OTTAWA — The latest news on COVID-19 developments in Canada (all times eastern):
3:40 p.m.
Saskatchewan is reporting 217 new cases of COVID-19 and three additional deaths.
The province says nearly half of the new infections are in the Regina zone.
There are 202 people in hospital with COVID-19 and 44 of them are in intensive care.
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1:50 p.m.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford says his government will be implementing further public health restrictions as COVID-19 cases continue to rise.
Ford says the situation with variants of concern of the virus is changing day to day and people are not following a request to stay at home.
He did not provide any specific details about the additional measures or when they might be imposed.
His comments come a day after top doctors of three COVID-19 hot spots in Ontario urged the province to impose tougher restrictions, including a stay-at-home order.
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1:40 p.m.
Manitoba health officials are announcing 62 new cases of COVID-19 and two more deaths from the virus.
Screening has also found five additional cases that are variants of concern.
Dr. Brent Roussin, the chief provincial public health officer, says people need to avoid non-essential travel as the number of variants has significantly risen in neighbouring provinces.
Public health orders require anyone returning to the province to isolate for two weeks.
The age eligibility for vaccines remains at 64 and older and 44 and older for First Nations people.
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1:25 p.m.
New Brunswick is reporting three new cases of COVID-19 today.
Health officials say the Saint John, Fredericton and Edmundston regions each have one case.
Officials are also confirming that the seven cases reported Monday in the Moncton region are connected and are travel-related.
The Vitalite Health Network says the intensive care unit at the Edmundston Regional Hospital is at capacity and new patients will be diverted to other hospitals.
There are 162 active reported cases of COVID-19 in New Brunswick and 18 patients are hospitalized with the disease, including 12 in intensive care.
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12:45 p.m.
Canada’s chief public health officer is advising Canadians to avoid interprovincial travel amid concerns COVID-19 vaccines might not be fully effective against new variants of the disease.
Dr. Theresa Tam says she is concerned about people travelling as tourists and gathering for leisure activities.
With new variants of concern now being identified in provinces such as British Columbia, Ontario and Alberta, there is concern Canadians could further spread these strains of the virus across the country.
Tam says some laboratory tests show the P1 variant, in particular, might elude a person’s immunity response.
This means people who have been vaccinated or who have contracted COVID-19 could still get sick or reinfected by the virus.
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12:15 p.m.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says most provinces have made it clear they don’t need Ottawa’s help when it comes to getting COVID-19 vaccines into the arms of Canadians, but he adds the federal government will be there if needed.
He says political leaders are just as exhausted as Canadian families, business owners and frontline workers, which he believes is why some premiers, including Ontario’s Doug Ford, have been critical of the vaccine rollout in Canada.
Trudeau says that when he speaks with Ford later today, he hopes to determine how the federal government can assist Ontario with the third wave of COVID-19 now sweeping the province.
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11:45 a.m.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the federal government is delivering the final instalment from billions of dollars announced last summer to help provinces and territories through the COVID-19 pandemic.
He says the federal funding has been used to bolster the capacity of Canada’s health-care systems, secure personal protective equipment for essential workers and protect the most vulnerable.
It has also helped support child-care needs during the pandemic and keep municipalities and public transit operating.
Trudeau now says $700 million, the final instalment from the Safe Restart Agreement, will help provinces and territories with efforts including testing and contact tracing.
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11:40 a.m.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he will speak today with Ontario Premier Doug Ford about the COVID-19 situation in Ontario.
He says he expects to discuss what the spike in cases in Ontario means for hospitals and the importance of vaccinating as many people as possible, as quickly as possible.
Trudeau says he will also speaks to all provincial and territorial premiers Wednesday about their efforts to protect and support Canadians from the new variants and rising cases in areas across the country.
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11:30 a.m.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is calling on the federal government to do more to help provinces get vaccinations into the arms of essential workers.
Singh says a priority should be workers who cannot stay home and toil in industries where the virus is known to be spreading.
He says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau can help by offering assistance from the military and pushing for paid sick leave.
