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.
9:30 p.m.: An emergency parliamentary debate that was supposed to be a forum for cross-party collaboration on better ways to combat the COVID-19 pandemic has devolved into another round of partisan finger-pointing.
Veteran Green MP Elizabeth May requested the debate, appealing to MPs to stop the blame game and think about how Canada can develop a more nationally co-ordinated approach to the pandemic that is raging out of control in some provinces.
Both the Greens and NDP suggest it’s time for the federal government to invoke the Emergencies Act, which would enable it to shut down interprovincial travel and lockdown areas experiencing community spread of the more contagious variants of COVID-19 — rather than leaving it up to provincial and territorial governments.
But Conservative and Bloc Quebecois MPs are using the opportunity to rehash their criticism of the Liberal government’s handling of the health crisis.
Conservatives are blaming Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s failure to secure a stable supply of vaccines in January and February for the third wave of COVID-19 sweeping across the country.
May says she’s saddened by the finger-pointing and argues there’s plenty of blame to go around but it’s urgent right now to focus on how Canada can do better, not on what went wrong in the past.
8:30 p.m.: Yukon is reporting one new case of COVID-19, bringing the total number of infections to 78.
The territory says the case was associated with international travel.
It says the person tested positive on return to Canada and self-isolated before entering Yukon.
It says the case won’t be part of the active count because the person recovered.
Alberta is reporting 1,699 new COVID-19 cases and a test positivity rate of 9.5 per cent.
Health officials have confirmed another 1,332 variant cases and variants now make up about 59 per cent of the province’s 18,873 active cases.
Dr. Deena Hinshaw, chief medical officer of health, says she remains concerned about the high spread of COVID-19 in Alberta.
8:20 p.m.: A McMaster University study examining whether surgical masks provide health-care workers with similar protection to N95 respirators has triggered a formal complaint alleging the lives of participants are being needlessly placed at risk.
In an April 19 letter to the federal research ethics panel, a coalition of health-care practitioners allege the study “exposes health-care workers to COVID-19 infection” by allowing them to wear surgical masks instead of N95 respirators when caring for patients.
The complaint to Canada’s Secretariat on Responsible Conduct of Research (SRCR) states there is “ample research” to support the transmission of COVID-19 through aerosols that can be spread through the air and inhaled, requiring respirators as the “minimum line of safety protection for at-risk workers.”
Read the Star exclusive story here: Canadian study of surgical masks is needlessly putting health-care workers at risk of catching COVID-19, complaint alleges
8:00 p.m.: Patient transfers between Ontario hospitals are increasing as the number of people with COVID-19 in ICUs reached a pandemic record of 790 Tuesday, with 566 requiring ventilators.
Ornge, Ontario’s air ambulance and medical transport service, and local paramedics have transported 570 patients so far in April to create ICU capacity, including 243 since April 14. That’s a 135 per cent increase from March when 242 patients were transported.
“We are now seeing ‘critical care hopscotch,’” wrote Dr. Michael Warner, medical director of critical care at Michael Garron Hospital, on Twitter. “This is very concerning. Options are running out.”
Hospitals are scrambling to create more ICU beds by cancelling elective surgeries, adding field hospitals and tents and accommodating adults in pediatric care facilities.
Read the full story here: Ontario playing ‘critical care hopscotch’ with record COVID-19 patients being transferred between hospitals to free up ICU space
7:30 p.m.: British Columbia’s solicitor general says the government will release details of what is considered essential travel this week as the province looks at using roadblocks to limit the spread of COVID-19.
Mike Farnworth described the checkpoints as a type of “counterattack,” often used to find drunk drivers, but this time meant to discourage recreational travel outside of a person’s health authority.
A “full and comprehensive” list on what is considered essential travel will be released laster this week, Farnworth said at a news conference Wednesday.
His comments come as the National Police Federation released a statement saying it has “grave concerns” about police taking part in enforcing a COVID-19 ban on non-essential travel.
A statement from Brian Sauvé, president of the federation, said asking the police to enforce roadblocks puts even greater pressure on limited resources and exposes officers to further risk and possible COVID-19 infections.
