Coronavirus: What's happening in Canada and around the world on Wednesday – CBC.ca

The latest:

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday he would get the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 shot very soon, voicing his confidence in a vaccine that has been suspended in some other European countries after reports of blood clots

Several European Union countries have suspended their rollout of the shot, developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca, but Britain’s regulator has said that there is no evidence of a causal link between reports of thrombo-embolic events and the vaccine.

Asked if European countries had disregarded scientific evidence, Johnson said: “The best thing I can say about the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine program is that I finally got news that I’m going to have my own jab … very, very shortly.”

“It will certainly be Oxford-AstraZeneca that I will be having,” Johnson told Parliament.

In France, one of the countries that has suspended AstraZeneca jabs while it waits for the European Medicines Agency, the prime minister said he wants to boost confidence in the AstraZeneca vaccine by getting an injection as soon as his government authorizes its use again.

At age 55 and with no known underlying health problems, French Prime Minister Jean Castex isn’t, strictly speaking, among the groups yet eligible for vaccination in France, which has prioritized injections for the most vulnerable.

But speaking to broadcaster BFM-TV, Castex said Tuesday that he wants to get an AstraZeneca injection to set an example.

“Given what is happening, what has just happened, with AstraZeneca, I told myself, in effect, that it would be wise that I get vaccinated very quickly, as soon as the suspension is, I hope, lifted,” he said.

Castex said that he wants to demonstrate to his fellow citizens “that vaccination is the exit door from this crisis.”

Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza says European countries, including his, are hoping that the EMA on Thursday will deliver “the clarifications and reassurances necessary” to be able to resume administering the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine.

Italy was one of several nations that in recent days halted the AstraZeneca jabs over reports of dangerous blood clots in some recipients, though the company and international regulators say there is no evidence the shot is to blame.

Speranza told a parliamentary Social Affairs Commission on Wednesday that it is Italy’s hope “to have by tomorrow answers from EMA that will enable the relaunching without hesitation of the vaccine campaign,” using AstraZeneca doses.

WATCH | Millions of Italians are back under lockdown restrictions, as the country is hit with a third wave of COVID-19:

Millions of Italians are back under lockdown restrictions, as the country is hit with a third wave of COVID-19. Deaths and intensive care admissions are also on the rise, while the halt on AstraZeneca is slowing down Italy’s overall vaccination effort. 2:01

He said the Italian government “has utmost trust in EMA,” as well as in Italy’s medicine agency, noting: “We insist on the utmost safety and we are paying the utmost attention to what has happened.”

So far, just under 10 per cent of Italy’s population has received at least one dose of a vaccine. Speranza told lawmakers that some 50 million doses of vaccines, including for the first time in Italy the Johnson & Johnson one-dose injection, were expected to arrive through June, while some 80 million doses are due to arrive between July and September.

Spanish health officials, meanwhile, said they are investigating two more cases of adverse reactions among people who received a shot of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Spain’s Health Ministry said Wednesday that one person died of a brain stroke that resulted in internal bleeding and a second person who died suffered an abdominal blood clot. Both had been vaccinated in the previous 16 days.

Including the two deaths, the country’s medicines agency has recorded three suspicious cases so far among 975,661 AstraZeneca doses administered.

AstraZeneca said on Sunday a review of safety data had shown no evidence of an increased risk of blood clots.

Brazilian and Australian regulators maintained their recommendations to continue rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine despite many European nations pausing its use, while global health experts came under increasing pressure to clear up questions over its safety.

India said on Wednesday its coronavirus immunization campaign would continue, despite some concerns in Europe about the safety of the AstraZeneca vaccine it relies heavily upon, as infections hit a three month high.

Since starting the drive in mid-January, India has administered 36 million vaccine doses, which are mostly the AstraZeneca shots developed with Oxford University and locally known as Covishield.

Vinod Kumar Paul, who heads a government committee on vaccines, told a news conference that experts in India had looked into the issue and weren’t concerned about possible side effects.

“Covishield vaccination in the country will go on with full rigour.”

–From Reuters and Associated Press, last updated at 10 a.m. ET

What’s happening across Canada

WATCH | Updated guidance on AstraZeneca vaccine sparks further confusion:

Canada’s vaccine advisory committee changed its guidance on the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine, recommending it be given to those over the age of 65. But it has sparked more confusion by saying if given the choice, Pfizer-BioNTech’s and Moderna’s were still preferable for seniors. 2:14

As of 10:05 a.m. ET on Wednesday, Canada had reported 917,381 cases of COVID-19, with 31,523 cases considered active. A CBC News tally of deaths stood at 22,533.

Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam said Tuesday the warning bells are sounding that a third wave of COVID-19 infections is hitting Canada.

“We’re watching, of course, that epidemic curve really carefully, because there is this upswing we’re seeing now,” she said.

In an update published Tuesday evening, the Public Health Agency of Canada reported more than 4,080 documented cases of variants of concern, including:

• 3,777 cases of the B117 variant first reported in the United Kingdom.
• 238 cases of the B1351 variant first reported in South Africa.
• 71 cases of the P1 variant originally linked to travellers from Brazil.

In Ontario on Wednesday, health officials reported 1,508 new cases of COVID-19 and 14 additional deaths. According to a provincial dashboard, COVID-19 hospitalizations stood at 741, with 300 in intensive care units.

