Ontario reported 721 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, despite a drop in the number of tests being processed daily across the province.
Ontario’s network of community, commercial and hospital labs processed just 32,200 tests on Tuesday, notably fewer than the number of tests completed daily as the province worked to clear a backlog that peaked at around 92,000. The testing backlog currently sits at 26,558.
The number of daily tests completed also falls far short of the province’s goal of processing 50,000 tests per day by mid-October.
According to a news release issued on Oct. 2, Ontario said it was taking “longer-term actions” to increase the province’s testing capacity so people could get their results faster.
The province also set a goal of processing 68,000 tests by mid-November.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, meanwhile, applauded the province’s testing efforts.
“We’re kicking everyone’s butt on testing,” he said. “We’re doing an incredible job.”
“We had a backlog, we were able to get through that hump.”
Associate Chief Medical Officer of Health Barbara Yaffe said the province’s seven-day positivity rate average sits at 2.2 per cent, a figure she calls “worrisome” and likely the result of fewer tests being completed.
On Wednesday, the positivity rate increased by 0.4 percent and now sits at three per cent.
“It also indicates that we see transmission in the community,” Yaffe said at a press conference Wednesday.
Ontario reports no new deaths
Health Minister Christine Elliott says Wednesday’s new cases include 270 in Toronto, 170 in Peel Region and 79 in York Region.
Tighter restrictions were imposed on Toronto and Peel Region as well as Ottawa on Friday in a bid to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Wednesday’s new cases bring Ontario’s provincial total to 61,413. Of those, 783 were marked resolved in today’s update. On Tuesday, Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. David Williams, suggested the province’s COVID-19 cases may be “plateauing,” even with the seven-day average showing a steady increase. You can see those comments in the video below:
Dr. David Williams made the comments on Oct. 14, despite the 7-day average in new daily cases showing a steady increase. 0:51
Ontario’s official death toll remains unchanged from Tuesday and sits at 3,017.
The number of patients in Ontario hospitals with confirmed cases continues to rise and currently sits at 231.
Those requiring intensive care also increased, from 60 on Tuesday to 64 today, and the number on ventilators increased by one to 35.
The average daily number of new cases of the illness continued its steep climb and is now at 781.1.
Meanwhile, other Ontario public health units with double-digit increases include:
Hamilton: 41
Ottawa: 39
Waterloo Region: 23
Durham Region: 22
Halton Region: 21
Eastern Ontario: 20
Asked Wednesday if Ontario will consider imposing stricter measures in regions with increasing COVID-19 cases — notably Hamilton and York regions — Yaffe said that is something health officials will consider this week.
“The public health measures team is meeting again later this week and they will be considering the data for all of the health units in Ontario and whether any changes need to be made for any of them,” she said.
Someone walks past an empty storefront in Toronto on Oct. 13. Ontario is reporting 721 new cases on Wednesday, the majority of which are concentrated in Toronto, Peel Region and York Region. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
The bulk of the new cases reported Wednesday are among those under the age of 60.
All of the figures used in this story are found in the Ministry of Health’s daily update, which includes data from up until 4 p.m. the previous day. The number of cases for any particular region on a given day may differ from what is reported by the local public health unit, which often avoid lag times in the provincial system.
WATCH | Ford speaks about business closures in COVID-19 hot spots:
When asked Wednesday why certain businesses in hot spots have been forced to close, including gyms, Ford said COVID-19 has created a ‘lousy, lousy situation.’ 0:44
Outings on hold at long-term care homes in hot spots
Wednesday’s numbers come as the provincial government announces new restrictions at long-term care homes in three of the province’s hot spots.
As of Oct. 16, short-term and temporary absences for social or personal reasons will not be allowed at long-term care homes in Toronto, Ottawa and Peel Region.
On Sept. 29, Premier Doug Ford announced new changes to visiting rules that would take effect in long-term care in areas with high community spread of COVID-19. (Carlos Osorio/The Canadian Press)
This comes after new restrictions took effect on Oct. 5, limiting visitors at long-term care homes in these areas staff, essential visitors and essential caregivers only.
“We recognize these changes may be difficult for the residents and families affected,” Dr. Merrilee Fullerton, minister of long-term care, said in a statement Wednesday.
“But our priority has to be the safety and well-being of the residents and staff in Ontario’s long-term care homes.”
A full list of impacted long-term care homes can be found here.
Ontario to decide which long-term care homes will receive assistance
The province is also in the works to decide which of Ontario’s long-term care homes will receive assistance from the Canadian Red Cross amid the second wave of the pandemic.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Long-Term Care said Tuesday the province will be finalizing details of the deployment over the coming days.
On Sunday, the federal government announced it had approved a request from Ontario to send the Red Cross to seven long-term care facilities in Ottawa.
As of Tuesday evening, CBC News estimates that there were active COVID-19 outbreaks in more than 120 long-term care homes in Canada’s hardest-hit provinces alone: Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and British Columbia.
At Wednesday’s press conference, Elliott said the province continues to remain “vigilant” in testing at long-term case homes across the province.
Ontario to hire hundreds more contact tracers
Meanwhile, health officials say they are continuing to recruit new contact tracers and case managers to track the spread of COVID-19.
The province has hired 100 new contact tracers, with 500 additional recruits expected to be hired by mid-November. Those new hires should bring Ontario’s total to just under 4,000.
“With these additional hires, we will have hundreds more boots on the ground to support contact tracing throughout the province, which is an essential weapon in our fight against COVID-19,” Ford said in a statement Wednesday.
Health officials also continue to urge residents of Ontario to download the COVID Alert contact notification that can tell them whether they have been near someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 over the previous two weeks.
Elliott said more than four million Canadians have downloaded the app.
Nearly 1,000 Ontarians with confirmed COVID-19 cases have used the app to send anonymous alerts to their close contacts, Elliott added.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
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