The Omicron variant continued to cause record-breaking COVID-19 numbers of cases in several provinces, but a new study out of Ontario suggested those infected with the variant are significantly less likely to face hospitalization or death compared to those with Delta.
In the study, Public Health Ontario compared Omicron cases with symptoms that emerged between Nov. 22 and Dec. 17 with Delta cases and found that, after adjusting for vaccination status and region, the risk of hospitalization or death was 54 per cent lower with Omicron.
The agency said Omicron appears to be the first dominant variant to show a decline in severity but warned that, due to its higher transmissibility, “the absolute number of hospitalizations and impact on the health-care system is likely to be significant, despite possible reduced severity.”
Provinces across the country have seen surging case counts as a result of Omicron, prompting some to amend or extend health restrictions.
The research institute that reports to the Quebec government said its modelling predicts “significant growth in new hospitalizations and the consequent occupancy of regular and intensive care beds over the next three weeks.”
It said its models show there could be between 1,600 and 2,100 COVID-19 patients outside intensive care units (ICUs) over the next three weeks. The institute said that could include between 300 and 375 ICU patients during that period. The most dire scenarios — 2,100 regular COVID-19 patients and 375 ICU patients — would surpass anything recorded during previous waves of the pandemic.
On Thursday, Quebec announced it is tightening restrictions in the province, bringing back a curfew and banning private indoor gatherings. It also delayed the return to school again until Jan. 17.
British Columbia said it will bring back students in January in a phased approach, with staff and students whose parents are health workers, as well as those who need extra support, returning to class on Jan. 3 or 4. All other students will go back to school on Jan. 10.
-From The Canadian Press and CBC News, last updated at 6 p.m. ET
What’s happening across Canada
For more details on the situation in your province and territory — including the latest on hospitalizations and ICU capacity, as well as struggles with testing capacity — click through to the local coverage below.
People are seen lining up for free COVID-19 rapid tests in Toronto on Tuesday. (Paul Smith/CBC)
As of Dec. 31, PCR tests will only be available to high-risk individuals who have symptoms and/or are at risk of severe illness from COVID-19 — including for the purposes of confirming a COVID-19 diagnosis to begin treatment — as well as workers and residents in the highest risk settings and vulnerable populations.
Moore said Ontario is also changing the required isolation period. Individuals with COVID-19 who are vaccinated, along with children under 12, will now be required to isolate for only five days following the onset of symptoms. Their household contacts are also required to isolate with them. Unvaccinated individuals must isolate for 10 days.
Quebec also saw a fresh high on Thursday, with 14,188 new COVID-19 cases, and nine additional deaths. Premier François Legault announced that, beginning Friday, indoor restaurant dining will be paused and private indoor gatherings will be banned. He also said that the province would bring back a curfew from between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., except for essential workers, along with fines of up to $6,000.
Indoor sports will be banned and people will continue to be encouraged to work from home. Schools, CEGEPs and universities will now reopen on Jan. 17, instead of as planned on Jan. 10.
WATCH | Premier Legault outlines Quebec’s new measures:
Quebec announces strict new measures amid rising Omicron infections
2 hours ago
Duration 2:40
Quebec Premier François Legault on Thursday announced a series of new measures, saying they are necessary to prevent overwhelming the health-care system. The province is reintroducing a curfew, limiting bubbles to one household, closing restaurant dining rooms and places of worship, and delaying school returns to Jan. 17. 2:40
In Atlantic Canada, Prince Edward Island Premier Dennis King outlined assistance measures for people impacted by COVID-19 on Thursday. The premier noted that cases have been rising on the island, but he noted that thus far most cases have been mild.
The update came as the province, which has not yet seen any COVID-19 deaths, reported 169 additional cases.
