Today’s coronavirus news: Ontario reporting 3,480 COVID-19 cases, 24 deaths; Ontario nursing home residents remain vulnerable to future pandemics and outbreaks, auditor general's report warns
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.
10:45 a.m. Ontario nursing home residents remain vulnerable to future pandemics and outbreaks, auditor general's report warns
Auditor general Bonnie Lysyk pointed to poor infection prevention, crowding and inadequate staffing and inspections in her report and made 16 recommendations to Premier Doug Ford's government
More coming.
10:30 a.m. Canada's first 300,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine are arriving Wednesday, a federal official tells The Canadian Press.
The official, granted anonymity to discuss matters not made public yet, said that where the doses are coming from is not being disclosed because the government needs to "protect this new vaccine supply chain."
J&J has struggled with production problems and has been able to deliver very few doses, even in the United States.
Canada purchased 10 million doses, and has the option to buy 28 million more.
The doses are expected to be distributed to provinces next week.
The National Advisory Committee on Immunization has not yet provided guidance on how the vaccine should be used alongside the other three in use already.
This week's delivery of just over one million doses from Pfizer-BioNTech is already in Canada.
A delayed shipment of about 650,000 doses from Moderna is also en route to Canada now.
10:20 a.m. Ontario is reporting 3,480 COVID-19 cases, 24 deaths. The seven-day average is down to 3,783 cases per day or 182 weekly per 100,000, and down to 28.4 deaths per day.
Labs report 50,194 completed tests and a 7.2 per cent positivity rate.
10:16 a.m. (updated) Ontario says hospitals will be able to transfer patients waiting for a long-term care bed to any nursing home without their consent in an effort to free up space.
Health Minister Christine Elliott says the government has issued a new emergency order to allow for such transfers in a bid to free up hospital capacity for COVID-19 patients in need of urgent care.
Elliott says hundreds of patients currently in hospital are waiting to be discharged to a long-term care home.
She says transfers without consent will only be done in the most urgent situations.
10 a.m. Nova Scotia is reporting 75 new cases of COVID-19 Wednesday.
Officials have identified 67 infections in the Halifax area, six in the eastern zone, and one each in the western and northern health zones.
The province entered a full shutdown today that is scheduled to run for the next two weeks in an effort to curb the recent surge in cases.
Nova Scotia has a total of 489 active cases.
9:45 a.m. The province is funding another 8,000 spots to train personal support workers to work in long-term-care homes as demand for the profession continues during the pandemic.
The $86 million plan is set aside for students who train to become support workers via adult education at public school boards or private career colleges, and is part of the government's long-term care staffing plan," the province said in a written release.
Colleges and Universities Minister Ross Romano said the support worker program is the second most popular program at private colleges and we're making it easier for more students to access personal support worker programs at private career colleges to prepare them for critical jobs caring for some of the most vulnerable people in Ontario."
Personal support workers are the backbone of long-term care and do vital work every day so that our loved ones receive the care they need and deserve," said Minister of Long-Term Care Merrilee Fullerton in a written release Wednesday morning, just before the province's auditor general was to release a report on COVID-19 readiness in long-term care.
The province said students in approved, private career colleges will be eligible for up to $13,235 for tuition and supplies, and must begin their training between May 1 and the end of July.
Read the full story from the Star's Kristin Rushowy
9:10 a.m. The positive COVID-19 cases continue to pound grocery store and retail workers in York Region as the third wave of the pandemic continues.
Employees at nine York Region grocery stores had recent positive tests, along with workers at two LCBOs and two McDonald's locations.
In Vaughan, four Fortinos employees at the 3940 Hwy. 7 location tested positive. The last days they worked were April 13, 16, 19 and 22.
A Fortinos employee at the 8585 Hwy. 27 location also tested positive. The last day they worked was April 13.
Elsewhere in Vaughan, a Longo's employee at the 2810 Major Mackenzie Dr. location tested positive. The last day they worked was April 19. Two employees at the 9200 Weston Rd. Longo's also tested positive. The last days they worked were April 17 and 19.
In Thornhill, a Food Basics employee at the 10 Royal Orchard Blvd. location tested positive. The last shift they worked was April 20.
9 a.m. The Vatican No. 2 is skipping a planned trip to Venezuela this week because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican's former ambassador to Caracas, had planned to celebrate the April 30 beatification of Jose Gregorio Hernandez, dubbed the doctor of the poor."
