Today’s coronavirus news: Health Canada authorizes the use of the Pfizer vaccine as a booster shot; Ontario reporting 441 new COVID-19 cases
The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Tuesday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.
11:35 a.m. Health Canada has authorized the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech Comirnaty COVID-19 vaccine as a booster shot.
A COVID-19 booster shot is an extra dose of the vaccine given after completion of the primary vaccine series. The booster shot is designed to help people maintain their protection against COVID-19 over time.
Health Canada received Pfizer's submission to approve a booster on October 1, 2021. After a thorough, independent review of the evidence, Health Canada has determined that the Comirnaty COVID-19 vaccine booster shot meets the Department's stringent safety, efficacy and quality requirements.
The booster is authorized for adults 18 years of age and older, to be used at least six months after an individual has completed their primary vaccine series. The Comirnaty COVID-19 booster is a full dose of the regular vaccine.
11:22 a.m. Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu is apologizing for sharing misinformation about the severity of COVID-19 and the safety and efficacy of vaccines.
In a statement Tuesday, Gladu called her remarks inappropriate."
Upon reflection, I recognize how dangerous it is to share misinformation about the severity of COVID-19 and the safety and efficacy of vaccines," she said.
I retract these comments in full."
Read the full story from the Star's Stephanie Levitz
11 a.m. India's coronavirus crisis, which was killing thousands of people a day just seven months ago, has eased after the nation's leaders revamped their policies and dramatically ramped up their vaccination drive.
Now, as India celebrates the delivery of its 1 billionth dose, a feat that until recently seemed improbable, public health experts are sounding a new warning: The turnaround is losing steam.
Vaccinations are slowing down. As the temperature dips amid India's most important festival season, people are crowding markets and hosting unmasked friends and family indoors. And the government is telling vaccination campaign volunteers like Namanjaya Khobragade that they are no longer needed.
Now is not the time to let our guard down," said Khobragade, a coordinator for a health nonprofit in the eastern state of Jharkhand. Many people have taken just the first vaccine. We cannot leave them like this. We need to increase the intensity."
10:15 a.m. (will be updated) Ontario is reporting 441 new COVID-19 cases and three more deaths from the virus.
Health Minister Christine Elliott says 268 of the new infections are in people who are not fully vaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown.
She says 173 of the new cases are in fully vaccinated people.
The province says 134 people are in intensive care with COVID-19 related critical illness, including 78 people on ventilators.
There were 15 patients from Saskatchewan in Ontario intensive care units as of Monday.
10 a.m. A giant gap exists in Waterloo Region's defences against COVID-19. About 126,000 residents are not yet vaccinated, giving the virus plenty of opportunity to spread through the community.
This is equivalent to an entire mid-sized city such as Cambridge or Waterloo not being immunized," medical officer of health Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang told regional council at Tuesday's meeting.
Almost 44,000 people over 12 are not immunized. Almost 82,000 children under 12 are not yet eligible to get the vaccine.
9:45 a.m. The vast majority of staff members at Waterloo Region's and Guelph-Wellington's long-term- care homes are vaccinated, with the average staff vaccination rate in the neighbouring public health units sitting at 89.8 per cent, according to Ministry of Ontario data, last updated on Oct. 1.
The Ontario Ministry of Long-Term Care updates data on a monthly basis, typically in the middle of the month.
But with the provincial government issuing a vaccine mandate that takes place Nov. 15 and third-dose booster shots now available for all long-term care workers, almost all long-term care homes in the region will need to work on getting their staff 100 per cent vaccinated.
9:30 a.m. The health board governing Quebec's Nunavik region says the COVID-19 situation in the northern territory is worse than it's ever been.
Health officials reported 30 new cases Monday across the region, which is home to 14 Inuit communities.
The territory has 259 active reported cases.
Quebec's public health institute says Nunavik is the most affected part of the province, with about 1,450 active COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people.
9:13 a.m. Book sales have thrived during the pandemic after initial concerns that it might hurt the publishing business. Come the holidays, some new nonfiction might hit your gifting sweet spots.
9 a.m. Hospitals in the southern Dutch province of Limburg warned the government Tuesday that they can no longer cope with new COVID-19 patients amid soaring rates of coronavirus infections.
