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 p.m.: On Day 9 of Premier Doug Ford’s 14-day self-isolation after being exposed to a COVID case, the Ontario government announced it will provide people with three paid sick days. It’s better than nothing, but it’s not enough, writes Star columnist Bruce Arthur.
It smacks of a middle ground between two wrong ideas, and so lands, like so much this government attempts, in the middle of nowhere.
But never let it be said this government does not say everything is on the table, for they do indeed say that. Never let it be said this government does not say the health and safety of Ontarians is its top priority, because they say that, too.
Neither is true, of course, and if you point it out this government will just blame the previous government, its own citizens or the feds. On Wednesday alone, ministers blamed others on paid sick days, and for the horrors of long-term care. Even when it is Ontario’s fault, it is someone else’s fault. Especially then.
Read the full column here.
9 p.m.: It is painfully hard to stomach Ontario’s boast that it “had workers’ backs” from the first — coming so long after Doug Ford cut them off from sick pay and COVID took root, writes Star columnist Martin Regg Cohn.
The premier still confuses the compulsive patting of his own back with protecting workers’ backs — not just now, as the howls of outrage grow louder, but 14 months ago when the first cries of heartache could be heard.
Ford’s Tories turned a deaf ear back then. Now they’ve revealed their tin ears.
The governing Progressive Conservatives closed their eyes to the complexities of COVID, while ignoring the helping hand of sick pay that was staring them in the face. Instead of sorting things out, the PCs strung people along with twisted ideological claims, strangled them with red tape and tangled them in word games.
Now, Ford wants forgiveness and his cabinet ministers seek absolution on sick pay. With thousands of people dead, the government’s deathbed repentance is not too little — double the money is not nothing — but it comes unforgivably late in the day as the pandemic’s final chapter is written.
Read the full column here.
8:30 p.m.: The big three of Canada’s grocers: Loblaw, Metro and Empire created “hero pay” for cashiers, shelf stockers and other essential working staff at the start of the pandemic last year. But the pay bumps didn’t last long and most grocers got rid of it by June (Empire Co., which owns Sobeys, has since brought it back).
One major retailer has stood out: Costco, who made the pay increases permanent. They also offer higher wages, paid sick leave and benefits. Will the end result of “hero pay” be a new era of better business practices and corporate responsibility? Rosa Saba, business reporter for the Toronto Star, joins Adrian Cheung for the latest episode of This Matters.
Listen here: How ‘hero pay’ came, went and is pushing business to be more responsible
8:21 p.m. The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in British Columbia has ticked up to 515, breaking a previous record set last week.
Among those hospitalized, 171 people are in intensive care.
Five more people have died after contracting the illness, pushing the death toll in the province to 1,576.
The number of active infections was down to just over 8,000 as health officials reported 841 new cases on Wednesday.
A joint statement from provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix says B.C. has now administered more than 1.7 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, of which close to 90,000 are second shots.
Vaccine bookings will open to people age 58 and older at midnight, while people age 30 and up who live in COVID-19 hot spots are now eligible to receive the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in B.C.
7:30 p.m. The Peel District School Board is offering its buildings for use as vaccination clinics in Peel Region’s COVID-19 hot zones.
In a letter Wednesday to Peel’s medical officer of health, director of education Colleen Russell-Rawlins and supervisor Bruce Rodrigues said they wants to partner with Peel Public Health to “aid in stemming the spread of COVID-19 and its variants.”
“We know you can’t do this alone,” they wrote in the letter to Dr. Lawrence Loh. “We also realize that everyone needs to do their part, including public institutions, in order to ensure the safety of our communities during this pandemic.”
The letter said with majority of students learning remotely, pop-up clinics at schools would help with more space to administer vaccines, once more supply is available in the region.
“We want to step up and be part of the solution for our education workers, our students, their families and communities who urgently need help to push back this pandemic,” Russell-Rawlins and Rodrigues wrote.
5:39 p.m. Canada’s Olympic swim trials have been delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic situation in Ontario.
The primary means of selection for Canada’s team bound for Tokyo this summer has been pushed back almost a month from May 24-28 to June 19-23 at Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre.
If trials can’t happen in Toronto on the new dates, Swimming Canada will look for another location.
“Swimming Canada is also pursuing options for holding the trials elsewhere in North America should running the event in Toronto not be viable based on factors at the time,” Swimming Canada chief executive officer Ahmed El-Awadi said Wednesday in a statement.
“The dates would remain the same in an alternate location. A decision of whether to move the event, if possible, will be made by the end of May or sooner.”
The Paralympic portion of Canada’s swim trials is now cancelled because the June dates conflict with an international para-swimming event in Berlin.
“We will create alternative competitive opportunities,” El-Awadi said.
“The respective selection committees will followup with athletes in both the Olympic and Paralympic participant groups on official clarification of selection procedures in the coming days.”
Ontario reported 3,480 new cases of the coronavirus Wednesday and 24 more deaths linked to the virus.
Swimming Canada held an emergency board meeting Monday evening to review the situation.
“In light of the state of emergency and stay-at-home order in Ontario, as well as travel restrictions in and out of other provinces, Swimming Canada’s board of directors, in consultation with management, has determined that the May dates for Trials are no longer viable,” Swimming Canada president Cheryl Gibson said.