“Equally important, we are continuing to enhance and build on our relationships with vulnerable and racialized communities, and the ambiguity and potentially negative impacts of these orders risk reversing this progress,” he said.
He also pointed to a similar attempt in Ontario where the province had to pedal back enforcement measures.
Officers were originally given powers to stop any pedestrian or driver to ask why they’re out or request their home address.
But on Sunday, Doug Ford’s government limited police to being able to stop people who they had reason to believe were participating in an “organized public event or social gathering.”
Police forces in Ontario had said they had no intention of exercising their new powers ahead of the reversal.
Sauvé noted that police services took the “unusual step” of rejecting the orders.
“They explained in no uncertain terms that Ontario police officers had no appetite to act on enhanced powers that are typically found in police states, and that doing so would erode a currently fragile public trust, especially with vulnerable and racialized communities,” he said.
British Columbia reported 862 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday and seven more deaths, for a total of 1,546 fatalities since the pandemic started.
A joint statement from the health minister and provincial health officer said more than 1.4 million doses of the vaccine have been administered.
Those in B.C. who are now 30 years and older are eligible to register for the vaccine in the age-based vaccination program.
6:40 p.m.: The federal government is looking into flights arriving from India due to a massive surge of COVID-19 cases ravaging that country, Canada’s top public health doctor said Wednesday as at least one province urged Ottawa to tighten the border.
The government generally believes that limiting travel from specific countries can only go so far, said Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, but India may present a special case.
“We will be doing further analysis because it’s an emerging situation, not just because of the variant of interest at this point but because they have unfortunately a very massive resurgence in that country,” she said. “We will be doing that risk assessment again, and using the data that we have now collected at the border to inform our next steps.”
Read the full story here: Canada eyes policy on travel from India due to massive COVID surge
6:30 p.m.: Toronto is nearing two very different COVID-19 milestones — 3,000 deaths suffered, and one million vaccine doses administered.
City officials on Wednesday announced plans to ramp up vaccinations, thanks to more expected supply, but acknowledged vaccine alone won’t stop the virus’s third wave from pushing the health system over the brink.
Dr. Eileen de Villa, Toronto’s public health chief, announced 27 more Torontonians dead from COVID-19, bringing the total since March 2020 to 2,970. Wednesday also saw 1,302 new cases and 1,010 people in hospital, 194 of them in intensive care units and 128 of them on breathing machines.
“The figures for people currently in hospital, people currently in ICU and people currently intubated, are all the highest recorded at any point in the pandemic so far,” a sombre de Villa told the online briefing.
Read the full story here: Toronto ramping up vaccine rollout — but that alone won’t rescue health system, top doctor says
5:45 p.m.: Many outdoor amenities in local parks were ordered shut by the provincial government in its latest attempt to reduce the rapid spread of COVID-19 across Ontario, but local health experts believe more of them should actually be left open.
Under the province’s stay-at-home order issued last week, parks and beaches, playgrounds, washrooms, dog off-leash areas, benches, and community and allotment gardens are allowed to stay open in Toronto.
However, other outdoor recreational amenities were closed, which cued the city to begin shutting them down on Monday. It says the process will take around a week to complete.
But Dr. Peter Juni, head of Ontario’s COVID-19 science advisory table, told the Star, “It does not make sense to have regulations in place that do not respect the characteristics of this pandemic.”
Read the full story here: Doug Ford has ordered the closure of outdoor amenities at parks to stop COVID-19. Health experts say that’s a bad move
5:30 p.m.: With the province plunged in what has been called one of the strictest lockdowns in North America, Ontario health officials are holding up Thunder Bay as an example for what is possible.
The northern city has drastically reduced its case numbers and transmission rate since February, when there were outbreaks at two correctional facilities, numerous schools and within the homeless community, prompting the city to declare a state of emergency.
By March 9, the Thunder Bay District Health Unit was seeing more than 270 cases per 100,000 people, which they’ve driven down to 24.7 per 100,000 as of April 17. That compares to 278.2 per 100,000 in Toronto.
