Today’s coronavirus news: Ontario reporting 525 new cases of COVID-19; Windsor hospital opens COVID-19 clinic for children amid surge in cases
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.
10:18 a.m. Ontario is reporting 525 new cases of COVID-19; 434 cases are in individuals who are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status and 91 are in fully vaccinated individuals, according to a tweet from Health Minister Christine Elliott.
In Ontario, 20,757,954 vaccine doses have been administered. Nearly 83.0 per cent of Ontarians 12+ have one dose and nearly 76.3 per cent have two doses.
9:50 a.m. 82.9 per cent of Toronto residents have received their first shot and 76.6 per cent of residents are fully vaccinated, according to a tweet from Mayor John Tory.
This is incredible but we can do more. Get vaccinated, Toronto," tweeted Tory.
9:40 a.m. A southwestern Ontario hospital says it has opened a pediatric clinic as it expects a recent surge of COVID-19 cases in children to continue.
The Windsor Regional Hospital says the Paediatric Urgent Medical Assessment Clinic is intended for COVID-19 assessments for those aged 17 and younger.
The hospital says the goal of the clinic is to handle a predicted rise in cases.
They are also hoping it will divert patients from the emergency department.
The hospital says the clinic will offer COVID-19 testing, urgent care medical assessment and vaccinations to those born in 2009 or earlier seven days a week.
Children born in 2010 and later are not approved to be vaccinated yet against the virus.
9:25 a.m. India's economy is growing at a record pace but still digging out from one of the deepest recessions to hit any major economy during the pandemic.
The country's gross domestic product grew 20.1 per cent in the three months ended June, a period when India suffered through one of the world's worst COVID-19 surges of the pandemic. The double-digit growth reflects a comparison with a year earlier when the economy contracted by about 24 per cent, the country's sharpest decline on record.
India was the first nation to be hit by a major COVID-19 wave driven by the Delta variant, slowing a recovery that began in late 2020. The country's economic activity remains well below pre-pandemic levels.
9 a.m. After months of death threats and angry confrontations with anti-vaxxers, Earlscourt BBQ owner Jason Rees isn't particularly hopeful a COVID-19 vaccine passport will cool things down.
I've got a bad feeling I'm going to have to kick someone's ass," said Rees.
The Ontario government is expected to announce a passport system this week that will make a wide variety of non-essential activities off limits to people who haven't been vaccinated against COVID. Some bar and restaurant owners say that could again put their staff in the crosshairs of a small but vocal group of protesters who have already been berating and threatening them over mask-wearing mandates.
Read the full story from the Star's Josh Rubin
8:45 a.m. (updated) Statistics Canada says the economy contracted at an annualized rate of 1.1 per cent in the second quarter.
It was the first quarterly contraction recorded since the sharp drop in real gross domestic product in the second quarter of 2020 during first-wave lockdowns.
Statistics Canada says driving the drop in the second quarter of this year were declines in home resale activity and exports.
The agency says increased business and government spending, as well as new home construction and renovations weren't enough to make up the shortfall.
The agency also says its initial estimate for July shows a contraction of 0.4 per cent for the month.
Statistics Canada says total economic activity in July was about two per cent below pre-pandemic levels recorded in February 2020.
8:30 a.m. Germany is organizing a special week-long vaccination drive to increase uptake amid concerns about declining demand for COVID-19 shots.
The government said Tuesday that vaccinations will be offered without appointments at easily accessible sites such as sports clubs, fire stations and pharmacies during the week of Sept. 13-19.
The locations will be listed on a national website and promoted on social media with the hashtag Hier wird geimpft," meaning Vaccinations offered here."
Chancellor Angela Merkel has said Germany wants 75 per cent of the population to be immunized against the coronavirus, but so far only 60 per cent of the population has received all the necessary shots.
8:20 a.m. Germany is organizing a special week-long vaccination drive to increase uptake amid concerns about declining demand for COVID-19 shots.
The government said Tuesday that vaccinations will be offered without appointments at easily accessible sites such as sports clubs, fire stations and pharmacies during the week of Sept. 13-19.
