Today’s coronavirus news: Ontario reporting 525 COVID-19 cases; Moderna applying to Health Canada for its vaccine to be approved for use in teenagers; Ontario to begin reopening Friday
The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Monday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.
12:10 p.m. As someone who is lucky" enough to be vaccinated, 28-year-old Viet Vu felt compelled to become a serial pop-up vaccine clinic volunteer to help others also get the jab.
I was just in that fortunate position to be able to help out," said Vu, a full-time senior economist at Ryerson's Brookfield Institute.
Despite the challenges that come with helping thousands of Torontonians get vaccinated, many volunteers like Vu say their days working at pop-ups rank among their most fulfilling.
Pop-ups are created to address issues that mass-immunization clinics aren't set up for. Many specialize in getting specific populations vaccinated - those that may be underserved or have low vaccine rates. Pop-up clinics can immunize hundreds of people a day and often involve partnerships with not-for-profit, grassroots community organizations.
Read the full story from the Star's Irelyne Lavery and Ben Cohen
11:24 a.m. Ontario is poised to begin reopening the economy starting Friday.
That's three days earlier than planned thanks to soaring vaccinations that have topped 10 million doses and a steady decline in case counts to 525 new infections Monday, the lowest since late September. There were 15 more deaths, bringing the total to 8,869 since March 2020.
As part of a three-stage plan unveiled last month, Premier Doug Ford's government will allow restaurant patios to reopen with a maximum of four patrons per table and non-essential retailers to welcome customers back in their stores at 15 per cent capacity.
Read the full story from the Star's Rob Ferguson and Robert Benzie
10:42 a.m. The German soccer federation expects the team's last European Championship preparation game to go ahead Monday despite opponent Latvia reporting a coronavirus infection in the team.
The Latvian soccer federation said hours before kickoff on Twitter that an unnamed player tested positive for COVID-19.
All the previous tests in the training camp were negative both for this player and the rest of the national team," the federation said. "All the necessary steps were taken to isolate the player from the rest of the team, to identify the closest contacts and isolate them, to clear the matter and gather information."
Local health officials in Dusseldorf were in contact with German soccer authorities.
The Germany team is due to travel to its tournament base in Herzogenaurach in Bavaria on Tuesday. The team will play its three group games and a potential quarterfinal in Munich, starting against World Cup champion France on June 15. The Germans will then play European champion Portugal on June 19 and Hungary on June 23.
10:04 a.m. (updated) Ontario is reporting another 525 COVID-19 cases and 15 more deaths, according to its latest report released Monday morning.
Ontario has administered 116,829 vaccine doses since its last daily update, with 10,109,404 vaccines given in total as of 8 p.m. the previous night.
According to the Star's vaccine tracker, 9,022,599 people in Ontario have received at least one shot. That works out to approximately 61.2 per cent of the total population and the equivalent of 75.8 per cent of the adult population.
Read the full story from the Star's Rhythm Sachdeva
9:55 a.m. While the COVID-19 pandemic has forced many residents to explore their own backyard and other parts of the province for tourism purposes, the town of Caledon is promoting visitor etiquette" for non-locals.
According to a release published by the town on June 3, Caledon welcomes visitors with open arms so long as they respect some basic farm etiquette," following recent incidents where crops and land have been damaged."
Some of these incidents involved trespassing onto private property, which puts visitors in an unsafe" situation, according to the release.
As a result, Caledonians want their land and property respected by visitors as if it were their own.
Visitors are asked to remember that a farm is someone's home and should be considered private property," that farm animals eat specific foods and should only be fed by their owners and that working farms using large equipment may pose a danger to visitors.
9:40 a.m. Seeking a grand symbol of New York's revitalization after a brutal pandemic year, Mayor Bill de Blasio is planning a large-scale performance by multiple acts and has called on Clive Davis, the 89-year-old producer and music-industry eminence, to pull it together.
The show, tentatively set for Aug. 21, is still coming together, with no artists confirmed, though Davis - whose five-decade career highlights have included working with Janis Joplin, Bruce Springsteen, Aretha Franklin, Alicia Keys and Whitney Houston - said he is aiming for eight iconic" stars to perform a three-hour show for 60,000 attendees and a worldwide television audience.
De Blasio said in an interview that the concert was part of a Homecoming Week" to show that New York City is coming back from the pandemic - a celebration for residents and those in the region who might not have visited in a while.
This concert is going to be a once in a lifetime opportunity," de Blasio said. It's going to be an amazing lineup. The whole week is going to be like nothing you've ever seen before in New York City."
