Today’s coronavirus news: Two-thirds of Canadians say governments shouldn’t lift all COVID-19 restrictions; U.S. hits encouraging milestones on virus deaths and shots
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.
11:30 a.m. Quebec is reporting 84 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday and four more deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus, one of which occurred in the previous 24 hours.
Health authorities say hospitalizations dropped by seven, to 161, and 40 patients were in intensive care, a rise of one.
The province's public health institute says 80 per cent of Quebecers 12 and up have received at least one dose of vaccine and 20 per cent of them are considered fully vaccinated.
Premier Francois Legault, Health Minister Christian Dube and Dr. Horacio Arruda, the province's public health director, will hold a COVID-19 briefing this afternoon.
11:15 a.m. Nunavut is announcing eight recoveries of COVID-19 Tuesday, bringing the territory's active case count to zero.
All eight recoveries are in Iqaluit, where an outbreak has been ongoing since mid-April.
There have been 262 cases in Iqaluit since April 14.
Iqaluit's COVID-19 outbreak will be declared over if there are no cases over the next 28 days.
11:05 a.m. The Nova Scotia Supreme Court has lifted an injunction granted to the province that banned protests and other gatherings during the recent COVID-19 lockdown.
Justice Gail Gatchalian made the ruling today following a short hearing in Halifax.
The injunction was granted on May 14 and was primarily aimed at two anti-mask protests, but its reach extended to other gatherings and events and also banned their promotion on social media.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association has criticized the court order as too broad and its challenge to the original injunction will be heard at a June 30 hearing.
Nova Scotia's government issued a lockdown order in late April to control a COVID-19 outbreak, primarily in the Halifax and Cape Breton areas.
Gatchalian's decision to lift the injunction against gatherings comes a day before Nova Scotia is expected to open its boundaries to travellers from the rest of Atlantic Canada.
10:22 a.m. As of 11:59 p.m. on July 5, some of the Canada's COVID-19 border restrictions are going to change for fully vaccinated travellers.
Here are answers to questions about how it's all going to work.
10:03 a.m. (will be updated) Ontario is reporting 296 COVID-19 cases.
The seven-day average is flat at 334 cases per day or 16.1 weekly per 100,000 and up to 15.4 deaths per day. Labs are reporting 16,784 completed tests and a 1.6 per cent positivity rate; 60 deaths reported, according to the Star's Ed Tubb.
Both the case number and deaths total are elevated for administrative catch-ups Tuesday. Here's the province's explanation: 80 non-recent cases have been added in Toronto and 54 older not-yet-reported deaths.
Locally, there are 123 new cases in Toronto, 61 in the Region of Waterloo, 37 in York Region and 20 in Peel Region.
9:25 a.m. Indian states opened mass vaccination sites Monday at school grounds, auditoriums and other facilities, as the government's free COVID-19 inoculation drive expanded to anyone over the age of 18.
The country gave 7.5 million jabs in the course of the day, the highest rate so far, following a shift in policy that has streamlined the vaccination process.
India rolled out its inoculation program in January but is far behind the target it set for itself of fully vaccinating at least 300 million people by mid-2021.
So far, less than 5 per cent of India's 1.3 billion population have been fully vaccinated. Around 282 million have received at least one dose of the two vaccines that were approved for emergency use in January.
The government's new policy, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this month, replaces a complex system in which the federal and state governments and the private sector bought vaccines at different prices and distributed them to different age groups. Experts argued this led to confusion and inequity.
The federal government will now buy 75 per cent of all vaccines, while 25 per cent are to be procured by private entities at a capped price.
9:16 a.m. Toronto has now administered more than three million doses of COVID-19 vaccine.
8 a.m. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said England is on course to be able to lift coronavirus restrictions as planned on July 19, despite the spread of the Delta variant.
But Johnson also warned that foreign travel is likely to continue to be disrupted this year, with delays and complications for travelers.
Officials will be studying pandemic data and vaccination rates in the U.K. and overseas as they weigh lifting restrictions in the days and weeks ahead, he said.
