Health

COVID-19 live updates: 46% of Quebecers 12 and older have received both vaccine doses – Montreal Gazette

Published

3 years ago

July 13, 2021

Harry Miller

Toronto board of trade calls on Ontario to create vaccine passport for non-essential services.

Author of the article:

Andy Riga

Publishing date:

Jul 13, 2021 • 38 minutes ago • 11 minute read • Join the conversation

People line up to get into the COVID-19 vaccination clinic at the Bob-Birnie Arena in Pointe-Claire on June 12, 2021. Photo by John Mahoney /Montreal Gazette

Updated throughout the day on Tuesday, July 13. Questions/comments: ariga@postmedia.com

Top updates

Toronto board of trade calls on Ontario to create vaccine passport for non-essential services
Montrealers can get vaccinated at pop-up clinics
Unable to welcome the public, Montreal Highland Games to hold virtual event
46% of Quebecers 12 and older have received both vaccine doses
Quebec reports 54 cases and no deaths as hospitalizations dip
More than half of Canadians 12 and older are fully vaccinated
Latest Quebec vaccination ad campaign stresses importance of 2nd dose
New marriages dropped by 49% amid the pandemic in Quebec
More than 900,000 people in France rush for COVID vaccine as tougher measures near
She tried for a year to be diagnosed amid the pandemic. It developed into Stage 3 cancer
Opinion: For some, looser restrictions too close for comfort
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2:20 p.m.

Toronto board of trade calls on Ontario to create vaccine passport for non-essential services

1:45 p.m.

French retailers puzzle over how to keep non-vaccinated shoppers from stores

French retailers were puzzled on Tuesday over how a new government proposal requiring them to block people not vaccinated against COVID-19 from shopping malls could possibly work out in practice, the Reuters news agency reports.

Ahead of a meeting with Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire on Wednesday, retailers said that a widening of COVID health pass requirements announced by President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday was difficult to implement.

In a bid to slow down the spread of the virus, Macron said a health pass would be required from July 21 to enter places of leisure and culture and that from early August it would be required in bars and restaurants, shopping malls, hospitals as well as in planes and long-distance trains and buses.

A health pass would have to show double vaccination against COVID-19, recovery from the illness or a recent negative test.

“The government did not want to make vaccination mandatory for all and puts the onus on private companies,” retail federation FCD chief Jaques Creyssel said on C-News TV.

He said it was hard to imagine how anyone could stop a customer who needed to buy food or medicines.

He added that the industry has a lot of young staff, many of whom are not vaccinated and that given that it takes about one and a half months to get two doses, it was not feasible to get everyone ready by early August.

“We hope the law to be voted on will make clear that public authorities will be in charge of controlling access, because we cannot do this ourselves,” he said.

The head of French retailer System U, Dominique Schelcher, said on his Twitter account that putting in place a health pass system at the entrance of a supermarket would raise many issues, such as who is in charge of control, what to do in case of conflict and what to do with non-vaccinated workers.

He also said that the new measure would only impact shopping malls, not small neighbourhood supermarkets.

1 p.m.

U.S. officials say fully vaccinated don’t need booster

From the Reuters news agency:

U.S. health officials, after meeting with vaccine maker Pfizer, reiterated on Monday that Americans who have been fully vaccinated do not need to get a booster shot, a spokesperson for the Health and Human Services Department said.

Pfizer said last week it planned to ask U.S. regulators to authorize a booster dose of its COVID-19 vaccine, based on evidence of greater risk of infection six months after inoculation and the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant.

HHS officials had a briefing from Pfizer on Monday regarding their latest, preliminary data on vaccinations and will continue to discuss when and if booster shots will be needed in future, the spokesperson said.

Pfizer said it planned to publish “more definitive data” in a peer-reviewed journal.

12:50 p.m.

Montrealers can get vaccinated at pop-up clinics

The west-central Montreal regional health authority says it will hold pop-up Pfizer vaccination clinics at two west end parks this week, weather permitting:

Jean-Brillant Park, 5252 Decelles Ave. in Côte-des-Neiges. Tuesday, July 13 and Wednesday, July 14.
Loyola Park, corner of Fielding and St-Ignatius Aves., in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. Thursday, July 15 and Friday, July 16.