The show would be the latest in a storied tradition of Central Park super-productions that tend to attract worldwide coverage and to paint New York as a peaceful, cosmopolitan haven for the arts. Many New Yorkers, especially the mayor, may welcome that view after the prevalence of pandemic-era images like a deserted Times Square and boarded-up storefronts amid last summer's protests in the wake of the murder of George Floyd.
I can't think of a better place than the Great Lawn of Central Park to be the place where you say that New York is reopening," Davis said in an interview.
Davis said that de Blasio called him three weeks ago, around the time of Davis' latest Grammy gala, which he has been hosting annually since 1976, and was divided into two parts this year. As Davis recalled, the mayor asked him to present a show in partnership with the city that would celebrate New York's reopening and emphasize the need to vaccinate more young people. The event's working title gives a sense of its intended gravity: The Official NYC Homecoming Concert in Central Park."
9:31 a.m. Ontario has administered over 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, more than 1 million Ontarians are now fully immunized, tweeted Health Minister Christine Elliott.
9:20 a.m. (updated) Moderna is applying to Health Canada today for its COVID-19 vaccine to be approved for use in teenagers.
The Massachusetts-based company says a trial of 2,500 youth aged 12 to 17 in the United States indicated the vaccine was 93 per cent to 100 per cent effective against COVID-19.
Moderna is the second vaccine maker to apply for approval for youth; the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was authorized for kids as young as 16 in December and for youth 12 to 15 years old in May.
Both companies continue to test their vaccines on children as young as six months with hopes to apply for authorization by the fall.
9:05 a.m. Police dispersed two large rave-like parties in Riverdale on Friday night held in defiance of provincial legislation - one of which was captured and shared on social media by a Toronto man visiting Riverdale Park to watch the sunset with his wife.
I literally stumbled into this thing - I literally stumbled into it," said Peter Papadimitriou in an interview June 5.
Papadimitriou said he witnessed the party starting earlier in the evening with a few people gathering at the baseball diamond at the park nestled between Broadview Avenue and the Don Valley Parkway.
But as the sun set, things started to pick up.
9 a.m. At the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic's first wave, as long-term-care and retirement homes across Ontario were being described as war zones, 31-year-old Rebecca Fournier did the unthinkable and moved into one.
In May 2020, the mother of two young children left home and nestled into a guest suite at the St. Elizabeth Retirement Residence, a facility where she is the director of care.
The sudden move came in the wake of an outbreak being declared at the west Mountain facility.
Everything was so new, so many changes and so quick, and there was so many unknowns with the virus," said Fournier.
I was working 12-hour shifts already. The fear always set in when I got home - stripping off all your clothes, worrying I would take the virus inside to my kids."
With her parents having agreed to take care of the children, Fournier stayed at the retirement home for weeks, mixing her typical office job duties with on-floor support for residents and staff.
8:30 a.m. India has fast tracked vaccine procurement and will provide free shots to citizens above 18 years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in an address to the nation on Monday.
The South Asian nation faces the challenge of vaccinating its large adult population as it emerges from a devastating second virus wave, with a critical shortage of inoculations leading some centers to close down as the nation struggled to ramp up domestic production and procure doses internationally.
Modi's speech came against the backdrop of a near breakdown in health infrastructure over the last two months, with major Indian cities running out of oxygen and hospitals flooded with patients, while crematoriums struggled to keep pace with the number of those who died from COVID-19. His administration has come under intense criticism over his government's handling of the second wave and the vaccination roll-out and his popularity ratings have fallen.
8:20 a.m. With the exception of leap day babies, everyone's had to deal with at least one pandemic birthday at this point.
Some lucky folks - Aries, Taurus, Gemini - have even had two opportunities to find a way to make the most of a lockdown celebration.
It's easy to argue, though, that turning 50 was the unluckiest of all possible birthdays to have had during COVID-19 - even if you only had one. Why? Because, for a clutch of Gen Xers, this particular big" birthday not only means not only celebrating" over Zoom, it also means getting a very special card from the provincial government, notifying us that we were about to embark on a once-in-a-lifetime diagnostics odyssey.
Congratulations: You can now add socially distanced colonoscopy to your pandemic bingo card.
8:10 a.m. Twenty-three people were arrested in one night over the weekend as police officers enforced a new 10 p.m. curfew in New York's Washington Square Park, authorities said.
Videos tweeted Saturday night showed a line of helmeted officers moving into the park to enforce the curfew. Officers could be seen grabbing and pushing people as an order to disperse was announced.
A police spokesperson said eight officers suffered minor injuries while trying to clear the park. Most of the 23 people arrested were charged with disorderly conduct and given desk appearance tickets, the spokesperson said.
Crowds remained in the park well beyond curfew Sunday night, according to social media videos that showed people dancing in unison without a police presence nearby.
