Health & Safety

At 5 a.m., as most of Simcoe County sleeps, a handful of decision-makers scan weather maps, radar screens, and local forecasts, weighing the fate of school buses against a rising storm. The call to cancel school buses in Simcoe County is anything but routine. While forecasts may dominate dinner-table chatter, the final decision rests with […]

With visitor doors closed and masks mandatory, Stevenson Memorial Hospital in Alliston stands at the heart of a community challenge as it battles a declared influenza outbreak on its medical and surgical unit. On Friday afternoon, the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit formally announced the outbreak, prompting Stevenson Memorial to swiftly implement rigorous visitor restrictions.

Few habits have proven as stubborn to stamp out as smoking, but the tide may be turning—just not in the direction some expected. Canadian authorities now urge caution, placing vaping firmly at the back of the line for those hoping to kick the cigarette habit. Canadian smokers looking for a way out are being steered

On a Monday that should have seen families splashing at Barrie’s beloved Centennial Beach, the city’s heart was instead marked by caution tape and yellow warning signs—each a silent testament to the power of invisible threats lurking just below the water’s surface. Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit officials triggered a swim advisory for Centennial Beach

In the quiet hours of summer, a new threat has crept through open windows and attic vents: bats. Ontario’s Peterborough Public Health, now merged with Haliburton Kawartha Pine Ridge District Health Unit, is sounding the alarm after a spike in bat-related exposures left residents and officials on edge. Across the region, an uptick in encounters

The earth beneath Barrie’s feet has turned brittle, grass crisped to straw, and the city’s firefighters have drawn a hard line in the dust. A total fire ban has swept across Barrie, halting every match struck outdoors in an effort to douse a growing risk. The City of Barrie wasted no time after officials elevated

For the first time since winter, Ontario’s public health officials find themselves reading a measles report with a small, almost reassuring number. Eight new cases—down from the triple-digit weekly surges that marked the start of 2025—have prompted a rare sigh of relief, even as the shadow of the outbreak lingers. Ontario’s encounter with measles in

Charred earth smouldered under the August sun as Springwater and Wasaga Beach firefighters raced to contain a surging field fire on County Road 92, a battle against both flames and the region’s relentless drought. On Sunday evening, crews mobilized quickly to shield farms and nearby homes from a blaze racing across parched ground. The inferno,

A hospital can be a lifeline or a last hope, but in rural Ontario, keeping its doors open often hinges on a single word: locum. With over 350 physician vacancies lingering in northern communities, the struggle to find doctors isn’t just a headline—it’s a daily reality. The shortage of full-time physicians across rural and northern

A prescription slip in hand, a patient steps into the pharmacy only to find relief is out of stock. It’s a scenario playing out across Canada as the painkiller shortage tightens its grip, leaving patients and pharmacists navigating uncharted waters. Acetaminophen with codeine and acetaminophen with oxycodone have become scarce, and not just in big