During an April 16 provincial COVID-19 update, Dr. Adalsteinn Brown, with the COVID-19 science table, said other municipalities should follow the example of Thunder Bay, which has a population of about 120,000.
“Thunder Bay was the centre of a huge outbreak only two months ago, but it’s flattened its curve in an impressive way. The whole city came together, shut itself down, focused on the fight and got it done,” Brown said.
Read the full story here: From a huge COVID-19 outbreak to impressive flattening: What Toronto and other cities can learn from Thunder Bay
5:05 p.m.: A case of a coronavirus variant that first emerged in India has been found in Quebec, the province’s Health Department said Wednesday.
It’s the first known case of the B.1.617 variant reported in the province, according to Quebec’s public health institute.
The case was detected in the Mauricie and Centre-du-Quebec region, west of Quebec City, the Institut national de sante publique du Quebec said.
The news came as Quebec reported 1,217 new cases of COVID-19 and a 22-patient jump in hospitalizations.
Health officials said 716 people are in hospital — the first time since mid-February the number of COVID-19-related hospitalizations has risen above 700. They said 178 people are in intensive care, a rise of one from the day prior.
Officials are also reporting six more deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus, including one that took place within the previous 24 hours.
The province said 54,410 doses of vaccine were administered Tuesday, for a total of 2,503,910.
Earlier on Wednesday, lineups were reported at some walk-in vaccine sites in the province as Quebecers 45 and older became eligible to receive the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. It had previously been available to people 55 and over.
Quebec has reported a total of 340,397 cases of COVID-19 and 10,838 deaths linked to the virus.
3:55 p.m.: Nova Scotia is reporting 25 new cases of COVID-19 today and now has a total of 79 active infections.
Nineteen have been identified in the Halifax area, with four related to travel outside of Atlantic Canada, nine close contacts of previously reported cases and six under investigation.
Meanwhile, Newfoundland and Labrador is reporting one new case of COVID-19, related to travel within Canada; Manitoba is reporting 164 new cases; Nunavut is reporting one new case; and New Brunswick says a person in their 60s in the Saint John area has died of COVID-19, marking the 34th death in the province attributed to the novel coronavirus.
5:12 p.m.: Canada’s chief public health officer says new information on COVID-19 and variants prompted the National Advisory Committee on Immunization to suddenly cancel its planned announcement on who should get the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
NACI was minutes away Tuesday afternoon from providing an update to its advice that AstraZeneca shouldn’t be given to people under the age of 55, but the planned briefing was called off. That cancellation came even as five provinces had already decided to lower the age limit as doses of the vaccine sat in freezers and cases of COVID-19 soared.
The cancellation immediately led to concern from some Canadians that NACI knew something they didn’t about the vaccine’s safety.
Not so, said Dr. Theresa Tam, who is not part of the committee but interacts with them as the country’s top public health doctor.
Tam said Wednesday the panel believed some new data on the virus and its variants of concern, and the effect they were having on severe outcomes, had to be taken into account. She said that information came from the provinces and territories and she doesn’t know if the new data will change the advice NACI had been set to deliver.
“Just to reassure everyone that it is because they received some new data that they thought was pertinent in terms of analyzing the impact of the COVID-19 on the population in light of variants of concern, and not because of any changes in the data already existing for the thrombosis disorder itself,” Tam said.
3:51 p.m.: A paid sick-leave program is coming to Ontario in a matter of days, the province said Wednesday as critics accused the government of endangering essential workers by delaying action on the issue for months.
Public health experts, labour groups and local officials have been calling for sick-leave support for much of the pandemic, arguing it would reduce COVID-19 spread in workplaces.
After months of saying a provincial plan would needlessly overlap with a federal measure, the Progressive Conservatives said they’d introduce a policy that would fill “gaps” in Ottawa’s benefit, including reducing wait times for funds, expanding eligibility and providing time off to get vaccinated.
House Leader Paul Calandra said the province had been hoping the federal Liberals would announce those changes in its budget earlier this week.