The park in the heart of Greenwich Village has long been a scene of protests and vigils and is a popular gathering place for young people, including students from nearby New York University.
The 10 p.m. curfew was first instituted during Memorial Day weekend after some neighborhood residents complained of late-night noise and drug use. The move was criticized by multiple Democratic mayoral candidates on social media Sunday.
A spokesperson for the city Parks Department said Washington Square Park will close at 10 on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights until further notice. The park is open until midnight Monday through Thursday.
Enforced closures are focused on addressing large after hours gatherings, amplified sound, excessive trashing of the park and other conditions on weekends," the spokesperson, Crystal Howard, said in an email.
8:05 a.m. Have you noticed your neighbourhood is a bit greener these days?
Balconies, planter boxes, flowerpots, community gardens, backyard mini-crops and front-yard terraces; Canadians are getting into gardening in an even bigger way this year relative to last.
Not only is moving dirt between your fingers providing much-needed healing and therapy for those struggling with the ambiguous loss the pandemic has brought to our lives, but it's also helping thousands of people who've chosen to grow fruits and veggies to reduce their grocery bills by up to $500 over the next few months.
Whether it's for your soul or your wallet, here are a few ways to save money on gardening this year.
7:55 a.m. Air Canada says its senior executives have chosen to return their 2020 bonuses in response to public disappointment."
The airline company says in a news release the president and CEO, as well as executive vice-presidents of Air Canada, have volunteered to return their bonuses and share appreciation units.
Former president and CEO Calin Rovinescu, who retired in February 2021, says he will also donate his share to the Air Canada Foundation.
The statement does not include middle managers, whose bonuses made up more than $8 million of the $10-million bonus program, among those who are volunteering their bonuses.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland signalled her displeasure Wednesday over the multi-million dollar packages handed out to the airline's executives as the company negotiated a federal bailout, calling the bonuses inappropriate."
7:45 a.m. In the nine years Louise Patterson has worked for Toronto 311, the city's customer service centre, she has taken calls on everything from snow removal complaints to citizens asking how long to roast a turkey to a woman being attacked by her own cat.
Literally anything you can think of, we've had a call about it," Patterson says.
The city's 311 calls are a barometer of the public mood. They change with the seasons, the news cycle and, lately, the anxieties of pandemic life.
When COVID-19 threw Toronto into lockdown last spring, 311 managers expected a decline in calls, which average 1.1 million each year. Instead they have been inundated as lonely and frustrated residents pick up the phone seeking help that is often far outside the traditional role of a municipal call centre. The 311 line received 1.3 million calls in 2020 - roughly an extra 548 calls each day, compared to the average. Calls are up nearly five per cent so far this year compared to the same time period last year.
Read the full story from the Star's Amy Dempsey
7:30 a.m. Teacher Vickita Bhatt is stunned to find herself in the exact same position she was in last year.
She's waiting for plans to be announced for reduced class sizes, clear ventilation standards and sick-leave policies that would reduce community spread of the coronavirus.
But despite multiple announcements over the last year around provincial and federal funding toward Ontario schools for enhanced health measures, teachers like Bhatt and their unions say they are experiencing deja vu with safety promises for the fall, as last year's plans never came to fruition.
We were having the same conversation," said Bhatt. It's heartbreaking ... Reopening without proper health and safety measures puts us all at risk."
Read the full story from the Star's Maria Sarrouh and Olivia Bowden
7:20 a.m. They may be sleeping in two school buses right now, but before long Austin and Leah Davies' family plans to have a house built with room for all eight of their kids, without leaving their property for building supplies.
The family of 10 is hardly cooped up on their 38-acre property on Pender Island, to which they moved from Vancouver six years ago. The kids have the run of the 100-chicken coop and 14-goat barn, and dad is occupied with one big house-building project.
The plan is clear, if not conventional: Build a beautiful house, using only wood chopped from the trees in their own yard. When something isn't available, Davies sources wood from his Pender Island neighbours.
Read the full story from the Star's Alex McKeen
6:30 a.m.: Hidden in the frenzy of the Canada's vaccine rollout is a success story playing out in Indigenous communities across the country.
As of this week, almost 80 per cent of adults who live on reserve have gotten at least one dose. In other words, if First Nations were treated as their own single country, they'd have one of the highest rates of first doses anywhere in the world.
By comparison, that rate is 28 per cent higher than Israel's, a country long held up as a global leader.
More people in Israel have had both doses, but advocates say the scale of the First Nation rollout reflects an approach that has dialed in on both culture and community to make major headway against hesitancy.
It's a strategy experts say could hold lessons for the mainstream rollout as a whole.
Read the story by the Star's Alex Boyd and Brendan Kennedy.
