Mayor John Tory, Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Eileen de Villa and Toronto Fire Chief and General Manager of the Office of Emergency Management, Matthew Pegg provide an update of the current situation in Toronto and the City response to COVID-19.
The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Wednesday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.
8:34 p.m.: Public Safety Minister Bill Blair is facing harsh questions over security under the federal quarantine program after reports of two incidents of alleged sexual assault.
At a parliamentary committee hearing Wednesday, Conservative MP Shannon Stubbs grilled Blair over safeguards for hotel guests and background checks for screening officers who work at the federally mandated hotels and do compliance checks at homes.
Blair told the committee that quarantine measures have been effective and that any allegations should be thoroughly investigated.
He diverted questions on the hotel quarantine program to the Public Health Agency of Canada that oversees it, saying he has no jurisdiction over it.
A government order that took effect Feb. 22 requires anyone entering Canada by airplane to stay in a federally approved hotel for the first three nights of a 14-day quarantine.
Police have arrested two men accused of sexual assault related to quarantine measures, including one at a Montreal hotel another involving a compliance check in Oakville.
6:50 p.m.: British Columbia is reporting 531 new cases of COVID-19 and one new death, for a total of 1,394 people who have died from complications of the virus in the province.
There have been 51 new confirmed cases that are variants of concern.
Of the 627 variant cases, 580 are the strain identified in the United Kingdom, 33 are the variant detected in South Africa and 14 are the strain linked to Brazil.
The province confirmed it has started to receive supplies of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which will assist with outbreak response in communities and high-risk industries.
6:45 p.m.: Alberta is reporting 399 new COVID-19 infections and two additional deaths.
The percentage of tests that came back positive was 3.7 per cent.
Chief medical officer Dr. Deena Hinshaw says 47 new cases involving variants of the virus were found in the last day, bringing the total to 734 since the first was identified in mid-December.
The proportion of variants of concern has grown from three per cent of active cases in late January to nine per cent currently.
Hinshaw says elsewhere in the world, that percentage grew to more than 50 per cent in that time period.
There are 254 COVID-19 patients in Alberta hospitals, including 37 in intensive care.
6:22 p.m.: Toronto residents aged 80 and older will be able to book appointments for COVID-19 vaccinations at the city’s mass immunization sites starting Friday.
The city said 133,000 appointments for the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine will be available for three of its mass vaccine sites.
Those bookings will be for immunizations that take place between March 17, when the sites open, to April 11.
Residents will get early access to the province’s booking portal to make the appointments, said Toronto’s fire chief, who leads the city’s COVID-19 response.
That will prevent a delay in launching the city’s vaccination operations, said Matthew Pegg.
5:15 p.m.: A new tourism task force will look at how to best promote Ontario destinations once it is safe to travel — including a focus on the “gateway cities” of Toronto and Ottawa, as well as creating package vacations in places like Niagara, Muskoka and northern Ontario.
The task force overseeing the recovery of the $36-billion sector is headed by former provincial PC leader and cabinet minister Tim Hudak and will issue a report this spring. Read the full report by the Star’s Kristin Rushowy.
4:51 p.m.: Quebec’s auditor general says it’s too early to say whether the government has taken advantage of the pandemic to spend lavishly, but she says her office has identified nine areas of concern.
Guylaine Leclerc told reporters Wednesday the nine pandemic-related files that will be audited include financial aid programs to businesses, spending on personal protective equipment and the impact of the thousands of surgeries that were delayed to make room for COVID-19 patients in hospitals.
“If we identified (these files), it’s because we considered they were sufficiently important,” she told reporters after releasing her annual report, adding that the health crisis led to a justified relaxation of the rules governing public spending.
Leclerc says in her report Quebec will spend at least $21 billion by fiscal 2022-23 on costs related to the COVID-19 pandemic. She says $8 billion will be spent to support the health-care network, and about half that figure will go toward personal protective equipment.
Between March and November 2020 alone, she says the province spent half a billion dollars paying doctors to see patients virtually.
4:47 p.m.: Saskatchewan is launching an online and phone booking system for COVID-19 vaccinations Thursday.
Health Minister Paul Merriman says appointments will be open to residents 85 and over, and can be booked by someone on their behalf.
The Saskatchewan Health Authority says the new system will allow for 6,000 bookings per day for first shots.
Merriman says he expects demand for vaccine to exceed supply. He’s asking residents younger than 85 not to try and book an appointment and wait their turn to avoid overwhelming the system.
The health authority says it will phase out the current approach of calling residents to get a shot in favour of the self-booking system.
3:39 p.m.: A Congress riven along party lines approved a landmark $1.9-trillion (U.S.) COVID-19 relief bill Wednesday, as President Joe Biden and Democrats claimed a triumph on a bill that marshals the government’s spending might against twin pandemic and economic crises that have upended a nation.