In Atlantic Canada, health officials reported nine new cases of COVID-19 on Monday — five in New Brunwsick, two in Nova Scotia and one in both Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador.

In Quebec, Premier François Legault announced that the curfew in the province’s so-called red zones will be bumped back from 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. 

“We can take an evening walk but indoor gatherings are still forbidden,” the premier said Tuesday, after health officials reported 561 new cases of COVID-19 and eight additional deaths.

In the Prairie provinces, Manitoba reported 111 new cases of COVID-19 and no additional deaths on Tuesday. Health officials are also reporting 14 confirmed cases of variants of concern, all in the Winnipeg health region. 

In neighbouring Saskatchewan, health officials reported 156 new cases of COVID-19 and two additional deaths on Tuesday. Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Saqib Shahab said the province will monitor how the variants are spreading. 

“So the fact that B117 is more transmissible is becoming very evident,” Shahab said. “All of us need to be a bit more cautious, especially in Regina.”

Alberta health officials reported 355 new cases of COVID-19 and three additional deaths. Chief Medical Officer Dr. Deena Hinshaw said 11 per cent of the province’s active cases involve virus variants believed to be more transmissible.

In British Columbia, health officials reported 556 new cases of COVID-19 and no new deaths. A statement from health officials said there have been 116 new confirmed cases of variants of concern found, for a total of 996, most of them involving the strain originally found in the United Kingdom.

Across the North, there were no new cases reported in Yukon, the Northwest Territories or Nunavut.

-From CBC News and The Canadian Press, last updated at 10:05 a.m. ET

What’s happening around the world

As of early Wednesday morning, more than 120.7 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide, with 68.4 million of those cases listed as recovered on the John Hopkins University COVID-19 tracking tool. The global death toll stood at more than 2.6 million.

In the Asia-Pacific region, India needs to take quick and decisive steps soon to stop an emerging second “peak” of COVID-19 infections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday.

“If we don’t stop the growing pandemic right here, then a situation of a nationwide outbreak can get created,” Modi told a virtual conference of leaders of Indian states.

Rapidly increasing COVID-19 infections in hospitals in the Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea were hitting its fragile health system “like a tornado,” with services shutting as staff become ill, health workers said on Wednesday.

Australia said it would send 8,000 vaccines to its northern neighbour, responding to a request for urgent assistance for the country’s small health workforce of 5,000 nurses and doctors. Australia is also asking European Union to send one million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines the country procured to Papua New Guinea.

The Philippine government has decided to temporarily ban the entry of foreigners and limit the entry of returning Filipinos at Manila’s international airport to 1,500 daily as it struggles to contain an alarming surge in coronavirus infections.

A government body dealing with the pandemic said the month-long travel restrictions would start Saturday and aim to prevent the spread into the country of coronavirus strains that are believed to be more contagious. Among those to be allowed limited entry are homebound Filipino workers.

Philippine Airlines said it would announce some flight cancellations to comply with the temporary restriction.

Manila and other cities in the capital region reimposed seven-hour night curfews for two weeks starting Monday and locked down dozens of villages amid the surge in infections, which some officials attributed to public complacency and critics blamed on the failure of the government’s response to the pandemic.

The Philippines has reported more than 631,300 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 12,848 deaths, the second-highest totals in Southeast Asia after Indonesia.

In the Americas, President Joe Biden warned that the United States may not meet his goal of relaxed COVID-19 restrictions by the summer’s Independence Day holiday if people do not continue to take precautions, noting vaccinations will still be underway.

“I won’t even be able to meet the July 4 deadline unless people listen, wear masks, wash their hands and social distance because not everyone by July 4 will have been vaccinated,” he told ABC News’ Good Morning America program in an interview that aired on Wednesday.

In Africa, Morocco is further ahead with its vaccination program than any other African country, but undocumented migrants are not part of its plans.

In Europe, Britain is reviewing the idea of vaccine certificates to allow access to travel, hospitality and entertainment and discussing the best way to proceed in terms of fairness, business minister Kwarsi Kwarteng said.

Hungary announced a record number of COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday as a powerful surge of the pandemic put an unprecedented strain on the country’s health care.

Health officials announced 195 deaths in the last 24 hours, breaking the previous peak of 193 in early December. The number of patients being treated for the disease rose to nearly 10,300, also a record, and nearly three times the number of those hospitalized in early February when the latest surge began.

Officials have sought to mitigate the surge with new restrictions and a vaccination program that has made Hungary one of the most-vaccinated countries in Europe.

A new shipment of 100,000 doses of the Chinese-made Sinopharm vaccine, which among European Union countries is only being used in Hungary, is expected to arrive on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto wrote on his Facebook page.

With more than 50,000 jabs on Tuesday, nearly 1.4 million people have received at least one shot, the second-highest rate in the EU.

In the Middle East, the Palestinian Authority said it will receive 62,000 coronavirus vaccine doses through a World Health Organization COVAX partnership. Health Ministry spokesperson Kamal al-Shakhra said authorities would receive 38,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 24,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine on Wednesday and Thursday. He said the AstraZeneca vaccine will be kept in storage until the World Health Organization addresses recent safety concerns.

-From The Associated Press and Reuters, last updated at 7:55 a.m. ET

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