Today’s coronavirus news: Ontario reports 613 new COVID cases; Alberta doctors raise alarm on specialist staff shortages in intensive care wards
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.
2:22 p.m. The Alberta Medical Association says the province's high COVID-19 numbers are behind a desperate shortage of specialized staff to care for critical care patients.
The association says demand for intensive care nurses is so great, the number of patients assigned to each nurse has been increased, putting the level of care well below normal standards.
The group says the situation could lead to triage protocols, in which doctors must make on-the-spot decisions about who gets life-saving care.
The concern is raised in a public letter from the association's intensive care doctors about the health crisis that has left Alberta's hospitals overwhelmed with patients, many of them with COVID-19.
Dr. Paul Parks, the medical association's head of emergency medicine, said last week some critical care patients are not being put on available ventilators because there aren't enough medical workers to monitor them.
Alberta has asked the federal government for help, and the Canadian Armed Forces has said it will respond with eight more intensive care nurses and air transport to take critical patients to other provinces.
2 p.m. Severe cases of COVID-19 were very rare among Canadian children during the first waves of the pandemic, according to a new study by researchers who warn the findings should not be taken as a reason not to vaccinate youth.
The study was published Monday by the Canadian Medical Association Journal and looked at 264 reported cases of children hospitalized in Canada between March 25 and Dec. 31, 2020, before the more infectious Delta variant emerged.
Of those cases, 43 per cent had been hospitalized for another reason, such as a fracture, and it was only after they were admitted that the positive test came to light.
Nearly 34,000 Canadians of all ages were hospitalized during the same time frame.
1:45 p.m. Ontario is investing $100 million in the province's tourism sector to help it recover from the impact of COVID-19.
Tourism Minister Lisa MacLeod says the money will be distributed through the new Tourism Recovery Program.
McLeod says the program will help for-profit tourism businesses in the attraction, accommodation, and leisure travel sectors.
She says the money will help those businesses protect critical jobs and help them prepare to reopen to visitors.
1:30 p.m. The top diplomat of Yemen's internationally recognized government said Monday his conflict-torn country needs millions more coronavirus vaccines to ensure some of the world's poorest are not left behind.
In a speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Ahmed Awad Bin Mubarak said the roughly 1 million doses Yemen was given are not enough to vaccinate even the most vulnerable portions of its population.
Yemen has a long way to go toward vaccinating the majority of its some 30 million people, most of whom are facing multiple humanitarian crises, including poverty, hunger and poor access to adequately run hospitals.
Yemen's government has received just roughly 500,000 doses so far this year through the COVAX initiative, and the rest through direct donations from other countries.
1:10 p.m. President Joe Biden will receive his COVID-19 booster shot on Monday, days after federal regulators recommended a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine for Americans age 65 or older and approved them for others with preexisting medical conditions and high-risk work environments.
The White House said Biden, 78, would deliver remarks and receive the additional dose at 1 p.m. Monday.
Biden got his first shot on Dec. 21 and his second dose three weeks later, on Jan. 11, along with his wife, Jill Biden. It was not immediately clear whether the first lady would also receive the booster dose on Monday.
Speaking on Friday after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration authorized the Pfizer booster, Biden told reporters, I'll be getting my booster shot. It's hard to acknowledge I'm over 65, but I'll be getting my booster shot. "
12:50 p.m. While Toronto Raptors are finally back home, many players are getting their first taste of life in the city.
The Raptors opened their training camp at home today after being based south of the border over the past 19 months due to COVID-19 restrictions.
General manager Bobby Webster says the team decided to stay in Toronto for camp this year to reconnect with its hometown, adding that many players and staff hadn't been to the city.
Webster says the Raptors are one second dose away from being fully vaccinated and will be at 100 per cent by opening night on Oct. 20.
Visiting players who are unvaccinated can play in Toronto this season under a National Interest Exemption, meaning they will be restricted to Scotiabank Arena and the team hotel, and will have to pass COVID-19 test when they arrive in Canada.
12 p.m. Quebec is reporting 519 new cases of COVID-19 Monday, the lowest number of new daily cases in nearly three weeks.
The province has reported an average of 680 new COVID-19 cases a day over the past seven days.
The Health Department says the number of COVID-19-related hospitalizations rose by two, to 299, and 95 people were in intensive care, a rise of five from the day before.
No new deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus were reported today.
The Health Department says 23,089 COVID-19 tests were conducted in the past 24 hours, with a positivity rate of 2.4 per cent.
About 85 per cent of Quebecers 12 and older are considered fully vaccinated.