The House gave final congressional approval to the sweeping package by a near party line 220-211 vote precisely seven weeks after Biden entered the White House and four days after the Senate passed the bill. Republicans in both chambers opposed the bill unanimously, characterizing it as bloated, crammed with liberal policies and heedless of signs the crises are easing.
“Help is here,” Biden tweeted moments after the roll call, which ended with applause from Democratic lawmakers. Biden said he’d sign the measure Friday.
Most noticeable to many Americans are provisions providing up to $1,400 direct payments this year to most adults and extending $300 weekly emergency unemployment benefits into early September. But the legislation goes far beyond that.
The measure addresses Democrats’ campaign promises and Biden’s top initial priority of easing a one-two punch that first hit the country a year ago. Since then, many Americans have been relegated to hermit-like lifestyles in their homes to avoid a disease that’s killed over 525,000 people.
3:02 p.m.: For the first time since an outbreak swept through the capital, Newfoundland and Labrador is reporting no new cases of COVID-19.
The last time the province reported no new cases was Feb. 2, before the outbreak hit.
Since then, 603 new cases have been reported, which means there were more new cases in the last five weeks than in the previous 11 months combined.
As the province cautiously emerges from the outbreak, officials are gradually loosening public health restrictions and more relaxed rules allowing residents more close contacts come into effect on Saturday.
2:40 p.m.: Saskatchewan health officials say a provincial lab has found another 26 cases of a variant of concern in the Regina area.
The Ministry of Health says the samples were from last month and confirmed to be from the B.1.1.7 strain, first detected in the United Kingdom.
To date, Saskatchewan has reported 70 cases of variants of concern.
Although most were the B.1.1.7 mutation, six were from the strain first found in South Africa.
Another 111 new COVID-19 cases were reported, many of them from the Regina area.
2:25 p.m.: Toronto medical officer of health Dr. Eileen de Villa is reporting 473 new COVID-19 cases, with four deaths, in the city.
2:20 p.m.: Health officials say an entire northwestern British Columbia city will be vaccinated over the next three weeks as the community continues to face persistent outbreaks of COVID-19.
The first clinics for roughly 12,000 residents of Prince Rupert and nearby Port Edward begin Monday and continue until April 1, said Northern Health in a statement.
Prince Rupert has a high COVID-19 case and positivity rate and has not seen the improvements in recent weeks that are happening elsewhere in the region, said Dr. Jong Kim, Northern Health chief medical health officer.
2:05 p.m.: Ontario will give municipalities and Indigenous communities $255 million to fight COVID-19 outbreaks in homeless shelters.
Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Clark said the money can be used to acquire motel and hotel spaces to support physical distancing, hire more shelter staff, and buy more personal protective equipment.
The funds can also be used to purchase cleaning supplies and support rent and utility banks to keep people who are struggling financially from becoming homeless.
Toronto will receive $94.5 million of the funding to prevent outbreaks in its shelters.
2:05 p.m.: The Manitoba government has released a list of underlying health conditions that will qualify people to receive the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in the coming weeks.
Because the AstraZeneca vaccine is not recommended for people over 65, it will be made available to people aged 50 to 64 — or 30 to 64 for First Nations people — with certain health conditions.
The list includes people with heart failure, end-stage renal disease, people receiving home care four times a week, and pregnant women with pre-existing diabetes.
1:50 p.m.: Toronto is planning to launch a $5.5 million campaign to address vaccine hesitancy that will send trusted members of the city’s 140 neighbourhoods knocking on doors to encourage residents to be immunized against COVID-19 by addressing any concerns or questions they may have, including how to get to a clinic.
“Herd immunity requires more than 70 per cent of all Canadians to take part,” said Board of Health chair Coun. Joe Cressy (Ward 10 Spadina Fort-York).
“That means we need a campaign that’s good at targeting and engaging every resident in our entire city, not just the ones that have the technological capacity to go online right now and register.”
Cressy says the community mobilization campaign will play a critical part in helping get as many residents as possible to vaccination clinics and help identify areas where mobile clinics may be the most effective method of ensuring a particular group of people receive immunization.
The Star’s Francine Kopun has more details.
1:35 p.m.: Of the 194,500 AstraZeneca vaccines released in Ontario, 29,500 are going to family doctors in Toronto, Hamilton, Guelph, Peterborough, Simcoe-Muskoka and Peel.
The rest are going to 327 pharmacies in Toronto, Kingston and Windsor areas, task force boss Gen. Rick Hillier says.
1:30 p.m.: Manitoba is reporting one additional COVID-19 death and 77 new cases.
However, six cases from unspecified dates have been removed due to data correction, so the net increase is 71.
On a per capita basis, new cases continue to be concentrated primarily in northern communities.
1:25 p.m.: Health authorities stepped up COVID-19 vaccination efforts on Wednesday amid a stubbornly consistent spread of new infections and related deaths.
