Today’s coronavirus news: Ontario is reporting 864 COVID-19 cases; Top COVID-19 vaccines renamed in Canada
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.
2 p.m. Quebec's health-care workers will have to have both doses of COVID-19 vaccine by mid-October or risk being suspended, Health Minister Christian Dube maintained Thursday.
Dube said he remains firm on his goal of ensuring the 20,000 workers in the network who are not yet fully vaccinated get their shots.
Asked Thursday about the target, Dube says it's still possible to vaccinate 20,000 health workers - which includes 10,000 who are in direct contact with patients - by the deadline. He noted the number has already dipped from 30,000 in late August.
"Yes, it is possible, they can do it," Dube said in Quebec City when asked about the logistics. "We can vaccinate 100,000 persons per day. There's still 20,000 left, they should go right now."
But he has asked regional health officials to prepare a contingency plan in the event vaccination targets aren't met, adding that some workers could be assigned to perform administrative tasks from home.
1:45 p.m. Chinese health officials announced Thursday that morere than 1 billion people have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in the world's most populous country, or about 72 per cent of its 1.4 billion people.
Through Wednesday, 2.16 billion vaccine doses had been administered and 1.01 billion people had been fully vaccinated, National Health Commission spokesperson Mi Feng said at a news conference.
The announcement came as China battles a new outbreak of the Delta variant in the southeastern province of Fujian, where 200 cases have been confirmed in the past six days.
1:35 p.m. At least eight post-secondary schools in Alberta are temporarily cancelling in-person classes as they work to adapt to a new range of provincial COVID-19 health restrictions.
On-line learning is to continue.
The schools include University of Alberta and MacEwan University in Edmonton, the University of Lethbridge, Mount Royal University in Calgary and the University of Calgary.
The new rules were announced yesterday and some take effect immediately.
1:20 p.m. Federal leaders on the campaign trail Thursday found themselves facing a curveball thrown by Alberta Premier Jason Kenney.
The premier's move Wednesday night to declare a public health state of emergency and launch sweeping new restrictions amid a fourth-wave COVID crisis was something the federal leaders were quickly asked about.
Facing the most scrutiny was Erin O'Toole, the Conservative leader who has previously said he supported Alberta's approach to the pandemic and that it was better than the approach taken by the federal government.
O'Toole did not rescind that support when asked about Alberta's crisis Thursday. He just said he, as prime minister, would work with all premiers to rein in the pandemic.
The federal government should be partnering and providing support for the premiers, not picking fights with them as Trudeau has," he told an audience in Saint John, N.B.
Read the full story from the Star's Alex McKeen
1 p.m. Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe is to hold a COVID-19 briefing Thursday afternoon in Saskatoon as surging COVID-19 cases continue to strain health care.
Moe is to be joined by the province's chief medical health officer, Dr. Saqib Shahab, at 2 p.m.
The event is to be streamed live on the premier's Facebook page.
On Wednesday, the province reported 475 new cases, 22 per cent of which were in children under the age of 12, who are ineligible for a vaccine.
Earlier this week, Moe said his government would not rule out bringing in additional restrictions, but stayed firm on vaccinations being a personal choice.
Saskatchewan is the only province in Western Canada that has not brought in a mandatory proof of vaccination program.
12:26 p.m. Health Canada announced the Pfizer, Moderna and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines have been given new names.
New brand names for the vaccines have been approved at the request of the drug companies.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has now been dubbed Comirnaty, which the company says represents a combination of the terms COVID-19, mRNA, community, and immunity.
The Moderna vaccine will go by SpikeVax and the AstraZeneca vaccine will be named Vaxzevria.
Health Canada points out the vaccines themselves are not changing - only the names are.
The new names are already being used for promotional purposes in the EU and the United States.
12:20 p.m. Federal leaders are pointing the finger at each other over the spiralling COVID-19 crisis in Alberta, each seeking to forge a link in voters' minds between the health emergency in the province and the others' policies.
Justin Trudeau, speaking from Montreal this morning, said conservative politicians across the country have not been as effective in fighting the pandemic, and questioned whether Tory Leader Erin O'Toole should be sitting across from them at the premiers' table.
