Variants of concern are currently responsible for about 42 per cent of new daily cases of COVID-19 in Ontario, the province’s science advisory table said Thursday.
The group, made up of health experts and professionals, launched a new online dashboard focused on the variants of concern (VOCs). It shows that the variants continue to spread. The data is more or less right on track with what was predicted in models released by the table in late February.
Critically, the reproduction value — an estimate of how many people each positive case will go on to infect — for VOCs is about 1.24, the table said. Any value above one suggests that the rate of new cases is growing.
Meanwhile, for the “old” variants — those that were present before the current VOCs were circulating — the reproduction value is 0.9.
So far in Ontario, labs have definitively linked 956 cases to the variant first found in the United Kingdom; 41 to the variant identified in South Africa and 28 to the variant found in Brazil.
But those figures are a drastic undercount of the real situation. Specific variants can only be confirmed once the samples have undergone whole genomic sequencing, an intensive process that can lead to reporting lags in the data of up to three weeks.
As of yesterday, however, 6,513 test samples had screened positive for the tell-tale mutation that indicates the presence of a VOC. Labs are still trying to pinpoint specific variants in the vast majority of those samples.
Speaking to CBC News on Thursday afternoon, Dr. Peter Juni, scientific director of the province’s Science Table, said the province is facing a “race against time” between the variants and vaccines.
Ontario will need to tighten restrictions “very soon,” he said.
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news here but looking at these numbers, unless a miracle is happening, and typically miracles don’t happen that fast, this will continue,” Juni said.
“There is no way that this growth all of a sudden will stop spontaneously. This will continue, and we need to pull the emergency brake.”
WATCH | Doctor explains problem with virus variants:
Aggressive COVID-19 variants have the upper hand in Ontario, which is why the province needs to vaccinate as quickly as possible, said Dr. Peter Jüni of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table. 3:15
Seeing as some variants are thought to be around 40 per cent more transmissible, how the province previously handled things will not be enough to keep things under control, Juni added.
“So what we now need to do is put all our efforts once more into controlling this thing, better than before if possible … and really vaccinate as fast as we can.”
According to new provincial modelling released Thursday afternoon, the reproduction value for the B117 variant needs to be below 0.7.
Its current value is between 0.8 and 0.9, and it has only approached 0.7 once, the modelling documents say.
Provincial health officials say this “highly transmissible” variant will “soon dominate.”
The science table report also says that aggressive vaccination and sticking with stay-at-home orders would “help avoid a third wave and third lockdown.”
The report also notes that public health measures have helped with cases, positivity rates and hospitalizations.
Focusing vaccination on long-term care homes has helped drive down deaths, it says.
3 possibilities for daily infection rates presented
At a news conference Thursday afternoon, Adalsteinn Brown, co-chair of Ontario’s COVID-19 science advisory table, said vaccinating in long-term care has been a “clear success.” Now, the province is focusing its attention on the larger community.
“If we use the tools we have to reduce risk as much as we can, as fast as we can, we will end up protecting all Ontarians,” Brown said.
Provincial Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams said Thursday that Ontarians have another four to five months “of clear, hard work ahead of us to keep the numbers down.”
Brown provided three scenarios for the next three weeks from the province’s modelling, though he noted there is “a lot of uncertainty” around what will happen in the coming weeks in Ontario.
In the most optimistic scenario, there would be relatively small but continued growth, he said, topping out around 2,000 cases a day. In a medium scenario, cases “increase substantially” up to 6,000 cases a day, he said. A worst case scenario would be even more than that.
“Our behaviour over the next few weeks is critical in determining the quality of our summer,” Brown added.
1,092 new cases as Sudbury set for lockdown
Ontario reported another 1,092 cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, while public health units administered a record-high number of vaccine doses.
WATCH| Torontonians reflect on the first anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic:
One year ago, the World Health Organization declared the spread of the COVID-19 virus a global pandemic. In response, Justin Trudeau designated March 11 a national day of observance. Greg Ross spoke with some Torontonians to reflect on the toll of the pandemic. 2:24
In a news release, health officials said the decision was made “due to the concerning trends in public health indicators and in consultation with the local medical officer of health.
“From March 3 to 9, 2021, the region’s case rate increased by 54.1 per cent to 75.9 cases per 100,000 people,” the release said. The health unit is currently in the red “control” tier of the colour-coded system.