As a result, the Public Health Agency of Canada urged caution in the lifting of anti-pandemic restrictions, saying easing should be slow and with special attention to emerging variants that are more contagious.
The vast majority of Canadians are still susceptible to COVID-19, Dr. Theresa Tam, the country’s chief public health officer, said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Although COVID-19 activity had been declining nationally from mid-January through mid-February, daily case counts have since levelled off,” Tam said.
“With the continued increase of cases and outbreaks associated with more contagious variants, we must all remain vigilant with public health measures and individual precautions to prevent a rapid shift in trajectory of the epidemic.”
To date, Canada has seen almost 894,000 cases of COVID-19, more than 22,300 of those fatal. Infection rates are now highest among those aged 20-39 years old, latest data show.
Health Canada said it expected Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna would deliver more than two million doses of vaccine in the next two weeks.
1:10 p.m. (will be updated): Ontario has released a list of 325 pharmacies in the Toronto, Windsor and Kingston areas to begin taking appointments for AstraZeneca vaccinations for people aged 60-64 and is giving family doctors a greater role.
Primary care physicians in Toronto, Hamilton, Guelph, Peterborough, Simcoe-Muskoka and Peel will begin providing shots to the same age group Saturday but will reach out to patients to give them appointments, Premier Doug Ford announced Wednesday.
While the number of pharmacies is lower than the 380 previously expected, Ford said “some began administering vaccinations this morning.”
Here’s the list.
1:05 p.m.: Yukon Premier Sandy Silver says, with no new cases of COVID-19 in his territory for another week, his government is ready to revise some of the restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the virus.
Speaking at a news conference this morning, Silver says full-time, in-class learning will begin next month for Grades 10 to 12, while universities are expected to return to face-to-face learning by September.
Decisions about increasing the number of social contacts are also expected this spring or summer, although exact details will depend on immunization levels that health officials hope will soon reach 75 per cent in the territory.
To date, more than 24,000 doses of Moderna vaccine have been administered in Yukon, a rate Silver says leads the country, and the government website says 8,840 of those shots are second doses.
1 p.m.: A complaint over comments an Alberta judge made about a Nigerian-born medical examiner’s accent is now before a member of the Canadian Judicial Council’s conduct committee.
Dr. Bamidele Adeagbo was a Crown witness at two trials for David and Collet Stephan, who were accused of failing to provide the necessaries in the death of their toddler in 2012.
Dozens of medical and legal experts filed a complaint against Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Terry Clackson, saying some may have perceived racism in his reasons for acquitting the Stephans at their second trial.
Among other things, Clackson wrote that Adeagbo’s ability to articulate his thoughts in an understandable fashion was severely compromised by his garbled enunciation.
Canadian Judicial Council spokeswoman Johanna LaPorte says the review of Clackson’s comments had been put on hold pending the Crown’s appeal of the acquittal.
The Alberta Court of Appeal earlier this week ordered a third trial for the Stephans, saying Clackson’s comments demonstrated the need for the not guilty verdicts to be set aside.
“No witness should fear their testimony will be dismissed or discredited because of their manner of speech,” wrote Chief Justice Catherine Fraser, adding the comments were irrelevant to issues of evidence and admissibility.
She added a reasonable person would view Clackson’s conduct as giving rise to a reasonable apprehension of bias.
12:55 p.m.: Quebec is reporting its first confirmed COVID-19 case involving a more contagious variant first detected in Brazil, known as P.1.
Authorities today reported a total of 80 new variant cases confirmed through sequencing, including one in Montreal of the P.1 variant, and the province now has a total of 335 confirmed variant cases.
Of those, 235 are of the B 1.1.7 variant first detected in the United Kingdom and 97 are of the B.1.351 variant first detected in South Africa, almost all in the Abitibi-Temiscamingue region.
Eight of the province’s 16 health regions have now confirmed variant cases, led by Montreal with 193.
Quebec is reporting 792 new COVID-19 infections and 10 more deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus today, including one in the past 24 hours.
12:30 p.m.: The York Region District School Board has closed Woodbridge College for in-person listing after 20 COVID-19 cases were found there.
The school is set to reopen March 25, according to the board’s website.
The board notes that a positive case at a school does not mean the individual was exposed to COVID-19 at the school. They may have been exposed somewhere else in the community.
It’s one of three public schools in York Region to be closed along with Northern Lights P.S. and Mount Albert P.S.
12:20 p.m.: Nova Scotia is reporting one new case of COVID-19 today.
Health officials say the case is located in the western region of the province and is related to travel outside Atlantic Canada.
Nova Scotia has 24 active reported infections.
The province has administered more than 42,500 vaccinations, about 15,000 of which were booster shots.
12:15 p.m.: Federal prison authorities have repeatedly violated the rights of inmates with efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19, a civil lawsuit alleges.