11:35 a.m. Ontario is reporting another 613 COVID-19 cases and no new deaths, according to its latest report released Monday morning.
Ontario has administered 20,454 vaccine doses since its last daily update, with 21,672,304 vaccines given in total as of 8 p.m. the previous night.
According to the Star's vaccine tracker, 11,197,467 people in Ontario have received at least one shot. That works out to approximately 85.9 per cent of the eligible population 12 years and older, and the equivalent of 75.3 per cent of the total population, including those not yet eligible for the vaccine.
Read the full story from the Star's Urbi Khan
11:05 a.m. Qatar Airways announced on Monday that it suffered a more than $4 billion loss in revenues over the last year, as lockdowns triggered by the coronavirus pandemic slashed demand for air travel.
The major loss, which it said mostly stemmed from the grounding of its fleet of Airbus A380 and A330 jets, highlights the dramatic impact of the pandemic on the aviation industry, despite the state-owned airline's higher earnings before taxes and other costs compared to the previous year.
The long-haul carrier based in the energy-rich Gulf Arab state of Qatar nonetheless praised its resilience in the face of the ongoing challenges posed by the fast-spreading virus variants still racing around the globe, noting that its operational loss of $288 million stood at 7 per cent less than the year before.
10:35 a.m. Toronto Public Health is preparing for the next candidates for mass immunization - children aged 5 to 11, as soon as Health Canada approves a COVID-19 vaccine for them.
TPH announced Monday its formation of a COVID-19 vaccination planning group" including health agencies, school boards, community representatives and Ontario's health ministry.
The vaccine approval, expected by experts late this year or in early 2022, is considered a key development in reducing outbreaks and infections in schools that can lead to school closure and potentially a return to citywide remote learning.
The approval could also hasten the end of the pandemic by allowing the city to further bump up a vaccination rate that is among the world's highest.
Read the full story from the Star's David Rider
10:20 a.m. The Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table and Modelling Consensus Table will be releasing updated projections Tuesday at 2 p.m.
10:14 a.m. (will be updated) Ontario is reporting 613 COVID-19 cases, 0 deaths, Dr. Jennifer Kwan is reporting. There were 22,633 tests conducted with a 2 per cent positivity rate.
In a tweet from Health Minister Christine Elliott, 454 cases are in individuals who are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status and 159 are in fully vaccinated individuals.
9:20 a.m. Vaccination clinics are being held in Toronto Monday at:
- Waterfront Campus - George Brown
- Carefirst Clinic
- Rexdale Community Hub
- Flemingdon Park
- Waterfront Neighbourhood Centre
9:10 a.m. Durham has its first COVID-19 school closure of the 2021-22 school year.
Monsignor Leo Cleary Catholic Elementary School in Courtice is closed to in-person learning after the Durham Region Health Department declared a "facility-wide COVID-19 outbreak."
A COVID-19 outbreak was first declared at the school on Sept. 16 and has grown steadily, escalating to 11 cases as of Sept. 25.
9 a.m. Dalhousie University says it is strongly urging students who attended an unsanctioned street party in Halifax over the weekend not to attend classes.
In a Twitter statement, the university says students who went to the parties should avoid classes and general on-campus activities for one week and should get tested for COVID-19.
School officials say they are continuing to consider the implications of two street parties on Saturday that drew crowds estimated in the thousands to the Jennings and Larch Street neighbourhoods near campus.
Frank Harvey, university provost and vice-president, says the "illegal gatherings" pose a potential risk to Dalhousie's ability to "continue with a safe, sustainable in-person learning experience this fall."
Halifax Regional Police say they responded to a flood of noise complaints, arresting nine men and one woman for public intoxication and issuing numerous summary offence tickets for illegal possession of open liquor.
Police say they are continuing to investigate the incident and expect to hand out more tickets.
8:25 a.m. Albert Premier Jason Kenney rejected calls for a hard lockdown" during an appearance on a radio program Sunday, the same day that his province's former top doctor signed a letter calling for immediate fire break" measures to deal with surging cases of COVID-19.
Kenney told radio host Roy Green that a lockdown would make no sense for the 80 per cent of the population that is vaccinated," and who he said are much less likely to transmit the disease and are far less likely to be hospitalized.
Further, he said the roughly 20 per cent who aren't vaccinated and are behind the surge in cases are less likely to follow public health measures.
8:05 a.m. Starting Monday, the only acceptable proof of vaccination in British Columbia to dine at restaurants and attend indoor recreational events is the B.C. Vaccine Card.
The government says the transition period allowing people to present their vaccine records from their immunization appointments expired Sunday.