Minutes later at an event in Saint John, N.B., O'Toole pinned the situation in Alberta largely on Trudeau without mentioning Premier Jason Kenney, saying the Liberal leader let the Delta variant gain a foothold and proceeded to trigger an election amid a surging fourth wave.
In Toronto, New Democrat Leader Jagmeet Singh said Kenney is to blame but insisted Trudeau must share responsibility, since he set off an election campaign that has soaked up attention and sent candidates canvassing across the country ahead of voting day on Sept. 20.
11:30 a.m. Southwest Airlines in the U.S. will give vaccinated workers two days of bonus pay that will arrive in paychecks just before Christmas, moving to reward workers even as the White House pushes its own mandates for all large businesses.
Dallas-based Southwest also told workers in a memo Wednesday that only vaccinated workers would be allowed to take time off for contracting COVID-19 without having to use their own sick or vacation time.
There are a lot of opinions swirling right now around COVID-19 vaccines, and we respect that every employee has individual thoughts on the topic," the memo said. That said, Southwest supports vaccines as our best line of defense against COVID to protect our employees and the customers you are serving each and every day, as well as maintain a reliable operation."
Southwest stopped short of mandating vaccines, a step taken by rival United Airlines, which is based in Chicago. Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines has instituted a $200 monthly health insurance surcharge to unvaccinated workers.
11:15 a.m. Ontario is reporting another 864 COVID-19 cases and three more deaths, according to its latest report released Thursday morning.
Ontario has administered 35,463 vaccine doses since its last daily update, with 21,283,180 vaccines given in total as of 8 p.m. the previous night.
According to the Star's vaccine tracker, 11,047,037 people in Ontario have received at least one shot. That works out to approximately 84.8 per cent of the eligible population 12 years and older, and the equivalent of 74.3 per cent of the total population, including those not yet eligible for the vaccine.
The province says 10,236,143 people have completed their vaccinations, which means they've had both doses. That works out to approximately 78.5 per cent of the eligible population 12 years and older, and the equivalent of 68.9 per cent of the total population, including those not yet eligible for the vaccine.
Read the full story from the Star's Urbi Khan
10:50 a.m. Nova Scotia has closed the books on the 2020-21 fiscal year, registering a pandemic-driven deficit of $341.6 million.
The figure represents a $396.6-million drop from the $55-million surplus forecast in the budget tabled in February 2020, just before COVID-19 hit.
Finance Minister Allan MacMaster says the province responded to the pandemic with close to $940 million in operating and capital spending during the fiscal year that ended March 31, helped by $413 million in federal aid.
MacMaster says total expenses increased by nearly $219 million to $12.63 billion because of increased support for health-care services during the pandemic and to support various sectors of the economy.
As well, total revenues were down by $178 million because of lower tax revenue and federal transfer payments.
10:30 a.m. Idaho public health leaders have expanded health care rationing statewide amid a massive increase in the number of coronavirus patients requiring hospitalization.
The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare made the announcement Thursday morning. St. Luke's Health System, Idaho's largest hospital network, asked state health leaders to allow crisis standards of care" on Wednesday because the increase in COVID-19 patients has exhausted the state's medical resources.
Crisis standards of care means that scarce resources like ICU beds will be allotted to those patients most likely to survive. Other patients will be treated with less effective methods or, in dire cases, given pain relief and other palliative care as they die.
Thursday's move came a week after Idaho officials started allowing health care rationing at hospitals in northern parts of the state.
10:20 a.m. Ontario is reporting 864 COVID-19 cases; 655 cases are in individuals who are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status and 209 are in fully vaccinated individuals. In Ontario, 21,283,180 vaccine doses have been administered. 84.7 per cent of Ontarians 12+ have one dose and 78.5 per cent have two doses.
10:05 a.m. A request for access to information made by La Presse to all university establishments in the province shows that several of them had to deal with a rising number of cases of plagiarism in 2020-2021.
Between March 2020 and June 2021, there were more than 500 cases of plagiarism reported at the Universite de Montreal. All years are concerned, and while the cases reported mainly affect the faculty of arts and sciences, they exist in medicine, educational sciences and law. They range from using "unauthorized assistance" to "soliciting, offering or exchanging information during a review."