The unproven claim, filed in British Columbia Supreme Court, alleges anti-pandemic measures have resulted in a wide variety of breaches by Correctional Service of Canada.
“Without notice or explanation, it subjected incarcerated persons to medical and administrative lockdowns — a form of isolation akin to solitary confinement — for indeterminate periods of time,” the suit alleges.
“It suspended parole hearings and withheld the programs and services that incarcerated persons require in order to secure parole eligibility.”
12:05 p.m.: They’re tired, anxious and, over a few days in late February, they didn’t think the vaccine rollout was going all that well.
As Ontario lurches toward the first anniversary of the pandemic lockdown, the province’s doctors are burned out just like the rest of us, a new survey has found.
The survey, conducted by the Canadian Medical Association between Feb. 18 and 22, found that 65 per cent of roughly 1,700 respondents said they were having anxiety around the pandemic. And over the last year, the survey indicates, their fatigue has increased by 69 per cent. More than 60 per cent of respondents said the reasons for their negative feelings included the length of the social restrictions and the continued uncertainty over the future.
The Star’s Michel Henry has more details.
11:55 a.m.: The flags at Toronto City Hall and other City buildings will be at half-mast on Thursday to mark the National Day of Observance for COVID-19. Thursday marks one year since a pandemic was declared by the World Health Organization.
Here’s a list of other events in the city to mark one year since the pandemic began.
11:40 a.m.: Durham police announced Wednesday they’re investigating a series of scam calls reported in Whitby.
Community members say scammers posing as town officials asked for money to book COVID-19 vaccinations.
“The Town of Whitby does not contact residents to book vaccinations,” it said in a Twitter statement Tuesday.
The investigation is currently preliminary, said Jodi McLean, spokesperson for Durham police. They haven’t heard of similar calls from outside Whitby.
Toronto police confirmed they aren’t aware of any similar investigations in Toronto.
11:40 a.m.: The Manitoba government is launching temporary pop-up COVID-19 vaccination sites next week, in order to reach communities far from its existing so-called super centres.
The half-day or one-day clinics will start in communities including Flin Flon, Portage La Prairie, Dauphin and Gimli.
Appointments must be booked in advance through the provincial call centre.
11:35 a.m.: New Brunswick is reporting no new cases of COVID-19 today.
Health officials say there are 34 active reported cases in the province and three people are in hospital with the disease, including two in intensive care.
New Brunswick has reported a total of 1,460 COVID-19 infections and 29 deaths linked to the virus.
11:25 a.m.: Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe says starting Thursday residents will be able to book their vaccination against COVID-19 by phone or online.
He says his health minister and the Saskatchewan Health Authority will provide more details about the appointment system later today.
Speaking at a virtual convention for rural leaders, Moe says the province is in the final stretch of the pandemic.
He says a larger vaccine supply means by early April officials can start vaccinating members of the general public, beginning with residents aged 60 to 69.
11:23 a.m.: Health Canada expects more than two million doses of vaccine to be delivered from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna in two weeks.
Pfizer alone will ship more than a million doses a week itself between March 22 and April 18.
Pfizer recently said it would increase its planned shipments to Canada by 1.5 million doses before the end of March, and send an extra million doses in both April and May.
The company has now confirmed its delivery schedule through mid-April, shipping 1.2 million doses the weeks of March 22 and March 29, and one million doses the weeks of April 5 and April 18.
11:15 a.m.: Guardian/IDA pharmacies now have this link up for booking appointments as Ontario rolls out is list of locations at major chains & independent pharmacies for AstraZeneca shots for residents 60 to 64 years old.
11:10 a.m.: Quebec is reporting 792 new COVID-19 infections and 10 more deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus.
Health officials say hospitalizations rose by five today, to 581, and 112 people were in intensive care, a rise of two.
The province says it administered more than 18,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine Tuesday.
10:50 a.m.: A temporary field hospital able to treat up to 100 patients is being set up outside Toronto’s Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, expected to be completed next month.
Crews were at work Wednesday in the parking lot on Sunnybrook’s Bayview campus, amid fears from some infectious disease specialists that a third wave of COVID-19 infections is coming.
While the field hospital is currently built to hold 84 beds, a spokesperson said it could be expanded to handle up to 100 patients.
The Star’s Kevin Jiang has more details.
10:45 a.m.: For the fifth straight day, Ontario is reporting no new deaths among residents in long-term care. There have been 3,748 resident deaths in long-term care since the pandemic began.
The province says there’s one less long-term-care home in outbreak for a total of 13.4 per cent of all LTC homes in the province.
10:20 a.m.: Locally in Ontario, there are 428 new cases in Toronto, 244 in Peel and 149 in York Region.
10:18 a.m.: COVID-19 vaccination appointments opened today for residents aged 70 and older across Quebec.
Vaccines had previously only been accessible to people as young as 70 in Montreal and its northern suburb of Laval.
