Today’s coronavirus news: Canada tops 1 million cases since pandemic began; Christians around the globe mark another pandemic Easter
The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Sunday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.
12:57 p.m. (updated): Quebec's health minister expressed concern over rising COVID-19 numbers in three regions on Sunday, as the number of cases confirmed or believed to be linked to contagious variants soared past the 10,000 mark.
Christian Dube said on Twitter that he's worried about case numbers in the Quebec City, Chaudiere-Appalaches and Outaouais regions.
Despite an appearance of stability in Quebec, some regions are experiencing a concerning (rise) in new cases," he wrote.
Quebec reported 1,154 new COVID-19 infections on Sunday and nine additional deaths linked to the virus, including one that occurred in the last 24 hours.
The regions cited by Dube were among those designated as red" zones last week as they moved to the province's highest COVID-19 alert level after a few weeks at the less restrictive orange" classification.
Premier Francois Legault also imposed stricter lockdown measures in Quebec City, Levis and Gatineau that began Thursday and will last at least 10 days.
Residents in those cities, which are in the greater Quebec City and Outaouais regions, will have to abide by an 8 p.m. curfew, while schools will be closed and non-essential businesses temporarily shuttered.
The new rise in cases has been linked to more contagious variants, which now account for 64 per cent of new COVID-19 diagnoses in the province.
Quebec announced 779 new presumed cases involving variants on Sunday, which brought the provincial total past the 10,000 mark to 10,337.
11:41 a.m.: Quebec is reporting 1,154 new cases of COVID-19 and nine additional deaths linked to the pandemic.
One of the deaths occurred in the past 24 hours while the rest happened earlier.
Hospitalizations increased by one to 502, while the number of patients in intensive care rose by four to 128.
Health workers gave 41,073 doses of vaccine on Saturday for a total of 1,529,541 shots.
10:43 a.m.: There was a time last year when the guardians of Edehzhie would head out on the land in the Northwest Territories and worry what their communities might look like when they returned.
That was when COVID-19 started to sweep across Canada, threatening the country's northern communities, including those around the protected area known as Edehzhie in the Dehcho region of the N.W.T.
Established in 2018 between the Dehcho First Nations and the federal government, Edehzhie is the country's first Indigenous Protected Area. It covers more than 14,000 square kilometres of land - more than twice the size of Banff National Park.
Edehzhie is known as the breadbasket" of the Dehcho region, because of its abundance of wildlife, plants and fresh water.
As part of the agreement between the Dehcho and Canada, eight people were hired as guardians to monitor activities on the land. They are from the four surrounding communities of Fort Providence, Jean Marie River, Fort Simpson and Wrigley.
They're essentially our eyes and ears on the ground," said Ashley Menicoche, one of four Edehzhie community co-ordinators, from her home in Fort Simpson.
As in the rest of the country, the pandemic caused much of the N.W.T. to lock down and strict public-health measures were put in place.
We were thinking, because you have to be six feet apart, how are you going to do that when you're sharing a tent and it's -30 C?" Menicoche said.
The guardians learned to adapt. They stayed connected through satellite phones and other satellite devices while out on the land.
Dahti Tsetso, former director of lands and resources for the First Nations, said she and a guardian would have Zoom meetings from her back deck in Fort Simpson.
There's hundreds of kilometres between us and yet, through Zoom, we're all able to connect. Funnily enough, because of the pandemic, the ability to create a strong sense of community between everyone was sort of forged through video conferencing," Tsetso said.
The pandemic also meant Menicoche and her team developed more outdoor, land-based programs with the guardians and surrounding communities.
We built this foundation during COVID and we're still able to do things out on the land while the rest of the world was on lockdown," Menicoche said.
I was out in the bush last weekend and I just lay some tobacco down and thanked the Creator that we're still able do this."
9:27 a.m.: With our new hyper vigilance over spreading of germs and common touch points," it is difficult to fathom how the buffets of yesteryear - especially (gasp!) the sharing of tongs - could ever make a comeback.
The Star's Douglas Quan writes that his affection for buffets is not so much about quality of food but more about the kitsch and the nostalgia, like being wrapped in a warm blanket.
As we hunger for normal, he hopes the all-you-can-eat buffet can outlast COVID-19.
9:19 a.m.: Last fall, Gillian Lee was stuck at home working remotely when she looked out the window of her Queens Quay apartment and saw people happily paddling across the lake.
That inspired her to buy a folding kayak and take paddling lessons, kickstarting her new favourite socially distanced hobby.
