The COVID-19 pandemic has affected every province and territory. Canada’s chief public health officer and her provincial counterparts are encouraging people to wash their hands, give each other space and wear a mask if they are sick or a homemade one if they believe they could have been exposed to the virus and are not showing any symptoms.
Ottawa has put money into health-care research and the economy. It has also put restrictions on international travel and is mandating 14-day quarantines for travellers returning to Canada to try to limit spread of the novel coronavirus.
Classes are suspended or cancelled at schools throughout the country.
Each province and territory also has its own emergency measures to detect cases and prevent spread of the virus.
Here’s a look at some of the ways different jurisdictions are responding:
British Columbia
B.C. declared a provincial state of emergency on March 18, a day after announcing a public health emergency, and it has been extended to April 28.
The measure gives the province authority to take any action necessary to protect people and communities, including charging people who ignore public health orders.
The province has also prohibited reselling essential supplies such as food and cleaning material.
All parking fees at B.C. hospitals have been cancelled during the pandemic to ensure safer access for patients and staff.
Officials have prohibited gatherings of more than 50 people in one place, including restaurants, schools, places of worship, theatres, casinos, sports arenas and outdoor venues.
That has forced the cancellation of the annual TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival in June.
All provincial parks are also closed.
The Vancouver park board says cars are being banned from most roads in Stanley Park to give cyclists, walkers and joggers more room.
Officials have also issued fire restrictions as the wildfire season begins.
Alberta
Alberta declared a public health emergency on March 17.
The province has given law enforcement agencies full authority to enforce orders and issue fines for violations.
There are restrictions on mass gatherings of more than 15 people, both indoors and outdoors at places of worship, weddings or funerals. Any gathering must allow people to keep the two-metre distance from others.
All non-essential businesses have been ordered closed, including personal service providers, clothing stores and furniture stores.
Albertans are prohibited from attending public or private recreational and entertainment facilities. Restaurants have been ordered closed, except for takeout or delivery. Casinos are closed.
Vehicle access to provincial parks and public lands is prohibited to visitors.
Albertans who have been ordered to quarantine cannot leave their property for 14 days. And if they live in apartment buildings they are not allowed to use the elevators.
There’s also a new restriction on visitors at nursing homes, long-term care facilities and hospitals — although exceptions could be made if a child is in hospital or a woman is about to give birth.
Saskatchewan
Premier Scott Moe declared a provincial state of emergency on March 18.
It directs all orders from the chief medical health officer be followed and gives police the authority to enforce them.
Public gatherings are limited to no more than 10 people.
Nightclubs, bars and lounges are closed, but they are allowed to provide takeout food or alcohol.
Recreational and entertainment facilities are closed. Personal service providers such as tattoists, hairdressers, estheticians and relaxation masseuses cannot operate.
Dental, optometrist, chiropractic and podiatry clinics are closed — except for emergencies.
Saskatchewan has updated its public health orders to say long-term and personal care homes should ensure staff only work at one facility.
All employees at long-term care facilities are having their temperatures checked and are being monitored for COVID-19.
Health officials say there’s no evidence livestock or pets can be infected with or transmit COVID-19, but it hasn’t been ruled out. They suggest anyone with the virus avoid contact with animals, as well as people, until more information is available.
The Saskatchewan government is promising one-time emergency bursaries to post-secondary students whose studies and jobs have been affected the pandemic.
Manitoba
The Manitoba government declared a provincewide state of emergency on March 20.
The province has limited public gatherings to no more than 10 people.
That includes any indoor or outdoor spot, places of worship or family events such as weddings and funerals.
No visitors are allowed in long-term care facilities and hospitals, though exceptions may be made in hospitals for compassionate reasons.
Public events marking the province’s 150th birthday have been postponed and the long running Dauphin Countryfest is cancelled this year.
The province is instituting fines for people who don’t follow public safety orders during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Non-essential travel to the province’s north and to remote communities is being restricted to help reduce the spread of COVID-19.
There are some exceptions, including for people who travel for medical care or work, people who share child custody, and people who deliver goods and services.
Non-essential businesses have been ordered to close. Salons, spas, bars and other establishments were closed as of April 1. Restaurants can remain open for takeout or delivery only.
The closures do not affect health-care facilities, government services and other institutions.