Health Minister Christian Dube said Tuesday the arrival of more vaccine shipments could allow the government to open vaccination to people aged 65 and older in the Montreal area as soon as Thursday.
Quebec has administered more than 580,000 doses since the start of its immunization campaign, equalling roughly 6.9 per cent of the population.
Premier Francois Legault told reporters this week his hope is that once those over 65 are vaccinated, more health orders could be relaxed, including the ban on indoor private gatherings.
Legault says those over 65 have accounted for 80 per cent of hospitalizations and 95 per cent of deaths attributed to COVID-19 in Quebec.
10:15 a.m.: Ontario is also reporting that 35,264 additional vaccine doses have been administered since its last daily update, for a total of 978,797 as of 8 p.m. Tuesday.
The province says 279,204 people are now fully vaccinated, which means they’ve had both shots.
10:11 a.m.: Health officials say COVID-19 outbreaks remain stubbornly frequent in one northwestern British Columbia city and are prompting a new approach to vaccinations.
Northern Health, the Ministry of Health and the Provincial Health Officer say the entire community of Prince Rupert and nearby Port Edward will be immunized over the next three weeks.
The first clinics for roughly 12,000 Prince Rupert-area residents begin Monday and continue until April 1.
Those eligible can dial a dedicated phone line and appointments will be assigned based on age, with vaccinations for the city’s oldest residents starting March 15 and clinics for those aged 18 to 39 begin March 29.
A statement from Northern Health says the community approach is needed because Prince Rupert has high COVID-19 case and positivity rates that have not reflected recent improvements seen elsewhere in the region.
Northern Health is also using the community immunization model on Haida Gwaii, while Island Health says all residents of nearly 30 communities with populations under 4,000 or with accessibility challenges such as the Gulf Islands, will also be vaccinated together in one or two-day clinics.
Island Health says details of those community clinics are still being arranged.
Northern Health chief medical health officer Dr. Jong Kim says offering group immunizations in areas hit hard by the virus is a responsible approach.
“Quickly vaccinating the entire community is a great way to protect everyone in Prince Rupert, and keep them safe,” Kim says in the statement.
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10:05 a.m.: Ontario is reporting 1,316 additional COVID-19 cases, with 16 deaths.
The seven-day average is up to 1,238 cases daily or 60 weekly per 100,000, and down to 12.1 deaths per day.
The labs report 54,149 completed tests, and a 3.7 per cent positivity rate.
10:03 a.m. (updated): The Bank of Canada is keeping its key interest rate target on hold at 0.25 per cent, saying economic conditions still require it even if things are going better than anticipated.
In a statement, the central bank says it expects economic growth in the first quarter of 2021 to be positive, as opposed to its previous forecast in January for a contraction to start the year.
The bank’s senior decision-makers say resilience in the economy has to do with consumers and businesses adapting to new rounds of lockdowns and restrictions.
The statement also points to a stronger-than-expected housing market as a driver of an expected rise in real gross domestic product for the first three months of the year.
But the central bank warns of considerable uncertainty about the path of the pandemic that muddies longer-term economic outlooks, including how long it will take for the labour market to recover from historic losses last year.
The bank says its key policy rate will stay at 0.25 per cent until the economy recovery, which the Bank of Canada doesn’t see happening until 2023.
10:01 a.m.: Parliament’s budget watchdog says the portion of federal spending related to COVID-19 is set to drop by 86 per cent in the coming fiscal year compared to 2020-21, as Canada transitions away from emergency pandemic measures.
In a new report, parliamentary budget officer Yves Giroux says the government is planning $22.7 billion in COVID-19-related spending over the coming year, versus an estimated $159.5 billion to date.
Part of the decline relates to a projected plunge in relief spending for individuals.
In 2020-21, an estimated $122 billion flowed to Canadians via labour market supports such as the emergency response benefit, the recovery benefit and enhanced employment insurance.
The comparable figure for 2021-22 is less than $43 billion, reflecting a gradual phaseout of aid measures.
The budget officer’s report is based on estimates tabled in Parliament last month and does not factor in the upcoming budget, which may not be introduced until April.
9:50 a.m.: The City of Toronto is reporting that 211,247 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in the city.
The city is operating approximately 22 clinics today, including mobile teams and on-site vaccinations, to vaccinate priority groups in their communities.
9:45 a.m.: True to form, Texas is going big in its effort to cast off the shackles of COVID-19.
As of today, masks are no longer required in public and businesses can fully open in America’s second-most populous state.
Gov. Greg Abbott says people in Texas are being vaccinated at record rates and the time has come to let people choose their own destiny.
Public health officials say the move is premature, and many business owners continue to require masks.
President Joe Biden has described lifting statewide restrictions as “neanderthal thinking.”
Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat, is urging her fellow citizens not to let their guard down.