Both the May trials and another qualifying meet in Toronto in June were to provide avenues for between 22 and 26 swimmers to qualify for Tokyo, but the rescheduling has taken the qualifier off the table.
Six swimmers were pre-selected to the Olympic team in January.
Kylie Masse of LaSalle, Ont., Penny Oleksiak of Toronto, Margaret Mac Neil of London, Ont., Taylor Ruck of Kelowna, B.C., Sydney Pickrem of Halifax and Markus Thormeyer of Newmarket, Ont., were chosen in events and distances in which they excel.
“The Swimming Canada Olympic program selection committee has already invoked the ‘unexpected circumstances’ clause in our criteria to select the Olympic team, and the selection committee for the Paralympic Program will be meeting to consider the implications of the decisions,” said the swim team’s high-performance director John Atkinson.
“We are now looking at other ways to create opportunities for swimmers to post official times to stand for consideration.
“We are considering all options to choose the best teams to represent Canada in the fairest way possible under very difficult circumstances.”
3:51 p.m. Ontario will give all workers three paid sick days to help employees take time off to self-isolate during the pandemic.
Labour Minister Monte McNaughton announced the measure today after months of intense pressure from experts and advocates who’ve said sick leave would help reduce workplace outbreaks.
McNaughton says the province will reimburse employers up to $200 a day for what they pay out through the program.
He says the program — which will be administered through the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board — will be retroactive to April 19 and will end on Sept. 25.
The program will be created through a new bill the government was to introduce today, which still must be passed by the legislature.
Last week, Premier Doug Ford promised the province would implement its own sick-leave program after criticizing the federal government for not enhancing its Canadian Recovery Sickness Benefit.
3:30 p.m.: David Scott feels like he’s living one day at a time.
More than a year into the pandemic, and three weeks into the latest stay-at-home order in Ontario, the Toronto hair salon owner said he’s trying not to be too optimistic about when he might reopen.
“I’ve been guessing this whole time,” said Scott, adding that his current prediction, to be on the safe side, is June.
Scott is one of thousands of business owners taking on debt while wondering when they might be able to reopen, and what that might look like.
The federal government recently said that some health restrictions could be lifted this summer if at least 75 per cent of Canadians have one vaccine dose, and 20 per cent have the recommended two.
But experts say it’s not that easy to tell what reopening will look like, or when exactly it might happen.
Read the full story here from Rosa Saba.
2:53 p.m.: Ontario Labour Minister Monte McNaughton and Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy to unveil a $1.8B paid sick leave plan to boost the federal program to $1,000 a week. Administered by WSIB, it includes provisions to allow people paid time off to get vaccinated.
2:20 p.m.: Mayor John Tory announced his decision to proceed with lane closures and other installations in preparation for CafeTO starting May 8. Currently outdoor dining is not allowed. City staff are reviewing around 720 curb lane cafés and 71 “public parklet locations” just for its first phase. 311 businesses have already approved. Tory wants the warm-weather program to become permanent.
Read more on this story from David Rider.
2:19 p.m.: Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and Health Minister Tyler Shandro will be speaking to reporters this afternoon on COVID-19 and expansion projects at Calgary’s Rockyview Hospital.
The media announcement comes a day after the province reported 20,721 active cases of COVID-19.
That is the second highest total since the peak of the second wave, which saw more than 21,000 cases in mid-December.
Kenney has dismissed calls to bring in more stringent health restrictions to reduce the numbers.
He says the existing health measures are fine and any new rules would likely be ignored.
Alberta does not currently allow any indoor social gatherings, and there are sharp restrictions on customer capacity in retail stores.
2:15 p.m.: At Wednesday’s city press conference Mayor John Tory said that 1,104,855 doses have been administered so far in Toronto. Chief Matthew Pegg, overseeing Toronto vaccine rollout, says “a few appointments” still available this week at city vaccine clinics with more open next week. Medical Officer of Health for the City of Toronto. Dr. Eileen said that there are 1055 new cases in the city. There are 1,221 people in hospital, 242 in intensive care and 13 new deaths.
2:14 p.m.: Health officials in New Brunswick are reporting eight new cases of COVID-19 in the province.
Four of the cases are in the Fredericton region, while there are two in the Moncton area and two in the Edmundston region.
Eight cases have now been linked to an outbreak at a residence at the Fredericton campus of the University of New Brunswick.
The number of active cases in New Brunswick is now 122 and four patients are hospitalized, including two in intensive care.
1:43 p.m.: Connecticut will no longer allow religious exemption from childhood immunization requirements for schools and daycare facilities, becoming the sixth state to end that policy.
The legislation, signed into law Wednesday by Gov. Ned Lamont, came hours after the Democratic-controlled Senate passed the bill late Tuesday night. Over 2,000 opponents had rallied outside the state capitol building, arguing the legislation unfairly infringes on their religious liberties and parental rights.
“Proud to sign this bill into law to protect as many of our schoolchildren as possible from infectious diseases as we can,” Lamont said in a tweet, announcing he has signed the contentious bill.
