Ontario is reporting a two-day total of 5,839 new cases of COVID-19 and 95 additional deaths.
Ontario’s health ministry did not release COVID-19 daily figures on New Year’s Day.
The province saw 2,476 cases on Friday and 3,363 cases on Saturday.
Saturday’s figure is a new single-day record for the province. The previous record was set on Thursday when the ministry reported 3,328 novel coronavirus cases.
Altogether, the new cases bring the seven-day average to 2,236.
Saturday’s numbers include 713 new cases in Peel, 700 in Toronto, 395 in York Region, 226 in Windsor-Essex County and 171 in Hamilton.
Friday’s numbers include 480 in Peel, 499 in Toronto, 200 in York Region , 175 in Windsor-Essex County and 111 in Hamilton.
A total of 61,401 tests were completed as of Saturday and 70, 570 as of Friday.
The health ministry noted that the increase in cases on Saturday may have been the result of over-reported numbers stemming from data reporting problems.
“Due to a data issue, cases for Toronto Public Health were underreported on December 31 and over-reported on January 1,” a spokesperson for the ministry said on Saturday.
There are currently 1,003 patients in hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 322 are being treated in intensive care and 220 require ventilators to breathe.
The province’s COVID-19 death toll has now reached 4,626, with a combined 95 deaths reported in the last two days.
York Region begins administering vaccine to workers
York Region Public Health says it has begun the process of delivering Moderna COVID-19 mRNA vaccines to long-term care homes in the region on Saturday.
“This is an exciting and hopeful step forward in our fight against COVID-19,” said Dr. Karim Kurji, York Region’s medical officer of health, said in a news release on Saturday.
“By prioritizing vaccines for residents of long-term care homes, we are protecting some of our most vulnerable York Region residents,” Kurji said.
Staff at the homes will administer the vaccine on-site to their residents, the news release said.
“The vaccine will help to protect approximately 3,700 York Region long-term care residents in 28 homes,” it notes.
“Sadly, to date, York Region has lost 257 residents to COVID-19 within institutional settings.”
As of Saturday at 12 p.m., the province has administered 34,685 vaccines to Ontarians.
“We anticipate getting through the 90,000 doses at our 19 active hospital sites in the next several days as we await future shipments from the federal government,” the health ministry said in an email.
“In addition, Ontario has received its first delivery of approximately 35,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine from the federal government on December 30th. This first, small shipment will be used in Toronto, York, Peel and Windsor-Essex to vaccinate long-term care home residents and we began administering doses to long-term care residents the day after receiving.”
Last week, Retired Gen. Rick Hillier, who is leading the province’s COVID-19 vaccination program, said the Moderna vaccine will be distributed to long-term care and retirement homes.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is already being administered to health-care workers.
Ontario currently has 187 long-term care homes in outbreak with 1,186 residents and 1,050 staff members who have tested positive. A total of 2,749 residents have died. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
Natalie Mehra, the group’s executive director, said redeploying the Canadian Armed Forces to the hard-hit facilities is not the coalition’s first choice, but short-term options are scarce.
“The issue is that we’re in such an emergency,” Mehra said. “There are so many homes with outbreaks that are growing extremely quickly, the death counts are mounting, and the hospitals are overstretched now.”
Mehra said hospitals are treating a worrying number of patients, and some are experiencing outbreaks of their own.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), meanwhile, joined the coalition in calling for military intervention to curb infection outbreaks in long-term care homes and manage current outbreaks.
“We are tragically losing the battle to protect long-term care residents. The homes and staff are on the verge of total crisis and collapse,” Candace Rennick, CUPE Ontario secretary-treasurer, said in a news release on Saturday.
“But military assistance is just a temporary solution to the worsening crisis caused by the government’s failure to implement immediate and meaningful reforms needed months ago. This kind of crisis cannot continue to be met with half measures by the province.”
There are currently 187 homes in outbreak with 1,186 residents and 1,050 staff members who have tested positive. A total of 2,749 residents have died.
Eight of the 15 Ontario healthcare staff who have died of COVID-19 worked in long-term care, CUPE said.
The outbreak has been contained to the emergency department, where a positive case was first identified on Dec. 27, according to a news release from the hospital.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A linebacker at Division II West Virginia State was fatally shot during what the university said Thursday is being investigated by police as a home invasion.
The body of Jyilek Zyiare Harrington, 21, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was found inside an apartment Wednesday night in Charleston, police Lt. Tony Hazelett said in a statement.
Hazelett said several gunshots were fired during a disturbance in a hallway and inside the apartment. The statement said Harrington had multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said they had no information on a possible suspect.
