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COVID-19 vaccines are an ‘astonishing’ feat, but they won’t end pandemic overnight

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While the arrival of two COVID-19 vaccines in recent weeks has provided hope of an end to the pandemic, the harsh reality is that the number of cases and hospitalizations in Canada has never been worse.

COVID-19 hospitalizations and ICU admissions across the country have risen higher this month than at any point in the pandemic. Deaths haven’t been this high since May.

Ontario has hit a trend of more than 2,000 cases per day for the first time. Quebec has almost 1,000 COVID-19 patients in hospital. Alberta reported its highest number of deaths in a single day. B.C. currently has more than 10,000 active cases.

Almost a year after the coronavirus emerged, despite everything we’ve learned about COVID-19 and the fact that our health-care system is once again at risk of being overwhelmed, statistics such as these don’t appear to have the same impact they once did.

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“We have so many numbers thrown at us all the time and I think people have become a little bit numb to them,” said Ashleigh Tuite, an infectious disease epidemiologist and assistant professor at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

“The numbers are overwhelming to people and I think it’s hard for [the figures] to remain meaningful, because they just keep going up.”

 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke with reporters at Rideau Cottage on Friday. 1:58

It could be many months before the impact of the vaccines is felt — and they won’t immediately put a stop to a virus that has been spreading unchecked in communities for the better part of a year.

That’s why politicians and public health officials have been pleading with Canadians to continue to follow guidelines and avoid gathering during the holiday season.

“A vaccine in a week or in a month won’t help you if you get COVID-19 today,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said during a national address on Friday. “We’re coming into the final miles of this crisis and we can’t give up now.”

Vaccine development ‘extraordinary’

There’s been a disconnect between the public health guidance and the source of infections, but it’s not exactly clear where.

Long-term care homes, essential workers and low-income, racialized communities continue to be hit disproportionately hard by COVID-19 across the country, but we still have no idea where many people are becoming infected — more than a third of our total COVID-19 cases transmitted are from an unknown source.

If not for the arrival of the vaccines, many observers say they would have trouble seeing an end to the pandemic.

 

Two people walk past a COVID-19-themed mural in downtown Toronto in July. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

 

“I can’t imagine where we’d be if we had to go through another year of this,” said Dr. David Naylor, who led the federal inquiry into Canada’s national response to the 2003 SARS epidemic and now co-chairs the federal government’s COVID-19 immunity task force.

Helen Branswell, one of the top infectious disease journalists in the world, calls the arrival of the vaccines “extraordinary.”

“It’s astonishing that 11 months after the posting online of the [genetic] sequence of the new virus, that vaccines were designed and tested all the way through Phase 3, and were produced and are starting to be used,” said Branswell, a former health reporter at The Canadian Press who joined STAT in 2015.

In time, she hopes the vaccines will “make a significant dent,” but acknowledges it could be many months before we return to some semblance of normal.

Inoculating a nation

The initial vaccine doses may make for good photo ops, but they won’t put an immediate stop to the virus.

“We’re going to see a very small impact with the first 250,000 doses,” Naylor said.

The only point at which we’ll see a “rapid difference” in rates of hospitalization and death, he said, is when health-care workers and long-term care residents are widely vaccinated across the country.

Canada will receive a combined total of six million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna and COVID-19 vaccines, pending approval of the latter, and distribute them to a total of three million Canadians in the first quarter of 2021.

“I would hope that as we get going through the first quarter, with another 2.75 million Canadians immunized, that we’ll get somewhere,” Naylor said. “But the real turn from the standpoint of broad community spread is going to come when we do that second wave [of vaccinations] through April, May, June.”

Naylor said that even with a total of three million Canadians successfully immunized with the two-dose vaccines in the first stage of Canada’s vaccine rollout plan, we’re still left with “daunting” numbers. 

 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke with reporters outside Rideau Cottage on Friday. 1:57

“To get to a level where you slow this down, you need to vaccinate about 20 million Canadians minimum,” he said. “That’s 400,000 shots a day for three months solid, seven days a week — that’s a massive task.”

‘We can’t give up now’

Despite the unprecedented challenge, Naylor remains cautiously hopeful.

“I’m very optimistic that we’re going to see this thing slow in the summer, meaningfully, and that we will be breathing more easily in the fall,” he said. “But I think we’ve got a tough few months ahead.”

 

Canada is leading the world in reserving COVID-19 doses per person. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

 

Branswell said it remains to be seen whether the vaccines provide long-lasting immunity and whether or not they block infection and transmission of COVID-19, or if they merely protect people from developing symptoms.

“We have to see how these vaccines work in people, even though they were highly efficacious in the trials. What you see in a trial is typically not what you get in widespread use — effectiveness in the real world is generally lower. But in the main I’m very hopeful,” she said.