The other states that have ended religious exemptions for vaccines are California, New York, West Virginia, Mississippi and Maine, according to proponents.
The state’s medical exemption will remain in place. The legislation affects the 2022-23 school year and grandfathers in any students in kindergarten and older with an existing religious exemption.
Proponents argued that eliminating the exemption will help prevent potential outbreaks of illnesses like measles. They cited a slow and steady increase in the number of religious exemptions for childhood vaccinations and declining vaccination rates in some schools.
Critics have said they intend to challenge the law in court, arguing it’s an infringement of their religious liberties and parental rights. The organization Connecticut Freedom Alliance, which helped to organize Tuesday’s protest at the Capitol, accused Lamont and lawmakers who supported the legislation of “forcing parents out of the workforce” by giving them no other choice but to home-school their children.
1:35 p.m.: Manitoba is reporting 189 new COVID-19 cases and three deaths.
However, three earlier cases have been removed due to data correction, for a net increase of 186.
New limits on household social visits, retail store capacity and attendance at religious services, announced on Monday, took effect today.
1:34 p.m.: More than 2,000 people returning to Canada since mandatory hotel quarantines began have tested positive for COVID-19 and more than a quarter of them were infected with a variant of concern.
The data supplied to The Canadian Press by the Public Health Agency of Canada comes as the federal government is being pressured to take even more steps to keep new variants from getting into the country.
Data shows between Feb. 22 and April 11, 2,018 returning travellers tested positive on a test taken when they arrived in the country.
The agency says that is about one per cent of arrivals.
Further data shows as of April 22, 557 people had tested positive for a variant of concern, including 518 of the strain first identified in the United Kingdom, 27 of the variant first detected in South Africa and 12 of the strain first found in Brazil.
Nazeem Muhajarine, a professor of community health and epidemiology at the University of Saskatchewan, says border restrictions are necessary but will only work well if complemented with local rules and enough testing and tracing to keep cases from spreading.
1:38 p.m.: The Anchorage Assembly has voted to revoke pandemic-related restrictions on businesses and gatherings and to make them recommendations instead.
The changes take effect Monday and were approved unanimously despite concerns raised by the municipality’s health department director.
A local mask mandate remains in effect.
Assembly member Christopher Constant, who sponsored the motion to revoke gathering limits and business requirements, said the purpose was to send a message “that we recognize it’s time to do what we’ve heard from a number of people, which is trust the people to do the right thing.”
Constant said an emergency declaration remains in place and the mayor could enact restrictions through another emergency order if there is a dramatic change with COVID-19 numbers. Austin Quinn-Davidson has been the acting mayor since October.
The policy changes come ahead of a runoff in the race for mayor between Assembly member Forrest Dunbar and Dave Bronson. The city’s pandemic response has been a flash point in the community for months.
1:25 p.m.: South Africa has resumed giving the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to health care workers after a more than two-week pause in the use of the only vaccine in the country.
South Africa restarted its drive to inoculate its 1.2 million health care workers with the J&J vaccines as part of a large-scale study. South Africa suspended its use of the J&J vaccine on April 13 after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reported that it might be linked to rare blood clots.
Before the halt, South Africa had given more than 290,000 shots to health care workers. Health Minister Zweli Mkhize urged all health care workers to get the vaccine.
The country’s drug regulatory body determined the J&J vaccine is safe, and the Cabinet approved resuming its use. Mkhize says the J&J vaccine is most effective against the COVID-19 variant dominant in South Africa.
With more than 1.5 million confirmed cases and 54,237 confirmed deaths, South Africa accounts for more than 30% of Africa’s 4.5 million cases and more than 40% of the 120,802 deaths, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
1:22 p.m.: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is on the speakers’ list next month at a celebrity-laden global concert promoting vaccine equality.
The Global Citizen Vax Live Concert to Reunite the World will air on YouTube May 8, hosted by Selena Gomez and featuring performances by Jennifer Lopez, Eddie Vedder and the Foo Fighters.
Trudeau’s office confirms he will deliver a speech about the need for international co-operation to end the pandemic.
The concert’s organizers are asking political leaders to commit to ensuring vaccines are available to every country.
Canada is among the countries criticized for vaccine hoarding, as wealthy countries lined up to sign private deals to buy doses, and poorer countries will wait longer to vaccinate even their most vulnerable citizens.
Canada is one of the largest contributors to the global vaccine sharing initiative known as COVAX and has committed to providing excess doses to other countries once Canadians are vaccinated, but has been criticized for also taking doses from COVAX despite having privately purchased enough vaccines to give as many eight doses to every Canadian.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who are raising money for the COVAX vaccine sharing facility, are also participating in the concert, as are U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris, and French President Emmanuel Macron.
1:12 p.m.: Amusement park season is upon us, but dates for when Canadians will be able to start riding their favourite roller-coasters or indulging in gut-busting funnel cakes remains as elusive as winning the soda-bottle ring toss.
After taking a huge financial hit last year — the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions estimates that the pandemic caused $23 billion in economic losses across the industry in the United States — operators say they are eager to reopen in the coming weeks.
