Today’s coronavirus news: Ontario reporting 1,138 more cases, 23 deaths including 3 in long-term care; Vaccine hesitancy declining among Quebec health-care workers
The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Thursday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.
10:35 a.m.: Ontario will release new COVID-19 projections today.
Dr. Adalsteinn Brown, co-chair of Ontario's science advisory group, will present the data in an afternoon news conference.
Two weeks ago, Brown said projections indicated more contagious variants of COVID-19 are spreading in the province.
He said at the time that they accounted for five to 10 per cent of all cases.
Brown said strong public health measures, like a stay-at-home order, and vaccination of vulnerable groups were important to help avoid a third wave.
Toronto, Peel Region and North Bay, Ont., remain under a stay-at-home order but the province recently loosened restrictions for all other regions.
10:35 a.m.: Ontario is also reporting that three more long-term care residents have died for a total of 3,742 since the pandemic began.
There are six fewer long-term-care homes in outbreak for a total of 111, or 17.7 per cent of all LTC homes in the province.
10:25 a.m.: Ontario is reporting 19,112 vaccine doses were administered since its last daily update, and a total of 621,960 as of 8 p.m. Wednesday.
The province says 255,449 people are fully vaccinated, which means they've had both shots.
10:20 a.m.: Ontario is reporting 1,138 more COVID-19 cases and 23 deaths.
Nearly 66,400 tests were completed.
Locally, there are 339 new cases in Toronto, 204 in Peel and 106 in York Region.
10:11 a.m. England's ethnic minority communities have higher levels of COVID-19 infections and lower levels of vaccine acceptance than other groups, according to a new study that highlights how the pandemic is worsening health inequalities.
The study found that 92 per cent of people across England either have received or would accept a vaccine. But that figure dropped to 87.6 per cent for Asians and 72.5 per cent for Blacks, according to the study released Thursday by Imperial College London.
Researchers also found that most people of all age groups produced disease-fighting antibodies after two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Fewer people tested positive for antibodies after a single dose, with the proportion falling to 34.7 per cent for those 80 and over.
Professor Helen Ward, lead author of the report, said it was encouraging" to see high levels of vaccine confidence and antibody response, while cautioning that the study didn't assess the effectiveness of the vaccine.
9:45 a.m. Loblaw Companies Ltd. reported a higher fourth-quarter profit and revenue compared with a year ago as the supermarket giant met the challenge of outsized sales growth," the company's executive chairman Galen G. Weston said Thursday.
Amid the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the grocery and drugstore retailer said sales in its food retail business were positively impacted, though costs associated with the safety and security of customers and workers remained elevated in the quarter.
Our purpose - helping Canadians live life well - has inspired ongoing commitments to colleague safety, lower prices, and strategic services that matter to customers," Weston said in a statement.
Looking ahead, we have financial momentum, our strategy has advanced, and our core business is well positioned."
Loblaw said it earned net income available to common shareholders of $345 million or 98 cents per diluted share for the 13-week period ended Jan. 2, boosted in part by an extra week in the quarter.
The result compared with a profit of $254 million or 70 cents per diluted share for the 12-week period ended Dec. 28, 2019. Revenue totalled $13.29 billion, up from $11.59 billion.
Meanwhile, Loblaw's e-commerce sales spiked 160 per cent during the quarter as many provinces reinstated lockdowns and stay-at-home orders.
9:22 a.m. Israel's defence minister on Thursday called for an immediate halt in plans to ship surplus coronavirus vaccines to a group of allied nations, accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of acting without oversight or transparency.
In a letter to the prime minister, Benny Gantz said the decision to share vaccines was taken without discussions in the relevant forums." He also questioned Netanyahu's claims that Israel has surplus vaccines to give away.
We are talking about a significant diplomatic and security decision, and in accordance with that, it needs to be approved according to procedures established by law," Gantz said.
Gantz demanded the matter be taken up by the country's Security Cabinet.
9:07 a.m. Decisions, decisions.
Fight crime? Curb COVID-19 infections? Oppose the federal carbon tax?" Help small businesses?
Premier Doug Ford's Progressive Conservatives are asking party members for feedback on the government's priorities for this year.
With a provincial election scheduled for June 2, 2022, the Tories are canvassing supporters for their thoughts on the road ahead.
We know our PC government was elected to work For the People," said a fundraising email sent out Tuesday, referring to Ford's 2018 campaign slogan.
Read the full story from the Star's Robert Benzie
8:55 a.m. For many, the third week of March 2020 marked the beginning of the end - the start of COVID-19 entering our lives, changing everything, and the end of normalcy." In Ontario, lockdown orders were implemented on Mar. 17, 2020.
