After more than a year of avoiding crowds, scrubbing our hands and wearing masks, infectious disease specialists say that the COVID-19 pandemic – as we know it – is coming to a close for Canadians.
“I think we’re actually there already,” said Dr. Sumon Chakrabarti, an infectious disease specialist, when asked how soon Canadians can expect to return to their pre-COVID activities.
“I think that we can open up safely and get to our previous lives now.”
But that doesn’t mean the pandemic is actually over for everyone, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
“I think people will be surprised to find that in the last week, cases globally have gone up, not down,” Dr. Peter Singer, an advisor with the WHO, told Global News.
“This is far from over. Cases are increasing, and it’s not over till it’s over everywhere.”
5:09 How being in COVID-19 lockdown has changed our bodies
How being in COVID-19 lockdown has changed our bodies – Jun 24, 2021
The Global end of COVID-19
Under international law, a pandemic is defined as a public health emergency of “international concern,” one that is an “extraordinary” event with the risk of international spread, “where international … coordination is needed” to address it, according to Singer.
That means that until the COVID-19 spread no longer meets that definition on a global scale, the pandemic isn’t technically over.
While Canada is setting its sights on back-to-normal, the disease continues to spread among nations that haven’t been able to secure enough vaccines. This poses a threat to us all, Singer said.
“In some parts of the world, the vaccination rates, even at one dose, are one per cent, two per cent, three per cent, five per cent,” Singer said.
“As long as that vaccine inequity or vaccine injustice holds, nobody is safe.”
The more opportunities the virus has to spread and to live untreated in someone’s body, the more possibility there is that COVID-19 could develop new mutations — and therefore, new variants.
Some of these could threaten COVID-19 vaccine progress around the world, Singer warned.
“To be safe is for this fire to be put out everywhere in the world, because otherwise, if it’s burning anywhere, it’s going to be casting off embers that are going to ignite flames everywhere,” he said.
1:40 ‘Stark’ difference between those unvaccinated, fully vaccinated for COVID-19: Saskatchewan premier
‘Stark’ difference between those unvaccinated, fully vaccinated for COVID-19: Saskatchewan premier
If the epidemiological situation around the world were similar to the one in Canada, international organizations would be much closer to declaring an end to the pandemic. There’s an emergency committee at the WHO that meets “regularly” to assess whether the criteria required to declare a pandemic are still being met in the case of COVID-19, Singer said.
Those criteria are based on the definition of a pandemic, which Singer described as:
a public health emergency of “international concern”
an “extraordinary” event with the risk of international spread
an event “where international … coordination is needed” to address it.
“Those criteria are still met and the public health emergency is still in effect,” Singer said.
In order to change this assessment — and officially declare the end of the pandemic — Singer said countries will need to ramp up their generosity when it comes to sharing vaccines.
The WHO has set a global goal for vaccination efforts. By September, the organization is hoping to see at least 10 per cent of the population of every country vaccinated. By December, the goal is to hit 30 per cent around the world.
“The problem is supply and demand, and in the short term, the way to deal with the supply problem is for countries that have doses to donate vaccine doses. About a billion doses will be needed between now and the end of the year to reach at least the initial targets,” Singer said.
This is the only way to truly end the pandemic, according to Singer. It’s not as simple as saying it’s over. While there are boxes to check off, it’s unclear how it will be designated as finished globally.
“The national security of Canada depends on vaccination in every country in the world and on suppressing this pandemic in every country in the world, otherwise it will just be generating variants that could come back to bite us,” he said.
“And that’s even before you get to the arguments from ethics that every human life is of equal value.”
Is COVID-19 almost over in Canada?
COVID-19 is a “tale of two pandemics,” Singer said — and according to Canadian infectious disease specialists, Canada’s COVID-19 story is in its final chapter.
“If you’ve been fully vaccinated, your risk of severe outcomes is essentially eliminated and you can go back to doing things that you did before,” Chakrabarti said — though provincial restrictions still prevent Canadians from a full return to normal for the time being.
Recent discussions about COVID-19 in Canada have been framed in a way that taps into “people’s fears” that progress on COVID will be “taken away from us at the eleventh hour,” Chakrabarti said.
“I want to assure people that I think this is very unlikely, if not downright impossible.”
Chakrabarti isn’t alone in his optimism. Dr. Zain Chagla, who is also an infectious disease specialist, agreed that Canadians are “just at the cusp” of being able to get back to their normal lives.
“We’re coming soon to that point. Most of us can get a second vaccine in the next two to three weeks and a couple of weeks later are fully immune,” Chagla said, adding that this could bring us back to “pre-pandemic” conditions.
“There’s a little bit more time needed for some of our public expectations, in terms of masking and physical distancing, as part of our day-to-day lives. But that’s really rapidly starting to get smaller and smaller.”