Bingo and gaming venues as well as wellness centres and gyms are closed.
The province is letting people hurt by the COVID-19 economic fallout avoid penalties and interest on some utility payments and property taxes. There’s also a freeze on all rent increases until at least May 31.
Ontario
Ontario has extended its state of emergency for another 28 days.
The order closes non-essential businesses and child-care centres until May 12.
Premier Doug Ford says Ontario’s schools will not re-open on May 4.
All business except those deemed essential have been shut down.
The province will allow curbside pick up and delivery of cannabis.
All industrial construction except for essential projects, such as hospitals, has been halted.
All bars and restaurants, except for takeout and delivery, have been closed.
Also closed are recreational facilities, public libraries, private schools, licensed child-care centres, movie theatres and concert venues.
Any public events of more than five people, including parades, events and services at places of worship, are prohibited, and provincial parks are closed.
The City of Toronto has also closed playgrounds, sports fields, off-leash dog parks, skateboard parks and picnic areas. Parking lots attached to parks are closed.
The province says it will also quadruple COVID-19 testing capacity to 16,000 by May 6.
On April 17 the province expanded eligibility for free emergency child care to include workers in developmental services, victim services, violence against women services, children’s aid societies, probation and parole officers and staff in homeless shelters. The program was initially set up for health-care workers, first responders and correctional officers.
Quebec
Quebec declared a public health emergency on March 13 and renewed it a week later.
The government has reduced non-priority services and prohibited indoor and outdoor gatherings.
All festivals, sporting and cultural events scheduled for this summer are cancelled or postponed.
Tennis Canada says the Rogers Cup women’s tennis tournament scheduled for Aug. 7 to 16 in Montreal will return to the city in August 2021.
Police set up checkpoints curtailing access to eight remote regions. All non-essential travel to much of cottage country north of Montreal, and to Charlevoix, northeast of Quebec City is also banned.
Quebec has prohibited non-essential visits to hospitals, residential and long-term care centres or between children in foster families and their biological families.
Designated clinics have been opened for anyone displaying COVID-19 symptoms.
To give retail employees a break, stores are closed on Sundays in April, with only pharmacies, gas stations, convenience stores and takeout restaurants remaining open on those days.
Montreal’s mayor has also declared a state of emergency to help authorities better manage the spread of COVID-19 among the city’s homeless.
New Brunswick
A state of emergency was declared in New Brunswick on March 19.
Businesses serving food and beverages have been restricted to takeout and delivery. Lounges and clubs are forbidden from allowing customers to enter.
Customers are not allowed to enter retail businesses, unless they serve food, medication, fuel or other essential supplies.
Many health services — such as chiropractors, dentists and optometrists — are prohibited from seeing patients in person unless absolutely necessary.
No gatherings larger than 10 people are allowed and residents are urged to stay home as much as possible. They are also asked to delay non-essential errands.
Any unnecessary travel into New Brunswick is prohibited.
All playgrounds in the province are closed, but some public parks and walking trails remain open as long as physical distancing measures are followed.
Nova Scotia
The province of Nova Scotia declared a state of emergency on March 22 and it has been extended to April 19.
It set out a 14-day rule for self-isolation and self-quarantine for people returning from outside Canada.
All schools and daycares are closed. Long-term care facilities and care homes are closed to visitors.
Casinos have closed and no business is allowed to operate a video lottery terminal.
Restaurants are restricted to takeout and delivery service only. Drinking establishments are closed.
There are also restrictions on health professionals such as chiropractors and dentists.
Two mobile assessment centres have been established to do community-based testing.
Prince Edward Island
Premier Dennis King declared a public health emergency on March 16.
It included an order to Islanders to refrain from attending any public gatherings and a closure of libraries, child-care facilities, gyms and schools.
Hospitals have restricted visitors — although one visitor is allowed at a time to see patients in palliative care, intensive care, neonatal intensive care, obstetric and pediatric units.
All long-term care facilities continue to fully restrict visitors.
Measures also include fines for anyone who doesn’t comply with a direction to self-isolate.
The public health officer recommends people who are self-isolating stay on their own property when outside.
The government is working to open an out-patient clinic to allow for increased testing and to ease the load on hospitals.
Officials have also deferred provincial property tax and fee payments until the end of the year.