Now, as we approach a year into pandemic-related restrictions, the new normal is a socially distanced world, one where we watch for daily case numbers and mask up in all situations.
The Star wants to know, what's the last thing you remember doing before the global shutdown? Did you have dinner with your parents? Go to the theatres?
What was the last normal' thing you did before the COVID-19 shutdown? Tell us
8:50 a.m. Three federal Conservative shadow ministers called Wednesday night for the governing Liberals to suspend mandatory hotel quarantine for arriving international travellers after news media reported an alleged sexual assault at such a hotel.
We are deeply angered to hear reports of sexual violence are happening during federally mandated quarantines by those supposed to be protecting public health ... We call for the Liberals to suspend the hotel quarantine requirement until they have put measures in place to ensure the safety of Canadians," read part of a statement from Michelle Rempel Garner, Shannon Stubbs and Jag Sahota.
Canada's quarantine rules for international air travellers, which came into effect Monday, require incoming passengers to self-isolate for three nights in one of 18 government-approved hotels in Toronto, Calgary, Montreal and Vancouver. Travellers must stay there until they get the results of their COVID-19 test.
8:40 a.m. Several international travellers arriving at Toronto's Pearson International Airport have refused to comply with a new rule requiring a three-day hotel quarantine, local police said Wednesday.
Peel Region police said that while most cases were resolved after conversations with officers, some people refused to follow the rules that took effect this week and were fined $880 under Ontario regulations.
Police said they will not detain anyone for breaking the hotel quarantine rule unless there are aggravating circumstances involved, such as a criminal offence.
They added that the Public Health Agency of Canada would be responsible for any further potential fines for travellers under the Quarantine Act.
8:25 a.m. Peel Public Healthhas confirmed that no additional cases of the B. 1.351 COVID-19 variant have been identified at a Mississauga condo, after mass testing.
The condo, at Prince of Wales Drive and Confederation Parkway, was the site of widespread testing after five variant cases were confirmed there.
As a result, approximately 500 residents were tested for the B. 1.351 variant (commonly referred to as the South African variant), which found no additional cases.
Notices were left with many other residents inside the building, asking them to get tested.
Public health would not provide any more information regarding the outbreak, including how cases were spread, saying they would update the public at a later time next week.
8:20 a.m. Ontarians 80 and older are already getting their COVID-19 vaccines - weeks ahead of schedule - in at least one health unit, while the province's online booking portal doesn't open until mid-March.
Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health started vaccinating adults 80 and up in the community on Friday, spokesperson Danny Williamson confirmed.
Because we have completed vaccinations for all long-term-care and retirement home residents we have begun to include our seniors over age 80 and indigenous adults as we prepare to vaccinate our very high priority healthcare workers in the next groups," he said in an email.
Read the full story from the Star's May Warren
8:15 a.m. The Six Nations match between France and Scotland on Sunday will be postponed, organizers said on Thursday after an 11th French player tested positive for the coronavirus.
The Six Nations testing oversight group unanimously recommended the match in Paris be postponed and this will be ratified later today by the Six Nations council," it said in a statement.
We will be working on the rescheduling of this fixture and will communicate the date in due course."
8 a.m. Adult patients receiving home care for chronic health issues will be some of the first community members to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in areas of Ontario including Windsor-Essex and Sudbury, where home-care providers have already started calling patients to tell them they are eligible to get the vaccine.
The patients are included as a priority group in the first phase of the province's vaccine rollout, along with people aged 80 and older, as well as others.
The Windsor Essex County Health Unit is working with our community partners to inform adult recipients of chronic home care when they can anticipate being able to register to receive the COVID-19 vaccine," said Michael Janisse, the spokesperson for the health unit. We anticipate that the vaccination of adults 80 years and older will occur in the near future."
Read the full story from the Star's Patty Winsa
7:50 a.m. Stephanie Chouinard always carried a bottle of Purell in her handbag while visiting prospective homes. Like many things, house hunting during the pandemic required some precautions.
For Chouinard and her husband, Sean, the pandemic was the perfect time to buy. The banks were cutting interest rates, and the couple managed to pull the money they'd invested in mutual funds right before the market crashed in March 2020.
That was enough for us to make a down payment," Chouinard said.
If we'd waited two more weeks to take our money out, we would have lost so much more on our investments. That's kind of terrifying to think about, in retrospect."
Read the full story from the Star's Jacob Lorinc
7:40 a.m. Small businesses in Canada owe a collective estimated $135 billion thanks to the pandemic, according to a new report by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) released Thursday.
