Today’s coronavirus news: Ontario reporting 2,380 COVID cases with 17 deaths; 1,016 new cases in Toronto; Health Canada's chief medical adviser concerned about reports of vaccine hesitancy among
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.
12 p.m. The Manitoba government is promising $6 million in financial support for the arts and culture sector, which has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Premier Brian Pallister says museums, festivals, cultural facilities, artists and musical groups will be among the eligible recipients.
COVID-19 restrictions have forced concert halls, theatres, cinemas and other facilities to remain closed.
11:30 a.m. Health Canada's chief medical adviser says she's concerned" about reports of vaccine hesitancy among health-care workers.
Dr. Supriya Sharma says vaccine acceptance tops 90 per cent in some parts of the country, but lags in others.
She says it's important to dig into why hospital and long-term care workers are leery, and to give them more information addressing their worries.
Sharma says it's completely understandable" that people have questions as researchers study whether there is any link between the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and a very small number of rare brain blood clots, but adds that no incidents have been reported in Canada.
11:15 a.m. Quebec is reporting 945 new COVID-19 cases and four more deaths linked to the novel coronavirus, including one in the previous 24 hours.
Health authorities say 496 people are in hospital, a drop of 12 patients, with 117 requiring intensive care, down by one.
The province gave 39,814 doses of vaccine on Wednesday for a total of 1,065,823 since the COVID-19 vaccination campaign began.
Quebec has reported a total of 305,435 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 10,630 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic and has 7,173 active cases.
11 a.m. The major-general overseeing the country's vaccine program says there is no indication" that shipments of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to Canada will be delayed, but adds that discussions are ongoing.
Media reports Wednesday said India has halted exports of Covishield, the version of AstraZeneca produced at the country's Serum Institute.
India has already supplied 500,000 doses of a planned two million to Canada, with another one million still slated for arrival in mid-April followed by a final shipment a month or so later.
Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin's remarks to reporters echoed those of International Trade Minister Mary Ng, who said Wednesday there is nothing to indicate Canada's supply chains will be disrupted.
10:18 a.m. The province is reporting 1,016 new cases in Toronto, 294 in Peel, 244 in York Region and 152 in Ottawa. As of 8 p.m. yesterday, 1,755,596 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered.
10:15 a.m. Ontario is reporting 2,380 COVID-19 cases Thursday with 17 deaths. The seven-day average is up to 1,794 cases daily or 86 weekly per 100k, and up to 11.1 deaths per day. Labs report 60,077 completed tests, which is average for a Thursday - with 3.8 per cent positivity rate, the most for a Thursday since Jan. 21.
10:07 a.m. Visitor restrictions imposed by a group home during the pandemic discriminated against a 14-year-old boy with disabilities, Ontario's human rights tribunal has found.
It was the first decision by the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario on the "complex issues regarding the role of human rights in the middle of a public health care crisis."
"Human rights protections do not go away in a pandemic," adjudicator Jennifer Scott wrote in her decision released on Tuesday.
Pamela Libralesso and her family did not see her son, who lives in a small group home in Barrie, Ont., with round-the-clock care, for six months last year.
10 a.m. Health Canada has updated the product label for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to warn about blood clotting, but says reports of those events are very rare" - and in Canada nonexistent.
The label warning follows reports from Europe that AstraZeneca might cause a rare type of blood clot in the brain in a very small number of patients.
Health Canada's chief medical adviser Dr. Supriya Sharma says she agrees with European health authorities that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh any potential risks, and that all four vaccines approved for use in Canada are considered safe.
Sharma says Health Canada is keeping an eye on developments across the Atlantic, where researchers say they have identified a possible cause for the blood clots, but little information is available so far.
She says about 300,000 doses of AstraZeneca's Covishield vaccine, made at the Serum Institute of India, have been administered in Canada to date, with no serious health events reported.
9 a.m. As a personal support worker in a long-term-care home, Lily has been eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine since the first shots were administered back in December.
But she hasn't been vaccinated yet because she's afraid - not of the vaccine itself, but that getting it could lead to losing her job or being deported.