The Vatican said Wednesday that because of issues linked to the pandemic, Parolin wouldn't make the trip.
His visit coincided with revived efforts by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government to court the Biden administration in hopes it will ease sanctions meant to isolate the socialist leader.
8:50 a.m. Athletes at the Tokyo Olympic Games this summer will be required to take daily coronavirus tests, a stricter requirement than previously announced.
All participants are also required to take two virus tests before flying to Japan, according to a joint statement on the updated playbook released following a five-party meeting, including Tokyo 2020 and the International Olympic Committee.
Scrutiny over hosting the world's biggest sporting event during a pandemic has increased in recent weeks. Tokyo and other urban areas entered their third state of emergency this month as infections increased.
8:45 a.m. Europe can achieve herd immunity against the coronavirus within three to four months, the head of German pharmaceutical company BioNTech, which developed the first widely approved COVID-19 vaccine with U.S. partner Pfizer, said Wednesday.
While the exact threshold required to reach that critical level of immunization remains a matter of debate, experts say a level above 70 per cent would significantly disrupt transmission of the coronavirus within a population.
Europe will reach herd immunity in July, latest by August," Ugur Sahin, BioNTech's chief executive, told reporters.
He cautioned that this herd immunity initially wouldn't include children, as the vaccine has so far only been approved for people over 16. A small number of children who fall ill with COVID-19 suffer serious illness or long-term effects.
BioNTech's vaccine makes up a large share of the doses administered in North America, where it is more commonly known as the Pfizer shot, and Europe, which has been seen vaccination rates rise after a slugging start.
8:40 a.m. Greece's prime minister has issued an appeal for elderly Greeks to get vaccinated, blaming hesitancy for persistently high rates of death and hospitalization.
The data we have from ICUs and intubated patients are clear: 95% of them, who are fellow citizens of ours, are not fully vaccinated," Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Wednesday.
Greece's vaccination program has remained roughly in line with the European Union average, but deaths are higher and the number of COVID-19 patients requiring intensive care unit treatment is at its highest level since the start of the pandemic.
Health experts say Greeks over age 80 and below 70 are failing to make or skipping vaccination appointments in significantly larger numbers than those in the 75 to 79 age bracket.
The government has appealed to the Greek Orthodox Church and retiree associations to help with the vaccination campaign.
Separately Wednesday, a 37-year-old man in northern Greece has been jailed for 60 days for endangering public safety after refusing to wear a face mask and being fined for the violation for a second time.
8:20 a.m. Residents who are 16+ in Milton (L9E postal code) can book appointments starting April 30. Individuals must have had their 16th birthday at the time of their first dose. Appointments can be booked through halton.ca/covidvaccines. Residents who need booking help can call 311.
7:50 a.m. A year ago, Yung Chang received an unexpected opportunity: to take hours of footage from a Chinese film crew in Wuhan - where cases of COVID-19 were first reported - and turn it into a film about the lives of ordinary people in a city in the midst of a strict and unprecedented government lockdown.
The result is Wuhan Wuhan," which has its world premiere at the Hot Docs Film Festival in Toronto from April 29 to May 9.
I was essentially sitting on the couch with the fear of nothing to do because of the pandemic," said Chang, who grew up in Whitby and has directed several award-winning documentaries, including Up The Yangtze."
A call from Starlight Media was indeed serendipitous and welcome. Days earlier, while walking his daughter in a stroller in the Junction Triangle neighbourhood near his home, the two were targeted by a stranger uttering anti-Asian slurs.
It was mean and it was racist and it was an attack against my daughter verbally and it was not right. I just came out of reeling with the shock of the moment," he recalled.
Read the full story from the Star's Bruce DeMara
7:10 a.m. Japanese officials are asking the people to stay home during a string of golden week" holidays beginning Thursday in a nationwide effort to curb the rapid resurgence of coronavirus cases less than three months before the Tokyo Olympics.
Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike warned Thursday that the infection rate could explode if people continue to travel, dine out and meet with others during the holidays.
We are at a crucial turning point," Koike said. In order to slow the infections and keep them from becoming explosive, we must reduce the people's movement."
Koike urged people to stay home and avoid barbecuing and drinking outdoors even though bars and restaurants serving alcohol are closed under emergency measures imposed Sunday. She also asked employers in Tokyo to allow up to 70% of their employees to work from home.
Tokyo reported 925 new confirmed cases on Thursday, its highest daily number since late January.
