Ahead of the anticipated arrival of more COVID-19 vaccine doses in the coming weeks, the province has now confirmed who will be prioritized next for its vaccination program.
In a memo sent out to local medical officers of health and hospital CEOs on Sunday, provincial officials said staff and essential caregivers in long-term care homes, high-risk retirement homes and First Nations elder care homes, along with any residents in these settings who have not yet received a first dose, are an “immediate priority” for vaccination.
“The provincial target of providing a first dose offer of vaccine to residents of all long-term care homes and high-risk retirement homes is arriving at completion. This includes work underway to make vaccinations available to First Nations elder care homes across the province,” the memo read.
“At this time, we are pleased to report that residents at all long-term care homes across the province have been given an opportunity for their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine.”
The groups that should be next in line, according to the province, include Indigenous adults in northern remote and higher risk communities and health-care workers with the highest risk of exposure to COVID-19.
The province has broken down health-care workers into four categories: highest priority, very high priority, high priority, and moderate priority.
Highest-priority health-care workers include all hospital and acute care staff in frontline roles with COVID-19 patients or those with a high-risk of exposure, including workers who perform “aerosol-generating procedures.”
Other workers identified in the highest priority group include “all patient-facing health-care workers involved in the COVID-19 response,” medical first-responders, including paramedics and firefighters, and community health-care workers serving specialized populations, including those who work at needle exchange or supervised consumption sites.
The province has identified “very high priority” health-care workers as those who work in acute care and other hospital settings not already identified in the previous category, along those who work in congregate and community care settings, including community health centres, birth centres, dentistry clinics, pharmacies, and walk-in clinics.
High priority health-care workers include those who work in community care settings with a lower risk of exposure, including mental health and addiction services and campus health-care workers.
Non-frontline health-care workers, including those who work remotely and do not require personal protective equipment, have been placed in the “moderate priority” category, the memo states.
The province said it has broken down health-care workers into these four categories due to the fact that demand for the vaccine will “initially exceed available supply,” which may result in the need to decide who gets the vaccine first. Highest priority health-care workers and very high priority health-care workers have been identified as groups who should be vaccinated “immediately.”
“When all reasonable steps have been taken to complete first-dose vaccinations of all staff, essential caregivers and residents of long-term care homes, high-risk retirement homes and First Nations elder care homes, first-dose vaccinations may be made available to the remainder of the Phase One populations,” the province said in its memo.
People in this category include all adults ages 80 and over as well as staff, residents, and caregivers in all retirement homes and other congregate care settings for seniors. All Indigenous adults, adult recipients of chronic home care, and health-care workers in the “high” priority level are also included in Phase One.
“To ensure equity and integrity in vaccine delivery, public health units and vaccination clinics should implement processes to fill last-minute cancellations, ‘no-shows’ and end-of-day remaining doses with people who are in groups identified in this memo as immediate and next priority for vaccination, and only to Phase One priority populations,” the memo read.
This directive comes after the head of Ontario’s COVID-19 vaccine task force admitted that hospitals gave some doses of the vaccine to non-frontline staff, including people working from home, because it was better to do that than to let the doses expire when people did not show up for their shot.
The province has also confirmed that in an effort to increase the number of first doses it administers during this “supply-limited time,” second doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine will be administered no later than 42 days after the first shot.
This applies to all who receive their first dose with the exception of residents of long-term care, high-risk retirement and First Nations elder care homes, those 80 and older, and residents in other types of congregate care homes for seniors. Those groups will receive the second dose between 21 and 27 days after their first.
Only two COVID-19 vaccines, the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines produced in Europe, are approved for use in Canada and both companies have come up short in their recent shipments to the country.
About 922,234 people in Canada have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, approximately 2.43 per cent of the country’s population.
But the federal government has indicated that Canada expects to ramp up its vaccination effort this spring when the country receives an influx in vaccines next month.
Pfizer has promised to deliver on its goal to ship four million doses to Canada by the end of March.
In Ontario, an estimated 467,626 doses have been administered and 174,643 people are now fully vaccinated.
MONTREAL – Travel company Transat AT Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter compared with a profit a year earlier as its revenue edged lower.
The parent company of Air Transat says it lost $39.9 million or $1.03 per diluted share in its quarter ended July 31.
The result compared with a profit of $57.3 million or $1.49 per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue in what was the company’s third quarter totalled $736.2 million, down from $746.3 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Transat says it lost $1.10 per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $1.10 per share a year earlier.