"The number of cases of plagiarism has almost doubled," said Louise Beliveau, vice-rector of Student and Academic Affairs at Universite de Montreal, where 82 per cent of the courses are given in person this fall. At Concordia University, where a "significant increase" from previous years was also seen, it is first noted that this is a trend observed around the world.
9:25 a.m. It's been more than a month since the venerable Fox Theatre reopened its doors and, not unexpectedly, it's been a challenge.
The 251-seat, single-screen theatre can only operate at 50 per cent capacity while under physical distancing guidelines.
There's no way to hit 50 per cent with social distancing, so the capacity is substantially reduced from what it would normally be," said co-owner Andy Willick. So far it's been OK. We're not anywhere near regular revenue, which is to be expected at this point."
But Willick is cautiously optimistic, despite two major issues - the dearth of new films being released since the pandemic struck and the ongoing reluctance of movie-goers - that the theatre, open since 1914, has a future in the Beach community. That's in large part due to the community engagement" efforts that staff have undertaken throughout the long lockdown.
Read the full story from the Star's Bruce DeMara
8:50 a.m. The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits moved up last week to 332,000 from a pandemic low, a sign that worsening COVID infections may have slightly increased layoffs.
Applications for jobless aid rose from 312,000 the week before, the Labor Department said Thursday. Jobless claims, which generally track the pace of layoffs, have fallen steadily for two months as many employers, struggling to fill jobs, have held onto their employees. Two weeks ago, jobless claims reached their lowest level since March 2020.
8:35 a.m. If you're one of the roughly 314,000 eligible Torontonians who are not yet fully protected against COVID-19, you can now get the jab at one of the many pop-up clinics being run across the city during the #DaysofVaxtion campaign.
The campaign, launched Wednesday, is aimed at reaching a 90-per-cent vaccination target. The four-day initiative will run from Thursday to Sunday.
It is not worth waiting any longer. The fourth wave is here, the Delta variant is here," said Mayor John Tory on Wednesday, announcing the campaign. But vaccines are here, too."
Other regularly scheduled clinics will continue to run across the city alongside the additional pop-up locations chosen as part of the #DaysofVaxtion initiative.
Read the full story from the Star's Irelyne Lavery
8:20 a.m. Months of efforts to vaccinate Toronto from COVID-19 are going into hyperdrive as city and health officials feverishly work to reach about 314,000 residents still unprotected from the virus.
To push the city toward 90 per cent of its eligible residents being fully vaccinated, they are taking the battle this week to schools, subway stations, parks, malls - even a bathhouse.
Dubbed #DaysofVaxtion, the blitz of pop-up COVID-19 vaccination clinics running Thursday to Sunday is aimed at vaccine holdouts who remain most at risk of infection and serious illness from the highly contagious Delta variant - and who, data says, are fuelling and prolonging the fourth wave of the pandemic.
Read the full story from the Star's David Rider and Jennifer Pagliaro
8:05 a.m. When the first wave of COVID-19 - then an ominous and unknown virus - hit, Kathy Bouwmeester updated her will, put on her gown and face shield, and got to work.
The registered nurse in Calgary has worked in intensive care units for two decades.
She tended the sickest of the sick through H1N1 and SARS, but still sounds surprised at how the events of the past year have pushed hospitals in her province to the brink.
We're committed to our patients and their families, and even though there's limits to what we can do, we're doing our very best," she says.
The fourth wave of this pandemic has come on faster than the ones before it, she says, and it's all the more punishing for being avoidable. It's been hard watch the unit fill up with people who aren't vaccinated, as protesters rage against public health restrictions outside.
Read the full story from the Star's Alex Boyd
7:50 a.m. Underneath an open-air awning with aluminum ceilings and fans, on the
outskirts of Haiti's capital, patients trickle in to get a much awaited jab of a COVID-19 vaccine.
The list of takers at St. Damien Nos Petit Freres et Soeurs pediatric hospital in Tabarre includes a university professor, a nurse who works in a COVID-19 ward and an accountant. There are older people too, as well as young mothers accompanied by their children.
Despite the lines, Haiti's vaccination rollout has been slow, prompting the World Health Organization's Americas region office this week to call on Haitian authorities and the country's partners to work together to intensify COVID-19 vaccination efforts."