West Virginia State said counselors were available to students and faculty on campus.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Jyilek’s family as they mourn the loss of this incredible young man,” West Virginia State President Ericke S. Cage said in a letter to students and faculty.
Harrington, a senior, had eight total tackles, including a sack, in a 27-24 win at Barton College last week.
“Jyilek truly embodied what it means to be a student-athlete and was a leader not only on campus but in the community,” West Virginia State Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics Nate Burton said. “Jyilek was a young man that, during Christmas, would create a GoFundMe to help less fortunate families.”
Burton said donations to a fund established by the athletic department in Harrington’s memory will be distributed to an organization in Charlotte to continue his charity work.
West Virginia State’s home opener against Carson-Newman, originally scheduled for Thursday night, has been rescheduled to Friday, and a private vigil involving both teams was set for Thursday night. Harrington previously attended Carson-Newman, where he made seven tackles in six games last season. He began his college career at Division II Erskine College.
“Carson-Newman joins West Virginia State in mourning the untimely passing of former student-athlete Jyilek Harrington,” Carson-Newman Vice President of Athletics Matt Pope said in a statement. “The Harrington family and the Yellow Jackets’ campus community is in our prayers. News like this is sad to hear anytime, but today it feels worse with two teams who knew him coming together to play.”
DETROIT (AP) — Joe Schmidt, the Hall of Fame linebacker who helped the Detroit Lions win NFL championships in 1953 and 1957 and later coached the team, has died. He was 92.
The Lions said family informed the team Schmidt died Wednesday. A cause of death was not provided.
One of pro football’s first great middle linebackers, Schmidt played his entire NFL career with the Lions from 1953-65. An eight-time All-Pro, he was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973 and the college football version in 2000.
“Joe likes to say that at one point in his career, he was 6-3, but he had tackled so many fullbacks that it drove his neck into his shoulders and now he is 6-foot,” said the late Lions owner William Clay Ford, Schmidt’s presenter at his Hall of Fame induction in 1973. “At any rate, he was listed at 6-feet and as I say was marginal for that position. There are, however, qualities that certainly scouts or anybody who is drafting a ballplayer cannot measure.”
Born in Pittsburgh, Schmidt played college football in his hometown at Pitt, beginning his stint there as a fullback and guard before coach Len Casanova switched him to linebacker.
“Pitt provided me with the opportunity to do what I’ve wanted to do, and further myself through my athletic abilities,” Schmidt said. “Everything I have stemmed from that opportunity.”
Schmidt dealt with injuries throughout his college career and was drafted by the Lions in the seventh round in 1953. As defenses evolved in that era, Schmidt’s speed, savvy and tackling ability made him a valuable part of some of the franchise’s greatest teams.
Schmidt was elected to the Pro Bowl 10 straight years from 1955-64, and after his arrival, the Lions won the last two of their three NFL titles in the 1950s.
In a 1957 playoff game at San Francisco, the Lions trailed 27-7 in the third quarter before rallying to win 31-27. That was the NFL’s largest comeback in postseason history until Buffalo rallied from a 32-point deficit to beat Houston in 1993.
“We just decided to go after them, blitz them almost every down,” Schmidt recalled. “We had nothing to lose. When you’re up against it, you let both barrels fly.”
Schmidt became an assistant coach after wrapping up his career as a player. He was Detroit’s head coach from 1967-72, going 43-35-7.
Schmidt was part of the NFL’s All-Time Team revealed in 2019 to celebrate the league’s centennial season. Of course, he’d gone into the Hall of Fame 46 years earlier.
Not bad for an undersized seventh-round draft pick.
“It was a dream of mine to play football,” Schmidt told the Detroit Free Press in 2017. “I had so many people tell me that I was too small. That I couldn’t play. I had so many negative people say negative things about me … that it makes you feel good inside. I said, ‘OK, I’ll prove it to you.’”
VICTORIA – British Columbia’s Environment Assessment Office has fined Coastal GasLink Pipeline Ltd. $590,000 for “deficiencies” in the construction of its pipeline crossing the province.
The office says in a statement that 10 administrative penalties have been levied against the company for non-compliance with requirements of its environmental assessment certificate.
It says the fines come after problems with erosion and sediment control measures were identified by enforcement officers along the pipeline route across northern B.C. in April and May 2023.
The office says that the latest financial penalties reflect its escalation of enforcement due to repeated non-compliance of its requirements.
Four previous penalties have been issued for failing to control erosion and sediment valued at almost $800,000, while a fifth fine of $6,000 was handed out for providing false or misleading information.
The office says it prioritized its inspections along the 670-kilometre route by air and ground as a result of the continued concerns, leading to 59 warnings and 13 stop-work orders along the pipeline that has now been completed.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