6:15 a.m.: As India emerges from its darkest days of the pandemic, families across the country are grieving all that they've lost and are left wondering if more could have been done to avoid this tragedy.
There are also signs that the virus is not done devastating India's families because even as new infections are down, thousands are still dying each day and the illness is believed to be spreading undetected in areas without access to testing.
Ruby Srivastava lost her family in a single week in April. First her mother and father to the virus. Then her brother to a motorcycle accident. And finally her grandmother to shock.
Now the 21-year-old is left dealing with the insurmountable pain and the questions she asks herself.
She wonders if things might have been different if her father, a government worker in Lucknow, hadn't been called away to help hold local elections in their state of more than 200 million people.
Read the full story from The Associated Press.
6 a.m.: A study published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal found mental health visits by new mothers in Ontario increased 30 per cent during the pandemic compared to previous years, with a noticeable bump occurring within the first three months after giving birth.
The CMAJ study looked at 137,609 postpartum mental health visits to both family physicians and psychiatrists in Ontario from March through November 2020, with researchers collecting data on age, number of children, neighbourhood income and ethnic diversity, and region of residence.
Dr. Simone Vigod, chief of psychiatry at Toronto's Women's College Hospital and co-author of the study, says isolation from COVID-19 restrictions, financial insecurities from lost jobs and health concerns over a circulating virus all likely factored into the increase in mental health visits noted by her team.
5:30 a.m.: More Ontarians are eligible to book their second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine through the provincial system today.
Those aged 70 and older, as well as people who received their first dose of an mRNA vaccine on or before April 18, can now book their second shot on the province's website or through its phone line.
The expansion comes as Ontario nears a vaccination milestone: 10 million doses administered.
On Sunday, the province reported that it had given out more than 9,992,000 doses, with more than a million Ontarians fully vaccinated.
Also today, the province's incoming chief medical officer of health begins his transition to the new role.
Dr. Kieran Moore will start working with the current top public health official, Dr. David Williams, before taking over in a few weeks time.
5 a.m.: All of Quebec is now out of the province's highest pandemic alert level amid a continued decline in the number of new COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
Montreal, Laval and several smaller municipalities -- the only parts of Quebec that remained at the red alert level -- moved to the lower orange level today.
That allows gyms and restaurant dining rooms to reopen and sees high school students return to in person learning full-time instead of having online classes on alternating days.
In Quebec's largest city, it's the first time since the end of September that restaurant dining rooms have been allowed to open, though orange zone restrictions set a limit of two adults who don't share an address per table.
Restrictions were eased further today in six other Quebec regions and part of a seventh.
That includes the regions of Abitibi-Temiscamingue, Cote-Nord and Nord du Quebec, which moved to the province's green or lowest alert level.
Indoor gatherings consisting of 10 people or the residents of no more than three households are permitted in green zones.
4:10 a.m.: Canada is scheduled to receive 2.4 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine this week as more Canadians get their first and second jabs.
Those shots are the only expected shipments in what should be a comparatively quiet week of vaccine deliveries.
Moderna shipped 500,000 doses last week, with another 1.5 million shots due to arrive next week.
Ottawa is also expecting another one million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine by the end of June, though a detailed delivery schedule has not been confirmed.
The fate of more than 300,000 shots from Johnson and Johnson that were first delivered in April remains unclear as Health Canada continues reviewing their safety following concerns about possible tainting at a Baltimore production facility.
The federal government says more than 60 per cent of Canadians have received at least one dose, and the number fully immunized with two shots is rising.
4 a.m.: The latest numbers on COVID-19 vaccinations in Canada as of 04:00 a.m. ET on Monday June 7, 2021:
In Canada, the provinces are reporting 322,626 new vaccinations administered for a total of 26,086,565 doses given. Nationwide, 2,841,935 people or 7.5 per cent of the population has been fully vaccinated. The provinces have administered doses at a rate of 68,831.30 per 100,000.
There were no new vaccines delivered to the provinces and territories for a total of 28,879,654 doses delivered so far. The provinces and territories have used 90.33 per cent of their available vaccine supply.
4 a.m.: The latest numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Canada as of 04:00 a.m. ET on Monday June 7, 2021:
There are 1,392,563 confirmed cases in Canada.
Canada: 1,392,563 confirmed cases (24,194 active, 1,342,645 resolved, 25,724 deaths).*The total case count includes 13 confirmed cases among repatriated travellers.
There were 1,391 new cases Sunday. The rate of active cases is 63.66 per 100,000 people. Over the past seven days, there have been a total of 13,099 new cases. The seven-day rolling average of new cases is 1,871.
There were 13 new reported deaths Sunday. Over the past seven days there have been a total of 204 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 67.69 per 100,000 people.
There have been 35,171,179 tests completed.