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in si de ha lto n. co m O ak vi lle B ea ve r | T hu rs da y, Ju ly 1, 20 21 | 10 JULY 1 HAPPY CANADA DAY! The Town of Oakville invites residents to recognize Canada Day a little differently this year. We're offering activities residents can enjoy safely and encouraging personal reflection on what it means to be Canadian. Tree and flower drive-thru giveaway on Tuesday, June 29 and Wednesday, June 30 from 3 to 7 p.m. ConNextions public art installations in select parks. Virtual activities and performances by Natasha Wandel and Penny Johnson. Visit oakville.ca for event details. www.concretetrimmings.com CONCRETE FREE ESTIMATES 905-844-5518 1-888-944-5518 uality At Its Best! Call Fernando 1-888-944-5518 www 1-888-944-5518 • DRIVEWAYS • FRENCH CURBS • PATIOS • STEPS • WALKWAYS • GARAGE FLOORS ExposEd aggrEgatE (pebble) Since the start of the CO- VID-19 pandemic, the case numbers in Ontario have been monitored and record- ed as active cases, deaths and recoveries. However, there is anoth- er cohort of people around the world that do not fall in- to any of these categories -- a group medical experts are now referring to as COVID "long-haulers." These individuals, de- spite clearing the virus months ago, have still not fully recovered. Rather, they have been left with a wide range of lingering symptoms and complica- tions, with no indication as to how long they will per- sist. Two Ontario experts weigh in on what is known about the long-term effects of COVID-19 thus far. What we know COVID-19 can affect any part of the body Bryan Heit, associate professor of microbiology and immunology at West- ern University, said while much of the information known about the long-term effects of COVID-19 remains a mystery, experts are aware that it affects many parts of the body and causes significant damage to the vascular system and sur- rounding tissues. Heit said this also leads to issues with cognition. "A lot of patients, after they clear the disease, they have a lot of trouble concentrat- ing and with cognition, and (experts) think that's be- cause of damage to the blood vessels in the brain," he said. He added that even in rel- atively mild cases, CO- VID-19 seems to do damage to the heart and to other or- gans as well. Anna Banerji, global health specialist and direc- tor of Global and Indige- nous Health at University of Toronto, agreed. "It can affect any part of the body, really," she said. "It can affect the brain with brain fog, it can affect the muscles, it can lead to short- ness of breath, exhaustion, body aches -- those kinds of long-haul symptoms." 'Long-haulers' were healthy before COVID-19 Banerji noted that "long- haulers" are not typically people with pre-existing conditions or chronic ill- ness. "These are people who were very healthy before, people who were very func- tional in society, and sud- denly they're struggling to do basic things," she said. Studies are now being done on long-haulers While there still is not much data out there, stud- ies are starting to be con- ducted which involve long- haulers. Most recently, in Ontario, two doctors from University Health Network are co-leading the Canadian COVID-19 Prospective Co- hort Study "to better under- stand the short and long- term outcomes in patients and their caregivers, and the predictors of those out- comes." What we don't know How permanent the damage is Banerji said at this point, there is no indication of how long these long-term symp- toms will last. "We're going to have more chronic disease for WHAT ARE THE LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF COVID-19? VERONICA APPIA vappia@toronto.com NEWS sure," she said. "How much? I don't know. How quickly will people recover? I don't know, but this is going to leave some people with changes in their daily activ- ities for sure." The factors that con- tribute to long-term symptoms/complica- tions Heit said there are many ideas being tested to deter- mine the factors that con- tribute to who ends up with long-term symptoms and who doesn't, but that it's all "guesswork" at this point. He said initially, it was believed that a large part of the vascular damage seen in patients was due to a "cyto- kine storm," or inflammato- ry immune response, but he added that there have been certain cases where young, healthy people experienced vascular damage after clearing the virus, even though their symptoms were mild or non-existent and they did not experience said "cytokine storm." He cited the case at Ohio State University as an ex- ample of this, where college athletes with no previous heart conditions were found to have heart damage after contracting mild or asymp- tomatic cases of COVID-19. "A lot of it is still sort of this black box that we're try- ing to sort outb and we don't really know the answers to it yet," Heit said. Have you been waiting to get a haircut? As part of Step 2 of the province's COVID-19 reopen- ing plan, hair salons and bar- ber shops have reopened -- albeit at only 25 per cent ca- pacity. Larger indoor and outdoor gatherings are also allowed, while outdoor din- ing has been expanded to six people per table. Premier Doug Ford moved up the reopening plan by a few days due to the prov- ince-wide vaccine rate sur- passing the targets outlined in the province's Roadmap to Reopen. To enter Step 2, On- tario needed to have vacci- nated 70 per cent of adults with one dose and 20 per cent with two doses for at least two weeks. As for the weekly CO- VID-19 cases, the region's website shows that from June 18 to 24 there were 50 new cases, down from 88 the previous week. No new deaths were reported. As of June 25, the number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 88 -- with 20 cases in Oakville, 12 in Milton, nine in Burlington, and six in Halton Hills. There have been 17,945 cases of CO- VID-19 during the pandemic, with 17,669 marked as re- solved and 229 deaths. -- With files from Louie Rosella HALTON ENTERS STEP 2 OF REOPENING PLAN BAMBANG SADEWO bsadewo@metroland.com SCAN FOR MORE Scan this code to view COVID cases tracker.