The vaccine card, under orders from provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, is required at most restaurants and indoor events to help ensure businesses can stay open and people can feel safe in these settings.
Health Minister Adrian Dix says more than three million people in B.C. have already received their vaccine card.
7:40 a.m. In late May, Samantha Yammine, a Toronto neuroscientist who advocates for vaccines, shared what had become, for her, a source of shame and embarrassment. For much of her life, Yammine had lived with a severe anxiety around needles - a phobia that led her to avoid vaccination for years.
As a scientist, Yammine understood the toll of the pandemic and knew mass immunization was the way out. But she was crushed by fear and dread. How could she be a vaccine advocate if she didn't get vaccinated against COVID-19?
I knew I had to get it, but I honestly didn't think I'd be able to," she said.
Yammine, 31, known as Science Sam on social media, is not frightened of needles in the way some people become mildly distressed about spiders or thunderstorms. Her fear is rooted in childhood trauma and it activates the same fight-or-flight response that another person might have if they encountered a bear or a home intruder.
Read the full story from the Star's Amy Dempsey
7:25 a.m. In a bid to get rapid tests into York Region schools, Muna Kadri hit a lot of dead ends. Wherever she looked, there seemed to be few options for asymptomatic students, other than to pay $40 a pop at Shoppers Drug Mart.
Now Kadri, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation District 16, says she's ready, if she must, to rent a U-Haul and drive 130 kilometres to pick up rapid tests via a free program in Waterloo Region. While grateful for the resource, she says the situation can only be described as mind-boggling."
How preposterous is it that these are the lengths we have to go through?"
Read the full story from the Star's Sara Mojtehedzadeh
6:21 a.m.: The World Health Organization is launching a new investigation into the origins of COVID-19, months after an earlier probe ended without drawing firm conclusions, according to a report published on Sunday.
The WHO is putting together a team of some 20 scientists who will be charged with finding new evidence in China and other locales, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The group will examine whether the virus emerged from a laboratory, a theory that has been angrily rejected by China.
In December 2020, WHO investigators began visits to Wuhan, China, where the first known outbreak of the virus took place.
But their March 2021 report said they had gotten insufficient information from Chinese scientists to answer key questions about COVID-19's origin.
In August, U.S. intelligence agencies issued a separate report saying they also couldn't make firm conclusions about COVID-19's origins.
6:19 a.m.: With more than 40 million doses of coronavirus vaccines available, U.S. health authorities said they're confident there will be enough for both qualified older Americans seeking booster shots and the young children for whom initial vaccines are expected to be approved in the not-too-distant future.
The spike in demand - expected following last week's federal recommendation on booster shots - would be the first significant jump in months. More than 70 million Americans remain unvaccinated despite the enticement of lottery prizes, free food or gifts and pleas from exhausted health care workers as the average number of deaths per day climbed to more than 1,900 in recent weeks.
Federal and state health authorities said current supply and steady production of more doses can easily accommodate those seeking boosters or initial vaccination, avoiding a repeat of the frustratingly slow rollout of COVID-19 vaccines across the country early this year.
I hope that we have the level of interest in the booster ... that we need more vaccines," Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said Tuesday. That's simply not where we are today. We have plenty of vaccines."
Robust supply in the U.S enabled President Joe Biden this week to promise an additional 500 million of Pfizer's COVID-19 shots to share with the world, doubling the United States' global contribution. Aid groups and health organizations have pushed the U.S. and other countries to improve vaccine access in countries where even the most vulnerable people haven't had a shot.
Among the challenges states face is not ordering too many doses and letting them go to waste. Several states with low vaccination rates, including Idaho and Kansas, have reported throwing away thousands of expired doses or are struggling to use vaccines nearing expiration this fall.
While most vaccines can stay on the shelf unopened for months, once a vial is opened the clock starts ticking. Vaccines are only usable for six to 12 hours, depending on the manufacturer, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
6:18 a.m.: Public health officials have identified more than 200 coronavirus outbreaks at police or fire agencies throughout Los Angeles County since the start of the pandemic, according to data obtained by the Los Angeles Times.
The 211 outbreaks, accounting for more than 2,500 cases between March 2020 and last month, represent 9% of total workplace outbreaks across the county, the newspaper reported Sunday. However, they have continued to occur regularly even as vaccination rates increased among police and fire personnel and the number of individual coronavirus cases per outbreak has fallen since last winter.
The data showed 38 outbreaks at public safety agencies were identified in April of this year - the most in any month since the start of the pandemic. A month later, 35 outbreaks - the second most - were recorded by the county Department of Public Health.
