Today’s coronavirus news: Ontario reporting 1,268 more cases, nine deaths; Ontario’s vaccine booking system for those aged 80+ has launched
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.
11 a.m.: At the time, the recommendation was radical.
The afternoon announcement on March 16, 2020 to close all bars and restaurants for in-person service came as a gut punch to owners and a wake-up call to residents still unsure how the burgeoning COVID-19 pandemic would upend their lives.
But the direction to close, delivered by medical officers of health - and later by the province in an evening press release - prevented the beer-fuelled parties of St. Patrick's Day, curbing Ontario's escalating spring pandemic wave.
The Star's Megan Ogilvie has the full story.
10:35 a.m.: For the third straight day, Ontario is reporting no new deaths in long-term care so the number remains at 3,750 for resident deaths in LTC.
The province says three more long-term-care homes are in outbreak for 87 in total or 13.9 per cent of all LTC homes.
10:25 a.m.: Ontario is reporting 33,198 additional vaccine doses have been administered since its last daily update for a total of 1,191,553 as of 8 p.m. Sunday.
The province says 287,283 people are fully vaccinated, which means they've had both shots.
10:20 a.m.: The British Columbia government says age-based bookings for COVID-19 vaccinations are one week ahead of schedule and seniors aged 84 and older, plus Indigenous elders 65 and up, can make an appointment for a shot.
The Health Ministry says those 83 and older can make an appointment Tuesday and the age eligibility drops daily until anyone 80 and older can make arrangements for a COVID-19 jab by the end of the week.
Added staff at call centres across B.C. have helped speed up the process and the province says the centres are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily.
An estimated 100,000 people are included in the 80 to 84-year-old group and phone appointments are the only way to make a booking in all regions except Fraser Health.
But Health Minister Adrian Dix has said a provincewide online system is expected within weeks.
Monday also marks the launch of vaccination clinics across B.C. for Indigenous elders and seniors over 90 who already have appointments.
Clinics also begin in Prince Rupert and Port Edward where all adults are being immunized, regardless of age, due to stubbornly high infection rates in that northwestern B.C. region.
At last count on Friday, B.C. had reported just under 87,000 cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began and had administered almost 381,000 doses of vaccine.
10:18 a.m. (updated): Ontario is reporting 1,268 more COVID-19 cases, and nine deaths.
The seven-day average is down to 1,350 cases daily or 65 weekly per 100,000, and down to 12.1 deaths per day.
Labs report 33,975 completed tests, and a 3.8 per cent positivity rate.
Locally, there are 366 new cases in Toronto, 220 in Peel and 147 in York Region.
10 a.m.: Durham Region's health department is advising area residents to continue using the local COVID-19 vaccination booking systems for appointments at local vaccination clinics.
Appointments for clinics located in Clarington, Pickering and Whitby can be booked at www.durham.ca/vaccineappointment or through the Call Centre Booking Line at 1-888-444-5113.
To book appointments at the Durham College/Ontario Tech University Campus Ice Centre clinic, go to covidvaccine.lh.ca or call 905-721-4828.
Although the province launched a provincial COVID-19 online vaccination booking portal, area residents do not need to use the provincial system to access local clinics.
Area residents who access the provincial portal to book appointments will be redirected to the Durham Region appointment booking systems for appointments to be booked for local clinics.
9:30 a.m.: Thousands of patients across the country whose procedures have been postponed or cancelled due to the pandemic, resulting in more physical and emotional distress.
Support programs for chronically ill patients are an essential part of their care, said Eileen Dooley, CEO of HealthPartners,a collaboration of 16 health charities such as the Alzheimer Society, Parkinson Canada and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada.
HealthPartners commissioned an online survey of 3,000 people, including 1,144 with a chronic condition or major illness, and found the pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on patients, 43 per cent of whose treatment has been cancelled or postponed, affecting their quality of life.
8:50 a.m. (updated): Ontario's hotly anticipated COVID-19 vaccine booking system launched Monday for those aged 80 and up, with thousands logging on within minutes.
