COVID-19 updates, July 27: Despite ongoing glitches, almost 650000 Quebecers register for vaccine lottery – Montreal Gazette

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5 p.m.

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I’ll be back tomorrow with another live blog.

In the meantime, you can follow all our coverage via the coronavirus page.

My previous COVID-19 live blogs are available here.

4:55 p.m.

Some vaccinated people infected with the Delta variant may transmit the virus, CDC says

From the Bloomberg wire service:

Faced with a surge in coronavirus cases driven by the fast-spreading Delta variant, U.S. health officials said fully vaccinated people should go back to wearing masks indoors in places where infections are soaring.

Rochelle Walensky, the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a call with reporters on Tuesday that the decision to re-adopt masking in areas with large outbreaks hadn’t been taken lightly, and acknowledged that it wouldn’t be “a welcome piece of news” for vaccinated people.

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Masks for many people remain a potent symbol of the darkest days of the pandemic in 2020, before vaccines were available and hospitals around the world were filling up with patients. They also became political flashpoints in an election year shaped by the virus.

That made it a significant milestone when the CDC said in May that fully immunized Americans would no longer need to wear face coverings in most situations.

Since then, however, the rapid growth of the Delta variant has made that decision appear premature. Delta, more than other viral mutations, has shown itself to be adept at evading the protection afforded by vaccines.

Walensky said on the call that the CDC had gathered data suggesting that some vaccinated people infected with the Delta variant can transmit the virus to others.

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The CDC’s website tracks community transmission, categorizing it as substantial or high based on based on the number of cases in the last seven days per 100,000 population and the number of tests in the last seven days that have a positive result.

The latest data shows 46 per cent of U.S. counties are experiencing high levels of community transmission, with 17 per cent are experiencing substantial levels.

4:50 p.m.

Unvaccinated students will follow stricter COVID outbreak rules, Ontario top doc says

From The Canadian Press:

Ontario’s top doctor says students aged 12 to 17 who aren’t vaccinated against COVID-19 will be subject to stricter isolation rules in the event of virus outbreaks this fall.

Dr. Kieran Moore says students who are fully vaccinated against the virus will have to take COVID-19 tests if they’re in contact with a high-risk person.

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Students who test negative can go back to school, but those who aren’t immunized will be off school for a minimum of 10 days while they wait for test results.

Moore says unvaccinated students will have to take a second COVID test after about seven days, and they could be out of class for up to 20 days depending on the result.

The province hasn’t yet released its complete back-to-school plan and Moore says the details about public health measures are still being finalized.

Sixty-four per cent of Ontario youth aged 12 to 17 have one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 42 per cent are fully vaccinated.

Moore called for parents to get their children vaccinated this week, noting that time has nearly run out for full immunization to kick if before school starts in September.

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“There is an advantage, just alone … to being present in school, full participation in all sports and activities, by being immunized,” Moore told reporters on Tuesday.

“I hope that parents and students see that advantage.”

4:10 p.m.

Most new Quebec cases are among people aged 20-39, Dubé says

Over the past two weeks, most COVID-19 cases in Quebec occurred among people aged 20 to 39, Health Minister Christian Dubé said this afternoon via Twitter.

He provided a breakdown by age group of cases that occurred between July 12 and July 26:

Dubé said that over the past 20 days, more than 3.1 million Quebecers advanced their second-dose appointments.

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Another 417,000 appointments can be advanced before Aug. 31, he added.

3:40 p.m.

Britain reports highest deaths from COVID-19 since March as Johnson urges caution

Britain reported its highest number of deaths and people in hospital with coronavirus since March on Tuesday, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson urging caution despite a week of lower reported numbers of infection.

Read our full story.

3:15 p.m.

Canada border guards vote to strike days ahead of U.S. border reopening

Canadian border guards and customs officials voted on Tuesday to go on strike just days ahead of the reopening of the border with the United States, unions representing the workers said, after working for three years without a contract.

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Read our full story.

2:50 p.m.

‘Overwhelming majority’ of new COVID-19 cases are in unvaccinated Canadians: Trudeau

Following up on my earlier live coverage, here’s our full story about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s press conference about vaccines.

1:45 p.m.

Quebec says it will only provide extra vaccine shot in ‘exceptional’ situations

There has been confusion surrounding Quebec’s decision to allow some people to get an extra vaccine dose.

On Monday, the opposition Liberals urged Premier François Legault’s Coalition Avenir Québec government to clarify the situation.

Late Monday afternoon, the Health Department published a press release outlining the province’s policy.

The department said it wanted “to point out that the administration of an additional dose of vaccine remains an exceptional measure for people who have an essential trip planned outside the country in the short term, and who must meet (certain) vaccination requirements.”

