Swine Flu kills 14 more Canadians in two days, seven in Ontario

OTTAWA – Swine Flu rampage has killed 14 more Canadians in two days and taken an additional two lives in B.C. in the same period to take the provincial death toll to 17. Ontario registered seven more deaths between Nov. 3 and 11 a.m. EDT on Nov. 5. The startling number of deaths in just two days – vastly higher than any other period since the H1N1 virus surfaced in April – flies in the face of health officials who were making optimistic predictions. Federal figures released on Thursday shows a dramatic rise in the Canadian death toll that has zoomed to 115. Three more deaths occurred in two days in B.C., in Alberta another three were reported dead, seven new deaths were reported in Ontario, Newfoundland and Labrador reported a single death. Ontario’s new tally is now 37, with the deaths escalating in the past three weeks. British Columbia is now showing 17 deaths, Alberta has 17, five are dead in Saskatchewan, 7 in Manitoba, 27 in Quebec, Nova Scotia, Yukon and Nunavut have one each. Newfoundland and Labrador go up to two. Some government officials had been predicting the worse was over, however, the new deaths are likely to boost the scramble for vaccine. The federal government said on Thursday that 225,000 unadjuvanted vaccines have been delivered to provinces so vaccination can start for pregnant women in the first half of their pregnancy. So far, only adjuvanted vaccine was available and it was not considered suitable for women in their first half of pregnancy. The Swine Flu rush is being felt in hospitals around the country. In B.C., Children’s Hospital is reporting up to 80 kids per day in emergency while the Fraser Health Region is reporting 350 patients with flu like illness in their emegency wards and up to 12 admissions per day. How many more people have been hospitalized in the past two days is not clear.