Today’s coronavirus news: Ontario reporting 2,941 cases; Health Canada approves use of Pfizer vaccine in ages 12 to 15; Moderna shots to soon be offered in 60 pharmacies in some Ontario regions
The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Wednesday. Web links to longer stories if available.
1:48 p.m. Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott says province hopes to start giving Pfizer vaccine to the 12-15 age group "as soon as possible" after federal OK given earlier Wednesday.
1:42 p.m. 1,246,129 vaccine doses have been administered in the city of Toronto as of May 5.
1:05 p.m. Ontario says it's on track to administer first COVID-19 vaccine doses to 65 per cent of adults in the province by the end of May.
The province said last week that all adults would be eligible to book a shot starting the week of May 24.
The government says that as of tomorrow, people aged 50 and older, those with high-risk health conditions, and a number of workers who cannot work from home will be eligible to book their shots across Ontario.
That group of workers includes all elementary and secondary school workers, child-care workers, food and manufacturing workers, and agriculture and farm workers.
The government also says it has now scheduled 10 employer-led vaccination clinics in the coming weeks including with the Ontario Food Terminal, Walmart Canada, and Loblaws.
The province says it is also launching mobile vaccine units that will start visiting small and medium-sized workplaces in Toronto, Peel and York Region on Friday.
Ontario says that by the end of the week more than 2,500 pharmacies will be ready to administer vaccines.
The province said it is also expecting an additional shipment of approximately 388,000 Moderna doses in May.
Moderna shots will soon be offered in 60 pharmacies in some Ontario regions such as Durham, Hamilton, Ottawa, York and Windsor-Essex. Mobile workplace clinics start Friday in Peel, York and Toronto.
1 p.m. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says everyone in the province over the age of 12 can soon receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
He says it would mean an additional 1.3 million Albertans will be eligible for a shot.
Appointments are to be staggered to avoid overwhelming booking systems, with every Albertan born in 1991 or earlier able to book vaccinations starting Friday.
On Monday, appointments will be offered to anyone born between 2009 and 1992.
Kenney says outside of the northern territories, Alberta is the first jurisdiction in Canada to offer vaccines to anyone older than 12.
Earlier today, Health Canada approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children as young as 12.
The vaccine was previously authorized for anyone 16 and older.
The age change by Alberta comes a day after the province introduced tougher rules to arrest a surging wave of COVID-19 cases that could overwhelm the health system.
Some of the changes include closing schools to in-person learning on Friday and ordering barbershops, hair salons and restaurant patios to shut down as of Sunday.
The Opposition NDP has said Kenney's United Conservative government is doing too little, too late with little warning to those affected.
11:50 a.m. Health Canada Chief Medical Adviser Dr. Supriya Sharma says she still stands behind the advice to take the first vaccine you're offered, as soon as you're offered it.
Sharma did not directly criticize advice from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization earlier this week that because of the remote risk of blood clots from the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine or the one from Johnson & Johnson.
She says people do need to look at the risks of all things, and that every vaccine you could be offered in Canada is a good vaccine to take.
11:45 a.m. Quebec is reporting 915 new cases of COVID-19 today and five more deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus.
Health officials say hospitalizations dropped by six, to 588, and 152 people were in intensive care, a drop of three.
The province says it administered over 55,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine in the past 24 hours, for a total of more than 3.3 million.
11:40 a.m. New Brunswick health officials are reporting the province's first death of someone who developed a blood clot after receiving the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
Chief medical officer of health Dr. Jennifer Russell says the individual in their 60s received the vaccine in mid-April and developed symptoms a week later.
She says the person was admitted to hospital and died two days later.
Russell told a news conference today the risk of complications from the vaccine remains very low, between one in 100,000 and one in 250,000 doses.
10:45 a.m. Premier Doug Ford is back at Queen's Park after 14 days of quarantine following a workplace exposure to COVID-19. He is in question period.
10:20 a.m. Ontario is reporting another 2,941 COVID-19 cases and 44 more deaths, according to its latest report released Wednesday morning.
While this marks the second straight day of less than 3,000 daily cases being reported, Wednesday's death count was the highest in the province since Feb. 19.
