As provinces prepare to receive the first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine next week, top health officials have warned Canadians against complacency in guarding against the respiratory illness.
Canada is still on a “rapid-growth” trajectory for COVID-19 cases, and the number of deaths from the respiratory illness could hit nearly 15,000 in another two weeks, Canada’s chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, said on Friday.
More than 13,250 deaths have been attributed to the novel coronavirus since the pandemic began. The current caseload of more than 448,000 could grow to an estimated 577,000 by Christmas Day, according to federal forecasts.
Tam said Canada could see an average of 12,000 new cases of infection daily, with increasing hospitalizations and deaths, by the beginning of January “unless significant reductions in contact rates are achieved.”
The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine was approved by Health Canada on Wednesday, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday said, “A vaccine in a week or in a month won’t help you if you get COVID-19 today.”
In Manitoba, eligible health-care workers can start booking appointments on Saturday to receive COVID-19 immunizations in Winnipeg. Vaccinations will be administered from Wednesday to Friday at the University of Manitoba Rady Faculty of Health Sciences campus.
The province is restricting access for now because there is only enough of the Pfizer vaccine to vaccinate about 900 people, according to a memo from Manitoba’s Vaccine Implementation Task Force issued late Friday.
WATCH | Tam talks about the strain on the health-care system:
Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Tam, updates reporters with the rising number of COVID 19 cases in regions across the country and reveals modeling projections. 0:50
Tam said that over the past week, an average of 2,900 patients with COVID-19 were being treated in Canadian hospitals on any given day, including 565 people in intensive care.
Canada is expected to receive up to 249,000 doses of the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine before the end of the year.
The co-chair of the federal task force studying COVID-19 immunity is warning that the arrival of vaccines in Canada doesn’t guarantee protection against the novel coronavirus or signal that people’s lives will soon return to normal.
Dr. Catherine Hankins told CBC’s The House that there are still too many unknowns about COVID-19 immunity and the effectiveness of vaccines to quickly move beyond the pandemic measures now in place, such as mask mandates and limits on social and business activities.
What’s happening across Canada
As of 10:30 a.m. ET on Saturday, Canada’s COVID-19 case count stood at 450,714, with 73,228 of those cases considered active. A CBC News tally of deaths based on provincial reports, regional health information and CBC’s reporting stood at 13,268.
Health officials in British Columbia on Friday reported 737 new cases of COVID-19 and 11 more deaths. Friday’s report comes a day after B.C. posted 28 COVID-19 deaths — a single-day high for the province that Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry described as “one of the most tragic days we have had yet.”
WATCH | Hospitals in northern B.C. fill up as COVID-19 cases surge:
Fear and concern are growing in remote areas of British Columbia, as COVID-19 cases surge and the limited hospital beds available are quickly filling up. 2:06
Alberta reported 1,738 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, along with 18 deaths. Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the province’s chief medical officer of health, said on Thursday that new restrictions brought in this week should serve as a warning to Albertans about how serious the pandemic has become.
The health system “is in trouble, and we need to work together to save it,” Hinshaw said.
Public health officials in Saskatchewan announced 246 new cases on Friday. The total of known active COVID-19 cases in the province has now dropped to 4,547, after public health officials deemed another 387 cases as recovered.
WATCH | University students grapple with how to return home for the holidays safely:
When provinces ask people to stay within their households, what about the university students coming home for an extended holiday break? A look at the decisions some students are grappling with because of a lack of guidance as well as what a health expert recommends to make sure the holiday homecoming is safer. 1:49
The province said the number of known active cases could be inflated due to a backlog of data review.
Manitoba‘s chief public health officer on Friday said the provincial death rate from COVID-19 has increased by more than nine times since Thanksgiving. Dr. Brent Roussin also announced 447 more infections and 14 deaths.
Ontario‘shealth minister on Saturday reported 1,873 new cases of COVID-19. Locally, there are 522 new cases in Toronto, 436 in Peel Region, 185 in York Region and 109 in Hamilton, Christine Elliott said in a tweet.
The province announced on Friday that two more regions will enter lockdown first thing on Monday. Bars, shopping malls and gyms in Windsor-Essex and York Region will be closed, and indoor dining at restaurants will be banned.
WATCH | 2 more regions in southern Ontario set to go into lockdown:
As Ontario sets a record for the most COVID-19 deaths on a single day in this second wage, people in two more health regions are now preparing to go into lockdown on Monday: Windsor-Essex and York Region. 2:42
The move comes three weeks after Toronto and Peel Region, the other hardest-hit parts of the province, were placed into the “grey” or lockdown-level zone of Ontario’s COVID-19 framework. The case counts in those regions have continued to climb steadily since.