Experts from a Tokyo prefectural task force said a rapid spread of the more contagious virus variant first detected in Britain could send daily cases as high as 2,000 within two weeks.
6:40 a.m. (updated) Starting Wednesday, Toronto will parter with Vaccine Hunters Canada to help streamline the vaccine rollout. Vaccine Hunters will share daily updates on available appointments at city-run mass clinics.
At the end of each day, the City will provide @VaxHuntersCan with clinic appt availability for the next day.
People must book their appointments for city-run clinics through the provincial booking system, which is based on current Phase 2 eligibility criteria - there are no walk-in or standby appointments available at City-run clinics.
6:25 a.m. Amid a provincial ban on restaurant patio dining, City of Toronto staff will soon start blocking off curb lanes and sidewalks in preparation for the return of CafeTO, the Star has learned.
But with COVID-19 variants still raging, and no certainty as to when restrictions will be lifted, there is no guarantee anyone will be able to actually sit in repurposed public space and eat or drink on the May long weekend as originally hoped.
City staff sent city council members notice on Tuesday that, after careful consideration," including feedback from Toronto Public Health and bar and restaurant owners, we are confirming that the installation of CafeTO curb lane cafes will commence as originally planned, beginning on May 8th.
This will ensure that curb lane cafes will be in place for the eventual reopening of outdoor dining, so restaurants and bars can maximize their cafe season in 2021."
Last spring, in the early days of the pandemic with vehicle traffic down, indoor dining banned and eateries suffering, city staff hastily drafted the plan to dramatically expand patio space. It was a massive hit with Torontonians.
Read the full story from the Star's David Rider
5:51 a.m. India crossed a grim milestone Wednesday of 200,000 people lost to the coronavirus as a devastating surge of new infections tears through dense cities and rural areas alike and overwhelms health care systems on the brink of collapse.
The health ministry reported a single-day record 3,293 COVID-19 deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing India's total fatalities to 201,187, as the world's second most populous country endures its darkest chapter of the pandemic yet.
The country also reported 362,757 new infections, a new global record, which raised the overall total past 17.9 million. The previous high of 350,000 on Monday had capped a five-day streak of recording the largest single-day increases in any country throughout the pandemic.
India, a country of nearly 1.4 billion people, is the fourth to cross 200,000 deaths, behind the United States, Brazil and Mexico. And as in many nations, experts believe the coronavirus infections and fatalities in India are severe undercounts.
The first known COVID-19 death in India happened on March 12, 2020, in southern Karnataka state. It took five months to reach the first 50,000 dead. The toll hit 100,000 deaths in the next two months in October 2020 and 150,000 three months later in January this year. Deaths slowed until mid-March, only to sharply rise again.
For the past week, more than 2,000 Indians have died every day.
India thought it had weathered the worst of the pandemic last year, but the virus is now racing through its population and systems are beginning to collapse.
Hospitalizations and deaths have reached record highs, overwhelming health care workers. Patients are suffocating because hospitals' oxygen supplies have run out. Desperate family members are sending SOS messages on social media, hoping someone would help them find oxygen cylinders, empty hospital beds and critical drugs for their loved ones. Crematoriums have spilled over into parking lots, lighting up night skies in some cities.
With its health care system sinking fast, India is now looking at other nations to pull it out of the record surge that is barrelling through one state and then another.
Many countries have offered assistance, including the U.S., which has promised to help with personal protective equipment, tests and oxygen supplies. The U.S. will also send raw materials for vaccine production, strengthening India's capacity to manufacture more AstraZeneca doses.
Health experts say huge gatherings during Hindu festivals and mammoth election rallies in some states have accelerated the unprecedented surge India is seeing now.
They also say the government's mixed messaging and its premature declarations of victory over the virus encouraged people to relax when they should have continued strict adherence to physical distancing, wearing masks and avoiding large crowds.
5:50 a.m. For a brief time, the Ontario government mandated two paid, job-protected sick days for all workers.
Former Liberal premier Kathleen Wynne enacted that groundbreaking plan in November 2017 as part of sweeping labour reforms that also promised to eventually raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
The guaranteed sick pay was covered by employers not by the government.
Wynne's policy - which came in the final year of the Liberals' almost 15 years in office - was short-lived.
After Premier Doug Ford's Progressive Conservatives defeated the Grits in the June 2018 election, they moved quickly to freeze the minimum wage at $14 an hour and eliminate the two paid sick days.