The seven-day average is at 3,432 cases daily or 165 weekly per 100,000. Ontario's seven-day average for deaths is at 28.4 daily.
The province says 45,767 tests were completed the previous day, and a 6.6 per cent positivity rate.
There are 2,075 people currently hospitalized with COVID-19 in the province, including 882 patients in intensive care. There are 620 people on ventilators.
Read the full story from the Star's Akrit Michael
10:09 a.m. (updated) Health Canada has authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for use in Canadian teenagers and adolesccents aged 12-15 years.
This is the first COVID-19 vaccine authorized in Canada for use in children and marks a significant milestone in Canada's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic," said Dr. Supriya Sharma, chief medical advisor to the regulator.
The government regulator had previously authorized the mRNA vaccine only for use in those aged 16 and older, and the other three vaccines in Canada - Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Janssen - are authorized only for those over 18 years.
Since the start of the pandemic, Sharma said approximately 20 per cent of cases of COVID-19 in Canada have been reported in people under the age of 19.
While younger people are less likely to experience serious cases of COVID-19, having access to a safe and effective vaccine will help to control the disease's spread to their families and friends - some of whom may be at a higher risk of complications," she said.
It will also support the return to a more normal life for our children, who have had such a hard time over the past year," she told reporters at a virtual news conference in Ottawa.
Today's authorization is very good news and we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but until the majority of Canadians are vaccinated, we need to continue to be diligent about following public health guidelines."
Read the full story from the Star's Tonda MacCharles
10:07 a.m. The Toronto Blue Jays will play home games in Buffalo, N.Y., for the second year in a row because of COVID-19 restrictions.
The Blue Jays say they will call Sahlen Field home starting June 1.
The stadium in the border city normally is home to the Blue Jays' triple-A affiliate, but the Bisons have temporarily moved to Trenton, N.J.
Toronto has started the season playing home games at the team's spring-training facility in Dunedin, Fla.
9:15 a.m. A debate has ensued on whether there is data manipulating" taking place on York Region's COVID-19 dashboard.
Keswick's Ryan Imgrund, a biostatistician, who works with the Ottawa and Peel health units, has been a fierce critic of York Region's top medical officer Dr. Karim Kurji.
On April 21, Imgrund, who has at least 62,000 Twitter followers unleashed a Twitterstorm" after he pilloried York Region Public Health for putting a far-slimmer figure of hospitalizations. This figure counts only the region's residents, leaving out the bigger number of 268 amidst a patient-sharing program Ontario hospitals have to avoid bottlenecks.
The bigger number, however, can be easily calculated.
It takes me about one minute to pull it up on three different (hospital) websites that are publicly available, and you literally add up the numbers," Imgrund said.
Imgrund explained how Southlake's website at the time had 58 hospitalizations, Mackenzie Health 74, Markham Stouffville 49, and Cortellucci, the only hospital in Ontario focusing on COVID-19 patients, had 87.
A day after of the Twitterstorm, in which Whitchurch-Stouffville Mayor Iain Lovatt engaged, the category for hospitalization was removed altogether on the dashboard, a move rejected by Imgrund.
During a regional council meeting, Dr. Kurji explained how hospitalization is a very difficult area to be able to relay on properly."
But Imgrund disagrees.
This is the most outrageous thing that I had seen any government or any public health unit do since this pandemic started," he added. The actual number of individuals in York Region hospitals because of COVID-19 is what we need to hear."
9:05 a.m. Four more workplaces across Peel have been ordered to close for up to 10 days after Peel Public Health identified at least five cases of COVID-19 among employees at the workplaces within the last two weeks.
On Tuesday, partial closures were issued to AlphaPoly Packaging (296 Walker Drive) and Canadian Textile Services Fabric Dryers & Finishers (44189 Summerlea Rd.) in Brampton, Stackpole (2400 Royal Windsor Dr.) in Mississauga and A&G The Road Cleaners (47 Simpson Rd.) in Bolton.
A full closure applies "to an entire workplace premise," according to public health. "Partial closures" apply to a work area or mass dismissal of a shift.