Lily is among the tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants living and working in Toronto. She doesn't have an OHIP card and she doesn't want her employer to discover her lack of immigration status. She also worries that if she discloses her personal information to public health officials it might be shared with immigration authorities, leading to her detention or removal from Canada.
I'm not going to take the risk of sharing my information," she said in a phone interview. (Lily is a pseudonym. The Star agreed not to publish her real name or where she works.)
Read the full story from the Star's Brendan Kennedy
8:53 a.m. A team of international and Chinese scientists is poised to report on its joint search for the origins of the coronavirus that sparked a pandemic after it was first detected in China over a year ago - with four theories being considered, and one the clear frontrunner, according to experts.
The lengthy report is being published after months of wrangling, notably between U.S. and Chinese governments, over how the outbreak emerged, while scientists try to keep their focus on a so-far fruitless search for the origin of a microbe that has killed over 2.7 million people and stifled economies worldwide.
It wasn't immediately clear when the report will be released after its publication was delayed earlier this month. By many accounts, the report could offer few concrete answers, and may raise further questions.
It will offer a first glance in writing from 10 international epidemiologists, data scientists, veterinary, lab and food safety experts who visited China and the city of Wuhan - where a market was seen as the initial epicenter - earlier this year to work with Chinese counterparts who pulled up the bulk of early data.
Critics have raised questions about the objectivity of the team, insisting that China's government had a pivotal say over its composition. Defenders of the World Health Organization, which assembled the team, say it can't simply parachute in experts to tell a country what to do - let alone one as powerful as China.
8 a.m. A player on Germany's national soccer team tested positive for the coronavirus ahead of Thursday's World Cup qualifying game against Iceland.
The German soccer federation said the unnamed player was in isolation and was not experiencing symptoms. Local health officials will now decide on any further measures which could affect the game.
This news is obviously bitter so close to the game, for the coaches and the whole team," Germany general manager Oliver Bierhoff said.
Bierhoff added that he was optimistic the virus was unlikely to spread because the team had taken measures to reduce contact between players.
Of course, we will implement any requirements the authorities may have," he said.
Germany is playing its first game since a 6-0 loss to Spain in the Nations League in November. That was the team's worst-ever defeat in a competitive game, and worst in any game since 1931.
7:50 a.m. Services at a long-standing mental health clinic for Portuguese-speaking patients at Toronto Western Hospital are winding down, and the clinic's closure for psychiatric referrals is raising alarms about the future of other language-based services in the city.
The clinic's sole Portuguese-speaking psychiatrist is leaving the practice in June and will not be replaced, according to University Health Network. This follows the retirement of Toronto Western's only Spanish-speaking psychiatrist last year, whose role has not been continued.
UHN also runs the Asian Initiative in Mental Health Clinic, which continues to provide psychiatric care for patients in Cantonese and Mandarin. All programs fall under UHN's community care clinics.
But concerns are mounting that the closure of the Portuguese clinic may signal a larger shift in how mental health services are delivered for vulnerable, language-dependent patients.
Read the full story from the Star's Nadine Yousif
7:40 a.m. A second school in the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) will temporarily close this week due to COVID-19 cases among its students.
Classes at Our Lady of Victory Catholic school, at 70 Guestville Ave. in Toronto, will not resume in person after 12 COVID-19 cases were reported among students in the past two weeks.
Toronto Public Health (TPH) announced their recommendation of temporary dismissal of all cohorts of the school on Monday evening, following their investigation.
We will keep the school community informed as soon as the reopening date is confirmed," TPH tweeted.
Read the full story from the Star's Rhythm Sachdeva
7:30 a.m. Conducting an orchestra is among the most rarefied and coveted positions in the performing arts. But during the pandemic, it's a job that's been upended like everyone else's.
It's very unsettling because we don't know how to do our jobs in the way we've always done them," says Rosemary Thomson, Music Director of the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra. But there's two sides to that coin."
She and some of Canada's most innovative conductors are not only learning new ways to perform on the podium - virtually, masked, distanced - they're experimenting with new ways to make the epic sound of the orchestra relevant and meaningful in their communities, something that wasn't always easy to do before COVID-19, when performances were often planned years in advance.
