Today’s coronavirus news: Ontario won’t mandate vaccines for hospital workers; Sidney Crosby tests positive for COVID-19
The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Wednesday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.
5:05 p.m.: As the U.S. prepares to lift land and marine border restrictions on Nov. 8 for travellers who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, there are still a number of things to take note of if you are planning to travel to the U.S. or other countries.
From COVID insurance to what happens if you fall ill while travelling abroad, the Star has answers to your pressing #PandemicTravel questions. This information is based on what we know as of Nov. 3.
Read the full story here: Will Canada foot the bill if you get COVID while travelling? Here's what you need to know
4:50 p.m.: Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe says health-care services that were cancelled during the province's fourth wave of COVID-19 are to resume soon.
In the past few months, the Saskatchewan Health Authority made 275 cuts to health care so that staff could be redeployed to help with the surge.
During question period at the legislature, Moe announced that 60 per cent of those services are to return starting next week, followed by 75 per cent the following week.
He said by the end of November, 90 per cent of cancelled services and programs are to resume.
Health Minister Paul Merriman says some of the first to return are to include therapies for children and other pediatric care.
Cases in Saskatchewan continue to decline: the province reported 173 new infections today for a total of 1,765 active cases.
4:40 p.m.: AstraZeneca has asked Health Canada to review a new long-acting antibody combination that could be used to prevent symptomatic COVID-19.
If approved, it would be the first antibody protection of its kind in Canada.
The company says its clinical trials showed the antibody treatment was well tolerated and reduced the risk of developing symptomatic COVID-19 by 77 per cent compared to a placebo.
"This is an important option, especially for vulnerable populations like those who are immune-compromised and often aren't able to mount a protective response following vaccination," said Dr. Alex Romanovschi, vice-president of scientific affairs for AstraZeneca Canada.
"With this Health Canada filing, we are one step closer to providing an additional long-lasting option to help protect against COVID-19 alongside vaccines."
The drug is a combination of two long-acting antibodies derived from cells donated by COVID-19 patients. The antibodies would be administered as two injections, one immediately after the other, and could offer up to a year of protection from the virus.
While a vaccine effectively teaches the body to make its own antibodies over a short period of time, AstraZeneca's product would deliver ready-made antibodies to immediately start fighting off the virus.
They could be used in concert with COVID-19 vaccines, Romanovschi said, or be offered to people who have allergies or otherwise can't tolerate a vaccine.
"Another area where we can look at is individuals at increased risk of infections. For example, health-care professionals or long-term care workers. Those individuals might also benefit from additional protection," he said.
The company says preliminary findings show the antibodies neutralize recent COVID-19 variants, including the Delta and Mu variants.
The latest data has been submitted to Health Canada as part of a rolling review, which allows companies working on COVID-19 drugs and vaccines to submit data as it becomes available.
Health Canada has said all COVID-19 vaccine and drug submissions will be prioritized and reviewed on an expedited timeline.
AstraZeneca is studying the combination as a potential treatment for COVID-19 as well.
4:22 p.m.: The City of Toronto is offering residents the opportunity to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and the flu at the same time.
The city's top doctor says residents getting a flu shot at a Toronto Public Health clinic will be offered a COVID-19 vaccine if they are eligible and haven't yet been fully vaccinated against the virus.
Dr. Eileen de Villa also says people getting a COVID-19 vaccine at a city-run clinic will have a chance to get a flu shot at the same time.
The National Advisory Committee on Immunization has said that all seasonal influenza vaccines may be given at the same time as or at any time before or after the administration of other vaccines, including COVID-19 vaccines.
De Villa says the administration of the COVID-19 vaccine and flu shot at the same time will offer people convenience and protection against both the seasonal flu and the novel coronavirus.
The city launched its annual flu campaign at city-run immunization clinics this week.
3:35 p.m.: Ontario plans to eventually offer booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines to all residents, with the next priority group able to book appointments starting Saturday based on a higher risk of waning immunity.
There are 2.75 million people who will become eligible for boosters starting Nov. 6 - those aged 70 and older, health-care workers and essential caregivers in congregate settings, people who received two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine or one dose of Janssen, and First Nations, Inuit and Metis adults and their non-Indigenous household members.
Ontario's chief medical officer of health said it's important to offer those people additional protection.
"These additional groups will benefit from a booster dose as they are at increased risk of waning immunity and greater risk of exposure, serious illness and outcomes," Dr. Kieran Moore said Wednesday.