“Obviously, it’s important for us that we get this out as soon as possible in light of the disappointment Monday,” he said. “But we’re going to get it right and, over the next number of days, you’ll see us come forward with something.”
The shift in the province’s approach on sick leave came after Premier Doug Ford’s government rejected Opposition motions on paid sick leave earlier this week.
Calandra said the third wave, which has been pummeling Ontario, underscored the need for the province to act.
Hospitalizations and admissions to intensive care for COVID-19 have been surging across the province in recent weeks, with doctors noting that essential workers are often among the most serious cases.
There were 788 patients with COVID-related critical illness in intensive care units as of midnight on Wednesday, according to a daily report from Critical Care Services Ontario.
3:04 p.m. Canada can look forward to an unexpected shot in the arm from the United States, President Joe Biden suggested Wednesday as he hinted at plans to send surplus COVID-19 vaccines north of the border.
The U.S. is sitting on a stockpile of vaccine doses that it’s not currently using, Biden said — a likely reference to the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot, which Canada has approved but the U.S. has not.
“We’re looking at what is going to be done with some of the vaccines that we are not using … and we hope to be able to be of some help and value to countries around the world,” he said.
Read the full story here on the Star.
2:14 p.m. (updated) Toronto’s top doctor says Wednesday’s COVID numbers are grim. Dr Eileen de Villa says there are 1,302 new COVID-19 cases. 1,010 people are in hospital, 194 of them in ICU. 128 of them are intubated. Hospitalization figures including intubated patients are the highest they’ve ever been during the pandemic.
During the same briefing, the city announced its “Team Toronto Sprint Strategy” ramping up vaccinations in 13 “hottest” postal codes.
The announcement was made Wednesday at a city briefing. The city says a new mobile vaccination strategy aims to triple the amount of vaccine in hot spot neighbourhoods.
Toronto expects to start receiving regular, larger shipments of vaccine from the province soon. The city is working with health partners including hospitals and community health centres to ensure that increased vaccine supply will be offered to eligible adults, especially in hot spots, as quickly as possible through mobile and pop-up community vaccination clinics.
Toronto has identified 13 priority areas by postal code to see increased vaccine through mobile and pop-up clinics:
Northwest: M9W, M9V, M9L, M9M, M9N, M6M, M3K, M3J, M3N, M3M
Central: M4H
East: M1J, M1G
Read here for a full list of “hot spot” postal codes.
1:05 p.m.: German lawmakers have approved a proposal by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government to mandate uniform restrictions in areas where the coronavirus is spreading too quickly.
The legislation to apply an “emergency brake” consistently in areas with high infection rates is intended to end the patchwork of measures that has often characterized the pandemic response across highly decentralized Germany’s 16 states.
The lower house of parliament voted 342-250 for the plan on Wednesday, with 64 abstentions. The upper house, where state governments are represented, is due to consider the legislation Thursday.
It features plans to impose a 10 p.m.-5 a.m. curfew, limit personal contacts, close leisure and sports facilities and shut or restrict access to many stores.
1:05 p.m.: A government official says France is about to impose new entry restrictions on travellers from India to fight a contagious coronavirus variant spreading in that country.
The restrictions come in addition to those previously announced regarding four other countries, Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Brazil, which will be implemented starting from Saturday.
Government spokesman Gabriel Attal confirmed that France will lift its ban on domestic travel as planned on May 3. But it will maintain its nighttime curfew, now in place from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. The official says nonessential shops, closed since the partial lockdown of the country in early April, won’t reopen before mid-May.
10:04 a.m. (updated) Ontario is reporting 4,212 COVID-19 cases with 32 deaths. The seven-day average is slightly up to 4,327 cases per day or 208 weekly per 100,000, and up to 25.6 deaths daily, a third wave high. Labs report 51,877 completed tests & 7.9 per cent positivity.
Locally, there are 1,249 new cases in Toronto, 771 in Peel, 386 in York Region, 276 in Hamilton and 214 in Durham.
As of 8 p.m. Tuesday, 4,131,882 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered.
