A lot of uncertainty remains around the initial rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in Ontario, the head of the province’s distribution task force said Monday, as public health officials reported a single-day high of 1,925 new cases of the illness.
At an afternoon news conference, retired general Rick Hillier said that lingering questions about the transportation and storage of Pfizer’s vaccine mean that there is no firm timeline yet on when it could reach vulnerable Ontarians, particularly front-line health workers and residents of long-term care.
“Every single day we learn something more about the characteristics and the properties of the vaccine and one of things is that the stability data when it’s moved is uncertain,” Hillier said.
“As of right now, we may be restricted somewhat in moving it after we receive it.”
Hillier said the vaccine will be more broadly available to the public starting in April during the second phase of the rollout, and it will take between six to nine months to distribute across the province.
“People are going to have to be patient that their turn will come,” he said.
Hillier said Ontario plans to administer the vaccine in three phases, with the first expected to take between two and three months, depending on when the doses actually arrive.
WATCH | Retired general Rick Hillier on Ontario’s plans for rolling out COVID-19 vaccines:
Retired General Rick Hillier says Ontario hopes to provide an “efficient” and “equitable” COVID-19 vaccination program, to provide every eligible person across the province with the opportunity to voluntarily get vaccinated. Watch the video for more details about the province’s three-phased plan of rolling out the vaccine. 3:08
Because the Pfizer vaccine requires specialized, ultra-low temperature freezers for storage, Hillier couldn’t say when it would be made available to the groups most in need. At first, vaccination sites may need to be set up at locations with the capacity to safely store the vaccine, meaning those being immunized would need to travel to the sites.
Health Minister Christine Elliott said that 21 Ontario hospitals have been identified as potential storage sites.
Ontario is expected to receive 2.4 million doses of vaccines in the first three months of 2021, according to Elliott. Of those, 1.6 million would be from Pfizer, while another 800,00 doses would be the Moderna vaccine. Both require two shots, 21 days apart. Neither has been approved by Health Canada yet, but top officials at the agency have said that could change as early as this week.
In addition to vulnerable seniors, their caregivers and health-care workers, adults in Indigenous communities, retirement homes, and recipients of chronic home health-care will also be priority groups during the first phase.
The third and final phase of the plan would then see the vaccine available through places like pharmacies on a regular basis, he added.
Record-high new cases
Meanwhile, Ontario reported a single-day high of 1,925 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, following two consecutive days of record numbers over the weekend.
The additional cases include 601 in Toronto, 512 in Peel Region, 167 in York Region and 133 in Durham Region.
Other public health units that saw double-digit increases were:
Hamilton: 76
Waterloo Region: 61
Simcoe Muskoka: 60
Halton Region: 54
Ottawa: 48
Windsor-Essex: 46
Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph: 30
Niagara Region: 27
Middlesex-London: 23
Eastern Ontario: 22
Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington: 11
Huron Perth: 10
Also included in today’s new cases are 138 that are school-related: 109 students and 29 staff members. Some 803 of Ontario’s 4,828 publicly-funded schools, or about 16.6 per cent, have at least one case of COVID-19, while 10 schools are currently closed because of the illness.
(Note: All of the figures used for new cases in this story are found on the Ontario health ministry’s COVID-19 dashboard or in its daily epidemiologic summary. The number of cases for any region may differ from what is reported by the local public health unit because local units report figures at different times.)
The new cases push the seven-day average of daily cases to 1,820, the highest it has been at any point during the pandemic.
There are now 16,034 confirmed, active cases of the illness provincewide. They come as Ontario’s network of labs processed 45,283 test samples for the novel coronavirus and reported a test positivity rate of four per cent. Another 31,238 tests are in the queue to be completed.
Further, the number of people in Ontario hospitals with confirmed cases of COVID-19 climbed to 725, even though about 40 hospitals did not submit data in time to be included in today’s provincial update.
Of those patients, 213 are being treated in intensive care and 121 require the use of a ventilator. All three figures are new highs for the second wave of the illness currently gripping swaths of the province.
Public health officials also reported another 26 deaths of people with COVID-19, pushing the official toll to 3,798.