Evidence suggests that immunity starts to wane after about six months, so those priority groups will be able to get their booster shots six months after their second dose.
Then, Ontario is eyeing early 2022 to expand booster doses to everyone else, based on a six-to-eight month interval after people received their second doses.
Ontario officials say the protection from two doses is still very high for the general population after six months, especially against severe illness and death, so a booster dose would provide additional protection against more mild illness.
Read the full story here: Ontario to eventually offer booster COVID-19 doses to all
3:15 p.m. Scavenger hunts and blow-up animals greeted children at some of California's vaccination sites Wednesday as children aged 5 to 11 got their first COVID-19 shots a day after the federal government approved kid-size doses of the vaccinations.
As part of an ambitious plan to offer coronavirus vaccinations to California's 3.5 million children in that age group, the state intends to offer the vaccines at locations including school clinics, pharmacies, pediatrician offices and county sites, many of which will launch in the coming days. Health officials said they are expecting 1.2 million initial doses of the pediatric vaccine.
3:10 p.m. Yukon's premier has announced a vaccine mandate for government employees including front-line workers in the health-care system and teachers, but the territory has not yet determined any consequences for those who refuse to comply.
Sandy Silver says employees must get their first vaccine dose by Nov. 30 and be fully vaccinated by Jan. 30.
Cabinet will meet this week to discuss other details, including whether anyone would be placed on unpaid leave for not meeting the initial deadline.
Silver says the government has been discussing the vaccine mandate with unions, but there won't be any alternatives like COVID-19 tests on the job for anyone who is not vaccinated.
3 p.m. Health officials in New Brunswick are reporting 60 new cases of COVID-19 today and one more death attributed to the novel coronavirus.
Officials say a person in their 50s from the Moncton area is the 119th person to die from the disease in the province since the start of the pandemic.
New Brunswick has 458 active reported cases of COVID-19.
Nineteen people are in hospital with the disease, including 13 in intensive care.
Of the new cases, 47 involve people who are unvaccinated, one involves someone who is partially vaccinated and 12 involve fully vaccinated residents.
Health officials say 85.3 per cent of eligible New Brunswickers are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and 92.7 per cent have received at least one dose of vaccine.
2:50 p.m. Ontario won't force hospital workers to get COVID-19 vaccines, leaving that decision up to individual medical institutions, says Premier Doug Ford.
Recently, I wrote to hospital and health-care partners from across Ontario with a number of questions about the impacts of a province-wide vaccine mandate for hospital workers, especially in light of the challenges other provinces have faced when pursuing similar policies. We have reviewed the responses we've received alongside real-world evidence here in Ontario and across Canada," Ford said in a statement released Wednesday afternoon.
This is a complex issue. But when the impact of the potential departure of tens of thousands of health-care workers is weighed against the small number of outbreaks that are currently active in Ontario's hospitals, I am not prepared to jeopardize the delivery of care to millions of Ontarians. Having looked at the evidence, our government has decided to maintain its flexible approach by leaving human resourcing decisions up to individual hospitals.
Read the full story from the Star's Kristin Rushowy.
2:30 p.m. Manitoba says it is expanding eligibility for a third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine to all First Nations, Metis and Inuit people.
It is also to be available for anyone over the age of 70.
There must be six months between the second and third dose.
Marcia Anderson, who leads the First Nations pandemic team, says it's important for Indigenous people to be vaccinated.
There has been a slow increase in COVID-19 infections in the province over the last month.
Some 128 new cases and two more deaths are being reported.
2 p.m. Nearly 8,500 active duty members of the U.S. Air Force and Space Force have missed the deadline for getting COVID-19 vaccinations, including 800 who flatly refused and nearly 5,000 with pending requests for a religious exemption, the Air Force said Wednesday.
The Air Force said that of the 326,000 active duty members of the Air Force and Space Force, 95.9 percent are fully vaccinated and 96.9 percent have gotten at least one shot.
A vaccinated force is a protected force, better able to deploy and to defend our interests anywhere at any time," said Ann Stefanek, an Air Force spokeswoman. Receiving the COVID-19 vaccine is a necessary requirement to keep our people safe and healthy. This is a readiness issue."
1:45 p.m. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has tested positive for COVID-19, his office announced Wednesday morning.
Garcetti, who is fully vaccinated, is feeling good and isolating in his hotel room," according to a statement posted on Twitter.