9:30 a.m. Premier Doug Ford’s resistance to guaranteeing paid sick days to workers impacted by COVID-19 is one reason for the “stressful, disturbing” virus spread, Toronto Mayor John Tory said Wednesday.
“A number of us have said (paid sick leave) was a necessary component all the way along, and one of the reasons we are where we are is because we haven’t had” such a program, Tory told CP24, welcoming signals from the province it will finally move on the demands that have come loudest from medical experts.
The mayor commented one day after Toronto Public Health chief Dr. Eileen de Villa, and her Peel Region counterpart, went beyond provincial restrictions by issuing local orders that will close for 10 days all or part of workplaces with five or more COVID-19 cases, meaning more workers will be temporarily off the job with no wage guarantees.
Health experts, including the provinces’s own science advisory table, have long said government-guaranteed pay for workers sick or waiting for tests, so they don’t potentially infect colleagues, is vital to curbing soaring infection rates threatening to crash the health care system.
9:20 a.m. A field hospital is set to open next month in a Wellington Street North parking lot across from Hamilton General that can take as many as 80 patients. It will be run by HHS but used to ease the pressure on hospitals across the province.
See the construction of the new hospital in photos
9:10 a.m. Twenty-two COVID-19 patients on ventilators died in a hospital in western India on Wednesday when their oxygen supply was interrupted by a leak in a supply line, officials said.
Suraj Mandhar, the district collector, said the supply of oxygen has since resumed to other patients.
Fire officer Sanjay Bairagi said the leak was halted by the fire service within 15 minutes, but there was supply disruption in the Zakir Hussain Hospital in Nashik, a city in Maharashtra state that is the worst hit by the latest surge in coronavirus cases in the country.
Television images showed white fumes spreading in the hospital area, causing panic.
Surinder Sonone, a police officer, said the leak occurred in a pipe connecting the oxygen supply to the main tank in the hospital complex.
Five of the 140 COVID-19 patients were shifted to another hospital, he said.
The state government ordered an investigation of the leak, state Health Minister Rajesh Tope said.
9 a.m. Statistics Canada says the annual pace of inflation jumped higher in March due in large part to a plunge in prices a year ago at the start of the pandemic.
The agency says the consumer price index in March was up 2.2 per cent compared with a year ago.
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The increase compared with a 1.1 per cent year-over-year increase in February, which was then a pandemic-era high.
The figures for March marked a new high, but one that saw prices compared against a year ago when the first wave of COVID-19 crashed on Canada’s shores.
March gas prices, for example, were up 35.3 per cent compared with the same month last year when prices reached a four-year low at the onset of the pandemic.
Statistics Canada says about one-fifth of the increase in gasoline prices was due to the comparison with prices in March 2020.
8:20 a.m. Several Shoppers Drug Marts across Ontario will run 24 hours a day, seven days a week to administer COVID-19 vaccine shots starting as soon as Wednesday, the province announced Tuesday.
A total 20 pharmacies have partnered with Ontario in this program; they will offer the AstraZeneca/COVISHIELD vaccine to individuals aged 40 or older.
Eligible residents can find a pharmacy nearest to them via the province’s online portal.
Here are the 20 locations administering vaccines 24/7
8:10 a.m. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga wants to make a decision as soon as this week on whether to declare a state of emergency in Tokyo, Osaka and other areas, and ramp up restrictions to contain a surge in coronavirus cases just three months before the start of the delayed Olympics.
Suga told reporters Wednesday he has received formal requests from Osaka and neighboring Hyogo prefecture for a declaration. Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike indicated a request will be coming soon from the capital, where infections are spreading and she said the medical system is coming under strain in some areas.
The moves by the leaders of Japan’s two-biggest and economically important urban areas have put pressure on Suga to move quickly. Local media reports indicate Kyoto prefecture was planning to request an emergency declaration.
Tokyo is looking to have a state of emergency in place from April 29 through May 9, to coincide with a string of public holidays known as “Golden Week,” the Mainichi newspaper reported Wednesday, citing an unnamed political official. The move could step up current virus restrictions by having department stores close, it said. The Yomiuri newspaper reported that entertainment facilities including karaoke parlors could also face temporary closure.
