TORONTO – Ontario is expected to make funding decisions on a long-term COVID strategy in the near future, the province’s top doctor says, as health officials work to create standard definitions and treatment protocols.
Hospitals have submitted recommendations to Ontario Health and now the province is working to provide guidance to primary care professionals on how to care for patients with prolonged COVID symptoms, said Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr.  Kieran Moore.
“I’ve seen the proposals and I don’t want to preempt the department’s announcements, but I think they’re going to make some funding decisions in the near future,” Moore said in a recent interview.
Ontario’s recently disbanded scientific panel earlier this month called for a proactive and comprehensive strategy to deal with the lingering COVID, which it said is likely to place a significant burden on the province’s population and its health care system.
The scientific advisory group said the condition was defined as symptoms persisting for at least four or 12 weeks after infection with COVID-19.  The prevalence of long-term COVID in the population can range from two to 54 percent, depending on how the condition is defined, according to the scientific panel.
Moore said defining and treating long-term COVID is not an easy task.
“We’re trying to create a standardization of how to define what prolonged COVID is, what the main symptoms will be, whether it’s neurological, cardiac or respiratory that we’d like to have treatment protocols for,” he said.
It’s also important to understand what additional resources might help people with long-term COVID-19, such as rehabilitation, occupational hygiene and physical therapy, he said.
“We also want to understand what laboratory investigations would be necessary to help with the diagnosis.  What other diagnostic imaging would be important?  What pulmonary function tests would be important?’
Ontario officials are reviewing the international literature, and Moore himself said he was just at a conference with the Centers for Disease Control.  That agency is also trying to establish research and treatment pathways, he said.
“There haven’t been many randomized controlled trials to be able to give doctors guidance about which treatments work and in which cases,” he said.
“So all this work is evolving.  We certainly want our researchers to be involved in ensuring that we provide the best guidance early on in treatment pathways.”
The Department of Health said earlier this month in response to the panel’s summary report that it is reviewing the findings, but did not respond to a question about whether or not the province has a plan for the condition.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on September 18, 2022.