When Ford undid many of Wynne's labour changes in October 2018, he called the measures an absolute job killer" that hurt small businesses and cost thousands of part-time employees their positions.
Now, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the premier is promising to double to $1,000 the federal government's temporary Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit, which pays $500 a week to ill workers.
Unlike the previous program in Ontario, taxpayers are on the hook for the federal sick pay scheme, which is designed to help as many as 3 million workers who don't have such employment benefits.
Read the full story from the Star's Robert Benzie
5:45 a.m. While vaccine pop-ups in Toronto COVID hot spots have been attracting long lines, and helping more people who need them get shots, there have been few options so far for residents in some of Brampton's hardest hit postal codes.
The city, home to many essential workers who don't have sick days and can take the virus back to extended family at home, has been ravaged by COVID, with a test positivity rate of 22 per cent last week. The death of thirteen-year-old Emily Victoria Viegas, whose father is a warehouse worker, from the disease last week has become a symbol for everything that's gone wrong there.
Two pop-up clinics were announced Tuesday - at the Brampton Islamic Centre and Muslim Association of Canada Islamic Community Centre of Ontario in Mississauga - open for all Peel residents of hotspot postal codes 18 years and up, but were fully booked within hours. Meanwhile, Jane and Finch (M3N), which had the lowest vaccination rate in Toronto, has had about a dozen pop-ups over the last few weeks, which allow people to avoid online booking and travelling to mass vaccine sites.
For Brampton, I think it's late, I think this should have been happening a while ago," said community advocate Dr. Amanpreet Brar.
Brampton is home to a lot of new immigrants, who are perhaps not able to advocate for themselves," she added. They are often left behind."
Read the full story from the Star's May Warren and Maria Sarrouh
5:40 a.m. About 80 employees at a Canada Post facility in Mississauga have been ordered into isolation after a COVID-19 outbreak.
On Tuesday, Peel Public Health ordered the shutdown of the afternoon shift of the Toronto Exchange Office within Canada Post's Gateway West facility at 4567 Dixie Rd after 12 employees tested positive for the virus within the last week.
Canada Post said the workers were sent home Tuesday and told to isolate for 10 days. Some employees who were not scheduled to work Tuesday have also been told to self-isolate.
On April 20, Toronto and Peel Region said they would invoke Section 22 of the Health Protection and Promotion Act to order partial or complete shutdowns at any workplace that reported five or more cases of COVID-19 within two weeks.
We will continue to reinforce our safety protocols with all employees, follow our enhanced cleaning and sanitization measures and follow any direction we receive from Peel Public Health," Canada Post said in a written statement Tuesday night.
The Toronto Exchange Office is where international mail arrives for review and clearance by the Canadian Border Service Agency.
Read the full story from the Star's Breanna Xavier-Carter
5:38 a.m. Chinese vaccine makers are looking at mixing their jabs and whether a booster shot could help better protect against COVID-19.
Sinovac and Sinopharm, the two Chinese manufacturers that combined have exported hundreds of millions of doses all over the world, say they're are considering combining their vaccines with those from other companies.
Earlier this month, the head of China's Center for Disease Control, Gao Fu, said that current vaccines offer low protection against the coronavirus and mixing them is among strategies being considered to boost their effectiveness.
Gao later tried to walk back his comments, saying he was talking in general about improving vaccine efficacy.
China National Biotech Group has a plan for future sequential use" of their vaccines, Li Meng, the head of international co-operation for the company, said Wednesday at an international conference.
The company, a subsidiary of state-owned Sinopharm, made two inactivated COVID-19 vaccines and a third in clinical trials.
Sinovac, a private company based in Beijing, also said they were in preliminary discussions with investigators, including China's Center for Disease Control, about combining the doses of their vaccine, CoronaVac, with others.
Sequential immunization means mixing different vaccines and it is a strategy that could boost efficacy rates, said Ashley St. John, an immunologist at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore.
They are trying to tweak the schedule to really find the best point to give people's vaccines," St. John said. What's the best combination and time point?"
Sinopharm's vaccines, from its Beijing Institute of Biological Products and the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, are 79 per cent and 72 per cent effective, respectively, the company said. It has not publicly revealed more data from the final stage of its clinical trials.
The practice is being considered in other countries as well. British scientists are studying a combo of the AstraZeneca and Pfizer shots. The study is also looking to test different intervals between doses, four weeks and 12 weeks apart.
5:35 a.m. Pakistani authorities on Wednesday reported 201 deaths from coronavirus, the country's highest single-day toll of the pandemic.
