Today's coronavirus news: Ontario COVID-19 vaccine pilot rollout continues at more sites today; Germany faces tough weeks ahead with rising cases - Toronto Star | Canada News Media
Today's coronavirus news: Ontario COVID-19 vaccine pilot rollout continues at more sites today; Germany faces tough weeks ahead with rising cases – Toronto Star
9:06 a.m. Statistics Canada says the economy added 259,000 jobs in February
8:03 a.m. Serbia will close down all nonessential shops, bars and restaurants this weekend
5:41 a.m. India registers worst single-day jump in cases since late December with 23,285
5:01 a.m. Germany faces tough weeks ahead with rising cases
4 a.m. Ontario COVID-19 vaccine pilot rollout continues at more sites
The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Friday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.
10:15 a.m. Ontario is reporting 1,371 cases of COVID-19 with 18 deaths. The seven-day average is up to 1,269 cases daily or 61 weekly per 100,000, and down to 11.6 deaths per day. Labs are reporting over 64,611 tests completed, with 2.4 per cent positive, which is slightly up from last Friday. Locally, there are 371 new cases in Toronto, 225 in Peel, 111 in York Region and 109 in Hamilton, according to the province. As of 8 p.m. Thursday, 1,062,910 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered.
9:26 a.m. What you need to know about the mass immunization clinics opening next week in Toronto:
Only residents born in 1941 or earlier (people who are turning 80 in 2021 or who are 80 or older now) can attend the three mass vaccination clinics opening Wednesday, March 17.
The clinics are located at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre at 255 Front St. W., Scarborough Town Centre at 300 Borough Dr., and the Toronto Congress Centre, 650 Dixon Rd.
The sites will operate 7 days a week between 11 a.m. and 8 p.m.
You must make an appointment to attend the clinics. Do not line up outside the clinics without an appointment.
On-line registration launches Friday at www.toronto.ca/covid-19. There you will find a dark blue “Register” button that will be in a grey box at the top of the webpage.
9:06 a.m. Statistics Canada says the economy added 259,000 jobs in February, almost wiping out losses sustained over the previous two months.
The economy lost almost 213,000 jobs in January as lockdown measures erased months of gains, and marked the worst monthly declines since last April.
February’s reopenings reversed that drop with gains largely in Ontario and Quebec, and in sectors highly affected by tightened public health restrictions.
The national unemployment rate fell to 8.2 per cent, the lowest level since March 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The figures whipped past expectations of a gain of 75,000 and an unemployment rate of 9.2 per cent, according to financial data firm Refinitiv.
The gains now leave the country 599,100 jobs short of where they were in February of last year, or 3.1 per cent below pre-pandemic levels.
8:31 a.m. Thursday marked the one-year anniversary of the first coronavirus shutdowns in the U.S., and the 50th day of Joe Biden’s presidency. In his first televised prime-time address from the East Room of the White House Thursday night, Biden was marking milestones.
Including one milestone he’s promising soon: that every American will be eligible to receive a vaccine shot by May 1, the aim being to have people host small backyard barbecues by Independence Day.
And another milestone just reached: hours earlier, Biden officially signed his COVID-19 $1.9-trillion economic relief package.
“Today, I signed into law the American Rescue Plan, a historic piece of legislation to deliver immediate relief to millions of people,” Biden said.
The President clearly doesn’t plan to allow that achievement to go unnoticed. Biden planned a big formal celebration in the Rose Garden of the White House Friday, followed immediately by a week-long, cross-country “Help is Here” tour to promote the measures.
8:05 a.m. Serbia will close down all nonessential shops, bars and restaurants this weekend as the Balkan country faces a surge in coronavirus infections.
The government-appointed crisis body said Friday said the measures will take effect on Friday evening and last until Monday. Authorities will decide on Monday how to proceed, officials said.
The decision is expected to be formally endorsed by the government later Friday.
Serbia has recorded more than 4,000 new infections daily in the past week as doctors have warned that hospitals are rapidly filling up and that medical staff are exhausted after a year of the pandemic.
Senior health official Zoran Gojkovic says the government hopes that it vaccination program will also get infections under control in the coming weeks. He says new measures also include children in higher primary school grades switching to remote classes next week.
A wave of new infections is sweeping across the countries of Eastern and Central Europe, driven mainly by new virus variants that are more contagious.