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At the moment, “there is no international consensus on the criteria for a person to be recognized as ‘adequately vaccinated.’ Discussions are continuing with the federal government so that mixed or two-dose scenarios of AstraZeneca or Covishield vaccine are more widely recognized internationally.”

Some countries do not recognize the Covidshield version of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which was manufactured in India. Others may not accept the mixing of vaccines as providing adequate protection.

For the time being, “certain exceptional measures are possible in Quebec to accommodate people who have an essential trip planned.

“The possibility of obtaining an additional dose of an mRNA vaccine in order to meet vaccination requirements in a foreign country has been mentioned previously during press briefings on the COVID-19 situation by the (Quebec’s) director of public health, Dr Horacio Arruda.”

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In Quebec and across Canada “a mixed schedule, either including a viral vector vaccine (AstraZeneca or Covishield) and an mRNA vaccine (Pfizer or Moderna) is considered to be quite valid.

The Health Department said “these vaccines are considered interchangeable, while following the recommendations of the Comité sur l’immunisation du Québec and the federal National Advisory Committee on Immunization, and all offer very good protection against COVID-19.

“It should be noted that people affected by these exceptional situations will be advised on the relevance of receiving an additional dose according to their situation and their needs, and will have to give their informed consent. Note that the minimum interval of four weeks must be observed before the administration of an additional dose.”

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As of Monday afternoon, a total of 3,875 Quebecers had received an extra vaccine dose out of a total of more than 10 million doses administered in the province, the government said.

That includes people who contracted COVID-19 and received an extra dose because it was required at an international destination to which they were travelling. Normally, people who have had COVID-19 only require one dose.

1 p.m.

Despite ongoing glitches, almost 650,000 Quebecers register for vaccine lottery

As of 8 a.m. today, 644,029 people had registered for Quebec’s “Being vaccinated, it’s a win” lottery, the health department tells me.

The launch of the registration portal was marred by technical problems on Sunday and the site still seems unstable.

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I visited at 9:40 a.m. and at 1:40 p.m. today and was met with this message: “Due to high traffic, the … contest registration site is temporarily unavailable. We invite you to try again later.”

12:50 p.m.

U.S. mask guidelines to stiffen in response to Delta spread

From the Bloomberg wire service:

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U.S. health officials will return to tighter guidelines for the use of masks, advising that fully vaccinated individuals wear them in public indoor settings in places where the virus is spreading rapidly as part of a response to the rise of the Delta variant.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will recommend that teachers, staff, students and visitors to K-12 schools wear masks indoors regardless of vaccination status, according to a preview of guidance to be released later today. Children should return to full-time, in-person learning in the fall with prevention strategies in place, the preview said.

Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, has warned that the U.S. is moving in the wrong direction in combating a new COVID-19 wave spurred on by Delta. CDC director Rochelle Walensky is planning a press briefing Tuesday afternoon where she’ll discuss breakthrough infections in vaccinated people and using masks to prevent further outbreaks in areas of substantial and high transmission.

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President Joe Biden was briefed by Fauci Tuesday morning on the new guidance, press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday in a briefing. The administration will follow every aspect of CDC guidelines on masking, Psaki said, including monitoring COVID-19 transmission rates in areas where Biden will visit.

“We will be prepared to wear masks again, if required, if the guidance is leading to that, as would the president,” she said. “And that will continue to be the case.”

A growing number of public-health experts have urged the agency to recommend that even fully vaccinated people wear face masks in public as Delta feeds a resurgence of cases. Fauci said new U.S. recommendations on masking were under active consideration on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday.

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Some places, such as Los Angeles County, have already revived mask mandates for public indoor places regardless of vaccine status. Former surgeon general Jerome Adams said the CDC acted prematurely in May when it announced that fully immunized Americans would no longer need to wear face coverings in most situations.

12:50 p.m.

French government minister injects fellow minister with COVID shot

From the Reuters news agency:

Two ministers in the French government promoted the COVID-19 vaccine through their own example on Tuesday, with one of them administering the shot to the other.

Health Minister Olivier Veran is a doctor by profession, which qualified him to administer the injection. The colleague receiving it was Olivia Grégoire, junior economy minister.

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As he got ready to give the injection in front of television cameras at Necker Hospital in Paris, Veran struggled to put on a surgical glove, which he put down to being out of practice.

But his patient, who is pregnant and was getting her second dose of the vaccine on Tuesday, said she was not worried about his professional abilities. “I have complete faith,” Grégoire said.

After the injection was done, she told Veran she had not felt a thing. “You haven’t lost the knack,” she told him.