“I just hope people can sort of understand that just because there are vaccines doesn’t mean you don’t need to be cautious in the time going forward.”

Trudeau echoed those comments on Friday.

“We need to take this very seriously as numbers head in the wrong direction,” he said. “Our fight against this virus is not over.”

 

 

Source: – CBC.ca

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HSBC completes sale of Canadian unit to RBC – The Globe and Mail

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HSBC Holdings said it completed the $13.5-billion sale of its Canadian unit, HSBC Bank Canada, to Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) on Thursday.

The transaction will result in the recognition of an estimated gain of $4.9-billion in the first quarter of 2024, HSBC said in a statement on Friday.

RBC previously said the acquisition, which merges Canada’s biggest and seventh-biggest lenders, will boost its domestic business as well as its position on the global stage.

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HSBC Canada’s branches and offices will open for business on Monday, April 1 as RBC locations, RBC said in a separate statement.

The merger, RBC’s biggest, overcame opposition from environment and anti-monopoly groups as well as conservatives, who lamented the increasing concentration of the industry and the possibility of higher fees for consumers.

Deals of this size in the banking sector have not been attempted in Canada since the early 1990s when RBC’s bid for Bank of Montreal was blocked by regulators.

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US February PCE core inflation +2.8% y/y vs +2.8% expected – ForexLive

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US core PCE yy

  • Prior month 2.8% (revised to 2.9%)
  • PCE core m/m +0.3% vs +0.3% expected (unrounded +0.261%)
  • Prior m/m core +0.4% (revised to +0.5%)
  • Headline PCE +2.5% y/y vs +2.5% expected (prior 2.4%).
  • Headline m/m +0.3% vs +0.4% expected (unrounded +0.333%)
  • 6 month core annualized 2.9% vs 2.6% prior
  • Full report

Consumer spending and consumer income for February:

  • Personal income +0.3% versus +0.4% expected. Prior month 0.3%.
  • Personal spending +0.8% versus +0.5% expected. Prior month +0.2%
  • Real personal spending +0.4% vs -0.1% last month (revised to -0.2%)

The revisions to the January data are a touch higher but it didn’t bump up the Feb y/y numbers.

Overall, it’s a tad hot but the dollar is a tad softer, perhaps focusing on the lower headline m/m reading.

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Looking deeper at spending, goods rose 0.5% with services up 0.9%. On the inflation side, goods prices were down 0.2% y/y while services prices rose 3.8% y/y.

US core PCE mm

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What’s open and closed Good Friday, Easter Monday in Hamilton, Burlington and Niagara Region – Global News

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The Easter long weekend is upon us, bringing a rare four-day holiday to some in the Hamilton area. Several businesses and services will be closed on Good Friday (March 29), Easter Sunday (March 31) or Easter Monday (April 1).

Here’s a list of some things that will or will not be operating in Hamilton, Burlington and Niagara Region.

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Administrative offices: Offices are closed on Friday and Monday.

Licensing and bylaw services: Licensing and bylaw phone queue line will be closed on Friday and Monday. Service will resume on Tuesday.

Green bin, garbage and recycling: No collection on Good Friday. Friday’s pickup will occur on Saturday (March 31). Monday will be a regular collection day (April 1). The city says all materials must be at the curb by 7 a.m. Community recycling centres and transfer stations will be closed Friday and Monday.

HSR bus: Buses will operate on a Sunday/holiday schedule Friday and a regular schedule on Monday.

GO Transit: Trains and buses are operating on a Sunday schedule Friday.

ATS DARTS: Service will be operating with holiday service hours on Friday and Monday. Subscription trips on DARTS, with the exception of dialysis, are cancelled for Friday and Monday. ATS customer service will also be closed on Friday and Monday.

Ontario Works: The program, including the special supports, will be closed Friday and Monday. Phone service will resume on Tuesday.

Recreation centres: Closed on Friday and Monday.

Hamilton civic museums: Dundurn National Historic Site, the Hamilton Military Museum and the Hamilton Museum of Steam and Technology will be closed on Friday and Monday.

Tourism Hamilton visitor information centre: Closed Friday to Monday.

Hamilton Public Library: All HPL branches are closed on Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday. Branches are open on Saturday and regular hours resume Tuesday, April 2

Social services: All Ontario Works offices, special supports and the housing services office will be closed on Friday and Monday.

Senior centres: Closed Friday and Sunday. Senior clubs will be running modified program schedules from Friday to Monday.

Arenas: Closed to public programming Friday, Sunday and Monday.

Animal services: Closed Good Friday, Sunday and Easter Monday.

Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Mount Hope: Open Good Friday, Saturday and Easter Sunday. Closed Easter Monday.