Overall, more than half of the outbreaks occurred at the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Fire Department, where some employees have filed lawsuits challenging a new rule requiring them to be vaccinated by next month. Thousands have filed notice that they intend to claim a medical or religious exemption from the mandate.
Vaccination rates for LAPD an LAFD employees generally lag behind the 68% of eligible county residents who have gotten their shots.
Critics have accused the police officers and city firefighters of ignoring public safety - and their sworn duties to uphold it - by refusing to get vaccinated.
6:17 a.m.: A Washington state trooper who helped develop the agency's use of drones has died after a battle with COVID-19 contracted on duty.
The Washington State Patrol said Detective Eric Gunderson died Sunday surrounded by his family and friends. He was 38. Gunderson frequently travelled around the country to speak about the state patrol's use of drones.
The patrol said he contracted COVID-19 on one of those trips. Gunderson helped investigate the 2017 Amtrak derailment in DuPont and his work is credited with reopening roads more quickly after crashes.
He is survived by a wife and two sons. Gunderson's death is the first line of duty death for the agency since it marked its 100th anniversary a few weeks ago, Chief John Batiste said. How I had hoped our second century of service would be more forgiving. But serving the public, as we do, has inherent dangers and this pandemic has been a foe to our agency and indeed our state and nation," he said.
Gov. Jay Inslee tweeted his condolences to Gunderson's family, friends and colleagues.
6:17 a.m.: Australia's prime minister says he expects his country to open its international border well before the end of the year.
Australian governments have agreed to ease tight restrictions on overseas travel when 80% of the population aged 16 and older was fully vaccinated.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the first steps would allow Australians to leave and
fully vaccinated citizens and permanent residents to return home.
That will occur before the end of the year. It could happen well before that," Morrison told American broadcaster CBS News.
More than 90% of the target age group in Australia's most populous state and the worst impacted by the nation's COVID-19 outbreak, New South Wales, will be vaccinated by the end of November, New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.
New South Wales reported 787 new locally acquired infections on Monday and 12 deaths in the latest 24-hour period.
Sydney's lockdown would ease on Oct. 11 after 70% of the state's population had received second doses of vaccine, Berejiklian said. With 85% of the target population already injected with at least a single vaccine dose, the 80% target is expected to be reached two weeks after the 70% benchmark.
On Dec. 1, unvaccinated people are expected to have their pandemic restrictions lifted.
State Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said she expected 92% of the target population would eventually be vaccinated.
New South Wales has the fastest vaccination rollout in Australia after the Australian Capital Territory.
6:16 a.m.: New Zealand's prime minister says the government will start a pilot program of home-isolation for overseas travellers, ahead of what she expects to be increasing vaccination levels.
Currently New Zealanders have to quarantine in hotels for two weeks when they return home from abroad.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday a pilot program that will allow New Zealanders to quarantine at home will include 150 business travellers who arrive between Oct. 30 and Dec. 8. The program will involve monitoring and testing.
The only reason that we are running this self-isolation pilot now is in preparation for a highly vaccinated population," Ardern said.
The intention is that in the first quarter of 2022 when more New Zealanders are vaccinated, it will be safer to run self-isolation at home," she added.
Of the eligible population in New Zealand aged 12 and older, 43% had been fully vaccinated, Ardern said.
In Auckland, the nation's most populous city which has been locked down since Aug. 17 after the highly-contagious Delta variant leaked from hotel quarantine, 82% of the eligible population had at least a single dose of the double-shot Pfizer vaccine, she said.
New Zealand has taken an unusual zero-tolerance approach to the coronavirus and has been trying to completely eliminate the delta variant.
6:15 a.m.: A new poll suggests tensions over COVID-19 vaccines in Canada are high as frictions grow between those who are vaccinated against the virus and those who are not.
The Leger survey, conducted for the Association of Canadian Studies, found that more than three in four respondents hold negative views of those who are not immunized.
Association president Jack Jedwab says the relationships between vaccinated and unvaccinated Canadians are also viewed negatively by two out of three survey participants.
The online poll surveyed 1,549 Canadians between September 10 and 12.
A margin of error cannot be assigned to online polls, as they are not considered truly random samples of the population.
The survey found vaccinated people consider the unvaccinated as irresponsible and selfish, a view contested by those who are not immunized.
Some members of the latter group have been staging demonstrations outside hospitals and schools in recent weeks to protest vaccine passports and other public health measures.
There's a high level of I would say antipathy or animosity toward people who are unvaccinated at this time," Jedwab said. What you are seeing is the tension played out among family members and friends, co-workers, where there are relationships between people who are vaccinated and unvaccinated."
The situation creates friction and it is persistent, he added.