Ontario reported an additional 409 cases of COVID-19 on Thursday as the province announced it would shift back toward testing only symptomatic people and those in high-risk groups to relieve pressure on publicly funded testing sites and clear a severe backlog of samples.
The news comes as Premier Doug Ford said his government will invest $1 billion to expand testing and contact-tracing capacity heading into flu season, including some $30 million to “prevent and manage outbreaks” in priority settings like long-term care facilities, retirement homes and schools.
The province’s network of labs is currently facing a backlog of 53,840 test samples, the most since cases of the respiratory infection were first detected in January.
During a media briefing Thursday morning, health officials said that publicly funded testing sites are moving away from offering tests to asymptomatic people. Instead, the province will return to a more targeted approach, as hospitals, testing sites and labs have reported being overwhelmed by public demand for tests.
“We know that over the summer when we opened up testing to anybody who wanted it, we did not find cases. Right now, we need to focus on people who are symptomatic, people who are contacts, people in outbreaks, or in very specific populations where we have designated that testing needs to occur,” said Dr. Barbara Yaffe, Ontario’s associate chief medical officer of health.
“Your average person out there who is not exposed to a case, who is not part of an outbreak, has no symptoms, should not be going for testing. There’s no value. In fact, what we found is when there’s very little COVID in that group, what we end up with is false positives, which just complicates things even more.”
WATCH | Dr. Barbara Yaffe explains Ontario’s plan to target only symptomatic people for testing:
People in Ontario who are asymptomatic for COVID-19 will now only be tested if they are part of a targeted group, such as health-care workers, according to Dr. Barbara Yaffe, Ontario’s associate chief medical officer of health. 1:24
Testing of asymptomatic people will be limited to pharmacies, an initiative announced by Ford earlier this week. The government has said that testing will be available at 60 pharmacies by week’s end, with a plan to expand the initiative in coming weeks, although representatives at some pharmacies on the list told CBC News they will not be ready by Friday.
According to Matthew Anderson, president and CEO of Ontario Health, the province hopes to have capacity for up to 50,000 tests per day some time in October.
“We continue to work toward the 50,000 goal. We’re very close to it now. We are struggling a bit with some of our supply chain challenges,” said Anderson.
“We continue to build that capacity out, and do expect that we will be in that range in the next couple of weeks.”
At his daily news conference, Ford acknowledged that the updated testing guidelines are a move away from his government’s messaging in recent months. Over the summer, he repeatedly encouraged anyone who wanted to take a test for the novel coronavirus to get one. But that has become untenable, he told reporters, as school has restarted and the province prepares for the upcoming flu season.
The focus on those showing symptoms is part of Ontario’s fall COVID-19 strategy, which Ford and Health Minister Christine Elliott have been releasing in stages this week.
Ford said the economic fallout from such a lockdown could devastate some businesses.
“That would be extremely difficult on a tremendous number of people,” he said.
He added, however, that if new daily case counts continue on an upward trend, his government would re-evaluate its plan.
“If it’s a huge spike, then everything is on the table.”
WATCH | Ontario to invest $1B to upgrade testing, tracing of COVID-19:
Health Minister Christine Elliott said the new $1-billion commitment will help ‘significantly’ expand coronavirus testing capacity and boost the number of contact tracers. 1:42
Doctors warn time to tighten restrictions is now
Meanwhile, a group of physicians and health care leaders issued an urgent call for the province to immediately tighten restrictions on non-essential businesses and activities that lend themselves to gatherings, including dine-in restaurants, bars, nightclubs, gyms, theatres and places of worship.
“Given the sharp rise in COVID-19 cases over the last two weeks, and the speed at which this virus spreads, now is the time to put public health measures in place to immediately limit opportunities for disease transmission,” the Ontario Hospital Association said in a news release Thursday.
The group is also calling for non-essential businesses to have employees work from home and for universities and colleges to hold classes online wherever possible.
They note Ontario has seen a seven-day average of about 400 cases per day, a figure last seen at the height of the pandemic in May.
“Without immediate action, we know from international experience that this extremely contagious and life-threatening virus will spread rapidly through our schools, long-term care homes, retirement homes and other congregate settings.”
409 new COVID-19 cases
Consistent with recent weeks, a majority of new cases were concentrated in three public health units:
Toronto: 151
Ottawa: 82
Peel Region: 46
Several other areas also registered double-digit increases:
York Region: 34
Waterloo Region: 26
Durham Region: 12
Middlesex-London: 12
Halton Region: 11
Elliott noted in a series of tweets that about 63 per cent of the newly confirmed infections in today’s update involve people under 40 years old.
Thirty-one are classified as school-related, including 24 students, three staff and four categorized as “individuals not identified.”
The province’s website tracking outbreaks in school and child care centres — which lags behind information parents would get directly from their school — shows there have been at least 210 school-related cases, including 101 students who have been infected.
Ontario has now seen a total of 48,496 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the outbreak began in late January. Of those, about 86.4 per cent are considered resolved. Another 286 were marked resolved in today’s report.
There are currently some 3,774 confirmed, active infections provincewide, the most since June 9.
The province also reported two new outbreaks in long-term care facilities, bringing the current total to 33.
Ontario’s official COVID-19 death toll increased by one, and now sits at 2,836. A CBC News count based on information provided directly from public health units puts the real toll at 2,876.
Further, the province’s network of labs processed more than 30,600 tests for the novel coronavirus yesterday; however the Ministry of Health notes that that figure provides an incomplete picture because of a temporary outage at Public Health Ontario.
There is no indication that the outage affected the number of new cases in today’s report.
Tour team staffer tests positive
Meanwhile, Ford’s office said he did not have “close contact or prolonged exposure” to a staff member of his tour team who tested positive for COVID-19.
