Ontario reported more than 2,100 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, as vaccination efforts got underway in Manitoba and several Atlantic provinces.
Health officials in Ontario reported 2,139 new cases of COVID-19 and 43 additional deaths on Wednesday, bringing the provincial death toll to 4,035. Hospitalizations climbed to 932, with 256 people in intensive care units.
With case numbers and hospitalizations on the rise, officials have instructed hospitals in the province to get ready for a surge in COVID-19 patients. Ontario Health CEO Matthew Anderson said in a memo to hospitals that the province has entered “a more critical phase of the pandemic where we are seeing widespread community transmission.”
Quebec, meanwhile, reported 1,897 new cases of COVID-19 and 43 additional deaths on Wednesday.
Hospitalizations in the province also increased, rising to 975, with 128 in intensive care units, according to a provincial tracking site.
Premier François Legault announced new restrictions on Tuesday, saying offices will be closed as of Thursday, with non-essential businesses closing for a period after Dec. 25.
The updates in Ontario and Quebec come as more provinces begin to roll out their vaccination efforts.
Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia offered their first doses on Tuesday. Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Prince Edward Island are giving their first doses on Wednesday after receiving initial supplies of the Pfizer-BioNTech product, the first — and so far only — COVID-19 vaccine to be approved in Canada.
Manitoba gives out 1st dose of COVID-19 vaccine this morning <a href=”https://t.co/wGV7c77SNM”>https://t.co/wGV7c77SNM</a>
Speaking ahead of the first vaccinations in the province, Premier Brian Pallister asked Manitobans to be patient and not let their guard down as the province readies a large, complex vaccination effort.
“This is a monumental challenge, a historic challenge,” he said Tuesday.
“It’s a little overwhelming this morning, but feels good, and I was honoured to be asked to be the first person to get the vaccine this morning,” said Sheaves, who works at the COVID-19 unit at the Halifax Infirmary.
Halifax nurse Danielle Sheaves receives the first COVID-19 vaccination given in Nova Scotia. (Robert Short/CBC)
As provinces dealt with the Pfizer-BioNTech rollout, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday said that Canada has an agreement in place to get up to 168,000 doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine by the end of December, ahead of schedule. The Moderna vaccine has not yet been approved by Health Canada, but Trudeau said deliveries could begin within 48 hours of getting the green light.
“Doses of this vaccine will be directed to the North, as well as to remote and Indigenous communities,” Trudeau said Tuesday.
What’s happening across Canada
WATCH | Infection control specialist warns of pressure on Ontario hospitals:
Ontario needs to really curb the spread of the coronavirus, says infectious disease specialist Dr. Michael Gardam. ‘We can’t keep getting more COVID patients’ in hospital, he said. 0:51
As of 11:10 a.m. ET on Wednesday, Canada’s COVID-19 case count stood at 479,250, with 76,214 of those cases considered active. A CBC News tally of deaths based on provincial reports, regional health information and CBC’s reporting stood at 13,744.
“In that plane represents hope for 2021,” Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey said as the first doses arrived in the province on Tuesday.
P.E.I. Premier Dennis King said Tuesday that if all goes well, the province will have more people vaccinated Wednesday than have tested positive for COVID-19 on the island, which has seen just 89 positive cases since the pandemic began.
The first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine have arrived in New Brunswick, but that province’s vaccination effort is not set to begin until the weekend.
In British Columbia, the Interior Health Authority said Tuesday that a cluster of cases has been linked to the Big White resort near Kelowna.
B.C. reported 522 new cases of COVID-19 and 21 additional deaths on Tuesday, bringing the provincial death toll to 668. Hospitalizations stood at 361, health officials said, with 93 in intensive care.
Health officials in Alberta reported 1,341 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday and 11 additional deaths, bringing the provincial death toll to 744. Hospitalizations stood at 742, with 137 COVID-19 patients in intensive care units, according to a provincial tally.
Saskatchewan has administered its first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to health-care workers in Regina. Nurses at the Regina General Hospital gave the province’s first shots to a critical care doctor and an emergency room nurse yesterday.