I used to see all my friends at work and now I don't have that anymore," Lee said. Having that group of friends out on the water has been an amazing thing for me."
Lee and her lake friends aren't the only Torontonians who chose to paddle through the pandemic. They are part of a lake-loving movement crowding Toronto's waterfront - whether it's the sandy beaches in the east and west, or the deep waters off Queens Quay - that is expected to grow in number this summer as pandemic restrictions force people to find other forms of exercise and recreation.
Read the full story from the Star's Celina Gallardo.
8:20 a.m.: Younger patients, getting sicker, faster. Entire families infected by the virus. Intensive care units close to overflowing. Hospital staff pushing through exhaustion, knowing the worst is still to come.
As the pandemic steams ahead and the number of COVID-19 patients in the ICU soars - surpassing the peak seen in the winter - the Star spoke to seven health-care workers on the front lines of the fight against more transmissible and deadly variants.
Here they tell us in their own words what it feels like to see the third wave up close, why funding new ICU beds isn't enough, and how it's different this time around.
Read the full story from the Star's May Warren and Meghan Oglive here.
8:16 a.m.: The COVID passports designed to restart large-scale events in the U.K. may not be ready until fall, according to the Telegraph newspaper.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson will confirm on Monday a plan to allow people to attend public events including sports games by either showing proof of vaccination, a recent negative test or antibodies from an infection in the last six months, the newspaper reported on Sunday.
But the certification project, which will likely be on a mobile app, will take months to develop, the Telegraph said, citing unidentified senior government officials.
While the rapid pace of vaccination has bolstered optimism the U.K. is on track to fully reopening an economy bludgeoned by the latest lockdown, more than 70 members of Parliament have pledged to oppose the use of COVID passports, calling them divisive and discriminatory." That suggests Johnson may still struggle to push the measure through the 650-seat legislature.
We need to look at every option potentially available to ensure the fastest, safest and most sustainable road back to normality," Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove wrote in a Telegraph editorial. There are, of course, a host of practical and ethical questions we have to answer before we can consider a wider rollout."
8:16 a.m.: Bangladesh authorities are imposing a one-week nationwide lockdown on Monday to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Cabinet Minister Obaidul Quader announced the plan on Saturday. The government says 5,683 new infections and 58 deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours.
Forhad Hossain, the country's junior minister for public administration, says organizations providing emergency services will be available during the lockdown. He says industries will remain open and employees must work in shifts, following health guidelines.
The government has already banned travel from all European countries, except the United Kingdom, and 12 other countries for three weeks.
Bangladesh has registered a total of 630,277 cases and 9,213 confirmed deaths. Health experts say the actual number is likely higher.
8:15 a.m.: Syria's government says that primary schools will close indefinitely next week amid a severe increase of coronavirus cases.
Universities will suspend classes for only two weeks and high schools will remain open. The announcement by government ministries on Saturday says closures will go into effect Monday. Final exams for grades five up to high school will be held over four days starting April 25.
Syria is experiencing a spike in coronavirus cases, with state media reporting last month the intensive care units in state hospitals in the capital of Damascus were full.
8:15 a.m.: Some 9,000 people are getting vaccinated at a huge stadium in Lyon during Easter weekend, and thousands more around France are spending the holiday lining up for injections elsewhere as the government tries to speed up vaccinations amid a new virus surge.
But as France faced its second Easter in a row under the cloud of the pandemic, some cities pushed back against President Emmanuel Macron's insistence that there are no weekends or days off during vaccination."
Authorities in Strasbourg on the German border shut down their vaccination facilities Friday through Monday, to allow workers a little rest at last," according to a city official. To ensure residents still had access to potentially life-saving vaccines, the city expanded vaccination hours during the week and injected all its weekly supply of doses between Monday and Thursday instead.
The city of Sarcelles north of Paris is among those staying open Sunday, amid mushrooming infections and demand. The surrounding Val d'Oise region now has the highest infection rate in France along with some of its poorest neighbourhoods, and Sarcelles' challenges symbolize inequalities worsened by the virus.
The Easter acceleration efforts stand in contrast to the beginning of France's vaccine rollout in late December, when low staffing for the end-of-year holidays meant a slow start to injections, which initially focused on nursing homes.
France has reported one of the world's highest virus death tolls, at 96,280 people, and the highest number of virus infections in Europe.
8:14 a.m.: Britain's government is planning to trial a coronavirus status certification plan over the coming months to allow the safe return of mass gatherings at places like sports grounds and nightclubs.
Officials are expected to consider passports that show whether a person has received a vaccine, has recently tested negative for the virus, or has immunity due to having tested positive in the previous six months.