8 a.m. A provincial pilot project allowing people aged 60-64 in some Ontario cities to get a COVID-19 vaccination quickly became a source of frustration Thursday over unclear rules and limited supply, leading to questions for the government at Queen’s Park.
The confusion over eligibility and access came on the same day as the news that several countries were pausing their use of the same AstraZeneca vaccine because of concerns over blood clots.
The Ontario government’s website initially said only people “who were born between 1957 and 1961 (60 to 64 years old)” could sign up to be vaccinated in one of 327 pharmacies and some select clinics in Toronto, Kingston and Windsor.
By Thursday afternoon, the province had updated its website to read that vaccines should also go to people who “will be, or have been, 60 to 64 in 2021.”
7:50 a.m. Ontario’s progress in lowering COVID-19 has “stalled” and cases are up 15 per cent in a week with more people out and about as contagious variants take a deeper hold, says a leader of the science table advising Premier Doug Ford.
“The risk of catching the disease has increased,” Adalsteinn Brown, head of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, warned as he presented new computer modelling that shows new infections rising from 1,099 Thursday to about 2,000 daily in early April in a best-case scenario.
“There is still much danger ahead.”
Statistics released by the province showed 43 per cent or 469 of the new cases reported Thursday are variants, up from one-third a week ago. Those case samples will go for genomic sequencing to determine the strain.
Brown said that, as predicted several weeks ago, cases of older, more traditional strains of COVID are falling as fast as the new strains — now dominant in the United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil and elsewhere — are rising.
“Two pandemics are playing out,” he told a briefing with Ontario’s chief medical officer, Dr. David Williams. “The new variants are not under control.”
7:40 a.m. After almost a year spent confined in their rooms and distanced from loved ones as COVID-19 tore through long-term-care homes, residents are now longing for a taste of freedom.
But directives from the province around updated visitation guidelines and looser restrictions for long-term-care homes have yet to materialize.
With new data proving high vaccine efficacy in elderly populations and statistics showing much of the province’s nursing home staff and residents have been vaccinated, physicians, advocates, family members and home administrators say it’s time to change COVID-19 guidelines for residents at long-term-care homes.
“Now that we know this population is protected, it’s time to liberate them,” said Nathan Stall, a geriatrician and epidemiologist at Sinai Health in Toronto.
7:32 a.m. Premier Doug Ford is facing demands to apologize after accusing Ontario’s only Indigenous MPP of “jumping the line” for a COVID-19 shot he was invited to get by local medical authorities in hopes of easing vaccine hesitancy in remote First Nations communities.
New Democrat Sol Mamakwa, who represents the new riding of Kiiwetinoong near Kenora in northwestern Ontario, tweeted about the injection earlier this week as the government’s “Operation Remote Immunity” was in full swing to complete shots in fly-in communities at high risk of outbreaks.
Mamakwa later said the premier’s remark serves to undermine vaccination efforts in the far north and showed “a lack of understanding, a lack of respect…a lack of compassion for Indigenous people.”
Chief Gordon Beardy of the Muskrat Dam First Nation, who invited the MPP to get his first shot there last month, said the premier needs to “smarten up.”
7:21 a.m. In mid-February, when stay-at-home orders were lifted for most of Ontario, the province described the move as a cautious transition back into a “strengthened” framework for controlling COVID-19. “We saw what happened before, and we don’t want it to happen again,” Premier Doug Ford said at the time.
But three weeks later, there are once again signs of trouble, with many experts fearing a brewing third wave. New variants now account for 42 per cent of all cases, according to estimates by the COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, and most public health units are once again seeing upticks in new infections.
“There is still much danger ahead,” said Adalsteinn Brown, science table co-chair and dean of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. “Twenty-four out of our 34 public health units have seen an increase in case rates over the past two weeks.
“This growth sometimes is in very small beginning numbers, and so it does not represent huge numbers yet. But this growth isn’t random; it’s a function of how loosening public health measures, increased mobility and growth in new variants come together.”
6:41 a.m. It’s been a year since most of the city shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but most restaurants continued to operate when they were declared essential by the province.
But staying open for takeout has costs many customers don’t think about, including takeout containers, building a patio and credit card fees. This is in addition to making a fraction of the revenue they were used to seeing and having to continue paying monthly costs for rent, ingredients and alcohol.