Increasing vaccine uptake is important to protect the country from COVID-19 transmission," Dr. Carissa Etienne, head of the Pan American Health Organization, said as she asked the international community not to forget about Haiti.
Etienne's plea comes as Haiti and international partners struggle to respond to last month's deadly earthquake that struck the country's southern peninsula. Humanitarian aid efforts continue to be hampered by the ongoing presence of armed gangs blocking the main road connecting the capital to the hard-hit regions and as health officials confirm the presence of the highly contagious Delta and Mu variants in the country.
In July, seven days after the shocking assassination of President Jovenel Moise, Haiti became the last country in the Americas to receive a shipment of COVID-19 vaccines when 500,000 doses of Moderna shots arrived from the United States via the United Nation's vaccine-sharing program known as COVAX.
7:30 a.m. Zimbabwe's government has ordered all its employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19 or they won't be allowed to come to work.
The Public Service Commission, which is in charge of employment conditions for government workers, issued an internal notice Wednesday ordering employees to get vaccinated.
All civil servants should be vaccinated without delay, and unvaccinated members shall not be allowed to report for duty," said the notice, which has been seen by The Associated Press. The commission urged" heads of government departments to make arrangements for their employees to be vaccinated "and to explain to any who elect not to be vaccinated that they will not be deemed to be working."
It wasn't made clear what would happen to employees who refused to be vaccinated, although state-owned newspaper The Herald reported that the government would adopt a policy where unvaccinated workers wouldn't be paid.
Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa announced the mandatory vaccination program for government workers earlier this week. She didn't give any timeframe for workers to receive vaccinations and also didn't clarify what the repercussions would be for any who refused.
6:42 a.m.: Phil Van Daalen was an industrial mechanic for air compressor company Comairco when the COVID-19 pandemic began.
He was laid off in March 2020 along with other colleagues in London, Ont., as well as others at branches across the country. His employer gave him his record of employment and told him to file for employment insurance.
In the early weeks of the pandemic, Van Daalen had no way of knowing that his layoff would last more than a year. His temporary layoff would morph into an unpaid infectious disease emergency leave (IDEL), a measure enacted by the Ontario government in response to COVID-19. Similar to a temporary layoff, the IDEL allows workers to collect EI and other pandemic supports while guaranteeing a job to return to.
Under normal circumstances, temporary layoffs require businesses to officially terminate and pay severance to employees who have been laid off for 13 weeks, or up to 35 in certain cases. With IDEL, there is no time limit for the period of unemployment.
As the months wore on, with no indication of when he might return to work, Van Daalen felt he'd been wronged. So in the summer of 2020, he decided to take his employer to court for constructive dismissal, asking for missed salary, outstanding vacation pay, and more.
Read the full story from the Star's Rosa Saba.
6:40 a.m.: An emergency physician who now sees both fear and remorse on the faces of her unvaccinated patients admitted to hospital.
A pediatrician who has told hundreds of people they've tested positive and still hears patients say they didn't know COVID could make them feel so sick.
An infectious diseases doctor who watches patients struggle to breathe in the ICU, wishing they could turn back time and get vaccinated so they could see their kids just one more time.
For doctors and nurses who work on the COVID front lines, learning a patient is unvaccinated has become a new source of distress in a pandemic already filled with trauma and tragedy.
Read the full story from the Star's Megan Ogilvie.
6:40 a.m.: Russian President Vladimir Putin says dozens of his staff have been infected with the coronavirus and that he will continue his self-isolation because of the outbreak.
The Kremlin announced earlier this week that he would self-isolate after someone in his inner circle was infected although Putin had tested negative for the virus and he's fully vaccinated with Russia's Sputnik V. But Putin said Thursday the infections were extensive.
Cases of coronavirus have been identified in my immediate environment, and this is not one, not two, but several tens of people. Now we have to observe the self-isolation regime for several days," he said by video link to a summit of the Russia-led Collective Treaty Security Organization.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that those infected were mainly those who take part in ensuring the work and activities of the head of state, his security." None of the cases are severe, he said.
Although Russia was the first country to roll out a coronavirus vaccine, less than 30% of the country is fully vaccinated.
The national coronavirus task force says about 7.2 million infections have been recorded in the country of 145 million, with 195,835 deaths.