BREAKING: As of 8AM this morning there are 169 cases of <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/COVID19?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#COVID19</a> in <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/PEI?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#PEI</a>. There are now 3 people in hospital with COVID-19. There are five people in hospital for other reasons who do have COVID. More details to come <a href=”https://twitter.com/CBCPEI?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@CBCPEI</a>
In Newfoundland and Labrador, there were 349 new cases reported Thursday, another record high. Nova Scotia reported 522 new cases and is expanding booster eligibility to anyone 30 and up, beginning Monday, if they are six months out from their second dose.
Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston appealed during a Thursday afternoon briefing to retired health-care officials in the province to volunteer to help at vaccination clinics.
“We do need your skills. And the more people we can get, the quicker we can do this,” he said.
New Brunswick saw another new daily high number of cases Thursday, with 572 reported. There were two additional deaths.
Across the North, Nunavut reported 20 new cases on Thursday.
In the Northwest Territories, officials announced a delay in the return to school until Jan. 10, citing a surge in cases over the holidays. They are also asking that students who received a rapid self-test kit prior to the holidays do the test the day before school starts.
Health officials there said 68 new COVID-19 cases had been reported since Christmas Eve, while Yukon health officials reported 27 new COVID-19 cases in the same period.
In the Prairie provinces, Manitoba reportedanother new high Thursday with 1,123 new cases and three additional deaths, while in Saskatchewan, health officials reported 589 new cases of COVID-19 and four additional deaths.
WATCH | Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe explains why the province is shortening isolation times:
Saskatchewan shortens COVID-19 isolation time to 5 days
6 hours ago
Duration 2:05
Saskatchewan is changing its guidance on COVID-19 testing and isolation times, relying heavily on rapid tests as it monitors the current falling hospitalization rate. 2:05
Alberta saw another huge jump in case numbers, with 4,000 cases reported Thursday after a previously record-setting 2,775 new cases were reported Wednesday.
In British Columbia, health officials reported five additional deaths on Wednesday and 2,944 new cases of COVID-19 — a new high for the province.
-From CBC News and The Canadian Press, last updated at 3:30 p.m. ET
What’s happening around the world
A woman gets tested for COVID-19 in La Paz, Bolivia, on Wednesday. (Claudia Morales/Reuters)
As of Thursday afternoon roughly 285 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University’s coronavirus database, which tracks cases from around the world. The reported global death toll stood at more than 5.4 million.
In the Americas, Bolivia’s main cities cancelled any public activities for New Year’s Eve after the country reached a record 4,939 new cases of COVID-19, the highest number for one day in all the pandemic in the South American country.
The Omicron-fuelled surge that is sending COVID-19 cases skyrocketing in the U.S. is putting children in the hospital in close to record numbers, and experts lament that most are not vaccinated.
“It’s just so heartbreaking,” said Dr. Paul Offit, an infectious-disease expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “It was hard enough last year, but now you know that you have a way to prevent all this.”
During the week of Dec. 21-27, an average of 334 children 17 and under were admitted per day to hospitals with the coronavirus, a 58 per cent increase from the week before, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (CDC)
In the Asia-Pacific region, India is going ahead with a legislative election in its most populous state despite daily COVID-19 infections more than doubling nationwide within a week. India reported 13,154 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, a jump from 6,000 daily cases on Dec. 24.
The Chinese city of Xi’an reported on Thursday another 155 local cases, taking the total number to the highest seen in any Chinese city this year, as infections keep spreading eight days into a lockdown.
In Europe, the U.K. reported a sharp increase in coronavirus-related deaths Thursday — 332 — as the National Health Service announced it was building temporary structures at hospitals in England to prepare for a possible surge of patients infected with the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
The number of people hospitalized in the U.K. with COVID-19 jumped to 11,898, up 44 per cent from a week earlier.
Residents and tourists in Paris will be required to wear masks outdoors starting Friday as France sees a surge of COVID-19 infections fuelled by the Omicron variant. Masks already are mandatory in shops, public facilities and office buildings and on public transportation in France
People wear face masks to curb the spread of COVID-19 as they ice skate at a funfair in Paris on Wednesday. (Thibault Camus/The Associated Press)
The Paris police prefecture said the mask rule will apply to people 12 and over, although individuals will be exempt while riding bicycles or motorcycles, travelling in vehicles and doing exercise.Those who do not comply face a fine.