“Let’s ignore wrongheaded advice and do what is right to save lives,” Jackson Lee tweeted Tuesday.
Many other states have also decided it’s time to begin moving on from the pandemic.
Mississippi has lifted all its restrictions, while in Maryland, businesses will no longer face capacity limits as of Friday.
Concert halls and movie theatres in Maryland will reopen at half-capacity, although the state is keeping its mask mandate in place.
9:20 a.m. Brampton Transit will suspend service in the Steeles West corridor effective Wednesday, following a Peel Public Health investigation.
Peel Public Health said in a public notice that it has directed transit operators to get tested for COVID-19 and that medical-grade face masks be mandatory for all operators.
Peel Public Health said an investigation includes a “number of” Brampton Transit employees but did not provide specific numbers.
The 511 Züm Steeles and 11 Steeles and 51 Hereford stops will be affected. This suspension will last at least seven days, Brampton Transit said.
Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown said on CP24 that the 511 bus route will be temporarily cancelled west of Chinguacousy Road as a “large logistic business” on the route is experiencing a COVID-19 outbreak.
Brown did not identify the business, and Peel Public Health said it has not yet linked any outbreaks to the investigation.
Read the full story from the Star’s Zena Salem
8:42 a.m. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh is appealing to the international community to deliver promised vaccines against COVID-19.
His office says the prime minister on Tuesday urged friendly countries and companies, as well as the World Health Organization, to “fulfil their obligations to us.”
Shtayyeh says U.N. deliveries expected this month through COVAX, the WHO-backed program to assist poorer nations, are now delayed.
The virus has surged through the West Bank and Gaza Strip and Israel has come under significant international criticism for giving its own population vaccines without doing the same for Palestinians. This week, the government began vaccinating Palestinian labourers who work in Israel.
However, that effort will only vaccinate a small percentage of the roughly 5 million Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and blockaded Gaza Strip. Israel says under past peace accords, it is not responsible for vaccinating the Palestinian populations in those areas. Human rights groups say Israel remains an occupying power with an obligation to assist the Palestinians.
8:20 a.m. Vaughan’s new hospital has begun planning for its full-service opening when it will finally start accepting non-COVID-19 patients and open the doors to its emergency department, Mackenzie Health told Yorkregion.com. No date is set yet.
In early February, the Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital made headlines when it opened after years of construction and fundraising. However, the new hospital only admitted COVID-19 patients to reduce pressures on other Greater Toronto Area hospitals with its 35 intensive care unit beds and 150 general internal medicine beds earmarked for COVID-19 patients.
“In the first three weeks, more than 90 patients were transferred to Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital from hospitals across the GTA to help alleviate capacity pressures,” Mackenzie Health said.
“Once the health-care system has stabilized, we look forward to fully opening Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital the way we intended,” Mackenzie Health said, describing how the COVID-19 “landscape was grim” in early January.
“To help paint the picture, COVID-19 cases were rising at an alarming rate and hospitals were reaching capacity. ICUs were estimated to run out of critical care beds by the end of January,” it added.
8:13 a.m. Mayor John Tory, on CP24 Wednesday morning answering a viewer question about when lane swimming at city pools can resume, said he’s hopeful that Toronto can move from grey-zone lockdown to less restrictive red-zone reopening “soon.” That depends on COVID-19 indicators continuing to improve, he said, adding there has been some “up and down” with them but we seem “to be on the right path.”
7:55 a.m. Following a 12-person COVID-19 outbreak at a CIBC call centre, on-site employees say they’re fearful of contracting the virus and have asked repeatedly for permission to work from home.
Several employees working in CIBC call centres reached out to the Star following reports of the outbreak at the company’s 5650 Yonge St. location early in February.
The employees, who asked to remain nameless due to fear of reprisal, say they have asked their employers for permission to work from home since the beginning of the pandemic, largely without success.
CIBC says the vast majority of employees work remotely but that some call centre workers are required to remain on-site. The remaining employees “come on-site to access systems and tools that enable our bank to provide vital financial services to our clients,” the company said in a statement to the Star.
Read the full story from the Star’s Jacob Lorinc
7:50 a.m. With more opportunities emerging to work remotely in these uncertain times, fewer people appear willing to move abroad for work, according to a global survey that also found Canada is overtaking the U.S. as the world’s top destination for foreign workers.
Overall, only 50.4 per cent of the 209,000 respondents from 190 countries said they would move to another country to work, citing the COVID-19 pandemic as a key reason, according to the survey by Boston Consulting Group and The Network.
The report on global workforce trends shows a gradual decline in people’s interest in working abroad, from 57 per cent in 2018 and 64 per cent in 2014, when the surveys were previously conducted.
“These findings reflect several new factors that have penetrated the world’s consciousness and changed the workplace. The factors — the fallout from a difficult-to-control pandemic and a sharp rise in nationalism — have altered people’s thinking,” said the report released this month.