Nick Liu, chef and owner of DaiLo, says he spent $18,260.65 on takeout packaging since July 2020, including bags, boxes and some specialty packaging for holiday specials. The boxes he uses for his tasting menus to-go are cardboard and cost $1.25 each. They are a compromise from the boxes the restaurant initially used when indoor dining was first shut down.
“Me and my business partners really fought over the type of packaging we used for awhile,” he said. “In the beginning, we used recycled bamboo boxes, but it was really too expensive and we sacrificed the amount of food we sold.”
6 a.m. New Zealand has removed remaining coronavirus restrictions on the city of Auckland after containing a small outbreak.
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Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced Friday the city of 1.6 million would join the rest of the country in having no restrictions other than an ongoing requirement to wear masks on public transport and planes.
After a community outbreak of 15 cases last month, Auckland was placed first into a three-day lockdown and later into a weeklong lockdown. Since the end of the second lockdown Sunday, the city had continuing restrictions on crowd sizes.
New Zealand has adopted a zero-tolerance approach to the virus and eliminated community spread.
5:41 a.m. India has registered its worst single-day jump in coronavirus cases since late December with 23,285.
The sharp spike is being attributed to the western state of Maharashtra.
India has so far reported more than 11.3 million cases, the world’s second-highest after the United States. Infections have been falling steadily since a peak in late September, but experts say increased public gatherings and laxity is leading to the latest surge.
The increase is being reported in six states, including Maharashtra where authorities have announced a weeklong lockdown in the densely populated Nagpur city next week. The vaccinations there will continue.
India is in its second phase of the COVID-19 inoculation campaign and plans to vaccine 300 million people by August. The vaccination drive that began in January is still running way below capacity.
More than 26 million people have gotten a shot, though only 4.72 million are fully vaccinated with both doses.
5:11 a.m. Thailand delayed use of the AstraZeneca vaccine on Friday after several European countries temporarily suspended the jabs following reports of blood clots in some people.
A publicity event with Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha receiving his first shot was cancelled with dozens of media attending, less than an hour before the scheduled start. Instead, health officials held a news conference to explain the delay was based on the decision made by Denmark, Austria and others as a precaution. The Danish health authority said Thursday it has no evidence the vaccine was responsible for blood clots.
Other experts pointed out that of the millions of AstraZeneca vaccine shots administered elsewhere, including in Britain, there have been no reported cases of the vaccine causing blood clots or related problems.
Yong Poovorawan, an advisor to Thailand’s vaccination program, said the delay, pending an investigation into the cause of the reported side effect, will not have a big impact on the rollout.
Thailand started its vaccination drive last month with an initial 200,000 doses of China’s Sinovac and 117,000 doses of AstraZeneca, which is also being manufactured locally.
5:05 a.m. The World Health Organization says it’s assessing reports of rare blood coagulation problems faced by some people in the European Union who received doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19.
The U.N. health agency noted the decision of a few European Union countries to suspend use of the vaccine based on reports of the rare disorder in people who received the vaccines from a particular batch.
It noted that the European Medicines Agency has determined that the vaccine’s benefits outweigh the risks, and said that no cases of death have been found to be caused by any COVID-19 vaccines so far.
A WHO advisory committee on vaccine safety is “carefully assessing” the reports and will communicate its findings and any changes in its recommendations to the public.
“Deaths from other causes will continue to occur, including after vaccination, but causally unrelated,” WHO said.
5:01 a.m. Germany’s health minister says the country should prepare for “several very challenging weeks” amid a rise in coronavirus cases.
Health Minister Jens Spahn told reporters in Berlin on Friday that “the situation remains tense,” as the country’s disease control centre reported 12,834 newly confirmed cases in the past day, and 252 new COVID-related deaths.
The head of the agency, Lothar Wieler, said Germany is “at the beginning of the third wave” of infections following surges in cases last spring and in the fall.
Spahn noted there has been a drop in serious illnesses and deaths among the elderly, as most people over 80 in Germany have now received a virus vaccine.
He said Germany has managed to administer more than 200,000 first shots daily this week. As more supplies arrive, shots will be administered not just in special vaccine centres but, from mid-April, also in doctors’ practices, said Spahn.
4:55 a.m. Japan will not take part in China’s offer — accepted by the International Olympic Committee — to provide vaccines for “participants” in the postponed Tokyo Games and next year’s Beijing Winter Games.
