Today’s coronavirus news: Quebec premier announces vaccine-passport system after rise in cases; Ontario reporting 213 new COVID-19 cases; Melbourne enters 6th lockdown
The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Thursday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.
11:45 a.m. Ontario administered 58,213 vaccine doses Wednesday, the fewest on a Wednesday since March 18; 12,080 were first doses and 46,133 were second doses. Ontario is averaging 60,000 doses per day, according to the Star's Ed Tubb.
11:35 a.m. Quebec Premier Francois Legault says his government will impose a vaccine passport system following a recent rise in COVID-19 infections.
Legault says Health Minister Christian Dube will announce details in the coming days about how the system will work and when it will begin.
The government had said it would wait until September to start requiring Quebecers to show proof of vaccination to access non-essential services in parts of the province where COVID-19 transmission is high.
Health officials in the province have reported an average of 160 new daily cases over the past seven days, compared to an average of 74 the previous week.
11:32 a.m. Saputo Inc. is reporting lower profits in the first quarter of fiscal 2022 despite a 2.9 per cent increase in revenues as it continued to feel the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Montreal-based cheese and dairy processor says its net income plunged 63 per cent to $53 million in the quarter, down from $142 million a year earlier.
That amounted to 13 cents per share, down from 35 cents per share in the first quarter of fiscal 2021.
The company attributed the decrease to ongoing shifts in consumer demand, inflation, dairy pricing volatility, heightened competition and supply chain obstacles.
On an adjusted basis excluding amortization of intangible assets related to acquisitions, Saputo earned $122 million or 29 cents per share, down from $179 million or 44 cents per share in the year-ago period.
Revenues for the three months ended June 30 were $3.49 billion, up from $3.39 billion in the 2020 quarter on higher foodservice sales as the shift in consumer demand due to COVID-19 continued.
11:25 a.m. Ontario is reporting another 213 COVID-19 cases and two new deaths. There are an additional 12 deaths being reported as part of a data cleanup from February to May of this year for a total of 14, according to the province's latest report released Thursday morning.
Ontario has administered 58,213 vaccine doses since its last daily update, with 19,710,224 vaccines given in total as of 8 p.m. the previous night.
According to the Star's vaccine tracker, 10,520,689 people in Ontario have received at least one shot. That works out to approximately 80.7 per cent of the eligible population 12 years and older, and the equivalent of 71.4 per cent of the total population, including those not yet eligible for the vaccine.
The province says 9,189,535 people have completed their vaccinations, which means they've had both doses. That works out to approximately 70.5 per cent of the eligible population 12 years and older, and the equivalent of 62.4 per cent of the total population, including those not yet eligible for the vaccine.
Read the full story from the Star's Urbi Khan
11 a.m. Quebec's COVID-19 vaccination campaign is entering the home stretch. Close to achieving its vaccination objectives, Quebec is stopping the delivery of COVID-19 vaccines to health authorities as the network reorganizes its clinics to vaccinate latecomers.
The pace of the province's vaccination campaign has slowed significantly in recent weeks. Quebec is currently administering an average of 60,000 doses per day, compared to 100,000 doses per day in early July.
In response, the public health network is reorganizing its vaccination clinics. The regional health authority for west-central Montreal opened a new, central location in Parc-Extension on Wednesday, in preparation for the fall season.
By 11 a.m., a line was already forming at the new clinic on the corner of Jean-Talon Street and Avenue du Parc. Inside, many Montrealers rolled up their sleeves and the post-vaccination waiting area was full.
Helen Vlahopoulos, a Parc-Ex resident, was accompanying her son for his second dose. "It was the fastest place," she said about why she chose this clinic.
A lot of people in the neighbourhood need to be vaccinated," she added. "It's very convenient for us here."
10:22 a.m. (updated) Ontario is reporting 213 COVID-19 cases today and 14 deaths from the virus, though several of the deaths occurred in previous months.
The province says 12 of the deaths happened between February and May and are now being reported due to a data cleaning initiative.
Thursday's case numbers are based on 23,494 tests.
The province administered 58,213 COVID-19 vaccine doses yesterday for a total of more than 19.7 million doses.