The provincial government also said Middlesex-London, Simcoe Muskoka and Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph will move into the red “control” zone. Ontario reported 1,848 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, along with 45 additional deaths.
In Quebec, health officials reported 1,713 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday and 53 additional deaths, bringing the provincial death toll to 7,435. COVID-19 hospitalizations increased to 871, with 123 people in intensive care, according to a provincial dashboard.
New Brunswick reported eight new cases on Friday, along with one more death. Dr. Jennifer Russell, the province’s chief medical officer of health, said the Edmundston region is being moved into the more restrictive “orange” level of restrictions at midnight due to a growing outbreak.
Across the North, Nunavut reported 16 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday. All are in the community of Arviat, bringing the total number of active cases there to 56.
Dr. Kami Kandola, chief public health officer of the Northwest Territories, said in a news release late Thursday that five travel-related cases had been reported in Yellowknife.
Yukon reported no new cases on Thursday and had not yet provided an update on Friday.
What’s happening around the world
As of Friday evening, more than 70 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide, with more than 45 million of those considered recovered or resolved, according to a tracking tool maintained by Johns Hopkins University. The global death toll stood at more than 1.5 million.
The United States on Friday authorized the use of a vaccine from Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, with the first inoculations expected within days, marking a turning point in a country where the pandemic has killed nearly 300,000 people.
Health-care workers and elderly people in long-term care facilities are expected to be the main recipients of a first round of 2.9 million doses this month.
In Europe, another 761 people died of COVID-19 on Friday in Italy, bringing the country’s death toll from the virus to 63,387, just behind Britain’s toll of 63,603 dead, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Prince William and Catherine the Duchess of Cambridge, with two of their three children, Prince Louis and Princess Charlotte, attend a special pantomime performance on Friday at London’s Palladium Theatre to thank health workers and their families for their efforts during the pandemic. (Aaron Chown/WPA pool/Getty Images)
France registered 13,406 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to more than 2.35 million, and the number of hospitalizations continued the downward trend, data released by the health authorities showed on Friday.
Hospitalizations fell by 256 to 24,975, and the number of patients in intensive care units dropped by 75 to 2,884, maintaining a running slowdown first recorded on Nov. 14.
Several tourists attractions in Paris, including the iconic Louvre and Eiffel Tower, will remain closed during the nation’s second stage of lifting lockdown measures, which will start on Dec. 15.
In Africa, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune marks a year in office on Saturday, but he is nowhere in sight since his evacuation to Germany more than six weeks ago for treatment of COVID-19.
The president’s office issued a statement on Nov. 30 saying Tebboune had left a “specialized” medical facility, was continuing his convalescence and should be returning home “in the coming days.”
The statement compounded the growing mystery surrounding the 75-year-old Tebboune, his whereabouts and his health. The clinic where he was treated was never made public.
TORONTO – Will Taylor Swift bring chaos or do we all need to calm down?
It’s a question many Torontonians are asking this week as the city braces for the arrival of Swifties, the massive fan base of one of the world’s biggest pop stars.
Hundreds of thousands are expected to descend on the downtown core for the singer’s six concerts which kick off Thursday at the Rogers Centre and run until Nov. 23.
And while their arrival will be a boon to tourism dollars — the city estimates more than $282 million in economic impact — some worry it could worsen Toronto’s gridlock by clogging streets that already come to a standstill during rush hour.
Swift’s shows are set to collide with sports events at the nearby Scotiabank Arena, including a Raptors game on Friday and a Leafs game on Saturday.
Some residents and local businesses have already adjusted their plans to avoid the area and its planned road closures.
Aahil Dayani says he and some friends intended to throw a birthday bash for one of their pals until they realized it would overlap with the concerts.
“Something as simple as getting together and having dinner is now thrown out the window,” he said.
Dayani says the group rescheduled the gathering for after Swift leaves town. In the meantime, he plans to hunker down at his Toronto residence.
“Her coming into town has kind of changed up my social life,” he added.
“We’re pretty much just not doing anything.”
Max Sinclair, chief executive and founder of A.I. technology firm Ecomtent, suggested his employees avoid the company’s downtown offices on concert days, saying he doesn’t see the point in forcing people to endure potential traffic jams.
“It’s going to be less productive for us, and it’s going to be just a pain for everyone, so it’s easier to avoid it,” Sinclair said.
“We’re a hybrid company, so we can be flexible. It just makes sense.”
Swift’s concerts are the latest pop culture moment to draw attention to Toronto’s notoriously disastrous daily commute.
In June, One Direction singer Niall Horan uploaded a social media video of himself walking through traffic to reach the venue for his concert.