6:22 a.m.: Data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information shows COVID-19-related hospitalizations in Canada cost $23,000 per stay - about four times as much as the average.
CIHI says the average length of stay for a COVID-related hospitalization in Canada was two weeks.
The agency examined data from from January to November 2020, but did not include Quebec.
In that time period, the estimated total cost of COVID-19-related hospitalizations in Canada was more than $317 million.
There were nearly 14,000 hospital stays for patients with a diagnosis of COVID-19 in Canada between last January and November, along with more than 85,400 emergency department visits for COVID-19.
Of the 13,906 COVID-related hospitalizations analyzed, CIHI found that 57.1 per cent were discharged home while 18.7 per cent (2,605) died in hospital.
6:19 a.m.: Brazil has reached 300,000 confirmed COVID-19 deaths and become the second nation to top that figure. The United States hit the same milestone on Dec. 14, but it has a larger population.
Wednesday's coronavirus figures from the Brazilian health ministry added another 2,009 deaths to the country's tally, which local media say is an undercount.
On Tuesday, Brazil hit a single-day record of 3,251 COVID-19 deaths and authorities fear that April could be as grim as March in the country's overwhelmed hospitals.
Brazil added 100,000 deaths to its tally in only 75 days, a spike health experts have blamed on a lack of political co-ordination, new variants that spread more easily and a disregard for health protocols in many parts of the country.
6:18 a.m.: The U.S. has surpassed 30 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.
Coronavirus cases nationwide reached 30,001,245 on Wednesday, nearly three months after the country hit 20 million.
COVID-19 related deaths now total more than 545,000.
The new milestone comes as public health experts show cautious optimism three months into the U.S. vaccination rollout. It is believed that 70% of Americans 65 and older have received at least one dose of the vaccine and COVID-19 deaths are below 1,000 a day on average for the first time since November.
The federal government is dramatically ramping up vaccine production and several states have already expanded vaccination eligibility to people age 16 and up.
More than 124 million cases have been confirmed worldwide.
6:17 a.m.: Utah's mask mandate will end April 10 after the Republican governor signed a bill that lays out a new timeline for lifting some of the state's COVID-19 restrictions.
Masks orders will remain in place for schools and gatherings of more than 50 people. Businesses can also choose to require them.
Gov. Spencer Cox signed the measure on Wednesday, the same day that vaccinations opened to all people aged 16 and older.
New coronavirus cases and hospitalizations in Utah have been on a downward trend since January. According to state data, more than 438,000 of the state's 3.2 million residents have been fully vaccinated.
6:17 a.m.: Pakistan's president said he hoped his country will soon overcome the coronavirus pandemic but asked people to continue adhering to social distancing rules.
President Arif Alvi made his comments in a televised speech Thursday after witnessing a military parade in the capital, Islamabad.
Authorities provided face masks to all those who witnessed the military parade.
His comments came shortly after Pakistan reported 3,946 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, one of the highest increases in recent months.
On Thursday, Pakistan also reported 63 additional deaths from coronavirus, increasing the country's total fatalities to 14,028 among 640,988 cases since last year.
Alvi's remarks came a day after Pakistan's top health official Faisal Sultan said his country will purchase 1 million doses of China's Sinopharm vaccine and 60,000 doses of the vaccine made by Chinese company CanSino Biologics.
A day ago, Pakistan government ordered the closure of schools in the capital, Islamabad and in several high-risk cities until April 11.
6:13 a.m.: A team of international and Chinese scientists is poised to report on its joint search for the origins of the coronavirus that sparked a pandemic after it was first detected in China over a year ago - with four theories being considered, and one the clear front-runner, according to experts.
The lengthy report is being published after months of wrangling, notably between U.S. and Chinese governments, over how the outbreak emerged, while scientists try to keep their focus on a so-far fruitless search for the origin of a microbe that has killed over 2.7 million people and stifled economies worldwide.
It wasn't immediately clear when the report will be released after its publication was delayed earlier this month. By many accounts, the report could offer few concrete answers, and may raise further questions.
It will offer a first glance in writing from 10 international epidemiologists, data scientists, veterinary, lab and food safety experts who visited China and the city of Wuhan - where a market was seen as the initial epicentre - earlier this year to work with Chinese counterparts who pulled up the bulk of early data.