The spread of the Delta variant has already forced the government to delay the fourth and final stage of its plan to ease pandemic rules in England, which was due to take effect on June 21. Johnson pushed the date back by a month to July 19.
Speaking to a television crew, Johnson said looking at where we are" and the effectiveness of vaccines against all the known variants, I think it's looking good for July 19 to be that terminus point."
He confirmed ministers will be looking at whether to ease the requirement for travelers to quarantine on return to England if they've been fully vaccinated.
7:50 a.m. U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas is reviving his 2020 bill that would let Americans sue China for coronavirus-related medical and economic damages.
Crenshaw first introduced the measure with Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., a few months into the pandemic. It died after failing to get a committee hearing.
Under U.S. law, individuals are barred from suing a foreign government without special permission from Congress. Crenshaw's revived bill filed last week would carve an exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act to allow lawsuits against China for damages related to the pandemic that has so far claimed more than 600,000 American lives.
We need to hold the Chinese government accountable for their malicious lies and coverup that allowed the coronavirus to spread across the world," Crenshaw said. Their actions cost American lives and livelihoods, which is why I'm reintroducing this bill to ensure China's actions are not without consequences."
This comes as the lab leak" theory, a belief that COVID-19 somehow emanated from a lab in Wuhan, China, continues to dominate public discourse and scientific debate. Republicans continue to push the theory - last month, Crenshaw joined Fox News to criticize its quick dismissal.
7:30 a.m. The Liberal government under Justin Trudeau is taking no chances at the border.
This time.
Critics lambasted it in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic for failing to take the precautionary" approach on everything from border controls to aerosol transmission and beyond. For not being risk-averse enough.
So now, despite the accelerating vaccination rate, and the clamour by business leaders, airlines, the tourism and hospitality sector, seven premiers and territorial leaders and many Canadians for a clear, staged plan on how international restrictions on travel and commerce will be lifted, the Trudeau government is being extremely careful.
Read the full story from the Star's Tonda MacCharles
6:11 a.m.: While fully vaccinated Canadians citizens, permanent residents and others already eligible to come to Canada won't have to quarantine when they arrive, starting as of 11:59 p.m. on July 5, public health officials on Monday maintained that children will still have to self-isolate to guard against the possibility they have COVID-19 and could spread it in the community.
Currently, only those aged 12 and older can be vaccinated. The new rules have left some young families frustrated.
Read the full story by the Star's Nicholas Keung here.
6:09 a.m.: COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. have dipped below 300 a day for the first time since the early days of the disaster in March 2020, while the drive to put shots in arms hit another encouraging milestone Monday: 150 million Americans fully vaccinated.
The coronavirus was the third leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2020, behind heart disease and cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But now, as the outbreak loosens its grip, it has fallen down the list of the biggest killers.
CDC data suggests that more Americans are dying every day from accidents, chronic lower respiratory diseases, strokes or Alzheimer's disease than from COVID-19.
The U.S. death toll stands at more than 600,000, while the worldwide count is close to 3.9 million, though the real figures in both cases are believed to be markedly higher.
About 45% of the U.S. population has been fully vaccinated, according to the CDC. Over 53% of Americans have received at least one dose of vaccine. But U.S. demand for shots has slumped, to the disappointment of public health experts.
6:07 a.m.: Mask-wearing outdoors in Italy will no longer be required in virtually all of the country starting on June 28.
Health Minister Roberto Speranza tweeted Monday night that the mask requirement for outdoors will be eliminated in those parts of Italy in designated white zone" regions, where COVID-19 case incidence is low and ICU admissions of the illness are below thresholds considered at risk for overwhelming hospitals.
Currently all but one small region, in northwest Italy, have white-zone" designations.
Masks will still be required to be worn on public transport and well as indoors. Nearly 30 per cent of people in Italy 12 or older have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
6:07 a.m.: Cuba's government announced on Monday that its three-shot Abdala vaccine has proven to be 92% effective against the coronavirus.
It provided no details of the clinical testing. The Abdala is one of the vaccines Cuba is testing. It recently said its Soberana 2 vaccine has shown a 62% efficacy. The announcement came as Cuba faces its worst outbreak since the start of the pandemic with record new infections.