The Democratic mayor is attending a United Nations conference on climate change in Glasgow, Scotland. He was originally set to moderate a panel Wednesday on international finance to support city climate action" before participating in another discussion regarding solutions and challenges to tackling climate change, according to a schedule released by his office.
Garcetti, 50, got his first vaccine dose in January.
1:30 p.m. Two doctor's assistants in Amsterdam have been arrested on suspicion of selling fake COVID-19 vaccination registrations, police in the Dutch capital said Wednesday.
Vaccination registrations are needed to get a COVID-19 pass that people have to show to get into bars and restaurants in the Netherlands.
The announcement came a day after the Dutch government said it is extending the use of COVID-19 passes to more public places starting Saturday, amid sharply rising infection rates and hospital admissions.
1:15 p.m. The Pittsburgh Penguins placed star center Sidney Crosby and defenseman Brian Dumoulin in the COVID-19 protocol on Wednesday after both tested positive.
Coach Mike Sullivan said Crosby is dealing with mild symptoms while Dumoulin remains asymptomatic. Crosby's positive test came less than a week after he made his season debut, missing the opening six games while recovering from left wrist surgery.
Though the overwhelming majority of Penguins have been vaccinated, they've spent the early portion of the season wrangling with COVID-19. Crosby and Dumoulin are the seventh and eighth Penguins to go into the COVID-19 protocol since training camp opened in September.
Defensemen Marcus Pettersson and Chad Ruhwedel went into the protocol on Monday. Forwards Jeff Carter, Jack Guentzel and Zach Aston-Reese and defenseman Kris Letang also have tested positive.
1:05 p.m. Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has tested positive for COVID-19 and will miss Sunday's game at Kansas City, according to published reports.
NFL Network was first to report the positive test, which neither the team nor Rodgers' agent immediately confirmed.
Rodgers, the reigning NFL MVP, is the latest Packers player to test positive. Wide receivers Davante Adams, a 2020 All-Pro, and Allen Lazard missed last week's victory at Arizona due to COVID-19 protocols. Lazard has since been activated.
12:45 p.m. Ontario is offering COVID-19 booster shots to another 2.75 million citizens at higher risk of infection, including those over 70 years of age, anyone who got two doses of AstraZeneca or one of Janssen and front-line health-care workers.
Bookings begin Saturday morning through the provincial appointment system, public health units, select pharmacies and through hospitals for their eligible employees, officials told a background briefing Wednesday in advance of an afternoon news conference by chief medical officer Dr. Kieran Moore.
The boosters will be with the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines and cannot be administered until six to eight months after finishing a primary course of vaccination.
Read the full story from the Star's Rob Ferguson
12:20 p.m. Quebec is reporting 525 new cases of COVID-19, eight more deaths linked to the coronavirus and two fewer patients in hospital with the disease.
The latest figures come ahead of an update later today by Health Minister Christian Dube on the government's vaccine mandate for health workers.
Dube delayed the deadline by one month, to Nov. 15, because he said suspending unvaccinated workers in October would have had devastating effects on the health-care system.
The minister said Tuesday there were still about 12,000 health-care workers who had not received a single dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
12:15 p.m. Newfoundland and Labrador is reporting one new case of COVID-19 as officials grapple with a cyberattack on the health-care network.
The province's chief medical officer of health says the case announced today involves a person under the age of 20 who is a contact of a previously reported infection.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says the cyberattack detected Saturday has taken out the online portals residents used to assess whether they needed COVID-19 tests and where they received results.
She says, however, that the attack has not impacted provincial lab capabilities to process swabs for test results.
Fitzgerald says all COVID-19 test scheduling must be done over the phone, adding that public health nurses will call anyone who is positive for the disease within 72 hours of their test.
12 p.m. More than a thousand people blocked several streets in the center of the Ukrainian capital Wednesday, protesting against COVID-19 vaccine certificates and state-imposed restrictions aimed at halting the spread of the coronavirus.
The protesters, mostly women and young people, didn't wear masks and held up signs reading Say No to COVID Passports", Say No to COVID Genocide" in front of the Ukrainian parliament building in Kyiv.
The rally comes in response to restrictions that require teachers, government employees and other workers to get fully vaccinated by Nov. 8 or have their salaries suspended.
Last week, Ukrainian authorities also started requiring proof of vaccination or negative COVID-19 test results for people boarding airplanes, trains and long-distance buses.
