Today’s coronavirus news: Ontario reporting 2,199 cases of COVID-19; Health Canada says 37 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines could be shipped in May and June
The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world on Sunday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.
10:15 a.m.: Ontario is reporting 2,199 cases of COVID-19 and over 33,100 tests completed, Health Minister Christine Elliott tweeted Sunday. Locally, there are 633 new cases in Toronto, 547 in Peel, 172 in York Region, 143 in Durham and 129 in Hamilton.
9:51 a.m.: Today, Premier Doug Ford will be visiting the Doses After Dark' mass vaccination clinic in Mississauga. Peel Region aims to administer more than 7,600 doses, including 5,000 doses overnight, during a 32-hour vaccination marathon.
9:02 a.m.: Police are reaching out to villagers in northern India to investigate the recovery of bodies buried in shallow sand graves or washed up on the Ganges River banks, prompting speculation on social media that they're the remains of COVID-19 victims.
In jeeps and boats, police used portable loudspeakers with microphones asking people not to dispose of bodies in rivers. "We are here to help you perform the last rites," police said.
On Friday, rains exposed the cloth coverings of bodies buried in shallow sand graves on a wide, flat riverbank in Prayagraj, a city in Uttar Pradesh state. While officials say the riverside burials have taken place for decades, the sheer numbers in the shadow of the pandemic are focusing more attention on the practice.
Navneet Sehgal, a state government spokesman, on Sunday denied local media reports that more than 1,000 corpses of COVID-19 victims had been recovered from rivers in the past two weeks. I bet these bodies have nothing to do with COVID-19," he said.
The Health Ministry on Sunday reported 311,170 confirmed cases in the past 24 hours, down from 326,098 on Saturday.
It also reported 4,077 additional deaths, taking the total fatalities to 270,284. Both figures are almost certainly a vast undercount, experts say.
Read the full story from The Associated Press here.
8:41 a.m.: A new blood-clotting syndrome seen in a small minority of COVID-19 vaccine recipients continues to draw significant attention, but experts maintain the event is exceedingly rare - and treatable, in most cases.
Vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia, or VITT, has been identified in at least 18 Oxford-AstraZeneca recipients in Canada, with 10 more under review. There have been three deaths associated with the condition.
The disorder, characterized by low platelet counts, has been associated with but not definitively linked to the viral vector shots from AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.
Some provinces have started to move away from using AstraZeneca for first doses. Canada's increased supply of mRNA vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna means more Canadians are getting access to those shots.
Here's what we know about VITT
8:27 a.m.: Yale University is requiring its faculty and staff to get coronavirus vaccinations before the fall term, extending a requirement already imposed for students.
The private university says faculty members, staffers and academic trainees must be fully inoculated by Aug. 1, although there are provisions for exemptions for reasons based on medical conditions or religious or strongly held" personal beliefs.
More than 350 colleges and universities around the country are requiring vaccinations for students, at least those living on-campus. However, requirements for employees are somewhat rare. That's according to information compiled by The Chronicle of Higher Education.
8:24 a.m.: Britain's health minister says a fast-spreading coronavirus variant first identified in India is likely to become the dominant strain of the virus in the U.K.
Health officials are conducting door-to-door testing in several areas of the country in an attempt to curb the spread of the variant, which the government has warned could disrupt the U.K.'s reopening plans. Surge vaccinations in key regions are to begin shortly.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the new strain, formally known as B.1.617.2, is more transmissible than the U.K.'s dominant strain. He told the BBC it is likely it will become the dominant variant."
Hancock said scientists had a high degree of confidence" that current vaccines work against the new variant, and there is no evidence it causes more a severe disease.
The government says it will go ahead with plans to ease lockdown restrictions on Monday. People in England will be able to eat a restaurant meal or drink a beer indoors, go to a movie and visit one another's homes for the first time in months.
But Prime Minister Boris Johnson says that if the variant causes a big surge in cases it could scupper plans to lift all remaining restrictions on June 21.
4 a.m.: As COVID-19 vaccine supplies ramp up across the country, most provinces and territories have released details of who can expect to receive a shot in the coming weeks.
Health Canada says up to 37 million doses of vaccine could be shipped in May and June, but only 20.3 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech and 1.04 million doses of Moderna are confirmed. The remaining 11.3 million doses of Moderna, and another four million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca from various sources are still tentative.
Provinces initially suspended giving AstraZeneca shots to people under the age of 55 based on an advisory committee's advice, but their recommendation changed on April 23 to reflect that the shot is safe for anyone aged 30 and older.
More than 655,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from the global vaccine sharing alliance known as COVAX, are scheduled to arrive and be distributed to provinces in the week ahead, but most provinces have already said they plan to put them on ice in reserve for second doses.
Health Canada, meanwhile, approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children 12 and older on May 5.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says almost 50 per cent of eligible adults in Canada have received at least one shot of COVID-19 vaccine.
He says by the summer, Canada will have enough vaccines so that every eligible resident will have gotten their first dose, and by September, it will have enough doses for everyone to be fully vaccinated.
4 a.m.: The latest numbers on COVID-19 vaccinations in Canada as of 4 a.m. ET on Sunday, May 16, 2021.
In Canada, the provinces are reporting 364,245 new vaccinations administered for a total of 18,098,470 doses given. Nationwide, 1,395,315 people or 3.7 per cent of the population has been fully vaccinated. The provinces have administered doses at a rate of 47,754.13 per 100,000.
There were no new vaccines delivered to the provinces and territories for a total of 20,355,204 doses delivered so far
4 a.m.: The latest numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Canada as of 4 a.m. ET on Sunday, May 16, 2021.
There are 1,323,681 confirmed cases in Canada (71,903 active, 1,226,870 resolved, 24,908 deaths).The total case count includes 13 confirmed cases among repatriated travellers.
There were 5,269 new cases Saturday. The rate of active cases is 189.19 per 100,000 people. Over the past seven days, there have been a total of 43,117 new cases. The seven-day rolling average of new cases is 6,160.
There were 40 new reported deaths Saturday. Over the past seven days there have been a total of 328 new reported deaths.
The seven-day rolling average of new reported deaths is 47. The seven-day rolling average of the death rate is 0.12 per 100,000 people. The overall death rate is 65.54 per 100,000 people.
There have been 33,383,698 tests completed.