The trial events will include soccer's FA Cup semi-final and final, the World Snooker Championships, and a comedy club show.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to set out more details on Monday. He said the trials will play an important role in allowing the reopening of our country so people can return to the events, travel and other things they love as safely as possible."
However, dozens of Johnson's Conservative Party lawmakers have opposed the plans, and Johnson could struggle to get Parliament to approve the trials.
8:14 a.m.: Spain is repatriating several hundred of its citizens and residents after Morocco cancelled flights with Spain and France to help stem a rise in coronavirus infections.
Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya said that around 3,000 Spanish residents were left stranded in the North African nation.
A ferry departing from Tangier will hold around 750 passengers, according to local media. The Spanish Embassy in Morocco says a flight from Casablanca will carry another 200.
Another ferry is set to leave on Tuesday.
Morocco announced last Monday that it was cancelling flights with Spain and France as part of package of measures to fight the pandemic.
8:12 a.m.: Authorities say Libya has received its first shipment of coronavirus vaccines.
The Libyan Health Ministry said 101,250 doses of the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine landed in the capital, Tripoli and were taken to the ministry's storehouses on Sunday.
Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah said in a tweet that other shipments would arrive, although he didn't set a timeframe.
Libya has seen a swell in confirmed COVID-19 cases in recent weeks.
The county of around 7 million people has reported more than 161,000 confirmed cases and 2,684 virus-related deaths since the start of the pandemic. However, the actual number of cases in Libya, like elsewhere in the world, is thought to be far higher, in part due to limited testing.
8 a.m.: Christianity's most joyous feast day was celebrated worldwide with faithful sitting far apart in pews and singing choruses of Hallelujah" through face coverings on a second Easter Sunday conditioned by pandemic precautions.
From Protestant churches in South Korea to St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, worshippers followed national or local regulations aimed at preventing the transmission of the coronavirus.
Read the full story from the Associated Press here.
4 a.m.: The latest numbers on COVID-19 vaccinations in Canada as of 4 a.m. ET on Sunday, April 4, 2021.
In Canada, the provinces are reporting 219,944 new vaccinations administered for a total of 6,188,551 doses given. Nationwide, 704,338 people or 1.9 per cent of the population has been fully vaccinated.
The provinces have administered doses at a rate of 16,328.942 per 100,000. There were 394,222 new vaccines delivered to the provinces and territories for a total of 7,839,870 doses delivered so far. The provinces and territories have used 78.94 per cent of their available vaccine supply.
4 a.m.: The latest numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Canada as of 4:00 a.m. ET on Sunday April 4, 2021.
There are 1,000,545 confirmed cases in Canada (56,036 active, 921,459 resolved, 23,050 deaths).The total case count includes 13 confirmed cases among repatriated travellers.
There were 6,846 new cases Saturday. The rate of active cases is 147.44 per 100,000 people. Over the past seven days, there have been a total of 38,526 new cases. The seven-day rolling average of new cases is 5,504.
There were 20 new reported deaths Saturday. Over the past seven days there have been a total of 195 new reported deaths. The seven-day rolling average of new reported deaths is 28.
The seven-day rolling average of the death rate is 0.07 per 100,000 people. The overall death rate is 60.65 per 100,000 people. There have been 27,726,348 tests completed.
Saturday 9 p.m.: Health officials are urging British Columbia residents not to travel outside their community as the province set back-to-back records for the number of new COVID-19 cases recorded in a single day.
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix say in a joint statement Saturday that B.C. had 1,072 infections in the last 24 hours, surpassing the previous highest daily total of 1,018 cases a day earlier.
Henry and Dix say an easy-to-use provincial booking system for vaccinations is expected to be available starting next week as B.C. runs two parallel streams to ramp up inoculation.
Appointments are currently being booked for people aged 72 and older, Indigenous people 18 and over as well as those who are clinically extremely vulnerable.
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is available to people between the ages of 55 and 65 if they live on the Lower Mainland, the area of the province with the highest transmission, and more communities are expected to be added by the end of next week.
Saturday 8 p.m.: Canada has recorded more than a million cases of COVID-19 since the virus arrived in the country more than a year ago.
The national tally inched past the bleak threshold on Saturday when British Columbia reported 2,090 new infections over the course of two days.
Canada has been recording about 100,000 new cases every three to four weeks, surging past the 900,000 mark on March 13.
But case counts have begun rising again in several provinces, prompting officials to impose new public health restrictions in a bid to contain what health authorities are describing as the virus's third wave.