6:39 a.m.: The U.S. government will spend $470 million to learn more about long COVID-19, its causes and potential treatments.
The National Institutes of Health announced the plans Wednesday with a grant awarded to NYU Grossman School of Medicine and a goal of enrolling up to 40,000 adults and children. The effort, dubbed RECOVER, will involve researchers at more than 30 U.S. institutions.
'This is being taken with the greatest seriousness... at a scale that has not really been attempted with something like this,'' Dr. Francis Collins, NIH director, said at a briefing Wednesday.
Collins says its estimated 10% to 30% of people infected with COVID-19 may develop persistent, new or recurring symptoms that can last months or perhaps years.
Long COVID is an umbrella term for symptoms that linger, recur and show up for the first time four weeks or more after an initial infection. It also includes heart inflammation and multi-system inflammatory syndrome, a rare but serious condition that can occur in children after a COVID-19 infection.
Pain, headaches, fatigue, brain fog, shortness of breath, anxiety, depression, chronic coughs and sleep problems are among the reported symptoms of long COVID. Possible causes include the virus lingers in tissues and organs or it overstimulates the immune system.
6:38 a.m.: The Nevada Hospital Association is urging people to avoid going to emergency rooms except in true emergencies, especially in northern Nevada where a resurgence in coronavirus infections is running double the rate in the Las Vegas area.
Health officials say the 30-day average for daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents has increased fivefold in the Reno-Sparks area over the past six weeks - from 354 at the beginning of August to 1,621 now. The statewide rate is 951, and it's 720 in Clark County, which includes Las Vegas.
The head of the hospital association says that as a result, many hospital emergency departments in northern Nevada are at capacity with patients."
State officials said Wednesday that 1,090 people were hospitalized at the beginning of the week for confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19, the disease that can be caused by the coronavirus.
6:37 a.m.: Alaska reported its highest number of new coronavirus cases Wednesday, after the state's largest hospital started rationing care because of a flood of COVID-19 patients.
Officials reported 1,068 new virus infections, which is 13% higher than last week. State officials say 201 Alaskans are hospitalized for COVID-19, and 34 of them are on ventilators.
The state's chief medical officer says hospitals continue to be stressed and there isn't capacity for patients who have COVID-19 as well as those with other needs. Statewide, there are about 1,100 non-intensive care unit beds in hospitals, with only 302 available Wednesday. Only 21 of the state's ICU beds are open.
6:37 a.m.: Hundreds of holiday-makers flocked to Malaysia's northern resort island of Langkawi as it reopened Thursday to fully vaccinated travellers.
Langkawi is the first holiday destination in the country to welcome visitors as part of a domestic tourism bubble. If successful, it could see other holiday destinations following suit in a bid to revive the economy. Malaysia has reported more than 2 million infections while deaths have surged above 21,000 despite a lockdown in June.
But vaccination has also picked up pace, with three-quarter of the country's adult population fully inoculated.
The government says a lockdown is no longer feasible and that Malaysians have to learn to live with the virus, which will soon be treated as endemic. Restrictions have been loosened recently and Langkawi was allowed to reopen with strict health protocols.
Travelers older than 7 must test negative for COVID-19 before arriving on the island. Local media said airline tickets have been snapped up, with 19 flights carrying holiday-makers due to arrive in Langkawi on Thursday.
Ferries carrying hundreds of passengers were also headed to the island, which reportedly expects to welcome 400,000 visitors by the year's end.
6:35 a.m.: Saskatchewan does not require pupils who are close contacts of other students with COVID-19 to self-isolate unless the exposure happened at a party or other social gathering with peers outside school.
But if they're exposed at school, they can continue to come to school and they just can't participate in extracurricular activities, and they have to wear a mask except when they're eating," said Patrick Maze, president of the Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation.
What makes it more complicated is that students are doing their own contact tracing, because of a lack of resources and emergency funding, Maze said. In most cases, schools aren't told who has COVID-19, so staff are unable to enforce any restrictions.
Saskatoon Public Schools - the largest division in Saskatchewan - said the Saskatchewan Health Authority does not share the identity of a diagnosed student, so there's no way to know who is positive, let alone a close contact.