Since April 24, 24 businesses have been ordered to fully or partially close.
On May 1, a KFC restaurant in Brampton (9940 Airport Rd.) was ordered to fully close.
As well, partial closures were issued to three Mississauga workplaces: FedEx Ship Centre at 6895 Bramalea Rd., Giraffe Foods Inc. at 1774 Drew Rd. and MTD Metro Tool & Die Limited at 1065 Pantera Dr.
On April 30, Aluma Systems, located at 44 Simpson Rd. in Bolton, was ordered to fully close while four other workplaces were ordered to partially close by Peel Health.
Partial closures were issued to Amazon Fulfillment Centre YYZ-3 (7995 Winston Churchill Blvd. in Brampton), Massiv Automated Systems (2550 Steeles Ave. E in Brampton) and two TJX Canada Distribution Centres in Brampton (55 West Dr.) and Mississauga (3185 American Dr.).
On April 29, SHW Pumps & Engine Components Inc., located at 175 Sun Pac Boulevard was the first business ordered to fully close.
Premier Candle Corporation on 960 Britannia Rd. and Canada Post at 4657 Dixie Rd. in Mississauga and WG Pro Manufacturing in Brampton on 8550 Goreway Dr. were ordered to partially close on April 28.
Three business in Brampton including the Canadian Tire Distribution Centre on 8550 Goreway Dr., Kintetsu World Express at 100 Sandalwood Pkwy. W. and Can Art Aluminum Extrusion Inc. at 85 Parkshore Dr. have been ordered to partially close on April 27.
In Mississauga, Applewood Chevrolet Cadillac Buick GM on 3000 Woodchester Dr. and Paradigm Electronics Inc. on 205 Annagem Blvd. were also ordered to partially close on April 27.
These businesses join two Amazon fulfilment centres in Brampton (8050 Heritage Rd.) and Bolton (12724 Coleraine Dr.) which were the first workplaces to partially close under the region's new policy on April 24.
Closures may last up to 10 calendar days, while Peel Health works to investigate the spread.
These businesses have been ordered to close under Section 22 of Ontario's Health Protection and Promotion Act.
The list of current workplace closures in effect is on the region's website. It is updated at 12 p.m. from Monday to Friday.
8:50 a.m. The Toronto region's blazing real estate market continued to show exceptional year-over-year price growth in April with the selling price of a home, including all types of houses and condos, up 33 per cent - about $271,000 - to $1.09 million.
Detached houses in the 905 continued to lead the market, with a 44 per cent year-over-year price gain to an average of $1.31 million.
But there are signs that price growth and activity are slowing slightly, the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) said on Wednesday.
The board noted that home prices remained flat between March and April, and, contrary to the usual spring trend, sales actually dipped 12.7 per cent month-over-month.
The pullback from March makes sense, said real estate board president Lisa Patel in a news release.
We've experienced a torrid pace of home sales since the summer of 2020 while seeing little in the way of population growth. We may be starting to exhaust the pool of potential buyers within the existing GTA population. Over the long term, sustained growth in sales requires sustained growth in population," she said.
Read the full story from the Star's Tess Kalinowski
8:40 a.m. India's government, facing calls for a strict coronavirus lockdown to slow the devastating surge in infections, has been ordered by the top court to submit a plan on meeting New Delhi hospitals' oxygen requirements within a day.
India is experiencing a vast coronavirus outbreak, with 382,315 new confirmed cases and 3,780 reported deaths in the last 24 hours, in what is widely believed to be an undercount.
The Supreme Court decided against immediately punishing officials for failing to end a two-week erratic supply of oxygen to overstretched hospitals. The presiding judge said, Ultimately putting officers in jail or hauling officers for contempt will not bring oxygen. Please tell us steps to solve this."
The court stayed the contempt notice issued to the government by a lower New Delhi High Court for defying its order on supplying adequate oxygen to more than 40 New Delhi hospitals.
8:23 a.m. India's foreign minister pulled out of in-person meetings at a Group of Seven gathering in London on Wednesday because of possible exposure to the coronavirus. Talks centred on ways to ensure global access to COVID-19 vaccines and curb a virus that is still ravaging many parts of the world, including India.