All of these clinics will run from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m.

In Laval, the regional health authority is planning three first-dose pop-up vaccination clinics over the next few days – at Centropolis, Carrefour Laval and Bernard-Landry Park.

[VACCINATION MOBILE] Une journée de vaccination vient d’être ajoutée à l’horaire de cette semaine :

➡️Dimanche 18 juillet, de 11 h à 17 h au parc Bernard-Landry (5, avenue du Crochet, Laval, H7N 2T8)

On vous attends! pic.twitter.com/kLLKJOEcmU

— CISSS de Laval (@cissslaval) July 13, 2021

12:35 p.m.

Unable to welcome the public, Montreal Highland Games to hold virtual event

“Given the uncertainty around the COVID-19 pandemic, we sadly cannot host a live event this year,” Brian MacKenzie, president of the Montreal Highland Games, said in a press release today.

“Instead, we will be broadcasting Montreal’s very own Jason Baines’ attempt to beat the current Guinness World Record for tossing the most cabers in one hour.”

The current record stands at 122 tosses by fellow Canadian Kevin Fast, organizers said.

The event will take place on Aug. 1.

“To qualify as a successful toss, the caber must be thrown up in the air at such an angle that the top end hits the ground, allowing the caber to flip end over end,” the Games said. “A caber must be a minimum of 14 feet 7 inches in length and weigh at least 55 pounds.”

The caber toss, along with Highland dancing and a bagpipe competition, and will be broadcast on the Montreal Highland Games YouTube channel.

11:45 a.m.

46% of Quebecers 12 and older have received both vaccine doses

11:15 a.m.

Updated charts: Quebec cases, deaths

11:05 a.m.

Quebec reports 54 cases and no deaths as hospitalizations dip

Quebec has recorded 54 new cases of COVID-19, the provincial government announced this morning.

No new deaths were reported.

Some other key statistics from Quebec’s latest COVID-19 update:

Montreal Island: 19 cases, zero deaths.
3 fewer people are in hospital. Total hospitalizations: 85.
The number of people in intensive care remains unchanged: 25.
86,640 additional vaccine doses were administered over the previous 24 hours.
11,556 tests were conducted on Sunday, the last day for which screening data is available.
Positivity rate: 0.5 per cent.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Quebec has reported 375,969 cases and 11,231 deaths linked to COVID-19. A total of 364,103 people who have contracted the disease have since recovered.

10:55 a.m.

Six corporate vaccination hubs are offering walk-in Pfizer and Moderna clinics today

10:25 a.m.

Greece orders COVID-19 vaccinations as infections rise

From the Reuters news agency:

Greece has made vaccinations against COVID-19 mandatory for certain workers and announced restrictions to contain the spread of the virus as infections have kept rising during the vital summer tourism season.

“The country will not shut down again because of some,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in a televised address announcing the measures. “It is not Greece that is in danger, but unvaccinated Greeks.”

Nursing home staff will need to get vaccinated immediately, while healthcare workers will have to be vaccinated starting Sept. 1, Mitsotakis said.

As part of the new measures, only vaccinated customers will be allowed indoors in bars, cinemas, theatres and other closed spaces, he said.

A country of 11 million people, Greece has so far administered more than 5,200,000 first shots and about 41 per cent of the general population is fully vaccinated.

In an effort to entice more people to get vaccinated, the government has offered incentives including cash and free mobile data for youths to try to bring the rate up to 70 per cent by autumn.

Greece’s bio-ethics committee had recommended compulsory shots for health workers and staff at nursing homes “as a last resort measure” if efforts to encourage inoculation proved ineffective.

10:25 a.m.

More than half of Canadians 12 and older are fully vaccinated

Canada has passed the halfway point in vaccinations, The Canadian Press reports.

As of Monday, more than 50 per cent of eligible Canadians – at least 12 years old – have had their second shot.