Read the full story from the Star’s Nicholas Keung
7:40 a.m. On Wednesday, Ontario will reveal an initial list of 380 pharmacies getting AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines, setting the stage for a flurry of bookings with shots to begin this week in the Toronto, Windsor and Kingston areas for adults aged 60 to 64.
Details on locations were still being finalized Tuesday, Health Minister Christine Elliott said as eligible residents of the three pilot project regions snooped around their local drug stores with an eye to getting a head start.
“We will be able to deliver them before expiry,” she added in a reference to the April 2 best-before date on Ontario’s first shipment of 194,500 doses received Tuesday.
Health Canada has not approved the AstraZeneca vaccine for anyone 65 or older, prompting the province to designate it for the 1 million Ontarians in their early 60s. About 95 per cent of COVID-19 deaths are in people over 60.
Read the full story from the Star’s Rob Ferguson
7:30 a.m. Rogers has announced a significant expansion of its affordable internet program, Connected For Success, hoping to reach 750,000 households in Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland.
The program has already served more than 25,000 households across the three provinces, according to a Rogers spokesperson, and around 250,000 households are currently eligible. It was first available to Toronto Community Housing residents, then later expanded to all Ontarians in rent-geared-to-income housing, and to families receiving the maximum Canada Child Benefit, as well as people in Newfoundland and New Brunswick in similar situations.
Now, the program will also be available to Ontarians receiving income support through Ontario Works or the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), and for senior Ontarians receiving the Guaranteed Income Supplement, as well as those in Newfoundland and New Brunswick accessing similar programs. The expansion will add around 750,000 new eligible households.
Read the full story from the Star’s Rosa Saba
7:22 a.m. They’re tired, anxious and, over a few days in late February, they didn’t think the vaccine rollout was going all that well.
As Ontario lurches toward the first anniversary of the pandemic lockdown, the province’s doctors are burned out just like the rest of us, a new survey has found.
“Physicians are experiencing the same types of restrictions and social isolation as the rest of Canadians,” said Ann Collins, president of the Canadian Medical Association.
The survey, conducted by the CMA between Feb. 18 and 22, found that 65 per cent of roughly 1,700 respondents said they were having anxiety around the pandemic. And over the last year, the survey indicates, their fatigue has increased by 69 per cent. More than 60 per cent of respondents said the reasons for their negative feelings included the length of the social restrictions and the continued uncertainty over the future.
And yet, according to Collins, the survey found that only about 16 per cent of respondents indicated that they had reached out to someone else for help.
Read the full story from the Star’s Michele Henry
6:51 a.m. Congress is poised to approve a landmark $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, placing President Joe Biden on the cusp of an early triumph that advances Democratic priorities and showcases the unity his party will need to forge future victories.
The House was expected to give final congressional approval Wednesday to the package, which aims to fulfil Democrats’ campaign promises to beat the coronavirus pandemic and revive the enfeebled economy. House and Senate Republicans have unanimously opposed the package as bloated, crammed with liberal policies and heedless of signs the dual crises are easing.
6:30 a.m. New variants are spreading, the vaccine rollout is still sputtering, and Ontario’s COVID-19 decline has stalled, with troubling signs the curve could be bending back up again. Meanwhile, restrictions are loosening across the province — meaning more Ontarians are on the move.
All of this, combined with a heavy dose of lockdown fatigue, makes for an unnerving mix at a critical juncture. Experts are warning of a third wave and pointing to a constellation of troubling signs: roughly 30 per cent of tests are now screening positive for variants of concern, up from about seven per cent a month ago.
Mobility levels across the province are also on the rise.
Since the pandemic began, cellphone mobility data has been used as an imperfect proxy measure for how people are behaving. While this type of data comes with significant caveats — and new research is questioning whether mobility data is still as predictive as it was in the first wave — mobility levels have historically been a good indicator of where the pandemic is headed, experts say.
Between Jan. 18 and Feb. 28, average mobility across Ontario increased from 58 per cent to 65 per cent, according to the marketing firm Environics Analytics. Environics defines mobility as a percentage of residents 15 or older who travelled 500 metres or more beyond their home postal code.
But what are some the behaviours underlying this rise in mobility? The Star analyzed mobility datasets from Environics and Google to try to better understand how people have been responding to Ontario’s patchwork of colour-coded restrictions — and what it all means for where the pandemic is going next.
Click here to read the full story from the Star’s Jennifer Yang and Andrew Bailey on what mobility patterns tell us about ‘leaky lockdowns’ and a possible third wave.
5:45 a.m. The Bank of Canada will provide a window into its thinking on the economy as it makes an announcement about its trendsetting rate.
The key policy rate has been at 0.25 per cent almost exactly one year after the central bank cut rates three times last March at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing it to the lowest it can go.