In a February survey of 3,554 small business owners in Canada, the CFIB found that seven out of 10 businesses took on debt due to COVID-19, owing an average of almost $170,000 each.
Three-quarters of the businesses that have taken on debt say it will take them more than a year to repay it, and more than 10 per cent of those are concerned they will be unable to repay it at all. Four in 10 businesses surveyed don't expect to return to pre-pandemic profit levels for more than a year. Some don't know if they ever will.
Read the full story from the Star's Rosa Saba
7:15 a.m. Eight schools across Toronto have been linked to COVID-19 variants of concern - new versions of the virus believed to be more contagious, the city said in a release Wednesday night.
At least one person connected to each school has tested positive for a variant of concern, it added.
The affected individuals and cohorts have been dismissed from school with guidance based on their level of risk," the release said.
(Toronto Public Health) has followed up with close contacts in affected class cohorts and has recommended testing."
Read the full story from the Star's Manuela Vega
6:24 a.m.: When it comes to obtaining hard-to-get coronavirus vaccines, Israel's friends are discovering the road appears to run through Jerusalem.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday acknowledged sharing coronavirus vaccines with a number of friendly countries that have given favours to Israel in the past. Although he did not identify the countries, a list obtained by an Israeli TV station suggested that a number of them have supported Israel's claim to the contested city of Jerusalem as its capital.
The comments came at a time when Israel faces international criticism for not doing more to share its vast stockpile of vaccines with the Palestinians. They also illustrated how at a time of global shortages, the vaccine has become an asset that can be used for diplomatic gain.
As the occupying power, Israel is responsible for the health of all the people under its control," tweeted U.S. Sen Bernie Sanders. It is outrageous that Netanyahu would use spare vaccines to reward his foreign allies while so many Palestinians in the occupied territories are still waiting."
Although Israel does not make its own vaccines, Netanyahu has overseen one of the world's most successful vaccination campaigns by securing millions of doses from drug makers Pfizer and Moderna. Speaking at a news conference, he said Israel has already vaccinated over 5 million people with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and could complete the task of inoculating its 6.2 million adults within weeks.
6:19 a.m.: The race is the bid to manufacture and administer vaccine doses before new versions of the coronavirus - with the potential to spread faster or even evade the particular protection vaccination currently offers - emerge or become dominant.
Federal officials revealed new modelling data last week that they say shows the variants could fuel a dramatic spike to more than 20,000 new daily infections in the coming weeks if health restrictions are lifted. Meanwhile, vaccine deliveries are scaling up after weeks of delays caused by manufacturing snags in Europe.
Read the full story from the Star's Alex Boyd.
6:15 a.m.: According to a new survey from Royal LePage, of all Canadian homeowners between 25 and 35 years of age, 25 per cent of them purchased their property during the pandemic. Among those surveyed in Ontario, 68 per cent of young nonhomeowners say they intend to buy within the next five years.
The results are indicative of an unlikely plot twist that house-hungry millennials have been experiencing since the pandemic began. In January 2020, when housing prices were expected to soar, many would-be buyers entered lockdown feeling priced out of the market. But the pandemic sent home sales tumbling in the Greater Toronto Area and beyond, sparking optimism among young people who'd held onto their salaries despite all the closures.
Read the full story from the Star's Jacob Lorinc here.
6:11 a.m.: A crisis over the supply of medical oxygen for coronavirus patients has struck nations in Africa and Latin America, where warnings went unheeded at the start of the pandemic and doctors say the shortage has led to unnecessary deaths.
It takes about 12 weeks to install a hospital oxygen plant and even less time to convert industrial oxygen manufacturing systems into a medical-grade network. But in Brazil and Nigeria, as well as in less-populous nations, decisions to fully address inadequate supplies only started being made last month, after hospitals were overwhelmed and patients started to die.
The gap in medical oxygen availability is one of the defining health equity issues, I think, of our age," said Peter Piot, director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, who said he survived a severe coronavirus infection thanks to the oxygen he received.
Doctors in Nigeria anxiously monitor traffic as oxygen deliveries move through the gridlocked streets of Lagos. There and in other countries, desperate families of patients sometimes turn to the black market. Governments take action only after hospitals are overwhelmed and the infected die by the dozens.
In Brazil's Amazonas state, swindlers were caught reselling fire extinguishers painted to look like medical oxygen tanks. In Peru, people camped out in lines to get cylinders for sick relatives.
6:11 a.m.: Taiwan will begin slightly easing restrictions on foreign visitors coming to the island beginning Monday.
The Central Epidemic Command Center says foreign nationals wishing to come to Taiwan for business can apply for special permission at the island's representative offices abroad.