France reported 206,243 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday.
In the Middle East, the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday reported 2,234 new cases of COVID-19, with no additional deaths.
-From The Associated Press, Reuters and CBC News, last updated at 2:45 p.m. ET
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TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — The Tampa Bay Lightning selected Victor Hedman as the team captain on Wednesday as training camp opened, making the big defenseman the successor to Steven Stamkos.
Hedman, who is going into his 16th season with Tampa Bay, was considered the obvious choice to get the “C” after the Lightning did not re-sign Stamkos and their longtime captain left to join Nashville.
“Victor is a cornerstone player that is extremely well respected by his teammates, coaches and peers across the NHL,” general manager Julien BriseBois said. “Over the past 15 seasons, he has been a world-class representative for our organization both on and off the ice. Victor embodies what it means to be a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning and is more than ready for this exciting opportunity. We are looking forward to watching him flourish in his new role as we continue to work towards our goal of winning the Stanley Cup.”
The 33-year-old from Sweden was a key contributor in the Lightning hoisting the Cup back to back in 2020 and ’21, including playoff MVP honors on the first of those championship runs. Hedman also took home the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top defenseman in 2018 and finished in the top three in voting five other seasons.
Ryan McDonagh, who was reacquired early in the offseason in a trade with the Predators, and MVP finalist Nikita Kucherov will serve as alternate captains with the Lightning moving on to the post-Stamkos era.
TORONTO – While Toronto FC is looking to improve its position on the pitch, general manager Jason Hernandez is trying to do the same off it.
That has been easier said than done this season.
Sending winger Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty to CF Montreal for up to $1.3 million (all dollar figures in U.S. funds) in general allocation money before the secondary transfer window closed in early August helped set the stage for future moves.
But there have been plenty of obstacles, which Hernandez has been working to clear.
“We feel a lot more confident going into this upcoming off-season that we did the one prior,” said Hernandez. “There’s a level of what I would say booby-traps that were uncovered when I first got the (GM) role at the end of last summer.”
The club is paying off departed forwards Adam Diomande and Ayo Akinola as well as a $500,000 payment due in 2024 to Belgium’s Anderlecht for Jamaican international defender Kemar Lawrence. That payment was part of the transfer fee for Lawrence, who joined TFC from Anderlecht in May 2021 and was traded to Minnesota United in March 2022.
Diomande was waived while Akinola’s contract was terminated by mutual agreement.
“That comes to an end in ’25, which is nice,” said Hernandez. “We had to suffer from a salary cap perspective this season. But those things coming off, the Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty money coming in, we’re going to be in a position to make some good additions, which is positive.”
While MLS clubs are allowed one contract buyout per year, Toronto had already used its on former captain Michel Bradley, who retired after last season. Bradley had previously restructured his contract, deferring money.
TFC’s only other move during the summer transfer window was the signing of free-agent defender Henry Wingo. Hernandez said the club knew going into the window that it was likely limited to the one acquisition “unless other business happened”
“We knew we had this bucket of money and we knew we were going to go get Henry,” said Hernandez.
While the sale of the highly touted Marshall-Rutty opened up other possibilities, it came on the eve of the transfer window closing. And the team did not like what it saw in the free-agent market.
“A lot of the opportunities we were presented in the free agency space felt more like a short-term, Band-Aid decision versus what actually the club probably needs.”
Hernandez was not willing to take in players who came with a “club-friendly” salary cap charge in 2024 and a much bigger number in 2025.
Instead, Toronto promoted forward Charlie Sharp and wingback Nate Edwards to the first team from TFC 2 ahead of last Friday’s roster freeze.