“All staff that had contact with their teammate will self-isolate and monitor for symptoms,” wrote Ivana Yelich, spokesperson for the premier’s office, in an email to media.
“The premier will closely monitor for symptoms and take appropriate next steps if necessary,” she continued.
In a tweet, Ford wished the staffer a speedy recovery.
MONTREAL – Operations at the Port of Montreal were greatly reduced Monday as the Maritime Employers Association made good on a threat to lock out nearly 1,200 longshore workers if they didn’t accept what it called a final contract offer.
The lockout took effect at 9 p.m. on Sunday, and the employers’ association is asking federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to intervene. MacKinnon’s office issued a statement Monday calling on both sides at the country’s second largest port to get back to the negotiating table.
“The parties must understand the urgency of the situation and do the work necessary to reach an agreement,” his office said. “Canadians are counting on them.”
The union told a news conference on Monday it is ready to return to the table as early as Tuesday. But Michel Murray, an adviser with the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents the dock workers, said union overtures have received no response from the employer.
Murray told a news conference simultaneous lockouts in Montreal and Vancouver seem designed to force the federal government’s hand. Port workers in British Columbia are locked out amid a labour dispute involving more than 700 longshore supervisors, resulting in a paralysis of container cargo traffic at terminals across Canada’s west coast.
“We hope that the employer side will emerge from its silence of the past three weeks,” Murray said. “But clearly, when we look at what is happening, the lockout in Vancouver, the lockout in Montreal, we feel that it is a co-ordinated, planned attempt to increase the pressure on the federal government so that it intervenes in our file.”
Julie Gascon, CEO of the Montreal Port Authority, warned of “catastrophic” economic consequences of a prolonged conflict.
“This lockout affects not only the 1,200 longshoremen directly impacted by the work stoppage, but it also impacts over 10,000 workers in the logistics sector, from trucking and railway employees to maritime agents and pilots,” she said in a statement.
“Logistics jobs are the first to be affected, which inevitably sets off a domino effect throughout the entire economy in the markets we serve.”
Gascon told reporters in an early morning news conference effects will trickle down to other parts of the economy. “Today the conflict is impacting the supply chain, but tomorrow the conflict will impact factories as well, after that, it will be retailers,” she said.
The Port of Montreal, which moves nearly $400 million in goods every day, said essential services will continue, with liquid bulk terminals and the grain terminal among those remaining open.
The employers association in Montreal said it initiated the lockout after the unionized workers voted almost unanimously to reject a contract offer tabled last week. The workers have been without a collective agreement since Dec. 31 and had rejected two previous offers.
The employer said last week its latest offer included a three-per-cent salary increase each year for four years and a 3.5 per cent increase for the two subsequent years. The employer said the increases offered would bring a longshore worker’s total average compensation to more than $200,000 per year at the end of the six-year contract.
The union, the Syndicat des débardeurs du port de Montréal, called the figure exaggerated. It said the employer is focused on salaries, but what members want are improvements in scheduling and work-life balance. Members who are parents do not want to have stretches where they work 19 out of 21 days, it said.
Murray said it’s time to put those previous offers — which clearly cannot be the basis of any agreement — in the “shredder” and discuss what it will take for both sides to enter into a long-term agreement.
The Conseil du patronat, which represents Quebec employers, said it is very concerned about the latest work stoppage. It and a group representing manufacturers called on the federal government to intervene.
“Businesses and citizens can no longer bear the cost of this situation, which is repeated too often,” the Conseil du patronat said in a statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 11, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index moved higher Monday, as strength in technology and financial stocks helped outweigh weakness in other parts of the market, while U.S. markets also rose.
The Dow Jones outperformed the major U.S. indexes Monday, rising 0.7 per cent, while some large tech companies weighed other parts of the market down.
“That’s just a continuation of certain sectors that rallied post-election,” said Stephen Duench, vice-president and portfolio manager at AGF Investments Inc.
The continued strength was led by so-called “Trump trades” that could benefit from the soon-to-be president Donald Trump’s promised policies. These include financial stocks and domestic industrials, as well as Bitcoin and the U.S. dollar, said Duench.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 304.14 points at 44,293.13. The S&P 500 index was up 5.81 points at 6,001.35,while the Nasdaq composite was up 11.99 points at 19,298.76.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 29.88 points at 24,789.28.
Bitcoin rose above US$87,000 for the first time, riding the post-election wave as Trump has pledged to make the U.S. the crypto capital of the world.
Overall, investors have been in a risk-taking mood since the election results came out, Duench said, with commodities showing more weakness as investors move out of their safe havens.
“While gold is kind of getting hurt since the election, Bitcoin is benefiting just because of a little bit more risk-on behaviour,” he said.
The Russell 2000 — an index made up of small-cap stocks in the U.S. — has also had a great run since the election, noted Duench.
This week will bring the latest inflation report in the U.S., after the U.S. Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate again last week.
Investors are also still working their way through earnings season, which is close to done in the U.S. but still in swing in Canada.
This season has been characterized by dramatic reactions to companies that miss expectations, said Duench.
“Misses on revenues or earnings were punished more than they usually are,” he said.
This has been even more pronounced in Canada, he added.
It’s likely a symptom of markets being at record highs, said Duench.
“Investors like momentum,” he said.
The Canadian dollar traded for 71.82 cents US, according to XE.com,compared with 71.88 cents US on Friday.
The December crude oil contract was down US$2.34 at US$68.04 per barrel and the December natural gas contract was up 25 cents at US$2.92 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was down US$77.10 at US$2,617.70 an ounce and the December copper contract was down eight cents at US$4.23 a pound.
— With files from The Associated Press
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 11, 2024.