They will need to show negative coronavirus test results obtained three days before they travel and will be tested again after undergoing two weeks of quarantine. Travellers from a list of countries and regions classified as being of low or medium risk for COVID-19 can apply for shortened quarantine periods of between five and seven days.
Those include New Zealand, Macao, Australia, Singapore, Vietnam and Cambodia.
Rule changes will also allow for foreigners in travel groups to change flights in Taiwan, and make it easier for Chinese citizens to visit for personal reasons and for Chinese students to return to Taiwanese institutions of higher education.
Taiwan instituted stricter measures on Jan. 1 to guard against variants of the coronavirus. The island of 23 million has recorded just 946 cases and nine deaths from COVID-19.
6:10 a.m.: The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director is warning it would be a fatal mistake" if the developed world takes the attitude of we'll vaccinate our people, and people in other parts of the world can take care of their own."
John Nkengasong, speaking Thursday to reporters, added that it's in no one's interest we continue to be in this tense situation" and said more could have been done to address the global COVID-19 vaccine inequality.
But he celebrated that Ghana has become the first country in the world to receive vaccines via the global COVAX effort aimed at distributing doses to low-income countries. He said he hoped vaccinations would start Thursday in Ghana and that vaccine deliveries to other African countries will arrive in the coming days.
Africa over the past month has seen a decrease in the number of new cases after a strong resurgence in infections driven by a more infectious variant of the coronavirus discovered in South Africa. The continent surpassed 100,000 confirmed COVID-19 deaths this month.
6:10 a.m.: The Czech government is barring its citizens and residents from travelling to countries hit by highly contagious coronavirus variants and is tightening rules for face coverings.
Starting Thursday, people are required to wear better masks in places where large numbers gather, including stores, hospitals and public transportation. Cloth masks will no longer be good enough and medical-grade masks, safety respirators or two surgical masks will have to be used instead.
The changes come as one of the hardest-hit European Union countries faces a surge of a fast-spreading coronavirus variant originally found in Britain.
As of Friday, Czechs and foreign residents are not allowed to travel to 11 countries amid concerns over coronavirus variants first detected in South Africa and Brazil.
The Cabinet is also preparing new restrictions that Prime Minister Andrej Babis indicated will include limits on movement.
The country's day-to-day increase in new confirmed cases reached 13,657 on Wednesday, about 2,700 more than a week ago. The nation of 10.7 million had almost 1.2 million cases with 19,835 deaths.
6:10 a.m.: A silver lining to coronavirus lockdown measures: with fewer motor vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians out on the streets, German authorities are reporting the lowest number of traffic fatalities since they started keeping statistics.
The Federal Statistical Office reported Thursday that in 2020, 2,724 people died due to traffic accidents in Germany, 10.6% fewer than in 2019 and the lowest number since the Wiesbaden-based agency started keeping such tallies more than 60 years ago.
This is in particular due to the fact that due to the coronavirus pandemic, significantly fewer kilometres were driven on German roads in 2020 than the previous year," the agency said.
The numbers were particularly low during the early part of the year and at the end of the year when Germany had instituted strict lockdown measures, and ticked upward in the summer when the measures were relaxed.
6:09 a.m.: Finland plans to reintroduce a state of emergency that would allow the Nordic country to close restaurants for a three-week period starting March 8 as it fights the variant first discovered in Britain.
I know you're tired. So am I. But we have to be strong and now the situation is more difficult," Prime Minister Sanna Marin told a press conference on Thursday. The variant is more difficult to tackle, the old tools are not enough. Closed borders are not enough."
The new measures require students over 13 to switch to distance learning and halts their leisure activities. A public meeting ban for more than six people is introduced and people are urged to avoid private gatherings. People in Finland would still have to work remotely and wear face masks.
A formal text will be presented next week before parliament.
In March, Finnish lawmakers adopted the emergency powers to tackle the coronavirus crisis. The country has seen 757 virus deaths in the pandemic
6 a.m.: A new form of the coronavirus is spreading rapidly in New York City, and it carries a worrisome mutation that may weaken the effectiveness of vaccines, two teams of researchers have found.
The new variant, called B.1.526, first appeared in samples collected in the city in November. By the middle of this month, it accounted for about one in four viral sequences appearing in a database shared by scientists.
One study of the new variant, led by a group at Caltech, was posted online Tuesday. The other, by researchers at Columbia University, has been submitted to a preprint server but is not yet public.
Neither study has been vetted by peer review nor published in a scientific journal. But the consistent results suggest that the variant's spread is real, experts said.