There were 110 patients in intensive care with COVID-related critical illness on Thursday and 77 people on ventilators.
According to Public Health Ontario, from the end of June to the end of July, unvaccinated people were eight times more likely to become infected with COVID-19 than fully vaccinated people.
Unvaccinated people 60 and older were 15 times more likely to be hospitalized than their fully vaccinated counterparts.
10:20 a.m. Malaysia's daily coronavirus infections exceeded 20,000 for the first time Thursday, doubling in just three weeks despite a national lockdown.
The health ministry reported 20,596 new cases, pushing the country's total confirmed infections to 1.2 million.
Malaysia imposed a state of emergency to battle the pandemic in January, followed by a large-scale lockdown on June 1 but it has failed to curb the pandemic. Daily infections have continued to surge and breached 10,000 on July 13.
The worsening pandemic has sparked growing public anger at the government's perceived mismanagement of the crisis. Embattled Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin is facing growing calls to resign.
On Wednesday, the health ministry approved the Moderna vaccine for emergency use as the government sought to ramp up its vaccination program. Nearly a third of the adult population in Malaysia has been fully inoculated.
Deaths rose by 164 to a confirmed total of 10,019.
10:10 a.m. The director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says he came down with COVID-19 last week and if he had not been vaccinated earlier, I would not be here by now."
An audibly ill John Nkengasong told reporters that despite his vaccination in April, the severity of the attack is unbearable." He cited his experience to push back against vaccine hesitancy.
Meanwhile, the African Union says the first of the 400 million single-shot Johnson & Johnson doses that African countries have collectively procured on their own started arriving this week and all should be distributed by September 2022.
The African Union says the 400 million doses bring Africa halfway towards its continental goal of vaccinating at least 60 per cent of the population."
9:55 a.m. The New York International Auto Show won't happen this month as planned, thanks to the rapidly evolving impacts of the Delta variant. It's the second year in a row that the virus has prompted the show's cancellation.
Organizers announced Wednesday they would cancel the show, which had been scheduled to be open to the public Aug. 20-29, because of "the growing incidences of the COVID-19 Delta variant and the increased measures announced recently by state and local officials to stop its spread." The news follows a surge in COVID-19 cases around the country and announcement of a vaccine mandate in New York City. Mayor Bill de Blasio just this week said proof of vaccination would be required for a range of indoor activities.
A New York auto show news release highlighted the rapidly changing situation involving the virus.
"Over the past few weeks, and especially within the last few days, circumstances have changed making it more difficult to create an event at the high standard that we and our clients expect. At the onset of planning for the August show, we were increasingly excited at the prospect of hosting the event as the number of vaccinations in New York continued to climb and mask-wearing reduced the spread in the city. All signs were positive, and the show was coming together stronger than ever, but today is a different story," the release said.
9:21 a.m. Australia's second-largest city, Melbourne, went into a sixth lockdown on Thursday, with a state government leader blaming the nation's slow COVID-19 vaccination rollout.
Melbourne joins Sydney and Brisbane, Australia's most populous and third-most populous cities respectively, in locking down due to the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant.
Melbourne and surrounding Victoria state will lock down for seven days after eight new infections were detected in the city, Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said.
Andrews gave less than four hours' notice that the state would lock down from 8 p.m. He said his government had no other choice because only 20 per cent of Australian adults had been fully vaccinated by Wednesday.
To be really frank, we don't have enough people that have been vaccinated and, therefore, this is the only option available to us," Andrews said. The time will come when we have many more options. But that isn't now."
Andrews has accused neighboring New South Wales state of taking too long to lock down Sydney after a limousine driver who became infected while transporting a U.S. aircrew from Sydney Airport tested positive to the Delta variant on June 16.
8:30 a.m. Moderna Inc. said its COVID-19 vaccine remained 93 per cent effective through six months after the second shot, as it reported second-quarter earnings and revenue that beat expectations.
A final analysis of the company's late-stage study, described in a statement on Thursday, suggests the vaccine's protection remains stable for long after recipients complete the standard two-dose regimen. The 93 per cent effectiveness level is just short of the shot's initial efficacy of 94 per cent.