Five hospitals in the province that borders both Belgium and Germany raised the alarm in a statement that said: We are heading straight for a healthcare blockage and the entire system is grinding to a standstill."
They added that, we are convinced that other parts of the Netherlands will soon follow."
Amid an autumn surge across much of Europe, the seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in the Netherlands has almost doubled over the past two weeks from 30.88 to 61.12 new cases per 100,000 people despite more than 80 per cent of the adult population being fully vaccinated.
8:45 a.m. The morgue in Romania's main hospital has no space for the dead any more. In a stark illustration of the human cost of the coronavirus surge sweeping the nation, bodies of COVID-19 victims, wrapped in black plastic bags, line a hallway of the hospital in the capital, Bucharest.
Hundreds of people have been dying each day for the past two months in Romania which has been among the hardest-hit in the current virus onslaught raging through Central and Eastern European nations, where far fewer people have been vaccinated than in Western Europe.
A country of 19 million people, Romania currently has among the highest death rates in Europe. Last month the World Health Organization sent a team to help with the nation's pandemic response.
8:30 a.m. A player on Germany's national soccer team has tested positive for the coronavirus and four more are in quarantine as a precaution ahead of World Cup qualifying games against Liechtenstein and Armenia.
The German soccer federation said Tuesday that the unnamed player was fully vaccinated and does not have any symptoms. The other four tested negative for the virus but have been instructed by the local health authority in Wolfsburg to isolate because of their proximity to the infected player.
Germany has already qualified for next year's World Cup ahead of its final qualifiers. The team hosts Liechtenstein in Wolfsburg on Thursday and then plays Armenia in Yerevan on Sunday.
8 a.m. Peel Public Health has confirmed seven schools in the region have active COVID-19 outbreaks. From Sept. 1 to Nov. 2, there have been a total of 31 outbreaks at schools in Peel region.
An outbreak is declared if the facility has two or more COVID-19 cases with an epidemiological link, which means at least one of the patients could have acquired the infection in the school.
7:46 a.m. Peel's health agency is advising residents who attended a recent wedding event in Mississauga to get tested for COVID-19.
In a media release, Peel Public Health said those who attended an Oct. 29 wedding event at the Apollo Convention Centre in Mississauga were exposed to COVID-19 and should "seek immediate testing" whether they've been vaccinated or not.
Those who attended the event and are not fully vaccinated should isolate while waiting for test results, the release said
7:21 a.m. Wage growth, higher costs, supply chain issues, inflation - all of these issues are driving expectations of lower corporate earnings at the end of 2021 for everyone. Dennis Mitchell, CEO and chief investment officer at Starlight Capital, isn't surprised by that. Nor does he believe the COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally changed major trends in business like the rise of e-commerce or the oversupply of physical retail space.
Shying away from shiny investments in favour of long-term stakes in great businesses, regardless of where they happen to be, is part of Starlight Capital's strategy. In an interview with the Star, Mitchell unpacks his firm's philosophy on great businesses, creating a diverse team, and where he sees the office real estate market going.
6:32 a.m.: Nobody wants to say here we go again, but here we are. Ontario has lived a relatively charmed pandemic life since the summer, and it appears to be over. The province's seven-day case average has risen approximately 30 per cent in a week; vaccination efforts are stalling as we go. One rule of the virus is that unchecked, it will spread exponentially. We're back there.
Do you remember where we were immediately before Thanksgiving? That's the behaviour and the extent of restrictions that is compatible with control of the pandemic," says Dr. Peter Juni, the scientific director of Ontario's independent volunteer science table. So think how it was before Thanksgiving, and think about how much you were inside with other people. You shouldn't do it more than you did then."
If it sounds like going backwards, it is, in the province where the premier keeps saying he never wants to go back. A return to pre-Thanksgiving restrictions would mean a return of capacity limits in restaurants, bars, gyms, theatres and at sporting events, for a start. A return to pre-Thanksgiving social patterns should be achievable, if we just keep a bigger picture in mind. This can be done.
Read the full column from the Star's Bruce Arthur.
6:20 a.m.: The pandemic's effects on mortality have been uneven. Life expectancy dipped in most places last year, shaving 28.1 million years off the cumulative longevity in 31 countries. But residents of a handful of places that successfully kept COVID-19 at bay - including New Zealand and Taiwan - actually lived longer.
