{"id":10548,"date":"2020-09-15T10:06:12","date_gmt":"2020-09-15T14:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=10548"},"modified":"2020-09-22T12:50:22","modified_gmt":"2020-09-22T16:50:22","slug":"vancouver-wildfire-smokes-a-major-additional-threat-to-health-in-downtown-eastside-where-covid-wave-alleged","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/vancouver-wildfire-smokes-a-major-additional-threat-to-health-in-downtown-eastside-where-covid-wave-alleged\/","title":{"rendered":"Wildfire smoke a threat to health in Downtown Eastside, where COVID-19 \u2018wave\u2019 alleged"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By David P. Ball<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Public health authorities in B.C. have called on Vancouverites to stay inside with windows closed, and to avoid prolonged time outdoors, until the wildfire smoke risk abates. Strenuous exercise should be avoided, and air filters deployed.<\/p>\n<p>But for the thousands of homeless in the Downtown Eastside (DTES), those measures simply aren\u2019t possible if one doesn\u2019t have a home \u2013 especially since so many drop-in services closed down for COVID-19.<\/p>\n<p>Several are now opening up emergency smoke shelter spots. Meanwhile the city is funding expanded hours for three day time drop in centres As well as a floor of the public library\u2019s second branch \u2014 to serve as \u201cclean air\u201d facilities to get out of the smoke.<\/p>\n<p>Jeremy Hunka, of Union Gospel Mission, told The Pulse on CFRO he is very worried for the disproportionate number of DTES residents, particularly the homeless, because of high levels of respiratory illness and other health vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n<p>He talked about the dangers to Downtown Eastside residents' health from the wildfire smoke and how you can protect yourself \u2014 amidst an alleged \"wave\" of local COVID-19 cases that has not been publicly revealed but only came to light because of nonprofit organizations speaking out and raising alarms.<\/p>\n<p>The symptoms between coronavirus and smoke inhalation can be similar, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said Monday. One key difference is smoke doesn\u2019t cause muscle aches or fever, she noted, unlike COVID-19.<\/p>\n<p>UGM\u2019a Hunka urges a more transparent approach to informing the \u201cespecially vulnerable\u201d DTES community about any COVID-19 cases, despite reluctance by authorities to pinpoint infections to small areas and neighbourhoods. Even city-wide data was not publicly available until recently.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By David P. Ball Public health authorities in B.C. have called on Vancouverites to stay inside with windows closed, and to avoid prolonged time outdoors, until the wildfire smoke risk abates. Strenuous exercise should be avoided, and air filters deployed. But for the thousands of homeless in the Downtown Eastside (DTES), those measures simply aren\u2019t&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":10558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,218,223],"tags":[284,1502,1501,1318],"radio":[237],"origine":[280,262,231],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10548"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10548"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=10548"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=10548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}