According to National Command and Control Center, 5,292 new cases of infection were reported in the past 24 hours.
Since last year, Pakistan has reported 17,530 deaths from COVID-19 among 810,231 cases.
The current surge has forced the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan to deploy troops to help ensure people follow social distancing rules in cities hard hit by coronavirus cases.
Pakistan is planning a lockdown in the worst-hit cities in the first week of May. Khan has resisted demands for a nationwide lockdown, citing its economic impact, but he has also warned that he will be forced to impose a lockdown if people do not stop violating social distancing rules.
5:34 a.m. Ontario's auditor general will release a report Wednesday on the province's COVID-19-ravaged nursing homes.
The special report by Bonnie Lysyk is scheduled to be tabled in the legislature mid-morning.
Lysyk will then speak to her findings and answer questions.
COVID-19 hit Ontario's long-term care homes with brutal and lethal effect last spring.
In all, at least 3,756 residents have died, as did 11 staff.
At one point, the military had to go in to help at the worst-hit homes.
5:32 a.m. Fatima Rosario doesn't know what to do. The Brampton mother of two fears for the worst each time her eldest son leaves for work.
No matter how much she wishes he could stay home, it just isn't an option for him. Bills need to be paid and mouths need to be fed, despite the growing risk COVID-19 poses to young people.
Rosario's son, 19, lives with her and his sister, 16. Their apartment is in a hot spot, as are many of his coworkers', Rosario said. In the wake of Emily Viegas' death in Brampton at just 13 years old, Rosario said she's never felt more terrified for him.
Experts stress that COVID-19 typically results in less serious illnesses in children and young adults, and the death of a child is exceedingly rare. Still, for Rosario and other Brampton parents like her, news of Viegas's death has crystallized just how fast, and young, COVID-19 can kill.
If it can happen to her, it can happen to my son," she said. When I read about Emily, I realized you can get sick in the blink of an eye. It made me even more stressed than I already was."
Read the full story from the Star's Ben Cohen
Wedneday 5:30 a.m. Anna Farrow watched Doug Ford's tear-filled press conference last week during which he admitted making mistakes in the battle against COVID-19.
She watched Monday as PC MPPs voted down a private member's bill to provide employer-paid sick days for Ontario workers.
Then, she watched again Tuesday as Doug Ford's PC caucus tabled his own proposal - a $500 top-up to the $500-per-week federal sickness benefit instituted during the pandemic.
Farrow, an essential retail worker for 19 years, easily summed up how she's left feeling: defeated and unsupported.
It's like you're forced to go to work," she said. My head is just swarming."
It's people like her, workers without sick pay, who are forgotten in this fierce political fight. And, while she loves her job, going into work is sometimes the last thing Farrow feels capable of doing.
She recovered from cancer about two years ago, and has experienced health complications since.
Read the full story from the Star's Alex McKeen and Celina Gallardo
Tuesday 9:28 p.m. People age 30 and older may now receive the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in British Columbia, starting with hot spots for transmission.
Health Minister Adrian Dix and provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry say in a statement on Tuesday the vaccine will be made available across the province as B.C. receives enough doses to add more pharmacy appointments.
Canada's National Advisory Committee on Immunization recommended last week that the vaccine may be offered to people 30 and up who don't want to wait for an approved mRNA vaccine, and if certain other conditions are met.
Those conditions include a benefit-risk analysis, informed consent, and that there would be a substantial delay to receive an mRNA vaccine.
B.C. confirmed 799 new cases of COVID-19 and no new deaths on Tuesday.
There are now 8,089 active infections in the province and hospitalizations have ticked up to 500, including 164 people in intensive care.
9:17 p.m. Alberta's chief medical officer of health says there are 20,721 active cases of COVID-19 in the province - the second-highest total since the pandemic began.
Our numbers are still very high and it's important to underline that cases are still growing," Dr. Deena Hinshaw said Tuesday while acknowledging the rate of growth is slowing.
Simply put, we're still heading in the wrong direction."
The province has had more than 1,000 new cases every day for weeks and hospitalization rates are approaching what they were during the peak of the second wave of the pandemic in December.
The highest recorded active case count was 21,649 on Dec. 15.
It was during that time that Premier Jason Kenney's government invoked a renewed round of restrictions on business and public gatherings to keep the caseload from swamping the health system.
In early January, hospitalizations peaked at more than 900, then dropped to around 250 in late February before starting to climb again.