Life expectancy is an indication of how long on average people will live once their age is taken into account, provided that there aren't any big shifts in the number of people dying in each age bracket over time. Another measure - excess years of life lost - quantifies the impact when those changes do occur, and gives greater weight to deaths that occur at younger ages.
A study of 37 countries and territories in the journal BMJ found the pandemic was a killing field in most places. More than 28 million years of life were lost in 2020 across 31 of them, with Russia, Bulgaria, Lithuania, the U.S., and Poland recording the heaviest toll, the study led by Nazrul Islam, a physician-epidemiologist and medical statistician at the University of Oxford, found.
Years of life lost in 2020 were higher than expected everywhere except Taiwan, New Zealand, Norway, Iceland, Denmark, and South Korea.
The number of years of life lost due to Covid-19 was more than five times greater than those lost from influenza in 2015, during the worst seasonal flu epidemic since the turn of the century.
6:20 a.m.: People who are fully vaccinated are 16 times less likely to end up in intensive care wards or to die from COVID-19, an Australian study found, adding to a growing body of evidence that may bolster the case for countries to treat the disease as endemic.
6:20 a.m.: The three parties in talks to form the next German government agreed on a package of measures to tackle the latest surge in cases, seeking to avoid sweeping restrictions like school closures and curfews.
6:20 a.m.: Hong Kong needs at least six months before reopening to the world, a government adviser said. The territory must finish negotiating open borders with the mainland and boost the vaccination rate, with Hong Kong and China the only places still pursuing a Covid Zero" strategy.
6:17 a.m.: Denmark wants to again consider COVID-19 as a socially critical disease," paving the way for the reintroduction of a digital pass months after the label was removed and restrictions were phased out.
The move, which still needs approval in parliament, will also allow Denmark to reintroduce other restrictions if deemed necessary. A majority seems to be backing the suggestion of the minority Social Democratic government.
The pass was introduced on July 1 but removed on Sept. 10, when Denmark declared that the outbreak no longer was to be considered a socially critical disease," citing the high rate of vaccination.
However, Denmark has like many other countries seen an uptick in cases, with health authorities saying the number of infections and hospitalizations has risen faster than expected.
On Monday, Health Minister Magnus Heunicke said the COVID pass must apply to nightclubs, cafes, party buses and indoor restaurants but also outdoor events where the number of people exceeds 2,000.
The Danish pass app shows a QR code with a green banner if the holder is fully vaccinated or received a first dose at least two weeks ago, has recently recovered from COVID-19 or has had a negative test in the past 72 hours. A paper version is also available.
The call to reintroduce the pass was immediately welcomed by the industry.
6:15 a.m.: Residents of a New York border town say they're eager to welcome Canadians now that the United States has eased land border restrictions, but they worry that costly COVID-19 testing rules will keep many travellers away.
On Monday, Christmas music floated down the halls of the Champlain Centre mall in Plattsburgh, N.Y., about an hour south of Montreal, where some retailers dreamt of the return of tourist dollars - perhaps in time for the holidays.
We cannot wait to have Canadian shoppers come back," Emily Moosmann, the mall's marketing director, said in an interview. We miss hearing French in the hallway; we miss seeing their faces."
To lure shoppers back, the mall created a web page - headed by a large maple leaf - highlighting new stores that have opened, local COVID-19 test sites and special discounts for Canadian residents.
About 30 per cent of our traffic is Canadian, so, not seeing them here, we definitely feel the impact," she said. While there were only a few cars with Quebec licence plates in the parking lot on Monday, Moosmann said retailers were optimistic things would pick up on the weekend.
Read the full story from the Canadian Press.
6:15 a.m.: The Yukon government has declared a state of emergency and announced a series of public health rules aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19, including a proof-of-vaccination requirement that's set to take effect this Saturday.
The territory says it is moving rapidly" to implement a proof-of-vaccination system for a range of settings, including restaurants, ticketed events, fitness facilities and personal services businesses, as well as faith-based and cultural gatherings.
It says the new measures also include mandatory masks in all indoor public settings and outdoor public settings where physical distancing isn't possible, as well as capacity limits on different types of indoor and outdoor gatherings.
While the rules will be enforced starting Nov. 13, the territory says in a statement that Yukoners are strongly encouraged" to adopt the measures immediately.