The locations will be listed on a national website and promoted on social media with the hashtag Hier wird geimpft," meaning Vaccinations offered here."
Chancellor Angela Merkel has said Germany wants 75 per cent of the population to be immunized against the coronavirus, but so far only 60% of the population has received all the necessary shots.
8 a.m. Ontario has begun doling out its first COVID-19 booster shots to seniors in long-term care and immunocompromised individuals. But the province is waiting on national guidance before making any decisions about third shots for the general public.
While there is growing data that third shots are of benefit to elderly people who live in high-risk congregate settings and other select groups, such as transplant recipients, those who are undergoing blood cancer treatments, and people on immune modulating medication, experts say there is not yet a compelling case for giving boosters to healthy, fully vaccinated individuals.
I'm totally open-minded that we all might need boosters at some point. We might. But the question is, do we all need boosters right now? The answer is a resounding no,' " said Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious diseases specialist at University Health Network and associate professor at the University of Toronto.
Read the full story from the Star's Kenyon Wallace
7:50 a.m. As the pandemic goes on, the price of new construction homes continued to hit records in July with single-family homes leading the way.
The benchmark price in that category, including detached, semi-detached and townhomes, soared 28.4 per cent year over year last month to an average of $1.52 million. The condo benchmark also climbed 10 per cent to $1.1 million on average, according to the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) that represents homebuilders.
Sales of newly built and pre-construction homes slumped, however. The 662 single-family homes that sold in July marked a 61-per-cent decline compared with last year's extraordinary pandemic July period, putting them 21 per cent below the 10-year average.
Read the full story from the Star's Tess Kalinowski
7:40 a.m. The Durham Region Health Department is urging people who attended two more Oshawa basketball tournaments to get tested for COVID-19.
Last week, the health department urged anyone who attended a tournament at the Playground Global facility, 1313 Boundary Rd. in Oshawa, between Aug. 3 to 8 to get tested after more than 20 people reported testing positive for COVID-19.
Now, people who showed up for tournaments at the same facility between Aug. 13 and 15 and between Aug. 20 to 23 are also urged to get tested.
7:30 a.m. A loose network of COVID-19 vaccine and lockdown protesters is using digital tools to make the federal election campaign one of the most vitriolic in recent memory, congregating in encrypted chats to track Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau's whereabouts and organize disruptions of his public events.
The protesters are posting the schedule for Trudeau's public events the night before, including the addresses and times of his campaign events. In one chat, a member suggested that they received the itineraries from a media person." Another well-known GTA anti-lockdown protester bragged that he's been sharing Trudeau's itinerary online.
The Star has been monitoring a group with more than 500 members, which uses the encrypted messaging app Telegram, since Saturday - the morning after dozens of angry protesters prompted Trudeau to cancel a campaign rally in the village of Bolton, Ont.
Read the full story from the Star's Alex Boutilier and Grant LaFleche
7:17 a.m. Despite a court ruling saying school districts can require students to wear masks, Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran is still withholding money to penalize Broward County schools.
In a release issued Monday evening from the Florida Department of Education, Corcoran doesn't address the ruling from Leon County Circuit Judge John C. Cooper, who found that Gov. Ron DeSantis didn't have the authority to ban mask mandates when he issued an executive order July 30 and directed the Department of Health to issue an order supporting his position.
Corcoran said the state will withhold money equivalent to the salaries of eight of the nine Broward School Board members who voted for a mask mandate. He also is withholding the salaries of four of five board members in Alachua who supported it. He said the districts can't use money designed for students or teacher pay to offset the penalty.
We're going to fight to protect parents' rights to make health care decisions for their children," Corcoran said. They know what is best for their children. What's unacceptable is the politicians who have raised their right hands and pledged, under oath, to uphold the Constitution but are not doing so. Simply said, elected officials cannot pick and choose what laws they want to follow."
The release said the commissioner and state Board of Education retain the right and duty to impose additional sanctions and take additional enforcement action to bring each school district into compliance with state law and rule."