Health officials in Saskatchewan reported 194 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday and seven additional deaths, bringing the provincial death toll to 98.
The COVID-19 death toll in Manitoba passed the 500 mark on Tuesday as the province announced 272 new cases of COVID-19 and nine additional deaths. The province gave out its first vaccinations early Wednesday, beginning with select health-care workers.
Across the North, Nunavut reported two new cases of COVID-19 and there was one new case reported in the Northwest Territories. There were no reports of new cases in Yukon.
What’s happening around the world
From The Associated Press and Reuters, last updated at 7:30 a.m. ET
As of early Wednesday morning, more than 73.5 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide, with more than 41.7 million cases considered recovered or resolved, according to a case-tracking tool maintained by Johns Hopkins University. The global death toll stood at more than 1.6 million.
In Europe, Germany hit a new record level of coronavirus deaths as it entered a harder lockdown Wednesday, closing shops and schools to try to bring down stubbornly high new cases.
Nearly 140,000 people in the United Kingdom have received their first COVID-19 shots in the first week of rollout of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, the minister in charge of the program said on Wednesday.
The vaccine was approved for emergency use two weeks ago, with rollout commencing on Dec. 8, making Britain the first country to deploy the shot outside of clinical trials.
“A really good start to the vaccination program. It’s been seven days and we have done: England: 108,000, Wales: 7,897, Northern Ireland: 4,000, Scotland: 18,000. U.K total 137,897,” Nadhim Zahawi said in a tweet.
Britain’s easing of restrictions for family gatherings over Christmas looks like it’s still on despite a sharp spike in new coronavirus infections that’s raised fears of another wave of cases and deaths in the new year.
WATCH | New COVID-19 restrictions across Europe as U.K. allows small Christmas gatherings:
New COVID-19 restrictions have been introduced across Europe to combat the rise in cases, but the U.K. has also loosened rules around Christmas gatherings, leaving many people confused and health officials warning about the consequences. 1:58
Britain’s communities secretary, Robert Jenrick, said U.K. leaders will have further discussions Wednesday about the planned relaxation. However, he gave no indication that a change would be announced, beyond urging people to think harder about their holiday plans.
“It could be counterproductive to produce overly restrictive rules rather than providing very clear and sober guidance and ask people to think carefully and come to their informed judgment,” he told BBC radio.
In the Americas, Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine appeared set for regulatory authorization this week after U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) staff endorsed it as safe and effective.
California is distributing 5,000 body bags mostly to the hard-hit Los Angeles and San Diego areas and has 60 refrigerated trailers standing by as makeshift morgues in anticipation of a surge of coronavirus deaths. The precautions come from hospitalizations that now are double the summertime peak and threaten to soon overwhelm the hospital system.
Director of inpatient pharmacy David Cheng, centre, places trays of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine into a freezer at Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center in Los Angeles on Monday. (Jae C. Hong/The Associated Press)
Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday that the number of average daily deaths has quadrupled from a month ago.
In Kansas, a mayor announced Tuesday that she is resigning, effective immediately, because of threats she has received after she publicly supported a mask mandate. Dodge City Mayor Joyce Warshaw said she was concerned about her safety after being met with aggression, including threats via phone and email, after she was quoted in a USA Today article on Friday supporting the mandate, The Dodge City Globe reported.
Costa Rican authorities and Panama authorized the use of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech.
In the Middle East, Oman’s Health Ministry has issued a licence to import the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Lebanon is expected to sign a deal this week for supplies of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and is set to receive the first batch eight weeks after that.
In the Asia-Pacific region, Indonesia will provide free vaccines to its citizens when it starts its inoculation program, President Joko Widodo said, adding that he would get the first shot to reassure people on safety.
Workers spray disinfectant in a catering shop as a preventive measure against the spread of COVID-19 in Karachi on Monday. (Asif Hassan/AFP/Getty Images)
The number of daily COVID-19 deaths in Pakistan crossed 100 for the first time in months with the virus spreading quickly in the financial capital of Karachi.