Newfoundland and Labrador
The province declared a public health emergency on March 18.
It includes the closure of most businesses — with the exception of grocery stores, pharmacies, gas stations and other stores considered essential.
Gatherings of more than 10 people are not allowed. That includes funerals and weddings.
Anyone arriving from outside the province is required to self-isolate for 14 days.
Health officials have the authority to restrict the rights and freedoms of people in a time of crisis. People who violate orders face fines.
Yukon
Yukon declared a state of emergency on March 27.
The government has placed enforcement officers at the Whitehorse airport and at its boundaries to get details of travellers’ self-isolation plans, their contact information and to look for any symptoms of COVID-19.
Yukon residents flying into Canada with COVID-19 symptoms must quarantine at their arrival destination, and those without symptoms are ordered to self-isolate for 14 days when they get home.
Yukon has asked everyone arriving in the territory, including mine workers, to self-isolate for 14 days.
Yukon beefed up its border control measure on April 17, giving enforcement officers the authority to deny non-essential travellers from entering.
The government has closed bars and limited social gatherings to 10 people or less.
Recreation facilities, libraries, museums and visitor centres are closed.
Long-term care facilities are closed to visitors and volunteers, while all non-urgent or routine services, including lab tests, X-rays, physiotherapy and occupational therapy are suspended.
All dentists must also suspend non-urgent treatment until further notice.
Northwest Territories
The Northwest Territories declared a public health emergency on March 18, which has now been upgraded to a state of emergency.
It requires anyone who arrives in the territory from outside its boundary to self-isolate for 14 days.
Travel through all points of entry into the territory — both air and road — is prohibited.
The orders exclude essential service workers such as medical professionals or emergency services.
The territory has asked that all indoor and outdoor gatherings be cancelled — regardless of size or number.
Many businesses, including tour operators, gyms, museums and theatres, have been ordered to close.
The government has said it will help Indigenous families who want to head out on the land as an alternative to physical distancing. It will provide a $2.6-million grant to help families buy the proper gear and supplies to head out to fishing and hunting camps.
Nunavut
Nunavut declared a public health emergency on March 20.
It has no known cases of COVID-19, but it has restrictions in place.
There is a mandatory 14-day self-isolation period at one of four locations in southern Canada for any resident that wants to return to Nunavut.
Critical employees who need to return to work must apply for an exemption.
All non-essential medical travel has been cancelled.
Public gatherings, including at playgrounds or parks and at religious, cultural or spiritual services is prohibited.
School staff in Iqaluit are working to ensure students in the capital of Nunavut don’t go hungry because of closed classrooms. They’re continuing to provide breakfasts to children in a way that follows physical distancing rules.
Sources: Provincial and territorial government websites
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 18, 2020
TORONTO – Health Canada has authorized Moderna’s updated COVID-19 vaccine that protects against currently circulating variants of the virus.
The mRNA vaccine, called Spikevax, has been reformulated to target the KP.2 subvariant of Omicron.
It will replace the previous version of the vaccine that was released a year ago, which targeted the XBB.1.5 subvariant of Omicron.
Health Canada recently asked provinces and territories to get rid of their older COVID-19 vaccines to ensure the most current vaccine will be used during this fall’s respiratory virus season.
Health Canada is also reviewing two other updated COVID-19 vaccines but has not yet authorized them.
They are Pfizer’s Comirnaty, which is also an mRNA vaccine, as well as Novavax’s protein-based vaccine.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
TORONTO – Sanniah Jabeen holds a sonogram of the unborn baby she lost after contracting listeria last December. Beneath, it says “love at first sight.”
Jabeen says she believes she and her baby were poisoned by a listeria outbreak linked to some plant-based milks and wants answers. An investigation continues into the recall declared July 8 of several Silk and Great Value plant-based beverages.
“I don’t even have the words. I’m still processing that,” Jabeen says of her loss. She was 18 weeks pregnant when she went into preterm labour.
The first infection linked to the recall was traced back to August 2023. One year later on Aug. 12, 2024, the Public Health Agency of Canada said three people had died and 20 were infected.
The number of cases is likely much higher, says Lawrence Goodridge, Canada Research Chair in foodborne pathogen dynamics at the University of Guelph: “For every person known, generally speaking, there’s typically 20 to 25 or maybe 30 people that are unknown.”