6 a.m..: The European Union has recommended that its 27 nations reinstate restrictions on tourists from the U.S. because of rising coronavirus infections there, but EU nations can still allow fully vaccinated U.S. travellers in if they want.
The decision by the European Council to remove the U.S. from a safe list of countries for non-essential travel reverses its advice in June, when the bloc recommended lifting restrictions on U.S. travellers before the summer tourism season.
The guidance is non-binding, though, and U.S. travellers should expect a mishmash of travel rules across the continent.
The EU's decision reflects growing anxiety that the rampant spread of the virus in the U.S. could jump to Europe at a time when Americans are allowed to travel to the continent. Both the EU and the U.S. have faced rising infections this summer, driven by the more contagious delta variant.
More than 15 million Americans a year visited Europe before the coronavirus crisis, and new travel restrictions could cost European businesses billions in lost travel revenues, especially in tourism-reliant countries like Croatia, which has been surprised by packed beaches and hotels this summer.
5:42 a.m.: As another pandemic school year looms - and parents' anxieties grow, along with Delta's infection rates - the province has quietly updated a screening tool with major implications, not just for Ontario's ability to detect COVID in schools and daycares but for the daily lives of kids and parents.
The update, made Friday afternoon, contained a small but significant change: runny noses no longer require a COVID test or exclusion from class or daycare.
Tiny, leaky noses have played an outsized role in Ontario's pandemic story. Runny noses have now been added or subtracted to the province's list of school screening symptoms that require COVID testing three times since September 2020, when a surge in demand for testing overwhelmed Ontario's laboratory capacity and triggered consequential changes to the province's pandemic response.
Much of that testing surge was driven by kids with minor symptoms like runny noses, which can be a symptom of COVID but also many other common viruses. As a result, rhinorrhea" has been the focus of considerable debate among experts and policymakers - and a source of grief for families with tiny kids prone to chronically leaky noses.
Read more from the Star's Jennifer Yang and Megan Ogilvie.
5:35 a.m.: School boards plan to pay early attention to individual needs when students return to Ontario classrooms after a year of pandemic-disrupted studies, saying the effort will help address the phenomenon known as learning loss."
Several boards said they'll be assessing students when school resumes next week to get a sense of how much the children have retained since the last academic year, and where they most need support.
Our starting point will be to help students adjust back to in-person learning, ensure they feel safe, and that their mental wellness is in a good place," said Warren Hoshizaki, education director for the District School Board of Niagara.
From there, our educators and support staff will get to know their students as individuals and as learners to best understand their strengths and needs, supporting and empowering them to reach their potential."
Read more from the Canadian Press here.
5:15 a.m.: The latest epidemiological modelling for COVID-19 in British Columbia is being released by provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix Tuesday.
On Monday, the province reported seven more deaths and 1,853 new cases of COVID-19 diagnosed over a three-day period from Friday to Monday.
From Friday to Saturday, there were 769 cases, but the number dropped to 503 on Sunday to Monday.
There were 5,918 active infections across the province, of which nearly 41 per cent were located in the Interior Health region. Of the active cases, 176 people were in hospital and 91 were in intensive care.
The Health Ministry says people who hadn't received a single dose of COVID-19 vaccine accounted for more than 71 per cent of the province's cases and 79 per cent of hospitalizations between Aug. 13 and Friday.
4:50 a.m.: Ontario will unveil a COVID-19 vaccination passport system for entry into restaurants, gyms, theatres and other non-essential venues as early as Wednesday, while it waits for a federal proof-of-vaccination certificate that's common to all provinces.
The introduction follows a flurry of work in the last several days since Premier Doug Ford bowed to growing pressure for vaccination passports from local medical officers of health, as well as leaders in the business, academic and health-care sectors, and opposition parties.
In an ideal world, this would be a federal document," said a senior Ontario government source, expressing frustration with the lack of a national certificate as the federal election campaign continues.
The closely watched seven-day average of new infections hit 696 Monday. That figure was more than three times higher than the 189 recorded at the start of August, despite the fact that 76 per cent of Ontario residents aged 12 and up have been fully vaccinated.