Tighter restrictions in 3 regions
Tighter public health restrictions came into effect in three regions today.
Middlesex-London and Thunder Bay moved into the “orange” zone of the province’s colour-coded, tiered pandemic response plan.
The Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit moved to the “yellow” category.
The change to orange includes restrictions on visitors to long-term care homes and beefed up testing in the facilities.
The change to yellow includes limiting events and social gatherings to 10 people indoors and 25 outdoors, while organized public events are limited to 50 people indoors and 100 outdoors.
The measures will remain in place for at least 28 days.
All 3 Waterloo region hospitals have outbreaks
The president of a hospital in Waterloo region says all three hospitals in the area are currently experiencing a COVID-19 outbreak, leading to a concern about the facilities’ ability to maintain services.
Lee Fairclough, president of St. Mary’s General Hospital, says her facility declared an outbreak on Sunday that has been linked to five patients and two staff.
Fairclough says she’s concerned about the surge of COVID-19 in the community and the current hospital outbreaks in the region.
She says the situation could affect bed capacity as well as services such as scheduled surgeries and other procedures.
TORONTO – Roots Corp. may have built its brand on all things comfy and cosy, but its CEO says activewear is now “really becoming a core part” of the brand.
The category, which at Roots spans leggings, tracksuits, sports bras and bike shorts, has seen such sustained double-digit growth that Meghan Roach plans to make it a key part of the business’ future.
“It’s an area … you will see us continue to expand upon,” she told analysts on a Friday call.
The Toronto-based retailer’s push into activewear has taken shape over many years and included several turns as the official designer and supplier of Team Canada’s Olympic uniform.
But consumers have had plenty of choice when it comes to workout gear and other apparel suited to their sporting needs. On top of the slew of athletic brands like Nike and Adidas, shoppers have also gravitated toward Lululemon Athletica Inc., Alo and Vuori, ramping up competition in the activewear category.
Roach feels Roots’ toehold in the category stems from the fit, feel and following its merchandise has cultivated.
“Our product really resonates with (shoppers) because you can wear it through multiple different use cases and occasions,” she said.
“We’ve been seeing customers come back again and again for some of these core products in our activewear collection.”
Her remarks came the same day as Roots revealed it lost $5.2 million in its latest quarter compared with a loss of $5.3 million in the same quarter last year.
The company said the second-quarter loss amounted to 13 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Aug. 3, the same as a year earlier.
In presenting the results, Roach reminded analysts that the first half of the year is usually “seasonally small,” representing just 30 per cent of the company’s annual sales.
Sales for the second quarter totalled $47.7 million, down from $49.4 million in the same quarter last year.
The move lower came as direct-to-consumer sales amounted to $36.4 million, down from $37.1 million a year earlier, as comparable sales edged down 0.2 per cent.
The numbers reflect the fact that Roots continued to grapple with inventory challenges in the company’s Cooper fleece line that first cropped up in its previous quarter.
Roots recently began to use artificial intelligence to assist with daily inventory replenishments and said more tools helping with allocation will go live in the next quarter.
Beyond that time period, the company intends to keep exploring AI and renovate more of its stores.
It will also re-evaluate its design ranks.
Roots announced Friday that chief product officer Karuna Scheinfeld has stepped down.
Rather than fill the role, the company plans to hire senior level design talent with international experience in the outdoor and activewear sectors who will take on tasks previously done by the chief product officer.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, are set to resume today as a strike that has stopped most services drags into a second week.
No timeline has been set for the length of the negotiations, but Joe McCann, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they are willing to stay there as long as it takes, even if talks drag on all night.
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people unable to navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last Tuesday, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
Hundreds of drivers rallied outside TransLink’s head office earlier this week, calling for the transportation provider to intervene in the dispute with Transdev, which was contracted to oversee HandyDART service.
Transdev said earlier this week that it will provide a reply to the union’s latest proposal on Thursday.
A statement from the company said it “strongly believes” that their employees deserve fair wages, and that a fair contract “must balance the needs of their employees, clients and taxpayers.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
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.