Tokyo has reported 678 new cases of the coronavirus, a high for the Japanese capital, as Japan now struggles with another surge in the virus.
South Africa remained the hardest-hit country in Africa, with more than 873,000 cases and 23,600 deaths.
VANCOUVER – The union representing port supervisors in British Columbia is formally challenging the legal and constitutional authority of the federal labour minister to order them back to work.
In a legal document dated Tuesday, International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 says it’s questioning whether the order issued by Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon last week violates the right to collective bargaining and the right to strike.
The union says these rights are protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
It says the questions will be considered by a panel of the Canada Industrial Relations Board on Dec. 9 and 10.
This isn’t the only challenge the federal government is facing on this issue, as the union representing port workers in Montreal also announced last week it intended to challenge the federal government.
MacKinnon stepped in on Nov. 12 to get ports in both B.C. and Montreal moving again after employers locked workers out.
His order directed the board to order all operations to resume and move both sets of talks to binding arbitration.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 19, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Hurricane-force winds of more than 120 km/h are hitting parts of the British Columbia coast and more than 150,000 BC Hydro customers are without power as a “bomb cyclone” develops off Vancouver Island.
Environment Canada has issued more than 50 warnings, advisories and alerts related to the storm, covering most of Vancouver Island and other coastal areas and stretching deep into the Interior.
The weather agency says the worst of the storm is expected overnight when winds in the central and north coast could peak at 120 km/h, though the remote Sartine Island was already seeing winds exceeding 130 km/h Tuesday afternoon.
But it says risks, including coastal flooding, power outages and fallen trees, could continue long into Wednesday.
Meteorologist Cindy Day says there’s nothing alarmist about Environment Canada calling the system a “bomb cyclone,” which is a non-tropical storm caused by a rapid drop in atmospheric pressure at its centre.
Day says that when used appropriately, such scientific language is necessary and can help people better prepare for the impact of extreme weather events.
She said the term “bomb cyclone” had been used by scientists for decades to describe “a low-pressure system that is undergoing explosive cyclogenesis,” or the creation of cyclonic air circulation.
Day said terms like “bomb cyclone” and “atmospheric river” could help paint a picture that allowed people to better understand and prepare for various weather systems.
In British Columbia, an atmospheric river originating near Hawaii has long been known as a “pineapple express.”
“So, an atmospheric river — right away, people start to think, ‘OK, it’s a narrow band of moving water,'” Day said.
“It does give you the sense that this is going to be a steady event and that there’s not going to be time for the ground to absorb the rain. It’ll continue to rain and eventually cause flooding because of that concentrated rainfall.”
In British Columbia, the government called for the creation of a scale to rank the power of atmospheric river events in 2021, in the wake of a devastating system that brought widespread flooding and shut down the Trans-Canada Highway and other key roads.
But Environment Canada said the next year that implementing such a scale for public warnings was premature.
Day noted that she had received “a lot of grief” for using the term “bomb” in relation to meteorological phenomena, with some accusing her of trying to sensationalize weather events.
“I really believe that if they’re used in the proper context, that they’re not alarmist,” she said.
“As long as the people know that they’re getting their information from a qualified source, and that source (or) that person is using the terms correctly and not shouting out ‘bomb’ every time there’s an area of rain coming in, I think it’s really important to understand those words and to take them seriously and to know that they’re based in meteorological fact, in science.”
Environment Canada said Tuesday that the bomb cyclone 400 km off Vancouver Island coast would remain offshore, but its effects would be widespread.
“Strong easterly winds have developed over North Vancouver Island this afternoon. These winds will intensify through the night,” it said, bringing powerful winds through mainland inlets and valleys of the central and north coasts.
It said winds would gradually weaken Wednesday night as the system drifted further offshore.
Heavily populated areas including Victoria and the Sunshine Coast were forecast to be hit by winds of up to 100 km/h.