2:38 More than 40 million COVID-19 vaccines administered in Canada: Tam
More than 40 million COVID-19 vaccines administered in Canada: Tam
The specialists’ comments come amid enthusiastic vaccine uptake across the country. About 78 per cent of Canadians over the age of 12 have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam, and more than 44 per cent are fully vaccinated against the disease.
Canadians might not be aware of how good these vaccines actually are, according to Chakrabarti.
“We have really undersold what the vaccines can do. Even with variants, we still haven’t found a variant that will completely escape the effects of the vaccine, especially against the outcomes we worry about, which is hospitalization and death,” he said.
Clinical trial data from all four vaccines Canada has approved — Pfizer, Moderna, Janssen and AstraZeneca — showed that every single jab was extremely effective at preventing hospitalizations.
Every time Canadian provinces have locked down, it’s been because COVID-19’s spread was overwhelming hospitals — and spread needed to be slowed in order to avoid forcing medical professionals to make impossible decisions. But with vaccines reducing the power of COVID-19’s bite, catching the disease doesn’t mean what it once did, according to Chagla.
“The disease becomes fundamentally different in people that are fully vaccinated as compared to those who are unvaccinated,” he said.
“After vaccines, that link between cases and hospitalizations is not as strong.”
Living with COVID-19
Still, for Canadians, the highly successful vaccination rollout is setting a stage for a time when the country learns to live with COVID-19 — as we do with other diseases — as opposed to stopping in our tracks to prevent it.
This might take some time to get used to, according to Chakrabarti. “Shifting our perspective” will be an important part of going back to normal, he said.
“Looking at daily cases is not really productive anymore,” he said, noting the fact that an increase in cases won’t necessarily lead to an equivalent jump in hospitalizations anymore.
“I think this should be changed.”
1:57 Returning Canadian travellers encounter confusion with looser COVID-19 restrictions
Returning Canadian travellers encounter confusion with looser COVID-19 restrictions
Chakrabarti added that a time will soon come when Canadians will have to enjoy parties, rather than wagging the finger at them.
“When we see groups of people doing things, even if it’s doing something that you may not be comfortable with, for example, an indoor party, we have to stop moralizing that,” he explained.
“If somebody has an indoor party at this point in time, it’s not something that’s going to set off a chain reaction that can then cause massive waves of infection and hospitalizations.”
Still, Chagla said there’s still a few weeks to go before Canadians can expect the only risk of a house party as being a noise complaint from the neighbours.
“There are populations that haven’t been reached by vaccines that can show themselves very quickly to strain health-care systems,” he said, pointing to the Waterloo region as an example — a region that saw a brief surge in cases driven by the Delta variant.
“It’s not catastrophic, but it is uncomfortable. So I think we’re just at the cusp.”
And once we cross that threshold — which Chagla said could happen around “mid-to-late August” — Canadians will have to start getting used to brushing shoulders with one another again.
Chakrabarti recommended Canadians ease into it if they feel nervous.
“I’m not telling you to go straight to a Tool concert indoors, but you might want to start with having other vaccinated people over at your house for dinner and just getting comfortable with that feeling,” he said.
“Having people there — you realize that you won’t even think about it, once you become comfortable. And then you can slowly grade back up.”
TORONTO – Will Taylor Swift bring chaos or do we all need to calm down?
It’s a question many Torontonians are asking this week as the city braces for the arrival of Swifties, the massive fan base of one of the world’s biggest pop stars.
Hundreds of thousands are expected to descend on the downtown core for the singer’s six concerts which kick off Thursday at the Rogers Centre and run until Nov. 23.
And while their arrival will be a boon to tourism dollars — the city estimates more than $282 million in economic impact — some worry it could worsen Toronto’s gridlock by clogging streets that already come to a standstill during rush hour.
Swift’s shows are set to collide with sports events at the nearby Scotiabank Arena, including a Raptors game on Friday and a Leafs game on Saturday.
Some residents and local businesses have already adjusted their plans to avoid the area and its planned road closures.
Aahil Dayani says he and some friends intended to throw a birthday bash for one of their pals until they realized it would overlap with the concerts.
“Something as simple as getting together and having dinner is now thrown out the window,” he said.
Dayani says the group rescheduled the gathering for after Swift leaves town. In the meantime, he plans to hunker down at his Toronto residence.
“Her coming into town has kind of changed up my social life,” he added.
“We’re pretty much just not doing anything.”
Max Sinclair, chief executive and founder of A.I. technology firm Ecomtent, suggested his employees avoid the company’s downtown offices on concert days, saying he doesn’t see the point in forcing people to endure potential traffic jams.
“It’s going to be less productive for us, and it’s going to be just a pain for everyone, so it’s easier to avoid it,” Sinclair said.
“We’re a hybrid company, so we can be flexible. It just makes sense.”