11:30 a.m. AstraZeneca has asked Health Canada to review a new long-acting antibody combination that could be used to prevent symptomatic COVID-19.
If approved, it would be the first antibody protection of its kind in Canada.
The company says its clinical trials showed the antibody treatment was well tolerated and reduced the risk of developing symptomatic COVID-19 by 77 per cent compared to a placebo.
AstraZeneca Canada says it could be a good option for vulnerable populations who aren't able to develop a strong protective response from a vaccine.
The company says preliminary findings show the antibodies neutralize recent COVID-19 variants, including the Delta and Mu variants.
Health Canada has said all COVID-19 vaccine and drug submissions will be prioritized and reviewed on an expedited timeline.
10:30 a.m. Nova Scotia is extending the Nov. 30 deadline by eight weeks for public service workers in the province to show proof of vaccination.
Government spokeswoman Heather Fairbairn says employees were informed last week that any worker who is partially vaccinated by Nov. 15 and who intends to get a second dose will have another eight weeks to get one.
Workers who fail to get vaccinated risk being forced on unpaid administrative leave.
Fairbairn says employees with a single dose of vaccine may be subject to temporary health and safety measures before they are fully vaccinated.
The extension to the vaccine mandate also applies to employees in the health and education departments.
10:17 a.m. (updated) Ontario is reporting another 378 COVID-19 cases and five more deaths, according to its latest report released Wednesday morning.
Ontario has administered 16,933 vaccine doses since its last daily update, with 22,552,851 vaccines given in total as of 8 p.m. the previous night.
According to the Star's vaccine tracker, 11,510,553 people in Ontario have received at least one shot. That works out to approximately 88.3 per cent of the eligible population 12 years and older, and the equivalent of 77.4 per cent of the total population, including those not yet eligible for the vaccine.
Read the full story from the Star's Urbi Khan
10:10 a.m. Daily coronavirus cases and deaths in Russia remained at their highest numbers of the pandemic Wednesday as more regions announced extending existing restrictions in an effort to tame the country's unrelenting surge of infections.
Russia's state coronavirus task force reported 40,443 new confirmed cases from a day earlier. It was the fifth time in seven days that the country reported more than 40,000 infections. The task force also reported a daily record of 1,189 COVID-19 deaths.
Russia is five days into a nationwide non-working period that the government introduced to curb the spread of the virus. Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered many Russians to stay off work between Oct. 30 and Nov. 7. He authorized regional governments to extend the number of non-working days, if necessary.
10:05 a.m. Ontario's medical regulator says it is turning to the courts in an effort to compel four physicians to co-operate with its investigations into their practices regarding COVID-19, including the issuance of medical exemptions for vaccines.
The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario says it has launched legal action with the Superior Court against Dr. Mary Elizabeth O'Connor, Dr. Mark Raymond Trozzi, Dr. Celeste Jean Thirlwell and Dr. Rochagne Kilian.
The regulator last week suspended Kilian's medical licence, after previously barring her from issuing medical exemptions from COVID-19 vaccines.
Trozzi was also prohibited from issuing vaccine exemptions last month.
The regulator has previously urged doctors to be selective in issuing exemptions to COVID-19 vaccines, noting there are very few legitimate reasons to not get immunized against the virus.
10 a.m. The number of coronavirus cases has risen in Europe for the fifth consecutive week, making it the only world region where COVID-19 is still increasing, the World Health Organization reported Wednesday.
In its weekly report on the pandemic, the U.N. health agency said new cases jumped by 6 per cent in Europe compared to an 18 per cent increase the previous week. The weekly number of new infections in other regions either fell or remained about the same, according to the report.
The sharpest drops were seen in the Middle East, where new cases decreased by 12 per cent, and in Southeast Asia and Africa, where they fell by 9 per cent.
9:45 a.m. England's deputy chief medical officer said Wednesday that too many people believe the pandemic is over, warning that the U.K.'s very high coronavirus rates and rising deaths mean that there are hard months to come in the winter."
Jonathan Van-Tam also said he was worried that increasing numbers of deaths showed infections were now starting to penetrate into older age groups."
Coronavirus rates are still very high at the moment. They are higher than in most of Europe," Van-Tam told the BBC. We are running quite hot. And, of course, it's of concern to scientists that we are running this hot this early in the autumn season."
I personally feel there are some hard months to come in the winter and it's not over," he added.