Concern that the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines could wane has stoked talk of booster shots. Some countries have begun to offer vulnerable people third doses, though the head of the World Health Organization has called for a moratorium on such measures until more people in the developing world are inoculated.
Moderna's latest efficacy data hasn't been published in a medical journal and the company didn't release further details.
Despite the apparent endurance of its vaccine, Moderna is exploring options for supplemental shots that could fend off emerging strains of the virus.
All three of the company's booster candidates produced robust antibody responses" against delta and other variants of concern in a phase 2 human study, Moderna said in its statement. The boosters are being tested at a 50 microgram dose, or half what is used in the current shot. That data has been submitted to a journal for publication, the company said.
7:45 a.m. Vaccinated U.S. citizens and permanent residents can travel to Canada starting next week, but may face long lines and delays due to a Canada Border Services Agency strike.
Two labor unions, the Public Service Alliance of Canada and the Customs and Immigration Union, served strike notice to the Canadian government Tuesday. Nearly 9,000 Canada Border Services Agency employees are set to begin strikes Friday at 6 a.m. EDT.
The unions are set to resume talks with government officials Wednesday, but strikes will begin if a new contract isn't negotiated, according to a news release from the PSAC. Mark Weber, national president of the Customs and Immigration Union, told USA TODAY he thinks "it's unlikely a deal will be reached before Friday."
Strikes are set to take place at Canadian airports, land borders, commercial shipping ports, postal facilities and headquarters. The unions warned that the strikes could have a "dramatic impact" on plans to reopen the border to U.S. travelers on Aug. 9 and could affect Canada's supply chain by slowing down commercial travel.
A PSAC news release says travelers "should expect long lineups and lengthy delays at border crossings and airports."
The PSAC and Customs and Immigration Union unions argue that unionized employees have worked without a contract for over three years and should get "better protections against a toxic workplace culture" and "greater parity with other law enforcement agencies across Canada."
"Our members at CBSA have been on the front lines throughout the pandemic, and many have contracted COVID-19 while working," Chris Aylward, the PSAC national president, said in a news release last week. "Now it's time for the government to step up for them the way they've stepped up for Canadians."
7:30 a.m. House prices in Toronto dipped very slightly in July from the same time last year but the 905 area saw a notable increase, driven by the sales of detached homes in the suburbs, according to the latest figures from the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board.
On Wednesday, the board's monthly real estate update reported that with close to 9,400 sales in July, demand for home ownership remained well above the average for this time of year - although still below the records set in July a year ago.
Demand for ownership housing has remained strong despite a pandemic-related lull in population growth. Of specific note is the condominium apartment market, which has seen a marked turnaround in 2021 with sales up compared to last year. First-time buyers, many of whom were slower to benefit from the initial recovery phase, remain very active in the marketplace," TRREB president Kevin Crigger said in a statement Wednesday.
Read the full story from the Star's Donovan Vincent
7:15 a.m. The U.S. is considering a plan to require all foreign visitors to be vaccinated for the coronavirus, according to a White House official.
The potential move comes amid a surge in COVID-19 cases causes by the highly infectious delta variant; officials expect infections to continue to rise among the unvaccinated population in the coming weeks.
Interagency working groups have been developing a plan for international travel, which they intend to roll out once borders have been reopened. The plan would include a phased approach that will mean, with a few exceptions, foreigners traveling to the U.S. would have to be fully vaccinated, the official added.
The timing of the roll-out was unclear. Reuters first reported on deliberations over the plan.
7 a.m. As COVID-19 cases surge throughout the region, San Diego Zoo and Safari Park are hustling to immunize an array of animals that could give Noah's Ark a run for its money, from tigers to Vervet monkeys to hyenas and other critters staff members think could be vulnerable to the disease. By the end of this week, they'll have doled out first doses to roughly 250 animals, many of them endangered species.
We're in a very similar situation to where us humans were just a few months ago, when vaccines were (first) available," said Hendrik Nollens, who leads the veterinary teams for the zoo and Safari Park. Now it's this race against time. Who's going to get there first: vaccine or virus?"