7:40 a.m. Several Ontario gyms have recently reopened under an exception in the province’s lockdown regulations intended to serve people with disabilities — raising concerns that they are exploiting a legal loophole and creating a public health risk.
The exception in the Reopening Ontario Act allows a fitness facility to open solely for use by persons with a disability, within the meaning of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, who have a “written instruction” from a regulated health professional for “physical therapy” that they can’t do elsewhere.
In advertising or when approached by the Star, three Ontario gyms that have recently reopened said they won’t ask clients to show a note, claiming they can’t ask under disability laws.
Teresa Heron, the co-owner of Huf gym in Mississauga, which was fined last week for staying open in defiance of public health orders, said in a note to members the gym will not ask clients to show a note, nor question anyone’s eligibility to use the gym for that purpose. Clients with disabilities can get “can get a prescription to destress through boxing,” Heron recently told the Star.
Read the full story from the Star’s Alyshah Hasham and Jason Miller
7:15 a.m. Pakistani authorities on Wednesday reported 148 deaths from COVID-19, one of the country’s highest daily death tolls in recent months.
Pakistan is currently in the middle of a third wave of coronavirus infections amid widespread violations of social distancing rules. The government says the current wave is more dangerous compared to previous ones.
The government has imposed a partial lockdown in high-risk areas to contain the spread of the virus and vaccinating health workers and older people against COVID-19. Authorities so far have largely relied on donated or imported vaccines from China.
Pakistan hopes to receive 15 million vaccine doses by next month through the U.N.-backed COVAX program.
Pakistan has reported a total of 772,381 confirmed cases and 16,600 deaths in the pandemic.
7 a.m. Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar is out of the Flèche Wallonne one-day race Wednesday after his UAE Team Emirates squad withdrew following two positive tests for the coronavirus, even though the team was previously vaccinated.
The team said rider Diego Ulissi and an unidentified staff member tested positive when they arrived in Belgium on Sunday, but that both repeatedly tested negative before and after the positive tests.
“Though the team is frustrated by the ruling, we fully accept the final decision of the Belgian authorities,” the team said.
The entire team was given the Chinese-made Sinopharm vaccine in January during a training camp in the United Arab Emirates.
UAE Team Emirates said it will now undergo more coronavirus tests with the aim of being cleared to compete in the Liège-Bastogne-Liège race on Sunday.
6:50 a.m. To date, 948,657 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in Toronto.
6 a.m. While anyone age 40 and over is now eligible to receive an AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine directly from a pharmacy, the vaccine rollout and booking system remains confusing and convoluted for many Canadians.
Enter Vaccine Hunters Canada, a group dedicated to connecting eligible people and available vaccines. The group’s Twitter account has exploded in popularity in recent days. As of Tuesday morning, the account has more than 100,000 followers. Thousands more vaccine hunters can be found on Facebook and messaging platform Discord.
A core team of four volunteers established the account as a way to connect Canadians to vaccines — and each other, explained Josh Kalpin, one of the platform’s founders. The volunteer group is expanding rapidly, with plans for moderators, contributors and “local specialists” dedicated to sourcing vaccines in every province.
“We’re here to facilitate Canadians helping each other. It’s our duty as Canadians to help each other and to protect those that are most at risk and vulnerable, and I think the best way to do that is (to have) members of your community reach out to you.”
Read the full story from the Star’s Jenna Moon
5:45 a.m. In Canada, the provinces are reporting 240,000 new vaccinations administered for a total of 10,483,418 doses given. Nationwide, 944,342 people or 2.5 per cent of the population has been fully vaccinated. The provinces have administered doses at a rate of 27,661.261 per 100,000.
There were 1,198 new vaccines delivered to the provinces and territories for a total of 13,304,460 doses delivered so far. The provinces and territories have used 78.8 per cent of their available vaccine supply.