It's not particularly happy news," said Dr. Michel Nussenzweig, an immunologist at Rockefeller University who was not involved in the new research. But just knowing about it is good, because then we can perhaps do something about it."
The New York Times
5:58 a.m.: China on Thursday denied subjecting U.S. diplomats to COVID-19 anal tests following reports from Washington that some of its personnel were being made to undergo the procedure.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told reporters at a daily briefing that China has never asked U.S. diplomats in China to go through anal swab tests."
A U.S. State Department spokesperson said Washington was committed to guaranteeing the safety and security of American diplomats and their families while preserving their dignity, consistent with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations as well as other relevant diplomatic law provisions."
The Washington Post reported last week that some U.S. personnel had told the department they had been subjected to the anal tests.
5:54 a.m.: Los Angeles County on Wednesday reported another 806 deaths from coronavirus during the winter surge, pushing California's toll above 50,000, or about one-tenth of the U.S. total from the pandemic.
The county, which has a quarter of the state's 40 million residents, said the deaths mainly occurred between Dec. 3 and Feb. 3. The Department of Public Health identified them after going through death records that were backlogged by the sheer volume of the surge's toll.
It is heartbreaking to report on this large number of additional deaths associated with COVID-19 and a devastating reminder of the terrible toll the winter surge has taken on so many families across the county," Barbara Ferrer, Los Angeles County's health director, said in a statement.
Johns Hopkins University put California's overall COVID-19 death toll at 50,890.
The grim figure comes days after the U.S. recorded a half-million deaths.
5:47 a.m.: It's budget day in Alberta, and Premier Jason Kenney's United Conservative government is promising more help in the fight against COVID-19, but more red ink on the bottom line.
Kenney says the budget will concentrate on getting Alberta past the pandemic and on rebuilding the economy that has seen businesses close and jobs lost during the health crisis.
Last year, after COVID-19 took hold, the government abandoned its plan to balance the books within its first term.
Kenney has promised a stay-the-course budget with no deep spending cuts or any tax increases.
5:45 a.m.: A new report suggests the economic impact of the pandemic led to a massive increase in federal aid to Canada's oilpatch.
But the annual inventory of fossil fuel subsidies published by the International Institute for Sustainable Development also highlights that almost all of the direct aid was paid out in two programs to protect jobs and cut greenhouse gas emissions.
It raises further questions about how to define fossil fuel subsidies, an issue Canada has not solved despite promising to eliminate inefficient" ones for more than a decade now.
The problematic aspect is how do we make sure they're not supporting for future fossil fuel production," said Vanessa Corkal, a policy analyst at the IISD and author of the report.
5:45 a.m.: Lucie Tremblay wants her colleagues in Quebec's health-care sector to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
The head of nursing at the regional health board for west-central Montreal has taken a leading role in the board's efforts to reduce vaccine hesitancy among its employees.
Tremblay said some of her colleagues are still reluctant to get an injection, but they are noticeably fewer than a few months ago. There's a lot of people that are very enthusiastic about getting the vaccine, but they're not yet on the priority list," she said in a recent interview.
Health experts say vaccine hesitancy appears to be dropping among health-care workers in Quebec. There's been a dramatic change," Dr. Melissa Genereux, public health professor at Universite de Sherbrooke, said in an interview Wednesday.
Quebec health boards are making a concerted effort to encourage workers to get vaccinated by launching information campaigns and creating programs aimed at turning vaccinated workers into role models for their colleagues.
Those efforts seem to be working.
4 a.m.: The latest numbers on COVID-19 vaccinations in Canada as of 4 a.m. ET on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021.
In Canada, the provinces are reporting 49,917 new vaccinations administered for a total of 1,652,282 doses given. The provinces have administered doses at a rate of 4,359.666 per 100,000.
There were 36,279 new vaccines delivered to the provinces and territories for a total of 2,040,089 doses delivered so far. The provinces and territories have used 80.99 per cent of their available vaccine supply.
4 a.m.: The latest numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Canada as of 4 a.m. ET on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021.
There are 855,126 confirmed cases in Canada (30,393 active, 802,926 resolved, 21,807 deaths).The total case count includes 13 confirmed cases among repatriated travellers.
There were 2,863 new cases Wednesday. The rate of active cases is 79.97 per 100,000 people. Over the past seven days, there have been a total of 20,945 new cases. The seven-day rolling average of new cases is 2,992.
There were 46 new reported deaths Wednesday. Over the past seven days there have been a total of 376 new reported deaths. The seven-day rolling average of new reported deaths is 54. The seven-day rolling average of the death rate is 0.14 per 100,000 people. The overall death rate is 57.38 per 100,000 people.
There have been 23,948,515 tests completed.