That means 26.3 million Canadians now have had both required doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.

More than 20 million of them received their second dose at least 14 days ago, the time period after which the immune system has reacted enough so you are considered to be fully vaccinated.

Provinces logged almost 450,000 second doses Monday, though that number includes second doses in some provinces given over the weekend.

Canada is also edging closer to hitting 80 per cent of eligible people at least partially vaccinated, with 79.11 per cent of people over 12 now having received at least one dose.

Manitoba, at 58 per cent, leads the way on second doses given to eligible people.

10:15 a.m.

Regional health authority offers free passes to OASIS exhibit

Vous avez reçu votre 1re dose de vaccin dans l’un des sites de vaccination identifiés de notre CIUSSS? Plongez dès maintenant dans l’expérience immersive de l’été en obtenant une entrée gratuite à l’exposition Inspirations d’OASIS immersion! Plus d’info : https://t.co/MceiBHe0Al pic.twitter.com/qioJK7pcws

— CIUSSS CentreSudMtl (@ciusss_csmtl) July 13, 2021

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

10 a.m.

Latest Quebec vaccination ad campaign stresses importance of 2nd dose

The Legault government on Wednesday will launch its latest multimedia publicity campaign promoting vaccination against COVID-19.

Read our full story.

10 a.m.

New marriages dropped by 49% amid the pandemic in Quebec

An estimated 11,300 marriages took place in 2020, a 49-per-cent drop compared to the previous year – an unprecedented decline.

Not since 1903 have so few marriages taken place in Quebec, according to a report published this morning by the Institut de la statistique du Québec.

Due to the pandemic, there were severe restrictions on events such as marriages during much of 2020.

“The decline in marriages began in March 2020 and was particularly pronounced in early summer, the season in which the majority of the year’s weddings are normally celebrated,” the provincial statistics institute said.

“In May, June and July of 2020, the fall was around 70 per cent compared to the average for 2015 to 2019. While the gap compared to previous years narrowed beginning in August, the first monthly results for 2021 indicate that the number of marriages remains below average.”

The decline in religious marriages was more pronounced than in civil ones, the institute said.

And the decrease was greater among couples where both spouses were born in Canada, compared to cases where one or both were born abroad.

9:55 a.m.

More than 900,000 people in France rush for COVID vaccine as tougher measures near

From the Reuters news agency:

More than 900,000 people in France rushed to set up appointments to get vaccinated on Monday night after the president warned that people would see curbs imposed on them if they did not have a health pass that covered a vaccine or negative COVID test.

Unveiling sweeping measures to combat a surge in infections, Emmanuel Macron said vaccination would not be compulsory for the general public for now but stressed that restrictions would focus on those who are not vaccinated.

The president said health workers had to get vaccinated by Sept. 15 or face consequences.

Stanislas Niox-Chateau, who heads Doctolib, one of the country’s biggest online websites used to book vaccine appointments, told RMC radio there were record numbers seeking vaccines after the president’s announcement.

“There were 7.5 million connections on Doctolib in a few minutes. More than 900,000 French people made their vaccination appointment yesterday, which is twice the last record which dated from May 11,” Niox-Chateau said.

Macron said on Monday that a health pass required to attend large-scale events would now be used much more widely, including to enter restaurants, cinemas and theatres.

It will also be required to board long-distance trains and planes from the beginning of August, giving a further incentive for people to get the shot as the summer holiday season kicks in.

A slowdown in vaccination rates and a sharp upturn in new infections due to the highly contagious, now dominant, Delta variant, have forced the government to rethink its strategy.

9:25 a.m.

She tried for a year to be diagnosed amid the pandemic. It developed into Stage 3 cancer

At least 4,119 people with cancer were not diagnosed in Quebec from March 1 to July 18, 2020, according to a Health Department report published at the beginning of this year that examined the pandemic’s impact on cancer care and services.

Eva Villalba, executive director of Coalition Priorité Cancer au Québec, questions whether that number is now double, since it reflected only the first wave of the pandemic.

Read our full story, by Robin Della Corte.