The online booking system went live at 8 a.m., and the site showed more than 8,000 people in the queue for an appointment a few minutes later, with an estimated wait time of about an hour.
But the lineup appeared to grow quickly, with some who went on the site shortly afterwards reporting a longer estimated wait time.
Some who went on to the site shared their successes on social media.
My in-laws (with the help of their doting son) both got COVID-19 vaccine appointments for next Tuesday at City Hall. I can't believe how happy and relieved I am!," one Ottawa resident said on Twitter.
Others took issue with the time required to reserve a spot.
Already frustrated with this new Ontario vaccine booking system. While trying to book for an older person went on at 8 am and found I have to wait over 20 minutes to do an online booking and phone lines all ringing busy," one wrote.
8:45 a.m. Premier Doug Ford publicly apologized to MPP Sol Mamakwa on Sunday, blaming party politics for accusing the NDP member of jumping the vaccine line.
Let's keep in mind, we're two political parties," Ford said at his briefing to promote Ontario's vaccine booking system, which goes live Monday.
A lot of stuff goes on in the legislature - sometimes it gets personal."
Ford had already reached out privately to the New Democrat MPP on Friday to apologize, but there were calls for the premier to publicly say sorry to not just Mamakwa but, more broadly, to Indigenous people.
Mamakwa, the MPP for the northwest Ontario riding of Kiiwetinoong, said in a Twitter video statement released later on Sunday that the premier was using politics as an excuse.
In my experience, people only apologize for racist behaviour when they get called out on it," he said.
Read the full story from the Star's Manuela Vega
8:40 a.m.: Toronto announced Monday morning that 263,532 vaccine doses have been administered to city residents.
Starting Wednesday, the city will begin vaccinating residents born in 1941 and earlier at three of the city-operated mass immunization clinics: Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Toronto Congress Centre and Scarborough Town Centre.
Vaccinations will also begin at the Malvern Community Recreation Centre and Mitchell Field Community Centre clinics on March 29 and at the Hangar clinic site on April 5.
Online booking for this priority group at these six city-run clinics began on March 12. As of Sunday evening, 11,178 people have booked COVID-19 vaccination appointments at a City-run clinic.
8:05 a.m. (updated) Ontario's hotly anticipated COVID-19 vaccine booking system has launched for those aged 80 and up, with thousands logging on within minutes.
The online booking system went live at 8 a.m. today, and the site showed roughly 8,000 people in the queue for an appointment some five minutes later, with an estimated wait time of about an hour.
Qualifying residents can visit the online portal or call a hotline to book their appointment.
But Premier Doug Ford is urging those who don't yet qualify for a shot to keep off the website so that it doesn't crash.
Some of Ontario's 34 public health units have already established their own systems for booking vaccination appointments, but the provincial portal will either enhance or replace those setups in many areas.
In addition to allowing vaccine-seekers to book their shots, the portal also provides instructions on how to schedule appointments based on protocols in place in each specific health unit.
The province says people who are eligible to get vaccinated can book online at www.ontario.ca/bookvaccine, while those wishing to schedule by phone can call 1-888-999-6488.
7:50 a.m. Ontario vows that a vaccine booking website launching Monday morning will be up to the task of handling the high demand of eligible applications.
The new portal, which goes live at 8 a.m., will only be available to people who are turning 80 or older this year, Premier Doug Ford said at a rare Sunday briefing, adding that early tests have been seamless."
The province has gone to great lengths to ensure the system is robust and can maximize vaccinations, according to retired Gen. Rick Hillier, the head of the province's vaccine distribution task force.
We've done the initial work," Hillier said. We're prepared to ramp up even further if necessary, or if the call centre doesn't get that many calls, we'll ramp back down when it's appropriate."
Read the full story from the Star's Manuela Vega
7:45 a.m. Quebecers in the Montreal area should be able to book vaccine appointments at local pharmacies starting today as the province continues to expand its COVID-19 immunization campaign.