Transat chief executive Annick Guérard says demand for leisure travel remains healthy, as evidenced by higher traffic, but consumers are increasingly price conscious given the current economic uncertainty.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Dollarama Inc.’s food aisles may have expanded far beyond sweet treats or piles of gum by the checkout counter in recent years, but its chief executive maintains his company is “not in the grocery business,” even if it’s keeping an eye on the sector.
“It’s just one small part of our store,” Neil Rossy told analysts on a Wednesday call, where he was questioned about the company’s food merchandise and rivals playing in the same space.
“We will keep an eye on all retailers — like all retailers keep an eye on us — to make sure that we’re competitive and we understand what’s out there.”
Over the last decade and as consumers have more recently sought deals, Dollarama’s food merchandise has expanded to include bread and pantry staples like cereal, rice and pasta sold at prices on par or below supermarkets.
However, the competition in the discount segment of the market Dollarama operates in intensified recently when the country’s biggest grocery chain began piloting a new ultra-discount store.
The No Name stores being tested by Loblaw Cos. Ltd. in Windsor, St. Catharines and Brockville, Ont., are billed as 20 per cent cheaper than discount retail competitors including No Frills. The grocery giant is able to offer such cost savings by relying on a smaller store footprint, fewer chilled products and a hearty range of No Name merchandise.
Though Rossy brushed off notions that his company is a supermarket challenger, grocers aren’t off his radar.
“All retailers in Canada are realistic about the fact that everyone is everyone’s competition on any given item or category,” he said.
Rossy declined to reveal how much of the chain’s sales would overlap with Loblaw or the food category, arguing the vast variety of items Dollarama sells is its strength rather than its grocery products alone.
“What makes Dollarama Dollarama is a very wide assortment of different departments that somewhat represent the old five-and-dime local convenience store,” he said.
The breadth of Dollarama’s offerings helped carry the company to a second-quarter profit of $285.9 million, up from $245.8 million in the same quarter last year as its sales rose 7.4 per cent.
The retailer said Wednesday the profit amounted to $1.02 per diluted share for the 13-week period ended July 28, up from 86 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
The period the quarter covers includes the start of summer, when Rossy said the weather was “terrible.”
“The weather got slightly better towards the end of the summer and our sales certainly increased, but not enough to make up for the season’s horrible start,” he said.
Sales totalled $1.56 billion for the quarter, up from $1.46 billion in the same quarter last year.
Comparable store sales, a key metric for retailers, increased 4.7 per cent, while the average transaction was down2.2 per cent and traffic was up seven per cent, RBC analyst Irene Nattel pointed out.
She told investors in a note that the numbers reflect “solid demand as cautious consumers focus on core consumables and everyday essentials.”
Analysts have attributed such behaviour to interest rates that have been slow to drop and high prices of key consumer goods, which are weighing on household budgets.
To cope, many Canadians have spent more time seeking deals, trading down to more affordable brands and forgoing small luxuries they would treat themselves to in better economic times.
“When people feel squeezed, they tend to shy away from discretionary, focus on the basics,” Rossy said. “When people are feeling good about their wallet, they tend to be more lax about the basics and more willing to spend on discretionary.”
The current economic situation has drawn in not just the average Canadian looking to save a buck or two, but also wealthier consumers.
“When the entire economy is feeling slightly squeezed, we get more consumers who might not have to or want to shop at a Dollarama generally or who enjoy shopping at a Dollarama but have the luxury of not having to worry about the price in some other store that they happen to be standing in that has those goods,” Rossy said.
“Well, when times are tougher, they’ll consider the extra five minutes to go to the store next door.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
TORONTO – The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has ordered TD Bank Group to pay US$28 million for repeatedly sharing inaccurate, negative information about its customers to consumer reporting companies.
The agency says TD has to pay US$7.76 million in total to tens of thousands of victims of its illegal actions, along with a US$20 million civil penalty.
It says TD shared information that contained systemic errors about credit card and bank deposit accounts to consumer reporting companies, which can include credit reports as well as screening reports for tenants and employees and other background checks.
CFPB director Rohit Chopra says in a statement that TD threatened the consumer reports of customers with fraudulent information then “barely lifted a finger to fix it,” and that regulators will need to “focus major attention” on TD Bank to change its course.
TD says in a statement it self-identified these issues and proactively worked to improve its practices, and that it is committed to delivering on its responsibilities to its customers.
The bank also faces scrutiny in the U.S. over its anti-money laundering program where it expects to pay more than US$3 billion in monetary penalties to resolve.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