Diplomats from the G-7 group of wealthy nations are holding their first face-to-face gathering in two years, with social distancing and other measures in place to curb the spread of the virus.
Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar tweeted that he was made aware yesterday evening of exposure to possible Covid positive cases. As a measure of abundant caution and also out of consideration for others, I decided to conduct my engagements in the virtual mode."
Britain's Foreign Office, which organized the meeting, did not immediately confirm reports that two members of the Indian delegation had tested positive.
Delegates attending the event at Lancaster House in London have been observing social distancing and are separated by transparent screens in meetings, and are tested daily for the virus.
India is not a G-7 member but was invited along with South Korea, Australia and South Africa as a guest for the second day of the meeting on Wednesday.
The guest nations' delegations didn't attend the conference on Tuesday, though Jaishankar has held meetings in London with officials including British Home Secretary Priti Patel and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
7:41 a.m. (updated) Ontario is expected to update its COVID-19 vaccination rollout plan. Health Minister Christine Elliott and Solicitor General Sylvia Jones are scheduled to address the province's ongoing immunization effort at 1:30 p.m.
Ontario said on Tuesday that a total of more than 5.4 million vaccine doses have been administered in the province.
7:40 a.m. Premier Doug Ford is upping his efforts to blame the relative trickle of travel over the border for the ongoing spread of COVID-19 in the province as he seeks to rally public opinion on the need for tighter border restrictions.
And a Facebook ad sponsored by one of Ford's cabinet ministers is calling on the public to sign a petition demanding an end to non-essential travel into Canada - even though such travel has been largely banned for over a year, and recent cases known to be linked explicitly to travel comprise less than two per cent of known infections.
The federal government must ban all non-essential travel to Canada, so we do not needlessly prolong the third wave, or create the conditions for a fourth one," reads the Facebook ad placed by Education Minister Stephen Lecce.
The social media appeal to fears about a potential fourth wave driven by travellers comes after the Star reported earlier this week that Ford's Progressive Conservative party has also purchased significant TV and radio time for a blitz questioning the federal Liberals' pandemic response.
Read the full story from the Star's Stephanie Levitz
7:30 a.m. Just one month after Jason Kenney foretold the best summer in Alberta history" the embattled premier reversed course Tuesday night with a suite of new pandemic restrictions designed to curb one of the highest COVID-19 case rates in North America.
In a rare solo dinnertime address streamed by local TV stations - after which reporters were not allowed to ask questions - Kenney said the province has set a record for people currently in intensive care, and that the spike in cases threatens even the expanded hospital capacity that's been implemented in recent weeks.
Many of the new measures will be familiar to residents of other provinces - all students are moving to online learning; in-person dining and outdoor patios must close; and churches must limit capacity to just 15 people - but they will curtail much of the activity currently permitted in Alberta.
Over the past year Kenney, a staunch advocate of personal freedoms, has largely resisted the type of stay-at-home orders seen in Ontario, for example. Speaking Tuesday, he used his oft-repeated line about the importance of protecting both lives and livelihoods, but this time said it was time for action.
Read the full story from the Star's Alex Boyd
7:20 a.m. Canada's national vaccine advisers sowed confusion around the AstraZeneca vaccine Monday when they recommended those at a lower risk of COVID-19 wait for a mRNA shot that doesn't seem to carry a rare chance of a blood clot.
Public health experts responded by doubling down on their own messaging - that all Canadians need to seek out any vaccine available for immediate protection against COVID-19 - and emphasizing that AstraZeneca continues to be recommended by Health Canada against the virus that has overwhelmed Ontario hospitals with sick patients.
Infectious disease experts say the statements from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization have caused frustration when what Canadians need instead is a clear understanding of the risks of AstraZeneca and how to watch for side effects, while recognizing how demonstrably beneficial the vaccine has been to populations worldwide.
Read the full story from the Star's Olivia Bowden
7:14 a.m. For once, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau didn't take his own advice to listen to the scientists.
Instead, on Tuesday the prime minister and his top public health officials went before cameras to try to clear the air, clouded by a federal advisory body the day before, and advised Canadians not to wait for any preferred" vaccine but to take any COVID-19 vaccination as soon as they can.
