Over the last week, Canada has ramped up its COVID-19 vaccine rollout, administering more than 100,000 doses per day.
This is a great start but more needs to be done if the federal government wants to achieve its goal of having most Canadians vaccinated by September, Colin Furness, an infection control epidemiologist at the University of Toronto, said in an email to Global News.
Canada has a population of about 37.7 million people, approximately 31.5 million of whom are over the age of 16 and eligible for COVID-19 vaccines.
As of Sunday evening, the country had administered 3,973,117 shots, after a daily record of 132,517 doses were injected that day.
Story continues below advertisement
This number has been steadily increasing but at a rate of 100,000 vaccinations per day, assuming each vaccination was a person’s first dose, it would take Canada around 10 months to achieve herd immunity levels, Furness said.
Based on those numbers, if the federal government expects to achieve its vaccine targets by September, Furness said it would need to administer around 400,000 shots per day — a number he described as “achievable.”
“At some point, we’ll start involving primary care physicians and pharmacies on a scale that will allow for a lot faster inoculation, which is what should have been done in the first place,” he added.
1:08 “Too early” for vaccinated people to let their guard down, health experts say
“Too early” for vaccinated people to let their guard down, health experts say
For every single person in Canada to be administered both their first and second shots of the vaccine, the federal government would need 75.4 million doses.
Story continues below advertisement
However, not everybody wants one, nor is everybody eligible. Ipsos polling released March 11 found 79 per cent of respondents said they would take the vaccine.
If just 79 per cent of Canadians wanted the COVID-19 vaccine, Timothy Chan, Canada Research Chair in Novel Optimization and Analytics in Health, said the number of doses needed per day would drop to roughly 280,000.
Chan said he can’t say with certainty whether Canada has the infrastructure to ramp up vaccines to that level, “but I don’t see why not.”
“We’d be limited by things like space, by things like people, by things like needles and other supplies. But assuming that we can get all of those, I think it is possible to do,” he said.
There are 95 designated COVID-19 vaccination clinics across the country. Many of these clinics have different capacities, usually based around each province and territory’s size and population.
In Quebec, for example, its 18 clinics are currently vaccinating just under 32,000 people per day. Meanwhile, British Columbia, which operates 16 vaccine clinics, has the capacity to administer shots to around 13,000 people per day.
Canada is expected to shift into high gear this week, with nearly 1.2 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine and 846,000 Moderna doses expected to arrive. The shipments mark the largest vaccine delivery for the federal government since the start of its immunization campaign in mid-December.
Story continues below advertisement
0:36 Coronavirus: Ford says province capable of administering 4.8 million vaccines monthly, asks for more supply
Coronavirus: Ford says province capable of administering 4.8 million vaccines monthly, asks for more supply – Mar 14, 2021
Maxwell Smith, a Western University bioethicist and assistant professor, told Global News many provinces will be ramping up capacity as more vaccines are supplied. Ontario, for example, has so far been able to vaccinate upwards of 60,000 people per day, but Smith said the province has a much higher capacity.
“We’ve peaked in the 60,000 or so vaccines administered per day recently, and yet we still have capacity to do over 100,000 a day. We’re not even close to meeting the capacity that we’re able to do in the province,” he said.
Similarly, Smith said Canada’s capacity to vaccinate a certain number of people per day will also expand.
“We don’t expect to be staying at 60,000 a day. We fully expect to be going up higher. But that’s really just dependent on getting the vaccine supply that would allow us to do that.”
OTTAWA – Conservative MP Garnett Genuis told a federal inquiry today that parliamentarians who were targeted by Chinese hackers could have taken immediate protective steps if they had been informed sooner.
It emerged earlier this year that in 2021 some MPs and senators faced cyberattacks from the hackers because of their involvement with the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, which pushes for accountability from Beijing.
In 2022, U.S. authorities apparently informed the Canadian government of the attacks, and it in turn advised parliamentary IT officials — but not individual MPs.
Genuis, a Canadian co-chair of the inter-parliamentary alliance, told a federal commission of inquiry on foreign interference today that it remains mysterious to him why he wasn’t informed about the attacks sooner.