5:43 a.m. Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered his annual address to the nation Wednesday amid a sweeping Kremlin crackdown on opposition protests and soaring tensions with the West.
Putin began his state-of-the-nation speech by hailing the nation’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. He said the quick development of three coronavirus vaccines underlined Russia’s technological and industrial potential.
The Russian leader has urged authorities to quicken the pace of the country’s vaccination program, which has been slow compared to the West.
He promised new measures to encourage births and to increase average life expectancy, acknowledged that the pandemic has exacerbated demographic trends in Russia.
Putin proposed new incentives to help the economy overcome the blow from the pandemic and new social payments to the population.
Allies of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny called for nationwide protests across Russia on Wednesday to support him. Navalny started a prison hunger strike three weeks ago to protest what he says is inadequate medical treatment for his back pains and officials’ refusal to allow a visit by his doctor. His deteriorating condition has caused international outrage.
Navalny’s imprisonment and his health condition have fueled tensions with the West, already strained over Moscow’s interference with elections, hacking attacks and, most recently, a massive Russian military buildup near the border with Ukraine.
The Kremlin has rejected Western concerns about the troop concentration, saying it’s free to deploy the military wherever it’s deemed necessary on the Russian territory.
5:41 a.m. Around 200 million Chinese, or 14.29 per cent of the population, have been vaccinated for COVID-19 so far, with an emphasis on front-line workers, university students and people living in border areas, a health official said Wednesday.
China is ramping up vaccination efforts after a slow start, prompted in part by the virtual elimination of domestic transmission. Just two local cases were reported on Wednesday, both in the city of Ruili, which borders on Myanmar.
Center of Disease Control official Cui Gang told a news conference that key areas and members of the population were being prioritized for vaccines. China has approved five domestically produced vaccines and exported millions of doses, although some scientists believe they provide less protection that those by Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca.
The Chinese vaccines have an efficacy range of 50.7 per cent to 79.3 per cent, based on company data, lower than their foreign peers but still effective.
China is now giving millions of shots a day and a top government doctor, Zhong Nanshan, has announced a goal of vaccinating 560 million of the country’s 1.4 billion people by mid-June.
China locked down the city of Wuhan for more than two months starting in January 2020 after the coronavirus was first detected in late 2019. Wuhan became known as the epicenter of the pandemic, although Beijing has suggested the virus might have been circulating earlier and possibly brought to China from abroad.
Since then, China has controlled the virus through stringent border controls and quick lockdowns whenever new outbreaks crop up. Mask wearing indoors remains almost universal and health tracing applications must be shown at most shops, offices and public buildings.
5:37 a.m. As soon as word got out earlier this week that Ontario was opening up AstraZeneca vaccine availability to people 40 and older, Betsy Hilton’s group chats lit up on her phone.
“It was wild. Every 40-something I knew was getting on pharmacy websites trying to get a spot,” said the 42-year-old Toronto communications consultant, who booked a jab for Wednesday.
Across the country, Gen X’ers — who grew up with Cabbage Patch Kids and New Kids on the Block, and are sometimes called the “latchkey” generation because many returned to an empty home after school as parents worked — have pounced at the sudden availability in several provinces of AstraZeneca, the vaccine baby boomers have been slow to embrace amid reports of a possible association with rare blood clots.
So what makes Gen X different?
Read the full story from the Star’s Douglas Quan
5:32 a.m. The number of COVID-19 patients in Ontario hospitals and ICUs has increased nearly 112 per cent since the beginning of April.
The number of ICU patients hit 722 in data reported Tuesday morning by the province, a nearly 78 per cent increase from April 1. Hospitalizations have followed a similar path. Doctors have been sounding the alarm about the looming disaster in the province’s hospitals.
Health officials and have said the next two weeks of case growth are already “locked in” and won’t be affected by strengthened stay-at-home orders, such as the ones announced last week by the province. More vigilance now, though, can pay dividends later.
This chart shows how the situation escalated and how much it’s growing daily.
5:30 a.m. Premier Doug Ford hopes to shake a political headache with a provincial paid sick leave plan that would bolster federal efforts to prevent people from going to work ill and spreading COVID-19.