Other public health units that saw double-digit increases were:
Ottawa: 64
Simcoe Muskoka: 43
Windsor-Essex: 39
Hamilton: 38
Waterloo Region: 37
Durham Region: 36
Halton Region: 33
Lambton: 33
Middlesex-London: 26
Niagara Region: 26
Eastern Ontario: 18
Chatham-Kent: 10
(Note: All of the figures used in this story are found on the Ministry of Health’s COVID-19 dashboard or in its Daily Epidemiologic Summary. The number of cases for any region may differ from what is reported by the local public health unit on a given day, because local units report figures at different times.)
The seven-day average of new daily cases climbed to 1,252, its highest point in about a month (though it is important to note that, due to a data error, the daily case count on March 8 was artificially inflated by a few hundred infections that should have been reported the previous Saturday).
Meanwhile, labs completed 60,619 tests for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and logged a test positivity rate of 2.4 per cent.
Labs confirmed another 35 cases of the virus variant first found in the United Kingdom, bringing the total number so far 956. They also reported 11 and two more cases caused by the variants first identified in Brazil and South Africa.
Public health units also recorded the deaths of 10 more people with the illness, pushing Ontario’s official toll to 7,109.
TORONTO – Roots Corp. may have built its brand on all things comfy and cosy, but its CEO says activewear is now “really becoming a core part” of the brand.
The category, which at Roots spans leggings, tracksuits, sports bras and bike shorts, has seen such sustained double-digit growth that Meghan Roach plans to make it a key part of the business’ future.
“It’s an area … you will see us continue to expand upon,” she told analysts on a Friday call.
The Toronto-based retailer’s push into activewear has taken shape over many years and included several turns as the official designer and supplier of Team Canada’s Olympic uniform.
But consumers have had plenty of choice when it comes to workout gear and other apparel suited to their sporting needs. On top of the slew of athletic brands like Nike and Adidas, shoppers have also gravitated toward Lululemon Athletica Inc., Alo and Vuori, ramping up competition in the activewear category.
Roach feels Roots’ toehold in the category stems from the fit, feel and following its merchandise has cultivated.
“Our product really resonates with (shoppers) because you can wear it through multiple different use cases and occasions,” she said.
“We’ve been seeing customers come back again and again for some of these core products in our activewear collection.”
Her remarks came the same day as Roots revealed it lost $5.2 million in its latest quarter compared with a loss of $5.3 million in the same quarter last year.
The company said the second-quarter loss amounted to 13 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Aug. 3, the same as a year earlier.
In presenting the results, Roach reminded analysts that the first half of the year is usually “seasonally small,” representing just 30 per cent of the company’s annual sales.
Sales for the second quarter totalled $47.7 million, down from $49.4 million in the same quarter last year.
The move lower came as direct-to-consumer sales amounted to $36.4 million, down from $37.1 million a year earlier, as comparable sales edged down 0.2 per cent.
The numbers reflect the fact that Roots continued to grapple with inventory challenges in the company’s Cooper fleece line that first cropped up in its previous quarter.
Roots recently began to use artificial intelligence to assist with daily inventory replenishments and said more tools helping with allocation will go live in the next quarter.
Beyond that time period, the company intends to keep exploring AI and renovate more of its stores.
It will also re-evaluate its design ranks.
Roots announced Friday that chief product officer Karuna Scheinfeld has stepped down.
Rather than fill the role, the company plans to hire senior level design talent with international experience in the outdoor and activewear sectors who will take on tasks previously done by the chief product officer.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, are set to resume today as a strike that has stopped most services drags into a second week.
No timeline has been set for the length of the negotiations, but Joe McCann, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they are willing to stay there as long as it takes, even if talks drag on all night.
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people unable to navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last Tuesday, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
Hundreds of drivers rallied outside TransLink’s head office earlier this week, calling for the transportation provider to intervene in the dispute with Transdev, which was contracted to oversee HandyDART service.
Transdev said earlier this week that it will provide a reply to the union’s latest proposal on Thursday.
A statement from the company said it “strongly believes” that their employees deserve fair wages, and that a fair contract “must balance the needs of their employees, clients and taxpayers.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
MONTREAL – Travel company Transat AT Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter compared with a profit a year earlier as its revenue edged lower.
The parent company of Air Transat says it lost $39.9 million or $1.03 per diluted share in its quarter ended July 31.
The result compared with a profit of $57.3 million or $1.49 per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue in what was the company’s third quarter totalled $736.2 million, down from $746.3 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Transat says it lost $1.10 per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $1.10 per share a year earlier.
Transat chief executive Annick Guérard says demand for leisure travel remains healthy, as evidenced by higher traffic, but consumers are increasingly price conscious given the current economic uncertainty.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