The public vaccination was designed to encourage people to get the shot, to head off what some public health officials in France warn could turn into a fourth wave of the pandemic.

To date, around 60 per cent of people in France have had at least a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

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“We can’t say the peak is behind us,” Veran said outside the hospital. “We need to get vaccinated, in large numbers.”

12:40 p.m.

Updated charts: Montreal and Quebec regions

12:10 p.m.

Montreal public health contacting 30,000 12- to 17-year-olds as vaccination rate lags

“Montreal public health knows very well that certain groups require a personalized approach,” Health Minister Christian Dubé said via Twitter this afternoon.

He said 30,000 children aged 12 to 17 “are being contacted one by one. Everything is being done in the field to improve the vaccination coverage of our young people.”

Montreal has one of the lowest first-dose vaccination rates in Quebec in the 12-17 age group.

11:25 a.m.

Feds discuss vaccine milestone as Canada receives enough doses to vaccinate everyone 12 and older

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11:25 a.m.

Just under 62% of eligible Quebecers are fully vaccinated

11:25 a.m.

Updated charts: Quebec cases, deaths

11:05 a.m.

Quebec reports 73 new cases, no deaths as hospitalizations dip

Quebec has recorded 73 new cases of COVID-19, the provincial government announced this morning.

No new deaths were reported.

Some other key statistics from Quebec’s latest COVID-19 update:

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Since the beginning of the pandemic, Quebec has reported 376,901 cases and 11,240 deaths linked to COVID-19. A total of 364,858 people who have contracted the disease have since recovered.

10:15 a.m.

Canada has enough doses to fully vaccinate everyone eligible, Trudeau says

Canada has now received enough COVID-19 vaccine doses to fully vaccinate everyone who is eligible for a shot – people 12 and older, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at a press conference in Moncton this morning.

He said Canada has received 66 million vaccine doses.

“Back in the winter I made a promise that we would have enough vaccines for all eligible Canadians by the end of September,” Trudeau said. “Not only have we kept that promise but we’ve done it two months ahead of schedule.”

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He said the “overwhelming majority” of people still getting COVID-19 were not vaccinated.

Trudeau said 0.5 per cent of cases being recorded are in fully vaccinated people.

“These vaccines work, and they’re safe and they’re also available,” Trudeau said. “With enough doses for everyone there are no more excuses to not get your shot.”

Canada was criticized for the lacklustre start to its vaccination campaign but has since surpassed most other countries in inoculating against COVID-19.

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9:35 a.m.

Tokyo cases leap to new record amid Olympic Games

Daily infections in Tokyo surged to a record 2,848, about double the number found a week earlier, just as the Japanese capital hosts tens of thousands for the Olympics, the Bloomberg news agency reports.

Tuesday’s figure eclipses a previous peak of 2,520 set in January.

Serious cases rose to 82 from 78 a day earlier, and the seven-day average of new infections rose to about 1,763, figures released by the city showed.

Experts had earlier expressed fears that Tokyo infections could reach their worst-ever levels during the Games, due to the spread of the Delta variant.

Within the Olympics itself, new cases associated directly with the Games fell to seven, including two athletes, one of them a tennis player from the Netherlands, organizers said.

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The report brings to 155 the total number of Olympics-related cases confirmed through an extensive testing program being implemented to try to maintain safety during the Games.

9:30 a.m.

Opinion: Vaccination campaigns have much to learn from political ones

“One would think all the sophisticated knowledge about politics would transfer to public-health strategy.”

Read the latest column by Emilie Nicolas.

9:15 a.m.

The situation across Canada

Here’s the rate of case growth per 100,000 people over the past seven days, via the federal government’s latest epidemiology update.

9:15 a.m.

A guide to COVID-19 vaccinations in Quebec

Local health authorities have set up mass vaccination sites across Montreal.

You can book appointments via the Clic Santé website or by phone at 1-877-644-4545.

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Quebecers can also visit walk-in AstraZeneca, Moderna and Pfizer vaccine clinics.

Here are the nuts and bolts of getting vaccinated, by Katherine Wilton. Her guide includes the age groups targeted, how to book appointments, and addresses of vaccination centres.

Two private sites can also help you book appointments:

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9:15 a.m.

Here are the current pandemic restrictions in Montreal and Quebec

We are regularly updating our list of what services are open, closed or modified in Montreal and Quebec, including information on the curfew and other lockdown measures.

You can read it here.

9:15 a.m.

Here’s where Montrealers can get tested today

Montrealers can be screened at test centres across the island.

You can check screening clinic wait times here.

8:30 a.m.

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ariga@postmedia.com

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