Health Minister Christian Dube announced earlier this month that some 350 pharmacies in the Montreal area will start taking appointments through the province's vaccine booking portal today, with shots to begin March 22.
He said the program will eventually expand to more than 1,400 pharmacies across the province that will administer about two million doses.
The Montreal region is being prioritized in part because of the presence of more contagious COVID-19 variants, such as the B.1.1.7 mutation that was first identified in the United Kingdom.
The province has ramped up its vaccine effort in the last week, and administered more than 30,000 shots on both Friday and Saturday.
As of Sunday evening, people age 70 and up are able to register for shots across the province, while in Montreal the target age drops to 65.
On Sunday, Dube bragged on Twitter that Quebec had become the leader" in Canada when it comes to delivering vaccines, due to the province's early decision to delay giving a second dose.
7 a.m.: U.S. President Joe Biden, Vice-President Kamala Harris and their spouses are opening an ambitious, cross-country tour this week to highlight the benefits of his $1.9 trillion plan to defeat the coronavirus and boost the economy.
The road show - dubbed the Help is Here" tour by the White House - begins Monday with Harris heading to a COVID-19 vaccination site and a culinary academy in Las Vegas and first lady Jill Biden touring a New Jersey elementary school.
The president will have more to say about the plan Monday at the White House, and he plans to visit a small business in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday. He and Harris are slated to appear together in Atlanta on Friday.
Harris will meet with small-business owners in Denver on Tuesday. Wednesday sees Jill Biden in Concord, New Hampshire, and Harris' husband, Doug Emhoff, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The stops at vaccination sites, businesses, schools and more are meant to educate the public about different aspects of the giant American Rescue Plan and how it will help people get to the other side of the coronavirus pandemic.
6:41 a.m.: At the time, the recommendation was radical.
The afternoon announcement on March 16 to close all bars and restaurants for in-person service came as a gut punch to owners and a wake-up call to residents still unsure how the burgeoning COVID-19 pandemic would upend their lives.
But the direction to close, delivered by medical officers of health - and later by the province in an evening press release - prevented the beer-fuelled parties of St. Patrick's Day, curbing Ontario's escalating spring pandemic wave.
If St. Paddy's Day had gone ahead, in the way people traditionally celebrate, we might have ended up like New York City or Lombardy, Italy," said Dr. Lawrence Loh, Peel Region's medical officer of health. Those two areas in March 2020 experienced significant spikes in COVID-19 cases, not related to St. Patrick's Day, that overwhelmed hospitals and killed hundreds.
It would have accelerated our cases, no question. But that we managed to cancel it ... I think that really saved a lot of lives."
Read the full story from the Star's Meghan Ogilvie here.
6:40 a.m.: A Chinese official says the country has administered almost 65 million doses of coronavirus vaccine to its citizens amid plans to immunize up to 80% of its entire population of 1.4 billion.
Teams have been dispatched nationwide to oversee vaccinations and are working with targeted groups according to a schedule, Vice Chairman of the National Health Commission Li Bin told reporters at a news conference on Monday.
China has been slower in its vaccination campaign than many other countries, including the U.S., while committing roughly 10 times more doses abroad than it has distributed at home. The lack of urgency is partly due to the near elimination of locally spread cases.
With four approved vaccines, China plans to vaccinate 900 million to 1 billion people by the summer of 2022, seeking to establish herd immunity to stop the uncontrolled spread of an infectious disease like COVID-19.
6:39 a.m.: Portugal is emerging from a two-month pandemic lockdown, with the country gradually reopening over the next seven weeks if all goes to plan.
Primary and nursery schools, hair salons and bookshops were among the places reopening Monday.
Further phases when other restrictions will be eased are to be introduced through May 3, though limits on the size of gatherings are to remain. Strict controls will be imposed over the Easter break, too.
The plan will be put on hold if new cases per 100,000 people over 14 days surpasses 120 or if the so-called R" number, indicating to how many other people an infected person will pass on COVID-19, exceeds 1. Those are key metrics in tracking the pandemic's spread.