But debate is roiling among health-care professionals and the public at large about whether it’s just too soon, especially as COVID-19 variants spread and more young people present with severe complications.
Read the full story here: Canada’s amusement park operators are keen to reopen — but amidst COVID’s third wave, is that crazy?
12:55 p.m.: Newfoundland and Labrador is reporting its first case of the P.1 COVID-19 variant of concern, which was first identified in Brazil.
The province has confirmed 46 cases in April so far, and chief medical officer of health Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says the majority of those have now been linked to variants.
That includes the province’s first confirmed case of the B.1.167 variant of interest, which first emerged in India, as well as several cases of the B.1.351 variant, first detected in South Africa.
Fitzgerald reported four new cases Wednesday, all linked to travel, and said there are now 27 active reported infections across the province.
12:25 p.m. The family of a Quebec woman who developed blood clots and died after receiving the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is urging people to stay alert for symptoms and get help right away if they surface.
Francine Boyer was identified by her family in a statement issued late Tuesday.
“It is with great sorrow that Mr. Alain Serres confirms the death of his wife, Mrs. Francine Boyer, 54, on April 23 at the Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital,” the statement said.
Boyer and her husband received the AstraZeneca vaccine on April 9, and in the days that followed, she began to experience headaches and severe fatigue. The statement said Serres did not develop side effects.
She went to a nearby hospital before being transferred to the Montreal Neurological Institute as her condition worsened; she died of a cerebral thrombosis on April 23.
An online obituary says Boyer was originally from Saint-Remi, Que., south of Montreal, and was a mother and a grandmother.
Her family has asked for privacy and has encouraged anyone who experiences side effects from the vaccine to seek medical help using the province’s phone help line.
Read the full story here on the Star.
11:15 a.m. Ontario Minister of Labour Monte McNaughton and Minister of Finance Peter Bethlenfalvy are making an announcement at 3:15 p.m. Wednesday, signalling Ontario’s $1,000-a-week paid sick leave program could be ready.
11:15 a.m. The Quebec government is reporting 1,094 new cases of COVID-19 as well as 12 additional deaths due to the pandemic.
Two deaths were removed from the province’s total after they were found to be unrelated to the virus.
Hospitalizations declined by 24 to 643, while the number of people in intensive care dropped by nine to 161.
The province administered 50,312 doses of vaccine since the last update and is nearing the three-million vaccine mark with a total of 2,967,209 doses.
11 a.m. Manitoba is expanding its COVID-19 vaccine program into more neighbourhoods deemed to be at high risk of transmission.
Anyone 18 or older who lives in downtown Brandon, as well as the Point Douglas North and the downtown west areas of Winnipeg, can now book an appointment.
Adults who don’t live in this areas but who work there in certain public-facing jobs, such as teachers and grocery store employees, can book as well.
Northern Manitoba and some other Winnipeg neighbourhoods have already been eligible for priority vaccines.
10:45 a.m. (updated) Vaccines have rescued of Ontario’s nursing homes from the ravages of COVID-19 for now but residents remain vulnerable to future pandemics and outbreaks because of poor infection prevention, crowding, inadequate staffing and inspections.
That’s the bottom line in a new report from auditor general Bonnie Lysyk which contains “no surprises,” she acknowledged Wednesday.
Lysyk pointed to repeated warnings from her office and advocates for the elderly that successive provincial governments have let vulnerable residents down by leaving the long-term sector “ill-equipped” for emergencies.
“With the arrival of vaccines, the number of COVID-19 outbreaks and deaths have been significantly reduced in the long-term care homes, but the long-standing systemic issues that place residents at risk remain to be addressed,” Lysyk wrote.
Neither the Ministry of Long-Term Care nor the province’s 626 nursing homes were “sufficiently positioned, prepared or equipped to respond to the issues created by the pandemic in an effective and expedient way,” she found.
More than 3,900 residents have died from COVID-19.
Read the full story from the Star’s Rob Ferguson
10:30 a.m. Canada’s first 300,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine are arriving Wednesday, a federal official tells The Canadian Press.
The official, granted anonymity to discuss matters not made public yet, said that where the doses are coming from is not being disclosed because the government needs to “protect this new vaccine supply chain.”
J&J has struggled with production problems and has been able to deliver very few doses, even in the United States.
Canada purchased 10 million doses, and has the option to buy 28 million more.
The doses are expected to be distributed to provinces next week.
The National Advisory Committee on Immunization has not yet provided guidance on how the vaccine should be used alongside the other three in use already.
This week’s delivery of just over one million doses from Pfizer-BioNTech is already in Canada.
A delayed shipment of about 650,000 doses from Moderna is also en route to Canada now.
10:20 a.m. Ontario is reporting 3,480 COVID-19 cases, 24 deaths. The seven-day average is down to 3,783 cases per day or 182 weekly per 100,000, and down to 28.4 deaths per day.
Labs report 50,194 completed tests and a 7.2 per cent positivity rate.
10:16 a.m. (updated) Ontario says hospitals will be able to transfer patients waiting for a long-term care bed to any nursing home without their consent in an effort to free up space.
Health Minister Christine Elliott says the government has issued a new emergency order to allow for such transfers in a bid to free up hospital capacity for COVID-19 patients in need of urgent care.