Recent events have given these efforts fresh urgency. On Monday, the Safari Park learned that five of its six Sumatran tigers have COVID-19 after testing stool samples from the animals. Keepers first suspected something was amiss when Rakan - a 300-pound, 4-year-old male - seemed sluggish and wasn't scarfing down meals with his usual gusto. Staff then noticed that he was coughing slightly.
Three of the other tigers are also showing symptoms, mainly coughing and low energy, and all of them are being closely monitored. The news comes days after the zoo learned that both of its snow leopards, Ramil and Naphisa, had COVID-19. Both leopards had mild coughs but have nearly made a full recovery, according to Lisa Peterson, executive director of the Safari Park.
While the organization says it's not sure how the snow leopards or tigers got infected, it's likely they caught the virus from an employee who was infected but didn't have symptoms. That's what happened back in mid-January, when the Safari Park's gorilla troop contracted the virus.
6:40 a.m. One of the hidden pitfalls of the pandemic suddenly became clear to Dr. Jacques Lee the moment an elderly man showed up at the emergency department at Mount Sinai Hospital, begging to be taken out of long-term care.
The man had recovered from COVID-19, but had spent six weeks totally isolated, confined to his room, with meals dropped off at his door three times a day. He had virtually no contact with the outside world, and no one to talk to as he battled a frightening and unpredictable illness.
He was so desperately lonely," Lee said of that encounter in the early days of the pandemic. It shockingly brought into realization how impactful isolation and loneliness are."
More than a year later, Lee, a geriatric emergency physician and a 27-year veteran of medicine, is now busy building a research project around a pilot telephone line for seniors out of Sinai Health. The line, scheduled to be up in September, will operate using hospital volunteers who will check in on senior patients identified as being at risk of loneliness and social isolation.
Read the full story from the Star's Nadine Yousif
5:40 a.m. After being displaced by the tornado that touched down in Barrie last month, Brenda Devitt, 49, was forced to find a new place to call home.
Now, after moving to a new apartment less than two weeks ago, Devitt has been told by her landlord she'll need to move again - saying she broke the rules by bringing vaccinated guests into the home.
Devitt's apartment is in the basement of a house where the landlord, Geraldine Fry, lives upstairs. Devitt shares a kitchen and bathroom with another tenant, who also lives in the basement.
As politicians discuss vaccine passports - which have been adopted in places such as Denmark, China and Mexico - and talk of a fourth wave in our future, landlords and tenants may find themselves the latest relationship to navigate conversations over vaccine status.
Read the full story from the Star's Irelyne Lavery
Thursday 4 a.m. Chris Sherlock is facing possible eviction because of unanticipated clawbacks to the guaranteed income supplement for seniors.
The 65-year-old resident of British Columbia's Cowichan Valley drew on emergency benefits last year after the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out his part-time work as a musician.
Now the $2,000 a month in Canada Emergency Response Benefit he received through much of 2020 has rendered him ineligible for the income supplement typically available to low-income seniors.
"This comes as a complete shock to me," said Sherlock, who worked on contract as a tree planter for two decades and has no company pension.
"No one ... warned me that I would be losing my guaranteed income supplement because of this. There was nothing about having your pension cut in half for the next two years."
Sherlock is not the only one blindsided.
New Democrats say they've have been flooded with calls from Canadians aged 65 and up who suddenly find themselves cut off from monthly government payments due to the pandemic benefits they relied on last year.
In a letter sent to three Liberal cabinet ministers, NDP MP Daniel Blaikie said many seniors who received the CERB and Canada Recovery Benefit either do not qualify for the guaranteed income supplement or face drastic deductions to it.
"They're just not going to have enough income at the end of the month in order to pay their bills. And what we feared would happen last year will end up happening this year," Blaikie said in an interview.
"It's not right of us to do this to Canada's poorest seniors."
Read the full story from the Canadian Press
Thursday 3:59 a.m. Tokyo has logged 5,042 new daily coronavirus cases, an all-time high as infections surge in the capital hosting the Games.
Thursday 2 a.m. A COVID-19 outbreak has ruled Greece's artistic swimming team out of the Olympics ahead of Friday's team event, marking the first time in Tokyo that an entire team has withdrawn mid-competition due to the coronavirus.