MLS teams are operating on a salary budget of $5.47 million this season, which covers up to 20 players on the senior roster (clubs can elect to spread that number across 18 players). But the league has several mechanisms that allow those funds to go further, including using allocation money (both general and targeted) to buy down salaries.
Designated players only count $683,750 — the maximum salary charge — against the cap no matter their actual pay. Toronto’s Lorenzo Insigne is actually earning $15.4 million with fellow Italian Federico Bernardeschi collecting $6.295 million and Canadian Richie Laryea $1.208 million.
Hernandez says Laryea’s contract can — and “very likely” will — be restructured so as to remove the designated player status.
There are benefits in going with just two designated players rather than three.
Teams that elect to go with two DPs can sign up to four players as part of the league’s “U22 Initiative.” The pluses of that structure include a reduced salary cap charge for the young players and up to an extra $2 million in general allocation money.
Hernandez says the club is currently pondering whether that is the way to go.
Captain Jonathan Osorio who is earning $836,370 this season, restructured his deal to allow the team to sign Laryea as a DP. In doing so, Osorio had his option year guaranteed so his contact runs through 2026.
Hernandez and coach John Herdman will have decisions to make come the end of the year.
The contracts of goalkeeper Greg Ranjitsingh ($94,200), defenders Kevin Long ($277,500), Shane O’Neill ($413,000) and Kobe Franklin ($100,520), midfielder Alonso Coello ($94,050) and Brandon Servania ($602,710), and forward Prince Owusu ($807,500) — all on the club’s senior roster — expire at the end of 2024 with club options to follow.
While there is more work to do, Hernandez believes TFC is on the right road.
Toronto, which finished last in the league at 4-20-10 in 2023, went into Wednesday’s game against visiting Columbus in a playoff position at eighth in the East at 11-15-3.
“By every metric, we are miles ahead of where we were at this point last year,” said Hernandez.
“That’s a low bar, so that’s not saying much,” he added.
But he believes TFC is “quite competitive” when it has all its players at its disposal.
“To get results in this final stretch, we’re going to need our prominent players to really show up and have big performances, and be supported by the rest of the cast.”
After Columbus, TFC plays at Colorado and Chicago and hosts the New York Red Bulls and Inter Miami. The club also travels to Vancouver for the Canadian Championship final.
—
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024
Mackenzie Hughes might just be what the International team needs as this year’s Presidents Cup.
Hughes, from Dundas, Ont., is one of three Canadians on the squad competing in the match-play event at Royal Montreal Golf Club next week.
His putting skills, cool demeanour under pressure, pre-existing connections with teammates and clubhouse leadership could help the team — made up of non-American players outside Europe — end a nine-tournament losing skid to the United States at the biennial event.
“I’ve had this one circled on the calendar for a few years now,” said Hughes on joining fellow Canadians Taylor Pendrith and Corey Conners as captain’s picks on the 12-player International team. “I pretty much knew that when it was announced the tournament would be in Canada and that Mike Weir was going to be the captain, you pretty much knew where that was going to go.
“To get that call from (Weir) is really special because he’s the guy that I looked up to, we all looked up to, as Canadian golfers.”
Pendrith and Conners are returning to the team after a disappointing 17 1/2 to 12 1/2 loss to the United States at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C. in 2022.
Hughes was ranked 14th on the International team standings in 2022 and could have easily been included on that squad after Australia’s Cameron Smith and Chile’s Joaquin Niemann were ruled ineligible after jumping ship to the rival LIV Golf circuit.
However, captain Trevor Immelman of South Africa instead chose the lower ranked Christiaan Bezuidenhout (16th) of South Africa, Pendrith (18th), South Korea’s Kim Si-woo (20th) and Australia’s Cameron Davis (25th).
“I certainly wanted to be on that team but also I understood the picks,” said Hughes, who lives in Charlotte and plays at Quail Hollow regularly. “I think that like a lot of guys that don’t get picked you more so look back on your own play and I wish I had made that selection easier for them.