Elliott says hundreds of patients currently in hospital are waiting to be discharged to a long-term-care home.
She says transfers without consent will only be done in the most urgent situations.
10 a.m. Nova Scotia is reporting 75 new cases of COVID-19 Wednesday.
Officials have identified 67 infections in the Halifax area, six in the eastern zone, and one each in the western and northern health zones.
The province entered a full shutdown today that is scheduled to run for the next two weeks in an effort to curb the recent surge in cases.
Nova Scotia has a total of 489 active cases.
9:45 a.m. The province is funding another 8,000 spots to train personal support workers to work in long-term-care homes as demand for the profession continues during the pandemic.
The $86 million plan is set aside for students who train to become support workers via adult education at public school boards or private career colleges, and is “part of the government’s long-term care staffing plan,” the province said in a written release.
Colleges and Universities Minister Ross Romano said the support worker program is the second most popular program at private colleges and “we’re making it easier for more students to access personal support worker programs at private career colleges to prepare them for critical jobs caring for some of the most vulnerable people in Ontario.”
Personal support workers “are the backbone of long-term care and do vital work every day so that our loved ones receive the care they need and deserve,” said Minister of Long-Term Care Merrilee Fullerton in a written release Wednesday morning, just before the province’s auditor general was to release a report on COVID-19 readiness in long-term care.
The province said students in approved, private career colleges will be eligible for up to $13,235 for tuition and supplies, and must begin their training between May 1 and the end of July.
Read the full story from the Star’s Kristin Rushowy
9:10 a.m. The positive COVID-19 cases continue to pound grocery store and retail workers in York Region as the third wave of the pandemic continues.
Employees at nine York Region grocery stores had recent positive tests, along with workers at two LCBOs and two McDonald’s locations.
In Vaughan, four Fortinos employees at the 3940 Hwy. 7 location tested positive. The last days they worked were April 13, 16, 19 and 22.
A Fortinos employee at the 8585 Hwy. 27 location also tested positive. The last day they worked was April 13.
Elsewhere in Vaughan, a Longo’s employee at the 2810 Major Mackenzie Dr. location tested positive. The last day they worked was April 19. Two employees at the 9200 Weston Rd. Longo’s also tested positive. The last days they worked were April 17 and 19.
In Thornhill, a Food Basics employee at the 10 Royal Orchard Blvd. location tested positive. The last shift they worked was April 20.
9 a.m. The Vatican No. 2 is skipping a planned trip to Venezuela this week because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s former ambassador to Caracas, had planned to celebrate the April 30 beatification of Jose Gregorio Hernandez, dubbed the “doctor of the poor.”
The Vatican said Wednesday that because of issues linked to the pandemic, Parolin wouldn’t make the trip.
His visit coincided with revived efforts by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government to court the Biden administration in hopes it will ease sanctions meant to isolate the socialist leader.
8:50 a.m. Athletes at the Tokyo Olympic Games this summer will be required to take daily coronavirus tests, a stricter requirement than previously announced.
All participants are also required to take two virus tests before flying to Japan, according to a joint statement on the updated playbook released following a five-party meeting, including Tokyo 2020 and the International Olympic Committee.
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Scrutiny over hosting the world’s biggest sporting event during a pandemic has increased in recent weeks. Tokyo and other urban areas entered their third state of emergency this month as infections increased.
8:45 a.m. Europe can achieve herd immunity against the coronavirus within three to four months, the head of German pharmaceutical company BioNTech, which developed the first widely approved COVID-19 vaccine with U.S. partner Pfizer, said Wednesday.
While the exact threshold required to reach that critical level of immunization remains a matter of debate, experts say a level above 70 per cent would significantly disrupt transmission of the coronavirus within a population.
“Europe will reach herd immunity in July, latest by August,” Ugur Sahin, BioNTech’s chief executive, told reporters.
He cautioned that this herd immunity initially wouldn’t include children, as the vaccine has so far only been approved for people over 16. A small number of children who fall ill with COVID-19 suffer serious illness or long-term effects.
BioNTech’s vaccine makes up a large share of the doses administered in North America, where it is more commonly known as the Pfizer shot, and Europe, which has been seen vaccination rates rise after a slugging start.
8:40 a.m. Greece’s prime minister has issued an appeal for elderly Greeks to get vaccinated, blaming hesitancy for persistently high rates of death and hospitalization.
“The data we have from ICUs and intubated patients are clear: 95% of them, who are fellow citizens of ours, are not fully vaccinated,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Wednesday.
Greece’s vaccination program has remained roughly in line with the European Union average, but deaths are higher and the number of COVID-19 patients requiring intensive care unit treatment is at its highest level since the start of the pandemic.
Health experts say Greeks over age 80 and below 70 are failing to make or skipping vaccination appointments in significantly larger numbers than those in the 75 to 79 age bracket.
The government has appealed to the Greek Orthodox Church and retiree associations to help with the vaccination campaign.
Separately Wednesday, a 37-year-old man in northern Greece has been jailed for 60 days for endangering public safety after refusing to wear a face mask and being fined for the violation for a second time.