9:20 a.m. The World Health Organization granted an emergency use license Wednesday to a coronavirus vaccine developed in India, offering reassurance for a shot the country's regulators allowed long before advanced safety and efficacy testing was completed.
The U.N. health agency said in a statement that it had authorized Covaxin, made by India's Bharat Biotech. The action makes Covaxin the eighth COVID-19 vaccine to receive WHO's green light.
This emergency use listing expands the availability of vaccines, the most effective medical tools we have to end the pandemic," said Dr. Mariangela Simao, WHO's assistant director-general for access to medicines and health products.
Covaxin was developed by Bharat Biotech in partnership with the Indian Council of Medical Research, the government's apex research body. The vaccine is made using a killed coronavirus to prompt an immune response and is given in two doses.
WHO said the vaccine was found to be about 78% effective in preventing severe COVID-19 and was extremely suitable" for poor countries due to its much easier storage requirements.
8:38 a.m. The U.S. enters a new phase Wednesday in its COVID-19 vaccination campaign, with shots now available to millions of elementary-age children in what health officials hailed as a major breakthrough after more than 18 months of illness, hospitalizations, deaths and disrupted education.
With the federal government promising enough vaccine to protect the nation's 28 million kids ages 5-11, pediatricians' offices, pharmacies, hospitals, schools and health clinics were poised to begin the shots after the final OK late Tuesday.
Kid-sized doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine cleared two final hurdles Tuesday - a recommendation from CDC advisers followed by a green light from Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
8:15 a.m. Ontario will unveil its plan for more COVID-19 booster shots Wednesday, clearing the way for AstraZeneca recipients and others to get top-ups as the province continues efforts to get more first and second doses into arms.
The blueprint follows guidance to the provinces last week from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization, which recommended additional injections for groups of people at increased risk of severe illness and highest risk of waning protection."
Those over 70 should get boosters with the mRNA vaccines Pfizer or Moderna, as should anyone who received AstraZeneca, its equivalent Covishield or the one-dose Janssen vaccine, many front-line, health-care workers with direct patient contact, as well as First Nations, Metis and Inuit peoples in communities vulnerable to outbreaks, the committee advised.
Read the full story from the Star's Rob Ferguson
8 a.m. The travel industry is one of the hardest-hit economically by the COVID-19 pandemic, and Pearson airport is definitely feeling it.
In a recent update to the Region of Peel, Greater Toronto Airport's Authority (GTAA), the operator of Toronto Pearson International Airport reported that it is relying heavily on leans to keep the operation running.
We're borrowing to keep the lights on and the runways open," said Michele McKenzie, who sits on the board of directors for the GTAA.
She said that one year ago, the airport was at its lowest point in operation, 98 per cent lower than average traffic.
6:40 a.m.: Security experts say the suspected cyberattack on Newfoundland and Labrador's health-care system, which led to the cancellation of thousands of medical appointments and forced a local health authority to revert to using paper, isn't an isolated incident. Hackers' new tactic is to target health-care institutions, they say, because the COVID-19 pandemic has increased pressure on victims to pay up.
Here are five factors that help explain why hospitals and health-care facilities are being targeted. Read the full story from the Canadian Press here.
6:10 a.m.: When they first landed on the market, the concept of a test you could do by yourself in 15 minutes - no lab or swab-wielding professional required - was billed by some as a game-changer in curbing the pandemic.
Instead of trekking to an appointment and waiting a couple of days for a result, all of a sudden, the power to screen for potential COVID was available in a little, single-serving package.
But a year after Health Canada approved the first rapid test, and officials began to announce deals to purchase millions of the tests from multiple manufacturers, they remain a challenge to get your hands on.
Some people are asking, why are they so hard to get?
Read the full story from the Star's Alex Boyd.
6:03 a.m.: More provinces in China are fighting COVID-19 than at any time since the deadly pathogen first emerged in Wuhan in 2019.
The highly-infectious delta variant is hurtling across the country despite the increasingly aggressive measures that local officials have enacted in a bid to thwart it. More than 600 local infections have been found in 19 of 31 provinces in the latest outbreak in the world's second-largest economy.
China reported 93 new local cases on Wednesday, and 11 asymptomatic infections. Three more provinces detected cases: central Chongqing and Henan, and Jiangsu on the eastern coast.