Burlington

Government offices: Local government such as city hall, municipal offices and facilities will be closed on Good Friday and Easter Monday.


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Administrative services: Services including parks, roads and forestry will be closed on Friday and Monday. Only snow removal and urgent services will be provided.

Animal Shelter and Control: Closed all weekend, Friday through Monday. Emergencies can be called in to 905-335-7777.

Recreation centres: Some city pools, arenas and community centres will be operational on a limited schedule. Visit burlington.ca/dropinandplay for details. Some outdoor recreation facilities will also be open, weather permitting. Visit burlington.ca/outdoorplay for more information. Tyandaga Golf Course will be closed. The tentative season opener is set for April 6.

Halton Provincial Offences Court: Closed on Friday and Monday.

Free parking: Available Friday and Monday in the downtown core in municipal lots, on-street and in the parking garage, however, the Waterfront parking lots (east and west) do not provide free parking on statutory holidays. Parking exemptions are required to park overnight on city streets and for longer than five hours. Visit burlington.ca/parkingexemptions for more.

Burlington Transit: Transit will operate a holiday schedule Sunday. The downtown transit terminal, specialized dispatch and the administration office will be closed on March 29. Monday is a regular schedule.

Niagara Region

Government offices: City halls, the Enterprise Centre and administration offices are all closed on Good Friday. Some offices, like St. Catharines, will reopen on Easter Monday.

Parks, recreation and culture services: All City recreation centres are closed on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Administration offices are all closed on Friday. Some will be closed on Monday. St. Catharines Kiwanis Aquatics Centre is closed Friday, but open on Saturday. Seymour-Hannah Sports and Entertainment Centre is closed Friday, but open regular hours through the weekend and Monday.

Community centres: All older adult centres and arenas will either be closed or have reduced hours on Friday, Sunday and Monday.

St. Catharines Museum; Welland Canals Centre: Both facilities will be closed on Good Friday but open the rest of the long weekend between 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Niagara Regional Transit: Both St. Catharines and Niagara Falls buses will operate on a holiday schedule for Good Friday. Regional, Fort Erie and Welland service will not be running Friday. The agency will have regular hours on Easter Sunday and Monday.

Canada Post: No collection or mail delivery on Monday. Most post offices operated by the private sector will also be closed during business hours.

Grocery stores: Major grocery stores like Fortinos, Metro, FreshCo and No Frills will be closed on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

Shoppers Drug Mart: Some locations in the city will be open on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, but not all. Holiday hours can be seen on the Shoppers store locator map.

Rexall: Some outlets are open on a holiday schedule, but not all. Visit the Rexall website for store hours.

Malls: All major shopping centres in Hamilton, Burlington, St. Catharines and Niagara Falls will be closed on Good Friday. Exceptions include:

  • Outlet Collection at Niagara Falls: Open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
  • CF Toronto Eaton Centre: Open noon to 7 p.m.
  • Toronto Premium Outlets in Halton Hills: Open Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
  • Pacific Mall in Toronto: Open between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m.
  • Vaughan Mills will be open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

In Toronto, retailers in designated tourist areas such as Yorkville, downtown Yonge, Queen’s Quay West and the Distillery District can stay open Good Friday, according to City of Toronto bylaws.

Walmart: All Walmarts in the GTHA will be closed Good Friday and Easter Sunday except the Niagara Falls Supercentre on Oakwood Drive, which is open between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. on those days.

Alcohol

The Beer Store: All stores will be closed Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

LCBO: All stores will be closed Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

More on Canada

Wine Rack: Most Hamilton locations will be closed on Good Friday and Easter Monday except for the Wilson Street West location in Ancaster and the Guelph Line outlet in Burlington.

Wilson Street will be open Noon to 5 p.m. on Good Friday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Easter Sunday. Guelph Line will open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday and Sunday.

Tourist destinations

Niagara Falls: Some Niagara Falls attractions are closed during the early spring, including the Whirlpool Aero Car and Wildplay Whirlpool Adventure Course, and the White Water Walk.

However, some, like the Niagara City Cruises, Journey Behind the Falls, Niagara Falls History Museum and The Exchange, and the Niagara Power Station are open and will be operating on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Hours of operation can be seen on the Niagara Parks website.

The Butterfly Conservatory will be open on Good Friday and Easter Sunday between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Toronto: Most Toronto attractions are either closed or have adjusted hours on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

  • The Hockey Hall of Fame will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
  • The Toronto Zoo will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
  • The Ontario Science Centre will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
  • Ripley’s Aquarium will be open from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.
  • The Art Gallery of Ontario will be open from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
  • The Royal Ontario Museum will be open from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
  • The Aga Khan Museum will be open from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

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