8:20 a.m. Residents who are 16+ in Milton (L9E postal code) can book appointments starting April 30. Individuals must have had their 16th birthday at the time of their first dose. Appointments can be booked through halton.ca/covidvaccines. Residents who need booking help can call 311.
7:50 a.m. A year ago, Yung Chang received an unexpected opportunity: to take hours of footage from a Chinese film crew in Wuhan — where cases of COVID-19 were first reported — and turn it into a film about the lives of ordinary people in a city in the midst of a strict and unprecedented government lockdown.
The result is “Wuhan Wuhan,” which has its world premiere at the Hot Docs Film Festival in Toronto from April 29 to May 9.
“I was essentially sitting on the couch with the fear of nothing to do because of the pandemic,” said Chang, who grew up in Whitby and has directed several award-winning documentaries, including “Up The Yangtze.”
A call from Starlight Media was indeed serendipitous and welcome. Days earlier, while walking his daughter in a stroller in the Junction Triangle neighbourhood near his home, the two were targeted by a stranger uttering anti-Asian slurs.
“It was mean and it was racist and it was an attack against my daughter verbally and it was not right. I just came out of reeling with the shock of the moment,” he recalled.
Read the full story from the Star’s Bruce DeMara
7:10 a.m. Japanese officials are asking the people to stay home during a string of “golden week” holidays beginning Thursday in a nationwide effort to curb the rapid resurgence of coronavirus cases less than three months before the Tokyo Olympics.
Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike warned Thursday that the infection rate could explode if people continue to travel, dine out and meet with others during the holidays.
“We are at a crucial turning point,” Koike said. “In order to slow the infections and keep them from becoming explosive, we must reduce the people’s movement.”
Koike urged people to stay home and avoid barbecuing and drinking outdoors even though bars and restaurants serving alcohol are closed under emergency measures imposed Sunday. She also asked employers in Tokyo to allow up to 70% of their employees to work from home.
Tokyo reported 925 new confirmed cases on Thursday, its highest daily number since late January.
Experts from a Tokyo prefectural task force said a rapid spread of the more contagious virus variant first detected in Britain could send daily cases as high as 2,000 within two weeks.
6:40 a.m. (updated) Starting Wednesday, Toronto will parter with Vaccine Hunters Canada to help streamline the vaccine rollout. Vaccine Hunters will share daily updates on available appointments at city-run mass clinics.
At the end of each day, the City will provide @VaxHuntersCan with clinic appt availability for the next day.
People must book their appointments for city-run clinics through the provincial booking system, which is based on current Phase 2 eligibility criteria — there are no walk-in or standby appointments available at City-run clinics.
6:25 a.m. Amid a provincial ban on restaurant patio dining, City of Toronto staff will soon start blocking off curb lanes and sidewalks in preparation for the return of CaféTO, the Star has learned.
But with COVID-19 variants still raging, and no certainty as to when restrictions will be lifted, there is no guarantee anyone will be able to actually sit in repurposed public space and eat or drink on the May long weekend as originally hoped.
City staff sent city council members notice on Tuesday that, “after careful consideration,” including feedback from Toronto Public Health and bar and restaurant owners, “we are confirming that the installation of CaféTO curb lane cafés will commence as originally planned, beginning on May 8th.
“This will ensure that curb lane cafés will be in place for the eventual reopening of outdoor dining, so restaurants and bars can maximize their café season in 2021.”
Last spring, in the early days of the pandemic with vehicle traffic down, indoor dining banned and eateries suffering, city staff hastily drafted the plan to dramatically expand patio space. It was a massive hit with Torontonians.
Read the full story from the Star’s David Rider
5:51 a.m. India crossed a grim milestone Wednesday of 200,000 people lost to the coronavirus as a devastating surge of new infections tears through dense cities and rural areas alike and overwhelms health care systems on the brink of collapse.
The Health Ministry reported a single-day record 3,293 COVID-19 deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing India’s total fatalities to 201,187, as the world’s second most populous country endures its darkest chapter of the pandemic yet.
The country also reported 362,757 new infections, a new global record, which raised the overall total past 17.9 million. The previous high of 350,000 on Monday had capped a five-day streak of recording the largest single-day increases in any country throughout the pandemic.
India, a country of nearly 1.4 billion people, is the fourth to cross 200,000 deaths, behind the United States, Brazil and Mexico. And as in many nations, experts believe the coronavirus infections and fatalities in India are severe undercounts.
The first known COVID-19 death in India happened on March 12, 2020, in southern Karnataka state. It took five months to reach the first 50,000 dead. The toll hit 100,000 deaths in the next two months in October 2020 and 150,000 three months later in January this year. Deaths slowed until mid-March, only to sharply rise again.
For the past week, more than 2,000 Indians have died every day.
India thought it had weathered the worst of the pandemic last year, but the virus is now racing through its population and systems are beginning to collapse.
Hospitalizations and deaths have reached record highs, overwhelming health care workers. Patients are suffocating because hospitals’ oxygen supplies have run out. Desperate family members are sending SOS messages on social media, hoping someone would help them find oxygen cylinders, empty hospital beds and critical drugs for their loved ones. Crematoriums have spilled over into parking lots, lighting up night skies in some cities.