Prime Minister Antonio Costa said in a tweet Monday that the process must be very prudent, gradual and piecemeal."
6:39 a.m.: Half of Italy's regions have gone into the strictest form of lockdown in a bid to curb the latest spike in coronavirus infections that have brought COVID-19 hospital admissions beyond manageable thresholds.
Schools, from day-care centres through university level, and retail shops were shuttered Monday in nine regions and the autonomous province of Trento, with restaurants open only for take-out. The red zones" were imposed up and down the peninsula, from Lombardy in the north to Puglia in the south, with the Lazio region around the capital Rome in between.
The rest of the country was placed under a lesser orange" level lockdown, while lucky Sardinia remained white" thanks to its ability to control new clusters of the virus traced to the variant first identified in Britain.
The Health Ministry last fall developed a tiered status of restrictions classifying individual regions on a weekly basis based on their infection rates, hospital capacity and other criteria. Until recently only a few hard-hit regions were under full lockdown, but new clusters of highly contagious virus variants have meant more and more regions have passed into the tightest red zone" restrictions, even as vaccinations ramp up.
6:38 a.m.: As states have begun COVID-19 inoculations at prisons across the country, corrections employees are refusing vaccines at alarming rates, causing some public health experts to worry about the prospect of controlling the pandemic both inside and outside.
Infection rates in prisons are more than three times as high as in the general public. Prison staff helped accelerate outbreaks by refusing to wear masks, downplaying people's symptoms, and haphazardly enforcing social distancing and hygiene protocols in confined, poorly ventilated spaces ripe for viral spread.
Read the story from the Associated Press here.
6:36 a.m.: Quebecers in the Montreal area should be able to book vaccine appointments at local pharmacies starting today as the province continues to expand its COVID-19 immunization campaign.
Health Minister Christian Dube announced earlier this month that some 350 pharmacies in the Montreal area will start taking appointments through the province's vaccine booking portal today, with shots to begin March 22.
He said the program will eventually expand to more than 1,400 pharmacies across the province that will administer about two million doses.
The Montreal region is being prioritized in part because of the presence of more contagious COVID-19 variants, such as the B.1.1.7 mutation that was first identified in the United Kingdom.
6:35 a.m.: The Public Health Agency of Canada is expecting a smaller-than-normal shipment of COVID-19 vaccines this week, with fewer than 445,000 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech shots scheduled for delivery over the next seven days.
Yet that seeming trickle is set to explode into a full-blown flood starting the week of March 22 as the companies dramatically ramp up their deliveries and other pharmaceutical firms start making good on their own promised shipments.
The Public Health Agency says this coming week will be the last in which Canada will receive fewer than 1 million doses over a seven-day period. Pfizer and BioNTech alone are on tap to deliver more than that each week for the foreseeable future.
Canada is also expected to start receiving more shots of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine starting in April, as well as Johnson & Johnson's one-dose inoculation. Those are in addition to the bi-weekly delivery of doses from Moderna, the next of which is scheduled for the week of March 22.
Public Procurement Minister Anita Anand said on Friday that Canada is on track to receive 7 million vaccine doses from the various companies by the end of April, with a total of 36.5 million delivered by the end of June and 118 million before Sept. 30.
6:35 a.m.: The cutoff age for the general population in Saskatchewan to book a COVID-19 vaccine appointment continues to fall.
The province says that starting at 8 a.m. this morning, anyone who is 70 or older can book an appointment for a vaccine.
In the Northern Administrative District the cutoff age is much younger - anyone 50 and over can now make an appointment.
A drive-thru immunization clinic is also running in Regina today but it's only for people who are 64, and anyone who's not will be turned away.
6:35 a.m.: Atlantic Canada's political leaders have touted the region as an example to the world after the novel coronavirus was repeatedly beaten back by a population that dutifully followed orders to isolate and physically distance.