Governor Tiff Macklem has said the rate won’t move from the lower effective bound until an economic recovery is well underway, which the bank doesn’t expect to happen until 2023.
That has taken much of the drama out of today’s announcement.
Instead, experts will be looking closely at the wording the bank’s senior decision-makers put into the statement announcing the decision for clues on the bank’s outlook for the rate and its quantitative easing program.
The central bank is scheduled to release its updated economic outlook late next month as part of its quarterly monetary policy report.
5:15 a.m. Gov. Mike Dunleavy says Alaska will become the first state to drop eligibility requirements and allow anyone 16 or older who lives or works in the state to get a COVID-19 vaccination.
Dunleavy, who made the announcement Tuesday following his own bout with COVID-19, hailed the move to open up eligibility as a historic step.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker shows Alaska leading states in the percentage of its population to have received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.
The state last week vastly expanded eligibility to include those ages 55 to 64 and those 16 and older who are classified as essential workers, at or potentially at high risk for severe illness from COVID-19 or who live in multi-generational households or communities lacking in water or sewer systems.
5:13 a.m. A German doctors’ union is calling for its members to be able to vaccinate people with chronic illnesses against the coronavirus.
The Marburger Bund said in a statement Wednesday that GPs and specialists said people with chronic conditions are disadvantaged by Germany’s vaccine current priority lists.
Some German states have begun allowing doctors to administer the shots in a limited number of practices. Officials are discussing whether to allow all doctors practices to offer vaccines as the available supply increases in the coming weeks.
Germany’s disease control agency reported 9,146 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 overnight, and 300 additional deaths. Since the outbreak began, Germany has recorded more than 2.5 million cases and 72,489 COVID-related deaths.
5:02 a.m. Pakistan has started vaccinating people who are 60 years old or above to protect them from COVID-19 amid a steady increase in cases and fatalities from the disease.
Pakistan is currently using China’s Sinopharm vaccine, which was donated to it by Beijing last month.
Pakistan hopes to start receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine this month under the World Health Organization’s COVAX Facility. Authorities say Pakistan will receive 17 million doses of coronavirus vaccines under the scheme from March to June.
Fatalities and confirmed cases from the coronavirus have increased steadily since March 1, when Pakistan resumed regular classes at schools. On Wednesday, Pakistani authorities were expected to decide whether schools should again be closed.
Pakistan has reported 595,239 cases, including 13,324 deaths.
4:57 a.m. Ontario says it will give municipalities and Indigenous communities $255 million to address an increase in COVID-19 outbreaks in homeless shelters across the province.
Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Clark is expected to make the announcement at a press conference later this morning.
The government says communities can use the funding to acquire motel and hotel spaces to support physical distancing, hire more shelter staff, and buy more personal protective equipment.
The funds can also be used to purchase cleaning supplies and be added to rent and utility banks to keep people from becoming homeless.
Toronto will receive $94.5 million of the funding to prevent outbreaks in its shelters.
Of the 20,000 people who used Toronto’s homeless shelter system last year, 711 contracted the disease — and six died of the virus.
One recent outbreak linked to the COVID-19 variant has ripped through the Maxwell Meighen Centre in downtown Toronto, infecting dozens of people.
Wednesday 4 a.m. Advocates for youth in government care are calling on the provinces and territories to continue supporting those who are aging out of the child welfare system and trying to make it on their own during the pandemic.
Melanie Doucet, senior researcher at the Child Welfare League of Canada, said vulnerable youth who transition out of foster care or a group home, at age 18 or 19 in most jurisdictions, already experience higher rates of unemployment, homelessness and mental health issues.
“It’s almost impossible for them to find a job, and housing is really difficult to come by,” Doucet said from Montreal, where she is also a McGill University researcher studying the effects on youth aging out of care during the pandemic.
As COVID-19 lockdowns began a year ago, the league joined forces with over a dozen groups to form the National Council of Youth in Care Advocates to urge governments across Canada to put moratoriums in place for those who would be aging out of care.
“We’re starting to think about this new normal that the government keeps talking about, that Canadian society is going to enter after the pandemic is over,” Doucet said.
She said an estimated 6,700 youth age out of the system in Canada every year, amounting to about 11 per cent of those who are in care.
Tuesday 9:32 p.m.: Toronto’s Sunnybrook hospital campus is preparing to add 100 beds to hospital field, as some experts predict a third wave of COVID-19.
The Sunnybrook Health Science Centre has begun setting up the hospital in its parking lot, according to a CTV Toronto report, which aired footage of the work. It will feature ventilators, oxygen machines, portable X-ray machines, and a negative-pressure system that cleans the air.
The federal government promised two units to the GTA on Jan. 22.
A spokesperson for Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott, Alexandra Hilkene, said Tuesday evening they are “still finalizing details and look forward to sharing more information in the near future.”
Click here to read more of Tuesday’s COVID-19 coverage.