For Trudeau, who has staked his government's pandemic response on listening to the advice of health experts and following the science," it would have been hard if not hypocritical to directly challenge the credibility of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) or throw it under the bus by reversing its Monday message.
So Trudeau avoided any talk of preferred" shots, and downplayed the recommendation made Monday by NACI that people might want to wait for mRNA vaccines, which haven't been linked to a risk of very rare blood clots. Then he embarked on an effort at damage control and injecting common sense into the discussion.
The bottom line," he said, is that all the vaccines approved by Health Canada are safe and effective," and that mass vaccination is one of the key tools" to end the pandemic.
Read the full story from the Star's Tonda MacCharles and Alex Ballingall
6:42 a.m.: India's government faced calls for a strict lockdown to slow a devastating surge in new coronaviorus cases, and a court in New Delhi on Wednesday will decide whether to punish officials for failing to end a two-week-old erratic supply of oxygen to overstretched hospitals.
With 382,315 new confirmed cases, India's tally has risen to more than 20.6 million since the pandemic began. The Health Ministry on Wednesday also reported 3,780 deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 226,188. Experts believe both figures are an undercount.
Rahul Gandhi, a leader of the opposition Congress party, said this week a lockdown is now the only option because of a complete lack of strategy by the Indian government."
The New Delhi High Court will decide whether to press contempt charges against officials for defying its order to meet oxygen requirements of more than 40 hospitals in the capital. Those found guilty face six months in prison or a fine.
The court summoned two Home Ministry officials for Wednesday's hearing.
6:39 a.m.: Running a summer camp, like most things that require face-to-face interaction, is a complicated task with the backdrop of a global pandemic.
But a Toronto children's mental health agency unlocked a new way to run its camp, usually based out of Haliburton, virtually in 2020. The camp is returning for another virtual instalment this summer, and organizers are planning to make part of that online camp experience permanent.
Read the full story from the Star's Nadine Yousif here.
6:37 a.m.: Italian Premier Mario Draghi says Italians will have a national green pass, allowing them to travel across regions, later this month.
Draghi was addressing the opening of a Group of 20 meeting on tourism, saying Italy is again ready to host the world."
Draghi didn't offer details of the national pass, but he says it will be ready a full month before the EU's plans to roll out a certificate making it easier for citizens to travel between countries during the summer.
The EU certificate will allow tourists to travel without quarantine if they have recovered from COVID-19, been vaccinated or present a negative test.
Italians currently can travel freely between regions under the lowest level of restrictions, which currently covers most of the country excluding tiny Aosta on the French border, and the southern regions of Puglia, Basilicata, Calabria, Sicily and Sardinia.
6:35 a.m.: A German military cargo aircraft with a mobile oxygen production unit for India has departed from an airport in northern Germany to help Indian hospitals that are overwhelmed with coronavirus pandemic patients.
The plane will have a layover in Abu Dhabi and is expected to arrive in India on Thursday.
We're proud to contribute significantly with our airlift in the global fight against the coronavirus," German air force Lt. Gen. Ingo Gerhartz told German news agency dpa on Wednesday. "Air transports are a routine for us but we all know that the fight against this pandemic is about human lives and that every single life counts."
A team of 13 Germans arrived a few days ago in India already and will stay in the country for two weeks to train local members of the Red Cross in India on how to use the oxygen unit.
A second cargo plane is expected to leave Wunstorf air base on Thursday.
6:33 a.m.: A new vaccination goal to deliver at least one shot to 70 per cent of adult Americans by July Fourth set by President Joe Biden comes as he tackles the vexing problem of winning over those unmotivated to get inoculated.
Demand for vaccines has dropped off markedly nationwide, with some states leaving more than half their available doses unordered. Biden called for states to make vaccines available on a walk-in basis and he will direct many pharmacies to do likewise.
His administration for the first time also is moving to shift doses from states with weaker demand to areas with stronger interest in the shots.
You do need to get vaccinated," Biden said from the White House. Even if your chance of getting seriously ill is low, why take the risk? It could save your life or the lives of somebody you love."