Liberal MP John McKay, also a Canadian co-chair of the alliance, said there should be a clear protocol for advising parliamentarians of cyberthreats.
Several weeks of public inquiry hearings will focus on the capacity of federal agencies to detect, deter and counter foreign meddling.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
TORONTO – After being drafted in the third round (61st overall) of the 2023 MLS SuperDraft, forward Charlie Sharp decided to put his dream of playing professional football on hold.
He spent a couple of weeks training with Toronto FC that summer and then returned for a fifth year at Western Michigan University.
“It was a really tough decision for me,” Sharp recalled. “Because I knew that going back to school, nothing was guaranteed. I could get injured or not perform well, but it seemed to really work out for me.”
Sharp scored 19 goals and added eight assists as a senior, leading the Broncos to a 17-2-3 record and a third-round appearance in the NCAA tournament where they eventually lost to national runner-up Notre Dame on penalty kicks. Sharp, who scored or assisted in nine of his last 10 matches, ranked first in the NCAA with 0.95 goals per game and 2.30 points per game and was tied for second with seven game-winning goals.
The 23-year-old Sharp, whose rights were retained by Toronto, spent time with the TFC first team in this year’s pre-season and signed with Toronto FC II in February. On Tuesday, he joined TFC 2 teammate Nate Edwards, a wingback from Brampton, Ont., in signing a first-team contract.
“We are happy to officially elevate Charlie at this time,” Toronto GM Jason Hernandez said in a statement Tuesday. “His strong mentality and mature playing style will be a welcomed addition to our young player group in the first team.”
Both players signed contracts that run through 2025 with club options for 2026 and 2027.
The deals were completed in advance of Friday’s MLS roster freeze but took their time working their way through the league office.
“A bit of unorthodox path that I chose,” said Sharp. “But I think you’re seeing it more now with players that get drafted.”
“I’m super-happy,” he added. “I think I made the right decision.”
As a senior, Sharp was one of three finalists for the 2023 MAC Hermann Trophy, which honours the top NCAA soccer player. The award eventually went to Clemson senior forward Ousmane Sylla.
The six-foot-five 185-pounder from Brighton, Mich., finished his collegiate career with 42 goals 22 assists, and 106 points in 89 games. He ranks first in career goals and games and tied for fourth in assists for Western Michigan.
In returning to Kalamazoo for a fifth year, Sharp also succeeded off the pitch by completing his degree in computer information systems.
Despite some niggling injuries, Sharp has five goals and two assists in 16 appearances with TFC 2 this season. He made his first-team debut off the bench May 15 against Nashville.
“I had a lot of friends and family watching,” he said.
“It’s been a journey,” Sharp added. “I’ve been thankful for every step of the way.,”
The 21-year-old Edwards has one goal and two assists in 23 games with TFC’s MLS Next Pro team.
“He has been a top performer with TFC II this season and we look forward to his continued growth within our environment,” said Hernandez
Edwards, who also joined TFC 2 in February, made his first-team debut May 21 in Canadian Championship play against Ligue1 Quebec champion CS Saint-Laurent.
The five-foot-eight 167-pounder split his college career between Syracuse University and Purdue University Fort Wayne. As a senior in 2023, he had one goal and four assists for Syracuse and was named to the 2023 All-Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Academic Team and College Sport Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District Team.
At Purdue University Fort Wayne, he had two goals and an assist in 40 appearances across three seasons (2020-2022) with the Mastodons.
—
Follow @NeilMDavidson on X platform, formerly known as Twitter
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
CALGARY – A Calgary man who pleaded guilty to sharing Islamic State recruitment videos and propaganda on TikTok will spend the next six years behind bars.
Zakarya Rida Hussein was sentenced during a court appearance on Friday after he pleaded guilty to one of four terrorism-related charges.
Hussein admitted that he owned social media accounts that posted ISIS recruitment videos and propaganda.
He also admitted to sharing a bomb-making video online.
The man was arrested in June 2023 after a joint investigation led by the RCMP and the Calgary Police Service.
Hussein will need to submit DNA results and will be under lifetime ban from owning firearms after he’s released.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