The team has been moved out of the Olympic Village and is in quarantine after five of the 12 members tested positive for COVID-19. The other seven are considered close contacts and are also unable to compete.
We judged the monitoring had to be strengthened, and it was decided to do it outside the village,"Tokyo 2020 spokesman Takaya Masatold USA Today.
They had made a huge effort and actually came to Japan under difficult circumstances. I imagine the expectations from the Greek people for these athletes were quite high so it's painful to think of them."
Wednesday 9:45 p.m.: Treating moderately ill, hospitalized COVID-19 patients with a higher dose of blood thinners could significantly reduce the probability they'll become critically ill, according to a Canadian-led, international study published Wednesday.
With unvaccinated COVID-19 patients still being admitted to intensive care units, and the chance of a fourth wave of the pandemic on the horizon, the treatment could significantly off-load pressures on ICUs in Ontario," said Dr. Ewan Goligher, a critical care physician at Toronto General Hospital and one of the principal investigators of the trial.
Given that a substantial proportion of the population remains unvaccinated and these variants continue to circulate, the risk of developing severe COVID remains real for many Ontarians," Goligher told the Star. Having a drug that we know can reduce that risk if you do get infected, is a really important advance."
Read the full story by Star reporter Maria Sarrouh: Blood thinners could increase the chance of survival in moderately ill COVID-19 patients, study shows
Wednesday 9:30 p.m.: As Florida continues to lead the nation in hospitalizations for COVID-19, Gov. Ron DeSantis is holding to his anti-mask, anti-lockdown stance.
He repeated it strongly Wednesday night in a fundraising email that also takes a shot at President Joe Biden, who has singled out the governors of Florida and Texas for criticism of their opposition to lockdowns and other strict pandemic measures.
DeSantis says that in Florida, we will continue to lift people up, not lock people down. Florida is a free state, and we will empower our people."
The governor adds that "we will not allow Joe Biden and his bureaucratic flunkies to come in and commandeer the rights and freedoms of Floridians."
So," DeSantis says in closing, "when Joe Biden tells me to get out the way, I've got news for him. I will always stand between power-hungry tyrants and the people of Florida."
Wednesday 9:10 p.m.: The Yukon government has lifted a series of public health restrictions as active COVID-19 infections decline and the vaccination rate rises.
Starting Wednesday, the territory says masks are no longer required in indoor spaces but are strongly recommended when it's difficult to practise physical distancing.
Shops, grocers, bars, restaurants, recreational centres and transit operators should be respected if they request that clients wear masks, the government said.
Self-isolation after domestic travel is no longer required for both vaccinated and unvaccinated people, while bars and restaurants may return to full capacity.
Read the full story here: Yukon lifts some COVID-19 restrictions as active cases decline
Wednesday 9 p.m.: Students leapt out of cars at the kiss-and-ride drop-off zone and walked quickly to meet their friends. Others clutched backpacks as they nervously waited in line to pick up their schedules.
It may be early August, but it was the first day of school Wednesday for students at Bill Crothers Secondary School in Markham - one of a handful of schools across the GTA reopening to in-person classes this week after being shut down for months due to the pandemic.
The high school opened its doors just a day after the Ministry of Education announced its guidelines for back-to-school, which sets out fewer COVID-19 restrictions than the 2020-21 year but includes mandatory masks for staff and students starting in Grade 1. Schools opening in September have a month to plan for the new rules.
Read the full story by the Star's Olivia Bowden: It's back to class for students at a handful of schools across the GTA this week
Wednesday 8:30 p.m: The federal government has announced it will send more than 82,000 doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to Trinidad and Tobago.
International Development Minister Karina Gould said in a release Wednesday that Trinidad and Tobago was selected to receive the excess doses that had already arrived in Canada based on need and the country's capacity to deploy them immediately.
Gould said the doses will be delivered in the coming days and the Government of Trinidad and Tobago will manage the administration of the vaccines in accordance with manufacturing guidelines and public health best practices.
Last month, the federal government said it would donate nearly 18 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to poorer countries.
Read the full story here: Feds say 82,000-plus doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to be sent to Trinidad and Tobago