With its health care system sinking fast, India is now looking at other nations to pull it out of the record surge that is barrelling through one state and then another.
Many countries have offered assistance, including the U.S., which has promised to help with personal protective equipment, tests and oxygen supplies. The U.S. will also send raw materials for vaccine production, strengthening India’s capacity to manufacture more AstraZeneca doses.
Health experts say huge gatherings during Hindu festivals and mammoth election rallies in some states have accelerated the unprecedented surge India is seeing now.
They also say the government’s mixed messaging and its premature declarations of victory over the virus encouraged people to relax when they should have continued strict adherence to physical distancing, wearing masks and avoiding large crowds.
5:50 a.m. For a brief time, the Ontario government mandated two paid, job-protected sick days for all workers.
Former Liberal premier Kathleen Wynne enacted that groundbreaking plan in November 2017 as part of sweeping labour reforms that also promised to eventually raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
The guaranteed sick pay was covered by employers not by the government.
Wynne’s policy — which came in the final year of the Liberals’ almost 15 years in office — was short-lived.
After Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives defeated the Grits in the June 2018 election, they moved quickly to freeze the minimum wage at $14 an hour and eliminate the two paid sick days.
When Ford undid many of Wynne’s labour changes in October 2018, he called the measures “an absolute job killer” that hurt small businesses and cost thousands of part-time employees their positions.
Now, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the premier is promising to double to $1,000 the federal government’s temporary Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit, which pays $500 a week to ill workers.
Unlike the previous program in Ontario, taxpayers are on the hook for the federal sick pay scheme, which is designed to help as many as 3 million workers who don’t have such employment benefits.
Read the full story from the Star’s Robert Benzie
5:45 a.m. While vaccine pop-ups in Toronto COVID hot spots have been attracting long lines, and helping more people who need them get shots, there have been few options so far for residents in some of Brampton’s hardest hit postal codes.
The city, home to many essential workers who don’t have sick days and can take the virus back to extended family at home, has been ravaged by COVID, with a test positivity rate of 22 per cent last week. The death of thirteen-year-old Emily Victoria Viegas, whose father is a warehouse worker, from the disease last week has become a symbol for everything that’s gone wrong there.
Two pop-up clinics were announced Tuesday — at the Brampton Islamic Centre and Muslim Association of Canada Islamic Community Centre of Ontario in Mississauga — open for all Peel residents of hot spot postal codes 18 years and up, but were fully booked within hours. Meanwhile, Jane and Finch (M3N), which had the lowest vaccination rate in Toronto, has had about a dozen pop-ups over the last few weeks, which allow people to avoid online booking and travelling to mass vaccine sites.
For Brampton, “I think it’s late, I think this should have been happening a while ago,” said community advocate Dr. Amanpreet Brar.
“Brampton is home to a lot of new immigrants, who are perhaps not able to advocate for themselves,” she added. “They are often left behind.”
Read the full story from the Star’s May Warren and Maria Sarrouh
5:40 a.m. About 80 employees at a Canada Post facility in Mississauga have been ordered into isolation after a COVID-19 outbreak.
On Tuesday, Peel Public Health ordered the shutdown of the afternoon shift of the Toronto Exchange Office within Canada Post’s Gateway West facility at 4567 Dixie Rd after 12 employees tested positive for the virus within the last week.
Canada Post said the workers were sent home Tuesday and told to isolate for 10 days. Some employees who were not scheduled to work Tuesday have also been told to self-isolate.
On April 20, Toronto and Peel Region said they would invoke Section 22 of the Health Protection and Promotion Act to order partial or complete shutdowns at any workplace that reported five or more cases of COVID-19 within two weeks.
“We will continue to reinforce our safety protocols with all employees, follow our enhanced cleaning and sanitization measures and follow any direction we receive from Peel Public Health,” Canada Post said in a written statement Tuesday night.
The Toronto Exchange Office is where international mail arrives for review and clearance by the Canadian Border Service Agency.
Read the full story from the Star’s Breanna Xavier-Carter
5:38 a.m. Chinese vaccine makers are looking at mixing their jabs and whether a booster shot could help better protect against COVID-19.
Sinovac and Sinopharm, the two Chinese manufacturers that combined have exported hundreds of millions of doses all over the world, say they’re are considering combining their vaccines with those from other companies.
Earlier this month, the head of China’s Center for Disease Control, Gao Fu, said that current vaccines offer low protection against the coronavirus and mixing them is among strategies being considered to boost their effectiveness.
Gao later tried to walk back his comments, saying he was talking in general about improving vaccine efficacy.
China National Biotech Group has a plan for future “sequential use” of their vaccines, Li Meng, the head of international co-operation for the company, said Wednesday at an international conference.
The company, a subsidiary of state-owned Sinopharm, made two inactivated COVID-19 vaccines and a third in clinical trials.
Sinovac, a private company based in Beijing, also said they were in preliminary discussions with investigators, including China’s Center for Disease Control, about combining the doses of their vaccine, CoronaVac, with others.
Sequential immunization means mixing different vaccines and it is a strategy that could boost efficacy rates, said Ashley St. John, an immunologist at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore.