“I didn’t do myself any favours in the six weeks leading up to it and that’s a hard pill to swallow.”
It may have been a costly oversight on Immelman’s part, as finishing holes was an issue for the International team in 2022 and Hughes is one of the best putters on the PGA Tour. This season he’s third in shots gained around the green and fifth in shots gained from putting.
“It doesn’t mean that just because I was there it would have turned the tide, but I’d like to think maybe I could have helped,” said Hughes. “That’s why you play the matches. You have to get out there and do it.”
This year Hughes made it easier for Weir, the Canadian golf legend from Brights Grove, Ont., to choose him. Hughes is 51st in the FedEx Cup Fall standings and has made the cut seven tournaments in a row, including a tie for fourth at last week’s Procore Championship.
“Mac played very solidly all year. Really like his short game, an all-around short game,” said Weir on Sept. 3 after announcing his captain’s picks. “He’s one of the elite and best short game guys on the PGA Tour
“I also love Mac’s grit. So that was the reason I picked him.”
Hughes’s intangible qualities go beyond grit.
He, Pendrith and Conners will arrive at Royal Montreal as a unit within the International squad, having become close friends while playing on Kent State University’s men’s golf team before turning pro. They’re also part of a group of Canadians, including Nick Taylor and Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford, B.C., that regularly practice together before PGA Tour events.
“To have those guys with me is really icing on the cake, it’s very special,” said Hughes. “Opportunities like this don’t come around very often: to play this kind of team competition, which is already hard to do, but to play with some of your best friends, it almost seems scripted.”
An 11-year professional, Hughes has also been a member of the PGA Tour’s player advisory council the past two years and has been an outspoken advocate for making professional golf more accessible to fans.
Although Weir relied heavily on analytics to make his captain’s selections, Hughes’s character came up again and again when asked why he was named to the team.
“I just have a gut feeling with Mac that he has what it takes in these big moments,” said Weir. “They’re big pressure moments, and I have a feeling he’s going to do great in those moments.”
DP WORLD TOUR — Aaron Cockerill of Stony Mountain, Man., continues his chase for a spot in the Europe-based DP World Tour’s playoffs. The top 50 players on the Race to Dubai standings make the DP World Tour Championship and Cockerill moved eight spots up to 39th in the rankings after tying for ninth at last week’s Irish Open. He’ll be back at it on Thursday at the BMW PGA Championship at the Wentworth Club in Surrey, England.
KORN FERRY TOUR — Myles Creighton of Digby, N.S., is ranked 38th on the second-tier Korn Ferry Tour’s points list. He leads the Canadian contingent into this week’s Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship. He’ll be joined at Ohio State University Golf Club — Scarlet Course in Columbus, Ohio by Edmonton’s Wil Bateman (53rd), Etienne Papineau (65th) of St-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, Que., and Sudarshan Yellamaraju (99th) of Mississauga, Ont.
CHAMPIONS TOUR — Calgary’s Stephen Ames is the lone Canadian at this week’s Pure Insurance Championship. He’s No. 2 on the senior circuit’s points list. The event will start Friday and be played at Pebble Beach Golf Links and Spyglass Hill Golf Course in Monterey, Calif.
LPGA TOUR — There are four Canadians in this week’s Kroger City Championship. Savannah Grewal (97th in the Race to CME Globe Rankings) of Mississauga, Ont., Hamilton’s Alena Sharp (115th), and Maude-Aimee Leblanc (142nd) of Sherbrooke, Que., will all tee it up at TPC River’s Bend in Maineville, Ohio.
EPSON TOUR — Vancouver’s Leah John is the low Canadian heading into the Murphy USA El Dorado Shootout. She’s 54th in the second-tier tour’s points list. She’ll be joined by Maddie Szeryk (118th) of London, Ont., and Brigitte Thibault (119th) of Rosemere, Que., at Mystic Creek Golf Club in El Dorado, Ark.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