9:25 a.m.

Opinion: For some, looser restrictions too close for comfort

“As the number of new cases in Quebec plummets (52 were reported Monday) and the vaccination rate climbs, the last vestiges of the restrictions imposed to keep us safe are fading away. Capacity limits for stores were lifted. (Yay! No more lineups!) And the two-metre distance between people who don’t share our address has been eased to a mere one metre.

“We’ve dreamed of this day. It’s been a long time coming. Yet the latest transition feels just as strange as the introduction of isolating public health measures way back in March 2020. New habits die just as hard.”

Read the latest column by Allison Hanes.

9:15 a.m.

A guide to COVID-19 vaccinations in Quebec

Local health authorities have set up mass vaccination sites across Montreal.

You can book appointments via the Clic Santé website or by phone at 1-877-644-4545.

Here are the nuts and bolts of getting vaccinated, by Katherine Wilton. Her guide includes the age groups targeted, how to book appointments, and addresses of vaccination centres.

Two private sites can also help you book appointments:

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

9:15 a.m.

Here are the current pandemic restrictions in Montreal and Quebec

We are regularly updating our list of what services are open, closed or modified in Montreal and Quebec, including information on the curfew and other lockdown measures.

You can read it here.

9:15 a.m.

Here’s where Montrealers can get tested today

Montrealers can be screened at test centres across the island.

You can check screening clinic wait times here.

8:45 a.m.

The situation across Canada

Here’s the rate of case growth per 100,000 people over the past seven days, via the federal government’s latest epidemiology update.

8:30 a.m.

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ariga@postmedia.com

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Health

Health Canada approves updated Moderna COVID-19 vaccine

Published

1 day ago

September 17, 2024

Anne Joseph

TORONTO – Health Canada has authorized Moderna’s updated COVID-19 vaccine that protects against currently circulating variants of the virus.

The mRNA vaccine, called Spikevax, has been reformulated to target the KP.2 subvariant of Omicron.

It will replace the previous version of the vaccine that was released a year ago, which targeted the XBB.1.5 subvariant of Omicron.

Health Canada recently asked provinces and territories to get rid of their older COVID-19 vaccines to ensure the most current vaccine will be used during this fall’s respiratory virus season.

Health Canada is also reviewing two other updated COVID-19 vaccines but has not yet authorized them.

They are Pfizer’s Comirnaty, which is also an mRNA vaccine, as well as Novavax’s protein-based vaccine.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.

Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.

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Health

These people say they got listeria after drinking recalled plant-based milks

Published

1 day ago

September 17, 2024

Anne Joseph

TORONTO – Sanniah Jabeen holds a sonogram of the unborn baby she lost after contracting listeria last December. Beneath, it says “love at first sight.”

Jabeen says she believes she and her baby were poisoned by a listeria outbreak linked to some plant-based milks and wants answers. An investigation continues into the recall declared July 8 of several Silk and Great Value plant-based beverages.

“I don’t even have the words. I’m still processing that,” Jabeen says of her loss. She was 18 weeks pregnant when she went into preterm labour.

The first infection linked to the recall was traced back to August 2023. One year later on Aug. 12, 2024, the Public Health Agency of Canada said three people had died and 20 were infected.

The number of cases is likely much higher, says Lawrence Goodridge, Canada Research Chair in foodborne pathogen dynamics at the University of Guelph: “For every person known, generally speaking, there’s typically 20 to 25 or maybe 30 people that are unknown.”

The case count has remained unchanged over the last month, but the Public Health Agency of Canada says it won’t declare the outbreak over until early October because of listeria’s 70-day incubation period and the reporting delays that accompany it.

Danone Canada’s head of communications said in an email Wednesday that the company is still investigating the “root cause” of the outbreak, which has been linked to a production line at a Pickering, Ont., packaging facility.

Pregnant people, adults over 60, and those with weakened immune systems are most at risk of becoming sick with severe listeriosis. If the infection spreads to an unborn baby, Health Canada says it can cause miscarriage, stillbirth, premature birth or life-threatening illness in a newborn.