The case count has remained unchanged over the last month, but the Public Health Agency of Canada says it won’t declare the outbreak over until early October because of listeria’s 70-day incubation period and the reporting delays that accompany it.
Danone Canada’s head of communications said in an email Wednesday that the company is still investigating the “root cause” of the outbreak, which has been linked to a production line at a Pickering, Ont., packaging facility.
Pregnant people, adults over 60, and those with weakened immune systems are most at risk of becoming sick with severe listeriosis. If the infection spreads to an unborn baby, Health Canada says it can cause miscarriage, stillbirth, premature birth or life-threatening illness in a newborn.
The Canadian Press spoke to 10 people, from the parents of a toddler to an 89-year-old senior, who say they became sick with listeria after drinking from cartons of plant-based milk stamped with the recalled product code. Here’s a look at some of their experiences.
Sanniah Jabeen, 32, Toronto
Jabeen says she regularly drank Silk oat and almond milk in smoothies while pregnant, and began vomiting seven times a day and shivering at night in December 2023. She had “the worst headache of (her) life” when she went to the emergency room on Dec. 15.
“I just wasn’t functioning like a normal human being,” Jabeen says.
Told she was dehydrated, Jabeen was given fluids and a blood test and sent home. Four days later, she returned to hospital.
“They told me that since you’re 18 weeks, there’s nothing you can do to save your baby,” says Jabeen, who moved to Toronto from Pakistan five years ago.
Jabeen later learned she had listeriosis and an autopsy revealed her baby was infected, too.
“It broke my heart to read that report because I was just imagining my baby drinking poisoned amniotic fluid inside of me. The womb is a place where your baby is supposed to be the safest,” Jabeen said.
Jabeen’s case is likely not included in PHAC’s count. Jabeen says she was called by Health Canada and asked what dairy and fresh produce she ate – foods more commonly associated with listeria – but not asked about plant-based beverages.
She’s pregnant again, and is due in several months. At first, she was scared to eat, not knowing what caused the infection during her last pregnancy.
“Ever since I learned about the almond, oat milk situation, I’ve been feeling a bit better knowing that it wasn’t something that I did. It was something else that caused it. It wasn’t my fault,” Jabeen said.
She’s since joined a proposed class action lawsuit launched by LPC Avocates against the manufacturers and sellers of Silk and Great Value plant-based beverages. The lawsuit has not yet been certified by a judge.
Natalie Grant and her seven year-old daughter, Bowmanville, Ont.
Natalie Grant says she was in a hospital waiting room when she saw a television news report about the recall. She wondered if the dark chocolate almond milk her daughter drank daily was contaminated.
She had brought the girl to hospital because she was vomiting every half hour, constantly on the toilet with diarrhea, and had severe pain in her abdomen.
“I’m definitely thinking that this is a pretty solid chance that she’s got listeria at this point because I knew she had all the symptoms,” Grant says of seeing the news report.
Once her daughter could hold fluids, they went home and Grant cross-checked the recalled product code – 7825 – with the one on her carton. They matched.
“I called the emerg and I said I’m pretty confident she’s been exposed,” Grant said. She was told to return to the hospital if her daughter’s symptoms worsened. An hour and a half later, her fever spiked, the vomiting returned, her face flushed and her energy plummeted.
Grant says they were sent to a hospital in Ajax, Ont. and stayed two weeks while her daughter received antibiotics four times a day until she was discharged July 23.
“Knowing that my little one was just so affected and how it affected us as a family alone, there’s a bitterness left behind,” Grant said. She’s also joined the proposed class action.
Thelma Feldman, 89, Toronto
Thelma Feldman says she regularly taught yoga to friends in her condo building before getting sickened by listeria on July 2. Now, she has a walker and her body aches. She has headaches and digestive problems.
“I’m kind of depressed,” she says.
“It’s caused me a lot of physical and emotional pain.”
Much of the early days of her illness are a blur. She knows she boarded an ambulance with profuse diarrhea on July 2 and spent five days at North York General Hospital. Afterwards, she remembers Health Canada officials entering her apartment and removing Silk almond milk from her fridge, and volunteers from a community organization giving her sponge baths.
“At my age, 89, I’m not a kid anymore and healing takes longer,” Feldman says.