Biden's goal equates to delivering at least the first shot to 181 million adults and fully vaccinating 160 million. It's a tacit acknowledgment of the declining interest in shots.
Already more than 56 per cent of American adults have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and nearly 105 million are fully vaccinated. The U.S. is currently administering first doses at a rate of about 965,000 per day - half the rate of three weeks ago, but almost twice as fast as needed to meet Biden's target.
6:32 a.m.: An Alberta woman in her 50s has died from a rare blood clot disorder after receiving the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.
It is the second reported death from vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia or VITT linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine in Canada. A 54-year-old Quebec woman died last month.
Alberta's chief medical officer of health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, said in a statement late Tuesday that the fatality is the province's second VITT case out of more than 253,000 doses of AstraZeneca that have been administered in Alberta to date.
Two weeks ago, Alberta announced a man in his 60s had been diagnosed with VITT and was recovering.
Hinshaw said while any death is tragic, it is important to remember that the risks of dying or suffering other severe outcomes from COVID-19 remain far greater than the risk following AstraZeneca vaccine."
She noted the global risk of developing VITT has been estimated at about one case in 100,000 to 250,000 doses of vaccine. In comparison, Albertans between the ages of 50 and 59 who are diagnosed with COVID-19 are 350 times more likely to die from that infection than to experience VITT after an AstraZeneca shot.
On Tuesday, Alberta had 23,623 active COVID-19 infections - the highest case rate of any jurisdiction in North America. There were 671 people in hospital due to the illness, with 150 in intensive care.
There have so far been 2,099 deaths linked to the virus in Alberta.
As of April 24, some 1.7 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine have been administered in Canada.
6:30 a.m.: An Ontario court is expected to rule today on if the province's COVID-19 vaccination rollout was discriminatory.
The constitutional challenge turns on whether vulnerable people have had fair access to the vaccine.
Those would include some people with disabilities, homebound seniors, residents of hot-spot neighbourhoods and the homeless.
David Daneshvar, of Toronto, launched the challenge in March.
His application wants the government to ensure public health units make equity central, and to give them necessary resources.
6:28 a.m.: Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and key members of his United Conservative cabinet are to provide more details and answer questions this morning on new COVID-19 health restrictions.
Kenney introduced tougher rules last night but didn't take questions from reporters.
The changes include closing schools to in-person learning on Friday and ordering barbershops, hair salons and restaurant patios to shut down as of Sunday.
The premier says the rules are necessary to arrest a surging wave of COVID-19 cases that will otherwise overwhelm the health system in the next few weeks.
Alberta has more than 150 people in intensive care with the illness and its COVID-19 case rates are the highest in North America.
The Opposition NDP says once again Kenney is doing too little, too late with little warning to those affected.
4 a.m.: The latest numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Canada as of 4:00 a.m. ET on Wednesday, May 5, 2021.
There are 1,249,950 confirmed cases in Canada (82,700 active, 1,142,854 resolved, 24,396 deaths). The total case count includes 13 confirmed cases among repatriated travellers.
There were 6,689 new cases Tuesday. The rate of active cases is 217.6 per 100,000 people. Over the past seven days, there have been a total of 54,964 new cases. The seven-day rolling average of new cases is 7,852.
There were 56 new reported deaths Tuesday. Over the past seven days there have been a total of 333 new reported deaths. The seven-day rolling average of new reported deaths is 48. The seven-day rolling average of the death rate is 0.13 per 100,000 people. The overall death rate is 64.19 per 100,000 people.
4 a.m.: The latest numbers on COVID-19 vaccinations in Canada as of 4 a.m. ET on Wednesday, May 5, 2021.
In Canada, the provinces are reporting 232,744 new vaccinations administered for a total of 14,284,234 doses given. Nationwide, 1,156,128 people or 3.1 per cent of the population has been fully vaccinated. The provinces have administered doses at a rate of 37,689.991 per 100,000.
There were no new vaccines delivered to the provinces and territories for a total of 16,713,632 doses delivered so far. The provinces and territories have used 85.46 per cent of their available vaccine supply.