Olympic Minister Tamayo Marukawa said Friday that Japan had not been consulted by the IOC about the Chinese vaccines, and that Japanese athletes would not take them. She said the vaccines have not been approved for use in Japan.
“We have been taking comprehensive anti-infectious disease measures for the Tokyo Games in order to allow participation without vaccinations,” Marukawa said. “There is no change to our principle of not making vaccinations a prerequisite.”
Announced by IOC President Thomas Bach on Thursday, the surprise deal comes as China faces mounting international pressure over the internment of at least 1 million Muslim Uyghurs, which has been labeled a “genocide” by several governments and human-rights bodies.
The IOC has indicated it is a sports body and will not meddle in domestic issues in China.
The IOC initially said it would not require athletes to get vaccines, but only encourage it. The deal with China puts more emphasis on getting vaccines to young, healthy athletes and others.
Friday 4 a.m. A pilot project offering COVID-19 vaccines in pharmacies is expanding more broadly today.
Some pharmacies in Toronto, Windsor and Kingston health units have already started offering Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines to residents between the ages of 60 to 64.
Justin Bates of the Ontario Pharmacists’ Association says additional shots were to arrive yesterday.
That means vaccinations are set to begin at more sites today.
He says interest in the pilot has been overwhelming.
Individual pharmacies are using their own booking systems and Bates says people should check online before calling due to high call volumes.
Thursday 10 p.m.: Canadian health authorities are keeping a watchful eye on European investigations of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine after reports of blood clots following inoculations, but say there is no evidence they were caused by the vaccine.
At least nine European countries hit pause on their use of AstraZeneca’s doses — some entirely, and others only on specific batches — pending further investigation of blood clots, though none suggested there is a link between the clots and getting the vaccine.
Canada’s first 500,000 doses of AstraZeneca are being put to use just this week.
Late Thursday, Health Canada issued a release saying it is aware of the reports out of Europe and would like to reassure Canadians “that the benefits of the vaccine continue to outweigh its risks.”
Health Canada said it authorized the vaccine based on a thorough, independent review of the evidence and determined that it meets Canada’s stringent safety, efficacy and quality requirements.
“At this time, there is no indication that the vaccine caused these events,” reads the release.
“To date, no adverse events related to the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, or the version manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, have been reported to Health Canada or the Public Health Agency of Canada.”
Health Canada said none of the identified batches under investigation have been shipped to Canada.
Officials in several provinces said Thursday they don’t intend to stop the rollout.
The Canadian government says it will donate up to 200,000 vaccine doses to fight the mpox outbreak in Congo and other African countries.
It says the donated doses of Imvamune will come from Canada’s existing supply and will not affect the country’s preparedness for mpox cases in this country.
Minister of Health Mark Holland says the donation “will help to protect those in the most affected regions of Africa and will help prevent further spread of the virus.”
Dr. Madhukar Pai, Canada research chair in epidemiology and global health, says although the donation is welcome, it is a very small portion of the estimated 10 million vaccine doses needed to control the outbreak.
Vaccine donations from wealthier countries have only recently started arriving in Africa, almost a month after the World Health Organization declared the mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
A few days after the declaration in August, Global Affairs Canada announced a contribution of $1 million for mpox surveillance, diagnostic tools, research and community awareness in Africa.
On Thursday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said mpox is still on the rise and that testing rates are “insufficient” across the continent.
Jason Kindrachuk, Canada research chair in emerging viruses at the University of Manitoba, said donating vaccines, in addition to supporting surveillance and diagnostic tests, is “massively important.”
But Kindrachuk, who has worked on the ground in Congo during the epidemic, also said that the international response to the mpox outbreak is “better late than never (but) better never late.”
“It would have been fantastic for us globally to not be in this position by having provided doses a much, much longer time prior than when we are,” he said, noting that the outbreak of clade I mpox in Congo started in early 2023.
Clade II mpox, endemic in regions of West Africa, came to the world’s attention even earlier — in 2022 — as that strain of virus spread to other countries, including Canada.
Two doses are recommended for mpox vaccination, so the donation may only benefit 100,000 people, Pai said.
Pai questioned whether Canada is contributing enough, as the federal government hasn’t said what percentage of its mpox vaccine stockpile it is donating.
“Small donations are simply not going to help end this crisis. We need to show greater solidarity and support,” he said in an email.
“That is the biggest lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic — our collective safety is tied with that of other nations.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