Swift’s concerts are the latest pop culture moment to draw attention to Toronto’s notoriously disastrous daily commute.
In June, One Direction singer Niall Horan uploaded a social media video of himself walking through traffic to reach the venue for his concert.
“Traffic’s too bad in Toronto, so we’re walking to the venue,” he wrote in the post.
Toronto Transit Commission spokesperson Stuart Green says the public agency has been working for more than a year on plans to ease the pressure of so many Swifties in one confined area.
“We are preparing for something that would be akin to maybe the Beatles coming in the ‘60s,” he said.
Dozens of buses and streetcars have been added to transit routes around the stadium, and the TTC has consulted the city on potential emergency scenarios.
Green will be part of a command centre operated by the City of Toronto and staffed by Toronto police leaders, emergency services and others who have handled massive gatherings including the Raptors’ NBA championship parade in 2019.
“There may be some who will say we’re over-preparing, and that’s fair,” Green said.
“But we know based on what’s happened in other places, better to be over-prepared than under-prepared.”
Metrolinx, the agency for Ontario’s GO Transit system, has also added extra trips and extended hours in some regions to accommodate fans looking to travel home.
A day before Swift’s first performance, the city began clearing out tents belonging to homeless people near the venue. The city said two people were offered space in a shelter.
“As the area around Rogers Centre is expected to receive a high volume of foot traffic in the coming days, this area has been prioritized for outreach work to ensure the safety of individuals in encampments, other residents, businesses and visitors — as is standard for large-scale events,” city spokesperson Russell Baker said in a statement.
Homeless advocate Diana Chan McNally questioned whether money and optics were behind the measure.
“People (in the area) are already in close proximity to concerts, sports games, and other events that generate massive amounts of traffic — that’s nothing new,” she said in a statement.
“If people were offered and willingly accepted a shelter space, free of coercion, I support that fully — that’s how it should happen.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Hundreds of Taylor Swift fans lined up outside the gates of Toronto’s Rogers Centre Wednesday, with hopes of snagging some of the pop star’s merchandise on the eve of the first of her six sold-out shows in the city.
Swift is slated to perform at the venue from Thursday to Saturday, and the following week from Nov. 21 to Nov. 23, with concert merchandise available for sale on some non-show days.
Swifties were all smiles as they left the merch shop, their arms full of sweaters and posters bearing pictures of the star and her Eras Tour logo.
Among them was Zoe Haronitis, 22, who said she waited in line for about two hours to get $300 worth of merchandise, including some apparel for her friends.
Haronitis endured the autumn cold and the hefty price tag even though she hasn’t secured a concert ticket. She said she’s hunting down a resale ticket and plans to spend up to $600.
“I haven’t really budgeted anything,” Haronitis said. “I don’t care how much money I spent. That was kind of my mindset.”
The megastar’s merchandise costs up to $115 for a sweater, and $30 for tote bags and other accessories.
Rachel Renwick, 28, also waited a couple of hours in line for merchandise, but only spent about $70 after learning that a coveted blue sweater and a crewneck had been snatched up by other eager fans before she got to the shop. She had been prepared to spend much more, she said.
“The two prized items sold out. I think a lot more damage would have been done,” Renwick said, adding she’s still determined to buy a sweater at a later date.
Renwick estimated she’s spent about $500 in total on “all-things Eras Tour,” including her concert outfit and merchandise.
The long queue for Swift merch is just a snapshot of what the city will see in the coming days. It’s estimated that up to 500,000 visitors from outside Toronto will be in town during the concert period.
Tens of thousands more are also expected to attend Taylgate’24, an unofficial Swiftie fan event scheduled to be held at the nearby Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
Meanwhile, Destination Toronto has said it anticipates the economic impact of the Eras Tour could grow to $282 million as the money continues to circulate.
But for fans like Haronitis, the experience in Toronto comes down to the Swiftie community. Knowing that Swift is going to be in the city for six shows and seeing hundreds gather just for merchandise is “awesome,” she said.
Even though Haronitis hasn’t officially bought her ticket yet, she said she’s excited to see the megastar.
“It’s literally incredible.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.
OTTAWA – Via Rail is asking for a judicial review on the reasons why Canadian National Railway Co. has imposed speed restrictions on its new passenger trains.
The Crown corporation says it is seeking the review from the Federal Court after many attempts at dialogue with the company did not yield valid reasoning for the change.
It says the restrictions imposed last month are causing daily delays on Via Rail’s Québec City-Windsor corridor, affecting thousands of passengers and damaging Via Rail’s reputation with travellers.
CN says in a statement that it imposed the restrictions at rail crossings given the industry’s experience and known risks associated with similar trains.
The company says Via has asked the courts to weigh in even though Via has agreed to buy the equipment needed to permanently fix the issues.
Via said in October that no incidents at level crossings have been reported in the two years since it put 16 Siemens Venture trains into operation.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.