Critics have raised questions about the objectivity of the team, insisting that China's government had a pivotal say over its composition. Defenders of the World Health Organization, which assembled the team, say it can't simply parachute in experts to tell a country what to do - let alone one as powerful as China.
Read the full story from the Associated Press here.
6:12 a.m.: The White House announced Thursday that it is dedicating another $10 billion to try to drive up vaccination rates in low-income, minority and rural enclaves throughout the country.
The effort, which is funded through the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package passed earlier this month, will include $6 billion in funding for community health centres to expand COVID-19 vaccinations, testing and other preventive health care for populations at higher risk for the virus.
President Joe Biden's administration, which will start distributing the money in April to nearly 1,400 centres across the country, said health centres can also use the funding to modify and improve infrastructure and add mobile units.
In addition, the Biden administration said it is allotting $3 billion to bolster vaccine confidence." The money, which will be parceled out to 64 jurisdictions, can be used by rural, faith-based organizations and by food assistance and housing nonprofits in high-poverty communities to conduct door-to-door outreach and education efforts to urge eligible people to schedule vaccination appointments.
6:11 a.m.: AstraZeneca insists that its COVID-19 vaccine is strongly effective even after counting additional illnesses in its disputed U.S. study, the latest in an extraordinary public rift with American officials.
In a late-night news release Wednesday, the drugmaker said it had recalculated data from that study and concluded the vaccine is 76% effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19, instead of the 79% it had reported earlier in the week.
Just a day earlier, an independent panel that oversees the study had accused AstraZeneca of cherry-picking data to tout the protection offered by its vaccine. The panel, in a harsh letter to the company and to U.S. health leaders, said the company had left out some COVID-19 cases that occurred in the study, a move that could erode trust in the science.
Some experts said the new data provided by AstraZeneca was reassuring" and that the information was likely solid enough for U.S. regulators to authorize the vaccine.
6:09 a.m.: Scientists at the National Advisory Committee on Immunization are reviewing research that suggests people who have been infected with COVID-19 can turbocharge their antibodies with just one dose of a vaccine.
The committee is actively reviewing evidence on the protection offered by one dose for those previously infected, and whether a second dose continues to be necessary," says a statement from the panel.
Caroline Quach-Thanh said the committee is debating" the question of how many vaccine doses someone who has been infected with COVID-19 requires.
France and Quebec have said only one," said Quach-Thanh, chair of the committee, in an email.
Studies have suggested people who have had COVID-19 may produce the required antibody response with just one dose of a vaccine.
A letter in the New England Journal of Medicine earlier this month says the question of whether one dose is enough requires investigation." It's written by 32 researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York after conducting a small study.
It suggests people who have been infected with the novel coronavirus may produce 10 to 45 times as many antibodies after the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines compared with someone who hasn't had COVID-19. The research is yet to be peer reviewed.
4 a.m.: The latest numbers on COVID-19 vaccinations in Canada as of a a.m. ET on Thursday, March 25, 2021.
In Canada, the provinces are reporting 171,761 new vaccinations administered for a total of 4,393,876 doses given. Nationwide, 642,821 people or 1.7 per cent of the population has been fully vaccinated. The provinces have administered doses at a rate of 11,593.562 per 100,000.
There were 115,830 new vaccines delivered to the provinces and territories for a total of 5,240,300 doses delivered so far. The provinces and territories have used 83.85 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, March 25, 2021.
There are 946,370 confirmed cases in Canada (37,100 active, 886,511 resolved, 22,759 deaths). The total case count includes 13 confirmed cases among repatriated travellers.
There were 4,051 new cases Wednesday. The rate of active cases is 97.62 per 100,000 people. Over the past seven days, there have been a total of 27,121 new cases. The seven-day rolling average of new cases is 3,874.
There were 24 new reported deaths Wednesday. Over the past seven days there have been a total of 203 new reported deaths. The seven-day rolling average of new reported deaths is 29. The seven-day rolling average of the death rate is 0.08 per 100,000 people. The overall death rate is 59.88 per 100,000 people.
There have been 26,858,481 tests completed.