The province said in a statement Tuesday that the Ministry of Emergency Management would work closely with communities to ensure preparedness and that the River Forecast Centre was monitoring weather patterns and river conditions.
It said the transportation ministry would also have maintenance contractors watching conditions so crews can respond quickly to flooding or debris buildup.
BC Ferries cancelled numerous sailings for later Tuesday between the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island, including ships leaving from Tsawwassen, Horseshoe Bay, Swartz Bay and Nanaimo, citing a “deteriorating weather forecast for high winds in the Strait of Georgia.”
Sailings for the late afternoon or evening service on Tuesday have also been cancelled between Metro Vancouver and the Sunshine Coast and Vancouver Island and the northern Gulf Island.
The agency said in a statement that those changes were done “out of an abundance of caution,” adding there is also a “strong risk” of cancellations on major routes on Wednesday.
“As things can change quickly in the event of severe weather, we encourage all passengers to check for updates before travelling, and to remain flexible with travel plans today and tomorrow, as the weather conditions can change rapidly,” it said Tuesday.
The warnings about the bomb cyclone came after much of Metro Vancouver saw its first snowfall of the season Monday night.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 19, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Air traffic control audio shows a Boeing 767 cargo jet reported a “flight control problem” involving a mechanism on its wings used to slow the aircraft just before it skidded off a runway at Vancouver’s airport at high speed.
Conversations between the pilots on the Amazon Prime Air jet and air traffic control reveal that the plane was experiencing a problem with its “leading edge slats,” and was carrying about 10,000 kilograms of fuel.
In other recordings the tower tells awaiting emergency responders that the jet was “coming in fast,” while data from the Flightradar24 database shows the plane was travelling at a ground speed of about 200 km/h when it left the runway.
The Transportation Safety Board said it’s investigating after the flight went off the end of the north runway at about 1:45 a.m. on Tuesday.
None of the three-person crew was hurt, but the airport said the north runway will remain closed for about two days as the jet sits in a grass field, nose down, with engines on each of the mud-splattered wings touching the ground.
Vancouver airport CEO Tamara Vrooman says there was “no risk” at any point of the plane breaching the runway’s “secure” perimeter, which separates it from the McArthurGlen Designer Outlet shopping mall and its parking lot.
Vrooman says that all flights originally scheduled for the day were moved to the south runway, and only about 5 per cent of flights experienced any disruptions due to the move.
Flightradar24, a global flight tracking database, says the plane operated by Cargojet Airways left Hamilton, Ont., just after midnight eastern time and its flight path shows it continued 500 metres past the end of the runway in Vancouver before coming to a stop.
The audio recordings of air traffic control in Vancouver show the crew reported problems with the plane’s control systems about 20 minutes before landing, with one crew member requesting time to run a checklist to try to resolve the issue.
An air traffic controller said they wanted to keep the plane “close to the airport,” while the crew tried to find a solution, but control also asked if emergency responders should be ready.
“Yeah, we can bring out the fire trucks just for precaution,” a crew member told air traffic control.
The crew also confirmed to air traffic control that it had no dangerous cargo on-board, other than the fuel.
According to the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Beginner’s Guide to Aeronautics, slats and flaps on an aircraft’s wings are deployed to both slow a plane for landing as well as generate lift.
At the time the jet slid off the runway, Environment Canada’s weather station at the airport showed light rain and snow had been falling for about 90 minutes.
The safety board’s website says runway overruns can damage planes and, in the worst cases, lead to injuries or deaths.
The board says the consequences can be particularly serious when there isn’t enough room at the end of a runway or a suitable system to stop planes.
“This closure will have an impact on YVR operations and flight schedules, but aircraft continue to arrive and depart on our south runway,” the airport said in an updated statement Tuesday.
“We encourage passengers to check with their airlines for current flight schedules and status before heading to YVR.”
Vrooman did not offer a specific timeline for the removal of the jet, but she said that cargo would be removed before crews build some sort of roadway through the grassy area where the plane came to a stop in order to pull it out of its current location.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 19, 2024.