The Canadian Press spoke to 10 people, from the parents of a toddler to an 89-year-old senior, who say they became sick with listeria after drinking from cartons of plant-based milk stamped with the recalled product code. Here’s a look at some of their experiences.

Sanniah Jabeen, 32, Toronto

Jabeen says she regularly drank Silk oat and almond milk in smoothies while pregnant, and began vomiting seven times a day and shivering at night in December 2023. She had “the worst headache of (her) life” when she went to the emergency room on Dec. 15.

“I just wasn’t functioning like a normal human being,” Jabeen says.

Told she was dehydrated, Jabeen was given fluids and a blood test and sent home. Four days later, she returned to hospital.

“They told me that since you’re 18 weeks, there’s nothing you can do to save your baby,” says Jabeen, who moved to Toronto from Pakistan five years ago.

Jabeen later learned she had listeriosis and an autopsy revealed her baby was infected, too.

“It broke my heart to read that report because I was just imagining my baby drinking poisoned amniotic fluid inside of me. The womb is a place where your baby is supposed to be the safest,” Jabeen said.

Jabeen’s case is likely not included in PHAC’s count. Jabeen says she was called by Health Canada and asked what dairy and fresh produce she ate – foods more commonly associated with listeria – but not asked about plant-based beverages.

She’s pregnant again, and is due in several months. At first, she was scared to eat, not knowing what caused the infection during her last pregnancy.

“Ever since I learned about the almond, oat milk situation, I’ve been feeling a bit better knowing that it wasn’t something that I did. It was something else that caused it. It wasn’t my fault,” Jabeen said.

She’s since joined a proposed class action lawsuit launched by LPC Avocates against the manufacturers and sellers of Silk and Great Value plant-based beverages. The lawsuit has not yet been certified by a judge.

Natalie Grant and her seven year-old daughter, Bowmanville, Ont.

Natalie Grant says she was in a hospital waiting room when she saw a television news report about the recall. She wondered if the dark chocolate almond milk her daughter drank daily was contaminated.

She had brought the girl to hospital because she was vomiting every half hour, constantly on the toilet with diarrhea, and had severe pain in her abdomen.

“I’m definitely thinking that this is a pretty solid chance that she’s got listeria at this point because I knew she had all the symptoms,” Grant says of seeing the news report.

Once her daughter could hold fluids, they went home and Grant cross-checked the recalled product code – 7825 – with the one on her carton. They matched.

“I called the emerg and I said I’m pretty confident she’s been exposed,” Grant said. She was told to return to the hospital if her daughter’s symptoms worsened. An hour and a half later, her fever spiked, the vomiting returned, her face flushed and her energy plummeted.

Grant says they were sent to a hospital in Ajax, Ont. and stayed two weeks while her daughter received antibiotics four times a day until she was discharged July 23.

“Knowing that my little one was just so affected and how it affected us as a family alone, there’s a bitterness left behind,” Grant said. She’s also joined the proposed class action.

Thelma Feldman, 89, Toronto

Thelma Feldman says she regularly taught yoga to friends in her condo building before getting sickened by listeria on July 2. Now, she has a walker and her body aches. She has headaches and digestive problems.

“I’m kind of depressed,” she says.

“It’s caused me a lot of physical and emotional pain.”

Much of the early days of her illness are a blur. She knows she boarded an ambulance with profuse diarrhea on July 2 and spent five days at North York General Hospital. Afterwards, she remembers Health Canada officials entering her apartment and removing Silk almond milk from her fridge, and volunteers from a community organization giving her sponge baths.

“At my age, 89, I’m not a kid anymore and healing takes longer,” Feldman says.

“I don’t even feel like being with people. I just sit at home.”

Jasmine Jiles and three-year-old Max, Kahnawake Mohawk Territory, Que.

Jasmine Jiles says her three-year-old son Max came down with flu-like symptoms and cradled his ears in what she interpreted as a sign of pain, like the one pounding in her own head, around early July.