“Traffic’s too bad in Toronto, so we’re walking to the venue,” he wrote in the post.
Toronto Transit Commission spokesperson Stuart Green says the public agency has been working for more than a year on plans to ease the pressure of so many Swifties in one confined area.
“We are preparing for something that would be akin to maybe the Beatles coming in the ‘60s,” he said.
Dozens of buses and streetcars have been added to transit routes around the stadium, and the TTC has consulted the city on potential emergency scenarios.
Green will be part of a command centre operated by the City of Toronto and staffed by Toronto police leaders, emergency services and others who have handled massive gatherings including the Raptors’ NBA championship parade in 2019.
“There may be some who will say we’re over-preparing, and that’s fair,” Green said.
“But we know based on what’s happened in other places, better to be over-prepared than under-prepared.”
Metrolinx, the agency for Ontario’s GO Transit system, has also added extra trips and extended hours in some regions to accommodate fans looking to travel home.
A day before Swift’s first performance, the city began clearing out tents belonging to homeless people near the venue. The city said two people were offered space in a shelter.
“As the area around Rogers Centre is expected to receive a high volume of foot traffic in the coming days, this area has been prioritized for outreach work to ensure the safety of individuals in encampments, other residents, businesses and visitors — as is standard for large-scale events,” city spokesperson Russell Baker said in a statement.
Homeless advocate Diana Chan McNally questioned whether money and optics were behind the measure.
“People (in the area) are already in close proximity to concerts, sports games, and other events that generate massive amounts of traffic — that’s nothing new,” she said in a statement.
“If people were offered and willingly accepted a shelter space, free of coercion, I support that fully — that’s how it should happen.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Hundreds of Taylor Swift fans lined up outside the gates of Toronto’s Rogers Centre Wednesday, with hopes of snagging some of the pop star’s merchandise on the eve of the first of her six sold-out shows in the city.
Swift is slated to perform at the venue from Thursday to Saturday, and the following week from Nov. 21 to Nov. 23, with concert merchandise available for sale on some non-show days.
Swifties were all smiles as they left the merch shop, their arms full of sweaters and posters bearing pictures of the star and her Eras Tour logo.
Among them was Zoe Haronitis, 22, who said she waited in line for about two hours to get $300 worth of merchandise, including some apparel for her friends.
Haronitis endured the autumn cold and the hefty price tag even though she hasn’t secured a concert ticket. She said she’s hunting down a resale ticket and plans to spend up to $600.
“I haven’t really budgeted anything,” Haronitis said. “I don’t care how much money I spent. That was kind of my mindset.”
The megastar’s merchandise costs up to $115 for a sweater, and $30 for tote bags and other accessories.
Rachel Renwick, 28, also waited a couple of hours in line for merchandise, but only spent about $70 after learning that a coveted blue sweater and a crewneck had been snatched up by other eager fans before she got to the shop. She had been prepared to spend much more, she said.
“The two prized items sold out. I think a lot more damage would have been done,” Renwick said, adding she’s still determined to buy a sweater at a later date.
Renwick estimated she’s spent about $500 in total on “all-things Eras Tour,” including her concert outfit and merchandise.
The long queue for Swift merch is just a snapshot of what the city will see in the coming days. It’s estimated that up to 500,000 visitors from outside Toronto will be in town during the concert period.
Tens of thousands more are also expected to attend Taylgate’24, an unofficial Swiftie fan event scheduled to be held at the nearby Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
Meanwhile, Destination Toronto has said it anticipates the economic impact of the Eras Tour could grow to $282 million as the money continues to circulate.
But for fans like Haronitis, the experience in Toronto comes down to the Swiftie community. Knowing that Swift is going to be in the city for six shows and seeing hundreds gather just for merchandise is “awesome,” she said.
Even though Haronitis hasn’t officially bought her ticket yet, she said she’s excited to see the megastar.
“It’s literally incredible.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.
OTTAWA – Via Rail is asking for a judicial review on the reasons why Canadian National Railway Co. has imposed speed restrictions on its new passenger trains.
The Crown corporation says it is seeking the review from the Federal Court after many attempts at dialogue with the company did not yield valid reasoning for the change.
It says the restrictions imposed last month are causing daily delays on Via Rail’s Québec City-Windsor corridor, affecting thousands of passengers and damaging Via Rail’s reputation with travellers.
CN says in a statement that it imposed the restrictions at rail crossings given the industry’s experience and known risks associated with similar trains.
The company says Via has asked the courts to weigh in even though Via has agreed to buy the equipment needed to permanently fix the issues.
Via said in October that no incidents at level crossings have been reported in the two years since it put 16 Siemens Venture trains into operation.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.