Officials in China say they are committed to maintaining a so-called COVID Zero approach despite the flare-ups that are coming faster, spreading further and evading many of the measures that previously controlled it. The severe responses needed to eradicate the delta variant have led several other countries with zero-tolerance practices, including Singapore and Australia, to shift focus and instead rely on high vaccination rates to live with the virus as endemic.
6:02 a.m.: Millions of coronavirus vaccines remain unused in the Philippines as logistical bottlenecks and hesitancy slow inoculations, health officials said, highlighting another risk to the nation's economic recovery.
More than 40 million of the 108 million vaccines the nation has received are in warehouses, in transit to the archipelago's remote islands, or waiting to be used in local health offices, according to the health department. Inoculations are hampered by logistical bottlenecks," Health Secretary Francisco Duque said at a virtual briefing Wednesday.
Health workers, who administer shots, were infected, while some local governments took their time with inoculations thinking it's business as usual," Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje said at a separate briefing. Vaccine hesitancy also continues to be a roadblock, with as many as a quarter of the population doubting COVID-19 shots, she said.
The Philippines, which lags much of Southeast Asia in terms of vaccine coverage, stayed at the bottom of Bloomberg's COVID Resilience Ranking last month despite decreasing infections. Even with only a quarter of the population fully vaccinated, the government has eased movement restrictions, allowing gyms and cinemas to reopen to help boost a nascent economic recovery.
6:01 a.m.: Chinese President Xi Jinping has been absent from the Group of 20 summit in Rome and this week's global climate talks in Scotland, drawing criticism from U.S. President Joe Biden and questions about China's commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
China is the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide and has pledged to begin reducing that output by 2030 and obtaining carbon neutrality by 2060. The U.S. and others have urged Beijing to make bigger commitments, but Xi's administration has strongly implied those will only come in exchange for political concessions.
China has enforced tight travel restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic and Xi hasn't left the country since making a January 2020 trip to neighbouring Myanmar.
That was just weeks before the outbreak, believed to have originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan, spread worldwide. China has come under heavy pressure to reveal more information about the origin of the pandemic and has been accused of mismanaging the outbreak and then seeking to cover up its mistakes.
6 a.m.: The U.S. enters a new phase Wednesday in its COVID-19 vaccination campaign, with shots now available to millions of elementary-age children in what health officials hailed as a major breakthrough after more than 18 months of illness, hospitalizations, deaths and disrupted education.
With the federal government promising enough vaccine to protect the nation's 28 million kids ages 5-11, pediatricians' offices, pharmacies, hospitals, schools and health clinics were poised to begin the shots after the final OK late Tuesday.
This is not going to be The Hunger Games,'" said Dr. Allison Arwady, Chicago's public health commissioner, referring to the chaotic early national rollout of adult vaccines nearly a year ago. Chicago expected to have nearly enough vaccine in just the first week for nearly half of its 210,000 school-aged children, and many more doses later on.
Our goal is to be ready, have a calm rollout,'' Arwady said.
Kid-sized doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine cleared two final hurdles Tuesday - a recommendation from CDC advisers followed by a green light from Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The actions mean sleepovers, playdates and family get-togethers put off for more than a year will be back on the agenda for many kids, along with a chance for fewer school interruptions.
5:55 a.m.: Anumeha Thakur has spent a large chunk of time during the COVID-19 pandemic trying to complete what used to be a relatively simple task - booking a driving test.
The Brampton, Ont., resident had a test scheduled to obtain her G licence in the spring of 2020, but that was cancelled when the pandemic hit. A test she later booked for January this year was scrapped because of a provincewide lockdown. And she failed a test she managed to secure in September, leaving her hunting once more for an available exam.
Now, Thakur says she can't find a single road test appointment on the province's online portal all the way through to the end of next year.
It's a real struggle," Thakur said during a phone interview. I find it very hard, because I want to be able to pass it. And you know, I'm trying, trying and I just can't book it."
The Ministry of Transportation said that roughly 421,827 road tests have been cancelled due to the pandemic since March 2020.
In acknowledging the backlog, the province has given novice drivers with licences expiring between March 1, 2020, and Dec. 31, 2022, until the end of next year to pass tests needed to maintain or upgrade their licences.
Thakur said her G2 licence technically expired in May. She said she's eager to get her G licence and is frustrated at the trouble she's having securing a test.
Adding to her annoyance is the fact that some third-party sellers have contacted her with the offer of earlier road test appointments, at a price.