Dr. Francisco Duran, the island's director of epidemiology, on Monday reported 1,561 new coronavirus cases for a total of 169,365 confirmed cases and 1,170 deaths.
6:07 a.m.: A coronavirus outbreak in Fiji is rapidly growing, with 180 new cases reported on Tuesday.
The current outbreak began in April and has resulted in seven deaths and numerous restrictions, although so far the island nation has resisted a nationwide lockdown.
New Zealand Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta said this week it was providing an additional 10 million New Zealand dollars ($7 million) for COVID-19 operations and food supplies in Fiji. New Zealand and Australia have also sent medical teams.
Located north of New Zealand, Fiji is home to 940,000 people. Its tourism-dependent economy had already been hard-hit by the pandemic before the latest outbreak. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Fiji has reported more than 2,200 cases and nine deaths.
6:06 a.m.: The Philippine president has threatened to order the arrest of Filipinos who refuse COVID-19 vaccination and told them to leave the country if they would not co-operate with the efforts to contain the pandemic.
President Rodrigo Duterte, who is known for his public outbursts and brash rhetoric, said in televised remarks Monday night that he has become exasperated with people who refuse to get immunized then help spread the coronavirus.
Don't get me wrong. There is a crisis being faced in this country. There is a national emergency. If you don't want to get vaccinated, I'll have you arrested and I'll inject the vaccine in your butt," Duterte said.
If you will not agree to be vaccinated, leave the Philippines. Go to India if you want or somewhere, to America," he said, adding he would order village leaders to compile a list of defiant residents.
A human rights lawyer, Edre Olalia, raised concerns over Duterte's threat, saying the president could not order the arrest of anybody who has not clearly committed any crime.
6:05 a.m.: A new poll suggests about two-thirds of Canadians believe that governments should not lift all restrictions related to COVID-19.
Sixty-nine per cent of respondents to an online survey by Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies say restrictions should stay in place as people continue to get vaccinated against the novel coronavirus.
Leger executive vice-president Christian Bourque said Canadians are still fairly prudent and careful regarding lifting the restrictions.
I believe they're waiting until the end of the vaccination campaign, or at least until governments say that they've reached all of their targets, potentially to sort of relax a little bit," he said in an interview.
We'll see this number change ... once governments have said that they've reached their vaccination targets. So, a few more weeks at least."
The online poll of 1,542 adult Canadians was carried out June 18 to 20, and it cannot be assigned a margin of error because internet-based surveys are not considered random samples.
4 a.m.: The latest numbers on COVID-19 vaccinations in Canada as of 4 a.m. ET on Tuesday June 22, 2021.
In Canada, the provinces are reporting 394,799 new vaccinations administered for a total of 32,566,031 doses given. Nationwide, 7,404,496 people or 20 per cent of the population has been fully vaccinated. The provinces have administered doses at a rate of 85,927.842 per 100,000.
There were 392,420 new vaccines delivered to the provinces and territories for a total of 35,080,350 doses delivered so far. The provinces and territories have used 92.83 per cent of their available vaccine supply.
4 a.m.: The latest numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Canada as of 4 a.m. ET on Tuesday June 22, 2021. Some provinces and territories do not report daily case numbers.
There are 1,409,607 confirmed cases in Canada.
Canada: 1,409,607 confirmed cases (11,029 active, 1,372,491 resolved, 26,087 deaths).*The total case count includes 13 confirmed cases among repatriated travellers.
There were 588 new cases reported Monday. The rate of active cases is 29.02 per 100,000 people. Over the past seven days, there have been a total of 6,323 new cases reported. The seven-day rolling average of new reported cases is 903.
There were 11 new reported deaths Monday. Over the past seven days there have been a total of 145 new reported deaths. The seven-day rolling average of new reported deaths is 21. The seven-day rolling average of the death rate is 0.05 per 100,000 people. The overall death rate is 68.64 per 100,000 people.
There have been 36,243,642 tests completed.