A consolidated list of COVID-19 resources for Canadians

Information about coronavirus protocols continues to come out every single day, if not every other hour. As a former student of virology and immunology, I’ve been following the outbreak closely since December. I have compiled a list of resources, which I have bookmarked on my phone in a folder labelled “COVID” for quick access. Also, having worked in government, I know how much of a pain it can be to navigate government websites. So, I thought it might be valuable to consolidate these resources into a single blog post for others to use and share.

MacLean’s Magazine has done a similar post online here.

What is COVID-19?

I first want to start by providing a bit of a backgrounder on COVID-19 and the different terms being used to talk about it. There is a difference between the terms being used to talk about the virus and the terms being used to talk about the disease.

• The virus itself is a coronavirus. It is a member of a family of viruses known as coronaviridae.
  • Note that this is an entirely separate family of viruses from those that cause influenza, which is known as orthomyxoviridae. So, anytime you see someone call this coronavirus a variation of the “flu,” know that they’re completely incorrect.
• The virus was previously called the “2019 novel coronavirus” or “2019-nCoV.” The virus is now being called SARS-CoV-2. This is because it is genetically similar to the coronavirus that caused severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). This might sound familiar because of the SARS outbreak of 2002-03, which was also caused by a coronavirus.
• COVID-19 is short for coronavirus disease 2019. This is the classification of the illness caused by the virus, can manifest to become SARS. The symptoms are:
  • fever
  • cough
  • extreme tiredness

For the purposes of this post, I will use the terms “coronavirus” or “COVID-19,” as it’s what most are familiar with. Below are a few insightful and informative videos explaining the virus.

Information from Health Canada

Health Canada, Canada’s public health agency, has put out a list of useful resources about the virus, which I will list below.

• Link to Health Canada’s COVID-10 outbreak update
  • Chinese outbreak information
  • French outbreak information
  • Symptoms and treatment
  • Prevention and risks
  • Preparation
• Health Canada COVID-19 infographics (symptoms, how to prevent disease, etc.)
  • These are great to put up at your local business, office, or even around the house.
• Government of Canada action on COVID-19

Information from the World Health Organization

• WHO COVID-19 Q&A
• WHO COVID-19 outbreak homepage
• WHO COVID-19 rolling updates
• WHO COVID-19 situation reports

Information specific to each province

British Columbia

Public health link number: 811 (local only)

• BC Centre for Disease Control coronavirus info page
• BC Ministry of Health COVID-19 info page

Alberta

Public health link number: 811 (local only)

• Alberta Ministry of Health COVID-19 info page
• Alberta Health Services information on COVID-19
• AHS COVID-19 self-assessment tool
• CBC News local coronavirus updates for Edmonton (this is a great tool CBC just put out and it lists local and province-specific news, closures, etc.)

Saskatchewan

Public health link number: 811 (local only) 1 877-800-0002

• Saskatchewan Ministry of Health COVID-19 info page
• Government of Saskatchewan COVID-19 self-assessment tool
• Saskatchewan Health Authority COVID-19 info page

Ontario

Public health phone number: 1 866-797-0000

• Public Health Ontario COVID-19 info page
• Public Health Ontario synopsis of important journal articles (these are academic articles from researchers studying the virus)
• Ontario public health unit locator
• Public Health Ontario COVID-19 public resources (this contains a list of resources in multiple languages, such as how to properly clean, self-monitor, etc.)
• CBC News local coronavirus updates for:
  • Thunder Bay
  • Toronto

Quebec

Public health link number: 811 or 1 877 644-4545

• Quebec Ministry of Health COVID-19 info:
  • English
  • French
• Institut national de santé public du Québec COVID-19 info page
• CBC News local coronavirus updates for Quebec

Nunavut

• Nunavut Ministry of Health COVID-19 info page

Northwest Territories

• NWT Ministry of Health COVID-19 info page

Markus Spiske