“I don’t even feel like being with people. I just sit at home.”
Jasmine Jiles and three-year-old Max, Kahnawake Mohawk Territory, Que.
Jasmine Jiles says her three-year-old son Max came down with flu-like symptoms and cradled his ears in what she interpreted as a sign of pain, like the one pounding in her own head, around early July.
When Jiles heard about the recall soon after, she called Danone Canada, the plant-based milk manufacturer, to find out if their Silk coconut milk was in the contaminated batch. It was, she says.
“My son is very small, he’s very young, so I asked what we do in terms of overall monitoring and she said someone from the company would get in touch within 24 to 48 hours,” Jiles says from a First Nations reserve near Montreal.
“I never got a call back. I never got an email”
At home, her son’s fever broke after three days, but gas pains stuck with him, she says. It took a couple weeks for him to get back to normal.
“In hindsight, I should have taken him (to the hospital) but we just tried to see if we could nurse him at home because wait times are pretty extreme,” Jiles says, “and I don’t have child care at the moment.”
Joseph Desmond, 50, Sydney, N.S.
Joseph Desmond says he suffered a seizure and fell off his sofa on July 9. He went to the emergency room, where they ran an electroencephalogram (EEG) test, and then returned home. Within hours, he had a second seizure and went back to hospital.
His third seizure happened the next morning while walking to the nurse’s station.
In severe cases of listeriosis, bacteria can spread to the central nervous system and cause seizures, according to Health Canada.
“The last two months have really been a nightmare,” says Desmond, who has joined the proposed lawsuit.
When he returned home from the hospital, his daughter took a carton of Silk dark chocolate almond milk out of the fridge and asked if he had heard about the recall. By that point, Desmond says he was on his second two-litre carton after finishing the first in June.
“It was pretty scary. Terrifying. I honestly thought I was going to die.”
Cheryl McCombe, 63, Haliburton, Ont.
The morning after suffering a second episode of vomiting, feverish sweats and diarrhea in the middle of the night in early July, Cheryl McCombe scrolled through the news on her phone and came across the recall.
A few years earlier, McCombe says she started drinking plant-based milks because it seemed like a healthier choice to splash in her morning coffee. On June 30, she bought two cartons of Silk cashew almond milk.
“It was on the (recall) list. I thought, ‘Oh my God, I got listeria,’” McCombe says. She called her doctor’s office and visited an urgent care clinic hoping to get tested and confirm her suspicion, but she says, “I was basically shut down at the door.”
Public Health Ontario does not recommend listeria testing for infected individuals with mild symptoms unless they are at risk of developing severe illness, such as people who are immunocompromised, elderly, pregnant or newborn.
“No wonder they couldn’t connect the dots,” she adds, referencing that it took close to a year for public health officials to find the source of the outbreak.
“I am a woman in my 60s and sometimes these signs are of, you know, when you’re vomiting and things like that, it can be a sign in women of a bigger issue,” McCombe says. She was seeking confirmation that wasn’t the case.
Disappointed, with her stomach still feeling off, she says she decided to boost her gut health with probiotics. After a couple weeks she started to feel like herself.
But since then, McCombe says, “I’m back on Kawartha Dairy cream in my coffee.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
VANCOUVER – Mayors and other leaders from several British Columbia communities say the provincial and federal governments need to take “immediate action” to tackle mental health and public safety issues that have reached crisis levels.
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim says it’s become “abundantly clear” that mental health and addiction issues and public safety have caused crises that are “gripping” Vancouver, and he and other politicians, First Nations leaders and law enforcement officials are pleading for federal and provincial help.
In a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier David Eby, mayors say there are “three critical fronts” that require action including “mandatory care” for people with severe mental health and addiction issues.
The letter says senior governments also need to bring in “meaningful bail reform” for repeat offenders, and the federal government must improve policing at Metro Vancouver ports to stop illicit drugs from coming in and stolen vehicles from being exported.
Sim says the “current system” has failed British Columbians, and the number of people dealing with severe mental health and addiction issues due to lack of proper care has “reached a critical point.”
Vancouver Police Chief Adam Palmer says repeat violent offenders are too often released on bail due to a “revolving door of justice,” and a new approach is needed to deal with mentally ill people who “pose a serious and immediate danger to themselves and others.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024