“They are trying to tweak the schedule to really find the best point to give people’s vaccines,” St. John said. “What’s the best combination and time point?”
Sinopharm’s vaccines, from its Beijing Institute of Biological Products and the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, are 79 per cent and 72 per cent effective, respectively, the company said. It has not publicly revealed more data from the final stage of its clinical trials.
The practice is being considered in other countries as well. British scientists are studying a combo of the AstraZeneca and Pfizer shots. The study is also looking to test different intervals between doses, four weeks and 12 weeks apart.
5:35 a.m. Pakistani authorities on Wednesday reported 201 deaths from coronavirus, the country’s highest single-day toll of the pandemic.
According to National Command and Control Center, 5,292 new cases of infection were reported in the past 24 hours.
Since last year, Pakistan has reported 17,530 deaths from COVID-19 among 810,231 cases.
The current surge has forced the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan to deploy troops to help ensure people follow social distancing rules in cities hard hit by coronavirus cases.
Pakistan is planning a lockdown in the worst-hit cities in the first week of May. Khan has resisted demands for a nationwide lockdown, citing its economic impact, but he has also warned that he will be forced to impose a lockdown if people do not stop violating social distancing rules.
5:34 a.m. Ontario’s auditor general will release a report Wednesday on the province’s COVID-19-ravaged nursing homes.
The special report by Bonnie Lysyk is scheduled to be tabled in the legislature mid-morning.
Lysyk will then speak to her findings and answer questions.
COVID-19 hit Ontario’s long-term care homes with brutal and lethal effect last spring.
In all, at least 3,756 residents have died, as did 11 staff.
At one point, the military had to go in to help at the worst-hit homes.
5:32 a.m. Fatima Rosario doesn’t know what to do. The Brampton mother of two fears for the worst each time her eldest son leaves for work.
No matter how much she wishes he could stay home, it just isn’t an option for him. Bills need to be paid and mouths need to be fed, despite the growing risk COVID-19 poses to young people.
Rosario’s son, 19, lives with her and his sister, 16. Their apartment is in a hot spot, as are many of his coworkers’, Rosario said. In the wake of Emily Viegas’ death in Brampton at just 13 years old, Rosario said she’s never felt more terrified for him.
Experts stress that COVID-19 typically results in less serious illnesses in children and young adults, and the death of a child is exceedingly rare. Still, for Rosario and other Brampton parents like her, news of Viegas’s death has crystallized just how fast, and young, COVID-19 can kill.
“If it can happen to her, it can happen to my son,” she said. “When I read about Emily, I realized you can get sick in the blink of an eye. It made me even more stressed than I already was.”
Read the full story from the Star’s Ben Cohen
Wednesday 5:30 a.m. Anna Farrow watched Doug Ford’s tear-filled press conference last week during which he admitted making mistakes in the battle against COVID-19.
She watched Monday as PC MPPs voted down a private member’s bill to provide employer-paid sick days for Ontario workers.
Then, she watched again Tuesday as Doug Ford’s PC caucus tabled his own proposal — a $500 top-up to the $500-per-week federal sickness benefit instituted during the pandemic.
Farrow, an essential retail worker for 19 years, easily summed up how she’s left feeling: defeated and unsupported.
“It’s like you’re forced to go to work,” she said. “My head is just swarming.”
It’s people like her, workers without sick pay, who are forgotten in this fierce political fight. And, while she loves her job, going into work is sometimes the last thing Farrow feels capable of doing.
She recovered from cancer about two years ago, and has experienced health complications since.
Read the full story from the Star’s Alex McKeen and Celina Gallardo
Tuesday 9:28 p.m. People age 30 and older may now receive the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in British Columbia, starting with hot spots for transmission.
Health Minister Adrian Dix and provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry say in a statement on Tuesday the vaccine will be made available across the province as B.C. receives enough doses to add more pharmacy appointments.
Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization recommended last week that the vaccine may be offered to people 30 and up who don’t want to wait for an approved mRNA vaccine, and if certain other conditions are met.
Those conditions include a benefit-risk analysis, informed consent, and that there would be a substantial delay to receive an mRNA vaccine.
B.C. confirmed 799 new cases of COVID-19 and no new deaths on Tuesday.
There are now 8,089 active infections in the province and hospitalizations have ticked up to 500, including 164 people in intensive care.
9:17 p.m. Alberta’s chief medical officer of health says there are 20,721 active cases of COVID-19 in the province — the second-highest total since the pandemic began.
“Our numbers are still very high and it’s important to underline that cases are still growing,” Dr. Deena Hinshaw said Tuesday while acknowledging the rate of growth is slowing.
“Simply put, we’re still heading in the wrong direction.”
The province has had more than 1,000 new cases every day for weeks and hospitalization rates are approaching what they were during the peak of the second wave of the pandemic in December.
The highest recorded active case count was 21,649 on Dec. 15.
It was during that time that Premier Jason Kenney’s government invoked a renewed round of restrictions on business and public gatherings to keep the caseload from swamping the health system.
In early January, hospitalizations peaked at more than 900, then dropped to around 250 in late February before starting to climb again.
Read Tuesday’s rolling file