Singh says he won’t accept the excuse that administering vaccinations is a provincial responsibility.
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11:20 a.m.
Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole is pressing the government to ask the auditor general to appoint a “special monitor” to track the federal pandemic response as it happens to glean lessons promptly.
O’Toole also says a Conservative government would call a public inquiry to study the federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
He says the federal Liberals “dropped the ball” on vaccines and Canadians need to know what worked and what didn’t.
—11:15 a.m.
Quebec is reporting 1,168 new cases of COVID-19 today and four additional deaths, including one within the previous 24 hours.
The provincial Health Department says hospitalizations rose by 11 to reach 514, with 121 patients in intensive care, a drop of two.
Public health authorities say 39,816 doses of vaccine were administered in the province yesterday, bringing the total to 1,592,197.
Quebec has reported 318,532 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 10,701 deaths since the pandemic began.
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11:05 a.m.
Nova Scotia is reporting six new cases of COVID-19 today and a total of 36 active cases.
Five cases have been identified in the Halifax area with one related to travel outside of Atlantic Canada, three close contacts of a previously reported case, and one case under investigation.
There is also one case in the province’s eastern health zone identified as a close contact of a previously reported case.
Health officials say that unrelated to the new cases are four new cases of the variant that first emerged in the United Kingdom that have been identified in the Halifax area and have since been resolved.
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11 a.m.
Prince Edward Island is reporting no new cases of COVID-19 today.
Chief medical officer of health Dr. Heather Morrison says there are eight active reported cases on the Island.
Morrison says two cases reported on March 26 have been confirmed as the B.1.1.7 variant first identified in the United Kingdom.
She says both variant cases are related to travel outside Atlantic Canada.
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10:30 a.m.
Ontario reports 3,065 new cases of COVID-19 and eight more deaths linked to the virus.
Health Minister Christine Elliott says that 955 of those new cases are in Toronto, 561 are in Peel Region, and 320 are in York Region.
She also says there are 165 new cases in Ottawa and 132 in Niagara Region.
More than 76,000 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine were administered in Ontario since Monday’s report.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 6, 2021.
The Canadian government says it will donate up to 200,000 vaccine doses to fight the mpox outbreak in Congo and other African countries.
It says the donated doses of Imvamune will come from Canada’s existing supply and will not affect the country’s preparedness for mpox cases in this country.
Minister of Health Mark Holland says the donation “will help to protect those in the most affected regions of Africa and will help prevent further spread of the virus.”
Dr. Madhukar Pai, Canada research chair in epidemiology and global health, says although the donation is welcome, it is a very small portion of the estimated 10 million vaccine doses needed to control the outbreak.
Vaccine donations from wealthier countries have only recently started arriving in Africa, almost a month after the World Health Organization declared the mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
A few days after the declaration in August, Global Affairs Canada announced a contribution of $1 million for mpox surveillance, diagnostic tools, research and community awareness in Africa.
On Thursday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said mpox is still on the rise and that testing rates are “insufficient” across the continent.
Jason Kindrachuk, Canada research chair in emerging viruses at the University of Manitoba, said donating vaccines, in addition to supporting surveillance and diagnostic tests, is “massively important.”
But Kindrachuk, who has worked on the ground in Congo during the epidemic, also said that the international response to the mpox outbreak is “better late than never (but) better never late.”
“It would have been fantastic for us globally to not be in this position by having provided doses a much, much longer time prior than when we are,” he said, noting that the outbreak of clade I mpox in Congo started in early 2023.
Clade II mpox, endemic in regions of West Africa, came to the world’s attention even earlier — in 2022 — as that strain of virus spread to other countries, including Canada.
Two doses are recommended for mpox vaccination, so the donation may only benefit 100,000 people, Pai said.
Pai questioned whether Canada is contributing enough, as the federal government hasn’t said what percentage of its mpox vaccine stockpile it is donating.
“Small donations are simply not going to help end this crisis. We need to show greater solidarity and support,” he said in an email.
“That is the biggest lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic — our collective safety is tied with that of other nations.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