Yet, a year after the first cases, the side-effects of declining mental health and damaged livelihoods remain costs that some psychologists and entrepreneurs say haven't been fully recognized. And as residents reflect on the year past, their reactions vary from pride to sadness, as they recall both lives saved and the lasting damage many have endured.
We've learned through this that Atlantic Canadians tend to respect authority and government a lot more than other regions," said Donald Savoie, author of multiple books on the East Coast's economy and politics.
In a recent interview, the public administration scholar tied low COVID-19 case numbers to the demographics of an older and more rural population that's obedient to authority. Maritimers simply took public health directives as gospel," he said, referring to orders to shutter churches and businesses, and - as former Nova Scotia premier Stephen McNeil put it - Stay the blazes home."
6:35 a.m.: Ontario's hotly anticipated COVID-19 vaccine booking system launches at 8 a.m. today for those aged 80 and up.
Qualifying residents can visit the online portal or call a hotline to book their appointment.
But Premier Doug Ford is urging those who don't yet qualify for a shot to keep off the website so that it doesn't crash.
Some of Ontario's 34 public health units have already established their own systems for booking vaccination appointments, but the provincial portal will either enhance or replace those setups in many areas.
In addition to allowing vaccine-seekers to book their shots, the portal also provides instructions on how to schedule appointments based on protocols in place in each specific health unit.
The province says people who are eligible to get vaccinated can book online at www.ontario.ca/bookvaccine, while those wishing to schedule by phone can call 1-888-999-6488.
6:34 a.m.: The Canadian Mental Health Association is urging Ontario to prioritize the sector in its upcoming budget as a new poll suggests the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has eroded residents' already fragile emotional well-being.
The plea comes after the third round of polling from the association's Ontario branch, which sheds light on how those in the province have coped as the pandemic wears on.
The chapter's chief executive officer said the latest findings clearly illustrate the need for greater government investment.
It's very worrying to see the trend lines on the mental health of Ontarians decreasing as significantly as they have since our last poll," Camille Quenneville said in an interview. ...As service providers, it's very alarming to think about what we'll need to do to support the population. The service demands will be very significant."
The poll suggests only 35 per cent of Ontarians consider their mental health to be very good" or excellent," compared to 52 per cent in the first round of polling in May.
It also shows nearly 80 per cent of respondents believe there will be a serious mental health crisis" post-pandemic, compared to 66 per cent in August and 69 per cent in May.
Meanwhile, the percentage of respondents who report high or very high stress levels has increased to 36 per cent from 30 per cent in the summer. Those reporting high or very high anxiety have also risen, from 30 per cent in the summer up to 35 per cent.
4 a.m.: The latest numbers on COVID-19 vaccinations in Canada as of 4:00 a.m. ET on Monday March 15, 2021.
In Canada, the provinces are reporting 92,658 new vaccinations administered for a total of 3,026,665 doses given. Nationwide, 595,333 people or 1.6 per cent of the population has been fully vaccinated. The provinces have administered doses at a rate of 7,986.076 per 100,000.
There were no new vaccines delivered to the provinces and territories for a total of 3,982,220 doses delivered so far. The provinces and territories have used 76 per cent of their available vaccine supply.
4 a.m.: The latest numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Canada as of 4:00 a.m. ET on Monday March 15, 2021.
There are 909,157 confirmed cases in Canada.
Canada: 909,157 confirmed cases (31,674 active, 855,020 resolved, 22,463 deaths). The total case count includes 13 confirmed cases among repatriated travellers.
There were 2,957 new cases Sunday. The rate of active cases is 83.34 per 100,000 people. Over the past seven days, there have been a total of 21,502 new cases. The seven-day rolling average of new cases is 3,072.
There were 29 new reported deaths Sunday. Over the past seven days there have been a total of 215 new reported deaths. The seven-day rolling average of new reported deaths is 31. The seven-day rolling average of the death rate is 0.08 per 100,000 people. The overall death rate is 59.11 per 100,000 people.
There have been 25,881,400 tests completed.