When Jiles heard about the recall soon after, she called Danone Canada, the plant-based milk manufacturer, to find out if their Silk coconut milk was in the contaminated batch. It was, she says.

“My son is very small, he’s very young, so I asked what we do in terms of overall monitoring and she said someone from the company would get in touch within 24 to 48 hours,” Jiles says from a First Nations reserve near Montreal.

“I never got a call back. I never got an email”

At home, her son’s fever broke after three days, but gas pains stuck with him, she says. It took a couple weeks for him to get back to normal.

“In hindsight, I should have taken him (to the hospital) but we just tried to see if we could nurse him at home because wait times are pretty extreme,” Jiles says, “and I don’t have child care at the moment.”

Joseph Desmond, 50, Sydney, N.S.

Joseph Desmond says he suffered a seizure and fell off his sofa on July 9. He went to the emergency room, where they ran an electroencephalogram (EEG) test, and then returned home. Within hours, he had a second seizure and went back to hospital.

His third seizure happened the next morning while walking to the nurse’s station.

In severe cases of listeriosis, bacteria can spread to the central nervous system and cause seizures, according to Health Canada.

“The last two months have really been a nightmare,” says Desmond, who has joined the proposed lawsuit.

When he returned home from the hospital, his daughter took a carton of Silk dark chocolate almond milk out of the fridge and asked if he had heard about the recall. By that point, Desmond says he was on his second two-litre carton after finishing the first in June.

“It was pretty scary. Terrifying. I honestly thought I was going to die.”

Cheryl McCombe, 63, Haliburton, Ont.

The morning after suffering a second episode of vomiting, feverish sweats and diarrhea in the middle of the night in early July, Cheryl McCombe scrolled through the news on her phone and came across the recall.

A few years earlier, McCombe says she started drinking plant-based milks because it seemed like a healthier choice to splash in her morning coffee. On June 30, she bought two cartons of Silk cashew almond milk.

“It was on the (recall) list. I thought, ‘Oh my God, I got listeria,’” McCombe says. She called her doctor’s office and visited an urgent care clinic hoping to get tested and confirm her suspicion, but she says, “I was basically shut down at the door.”

Public Health Ontario does not recommend listeria testing for infected individuals with mild symptoms unless they are at risk of developing severe illness, such as people who are immunocompromised, elderly, pregnant or newborn.

“No wonder they couldn’t connect the dots,” she adds, referencing that it took close to a year for public health officials to find the source of the outbreak.

“I am a woman in my 60s and sometimes these signs are of, you know, when you’re vomiting and things like that, it can be a sign in women of a bigger issue,” McCombe says. She was seeking confirmation that wasn’t the case.

Disappointed, with her stomach still feeling off, she says she decided to boost her gut health with probiotics. After a couple weeks she started to feel like herself.

But since then, McCombe says, “I’m back on Kawartha Dairy cream in my coffee.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.

Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.

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Health

B.C. mayors seek ‘immediate action’ from federal government on mental health crisis

Published

2 days ago

September 16, 2024

Anne Joseph

VANCOUVER – Mayors and other leaders from several British Columbia communities say the provincial and federal governments need to take “immediate action” to tackle mental health and public safety issues that have reached crisis levels.

Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim says it’s become “abundantly clear” that mental health and addiction issues and public safety have caused crises that are “gripping” Vancouver, and he and other politicians, First Nations leaders and law enforcement officials are pleading for federal and provincial help.

In a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier David Eby, mayors say there are “three critical fronts” that require action including “mandatory care” for people with severe mental health and addiction issues.

The letter says senior governments also need to bring in “meaningful bail reform” for repeat offenders, and the federal government must improve policing at Metro Vancouver ports to stop illicit drugs from coming in and stolen vehicles from being exported.

Sim says the “current system” has failed British Columbians, and the number of people dealing with severe mental health and addiction issues due to lack of proper care has “reached a critical point.”

Vancouver Police Chief Adam Palmer says repeat violent offenders are too often released on bail due to a “revolving door of justice,” and a new approach is needed to deal with mentally ill people who “pose a serious and immediate danger to themselves and others.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024

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