While Ford has long insisted he didn’t want to duplicate Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s plan — criticized as stingy and clumsy — Ontario Labour Minister Monte McNaughton said Ottawa’s failure to improve it for workers has created an opening.
The move comes after months of pressure from public health experts who say paid sick leave will contain the workplace spread of the virus that has killed 7,757 Ontarians in the past 13 months.
“We saw what wasn’t in that (Monday federal) budget and we’ll have their backs,” McNaughton told reporters Tuesday.
“Clearly there are gaps in the system.”
Read the full story from the Star’s Robert Benzie and Rob Ferguson
5:25 a.m. As Toronto and Peel invoked measures Tuesday mandating businesses with COVID-19 outbreaks to close, the daughter of one Brampton factory worker who died from the virus says this action is too little, too late.
Radhika Gandhi says a swifter, more proactive response from health officials and the government earlier in the pandemic could have saved her father, Kanaiya, who came to Canada in 1984 from India and dedicated 26 years of his life to working at the job where he contracted the virus and died in February.
“They should have had this back last year, it shouldn’t be something that’s just popping up now because the cases are so elevated,” said Gandhi, who mentioned it’s a step in the right direction, but not one that speaks to the larger issue of how workers are treated. “This just calls for why we need paid sick days and why these essential companies need proper testing. I think it’s ridiculous to just leave the onus on employees to get properly tested only if they have symptoms.”
The Section 22 order, which will go into effect on Friday in both regions, falls under the Health Protection and Promotion Act, allowing the local public health units to close workplaces while investigations into cases and sources of transmission take place. The move will mandate businesses with five or more COVID-19 cases in the past two weeks to shut down for 10 days. Some workplaces, like health care, may be exempt from full closures.
Gandhi says it feels like a “one-size-fits-all solution.”
Read the full story from the Star’s Danica Samuel and Irelyne Lavery
Wednesday 5:20 a.m. Wednesday’s drive-through vaccination appointments at Canada’s Wonderland have been cancelled in light of a forecast of snow.
The appointments have been rebooked for Friday at the same time as the original appointments, said a statement Tuesday from York Region.
Environment Canada said four to eight centimetres of snow is expected to fall across the GTA on Tuesday going into Wednesday afternoon.
Those with rescheduled appointments will be contacted by email or phone.
The amusement park has been administering shots at its vaccination clinic for almost a month.
Some 87.6 per cent of York Region residents aged 80 and older and 85.6 per cent of those aged 75 to 79 have received at least one dose, according to the regional site’s interactive database.
Read the full story from the Star’s Cheyenne Bholla
11:25 p.m.: Premier Doug Ford is isolating at home in Toronto after an aide tested positive for COVID-19.
“Today, a member of Premier Ford’s staff who came into close contact with him yesterday was tested for COVID-19 after learning that they had been at risk of exposure,” the premier’s office said at 10:40 p.m. Tuesday.
“This evening, the staff member received a positive result. Immediately upon learning that this staff member was even at risk of exposure, the premier left the legislature to be tested,” his office said.
“While his test results have returned negative, the premier will follow all public health advice for close contacts of positive cases, including isolating. He will do so in Toronto.”
Read the full story here: Doug Ford in isolation after aide tests positive for COVID-19
10:36 p.m.: Hawaii officials will allow state residents who have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus to skip pre-travel testing and quarantine requirements for flights between islands.
Hawaii becomes the second state in the nation after New York to implement a vaccination verification program, state officials said at a news conference Tuesday.
The plan does not change anyone’s ability to travel and avoid quarantine by testing, as is currently required for trans-Pacific and inter-island travel, but adds another option for Hawaii residents who are 14 days past their final vaccination shot. People must have received their shots in the state to be eligible for the exemption.
Hawaii Gov. David Ige said the state hopes to add the option for trans-Pacific travellers this summer, but wants to test the program among island residents first.
Read the full story here: Hawaii to begin vaccine passports for travel between islands
Read Tuesday’s rolling file