside would be devastating and that most citizens suffered one or more serious fitness problems, but instead of an outbreak of COVID-19, a wave of overdose deaths hit the network. as they were interrupted or reduced in reaction to the pandemic.
But no OUTBREAK of COVID-19 has yet been reported, the virus is still very present in the Downtown Eastside. Vancouver Coastal Health warns of an exhibition at the West Pub, a bar at the West Hotel, between August 20 and 30. Warnings were also reported at several other SRO buildings in Downtown Eastside and Chinatown.
Vancouver Coastal Health refused to give Tyee a list of all exhibits in the neighborhood. The authority also did not first publish data on the West Pub display on its online page as it sometimes does on display in other companies.
After The Tyee, an article that included a complaint about Attorney Judy Graves’ decision, Vancouver Coastal changed course and added the West Pub, which she describes as “low risk” on her website.
Earlier this year, there were also several cases of COVID-19 in downtown Eastside in shelters run by First United Church and the Salvation Army, Conway said. one of the worst outbreaks of COVID-19 in Canadian prisons.
“People who had been released from incarceration had nowhere to pass Array. and ended up in those places with very low thresholds for emergency housing,” Conway said.
History updated on September 11 at 4:24 p. m. to come with an update from the Union of Indian Chiefs of British Columbia expressing considerations about accumulation in COVID-19 cases.
Read more: Coronavirus, municipal policy
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