Today’s coronavirus news: British Columbia won’t take COVID-19 patients from Alberta; DineTOgether, program to support Toronto restaurants, starts Friday
The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Friday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.
10:20 a.m. Seventy-five per cent of Canada's population has now received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
That means that as of Sept. 16, roughly 28.5 million people in this country have received a jab, nine months after the largest mass vaccination program in Canada's history began last December.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised earlier this year that any Canadian who wants a vaccine will be able to get one by the end of September.
The Star's vaccine tracker makes the conservative assumption that 75 per cent of the Canadian population will receive one dose by the stated goal; this is to account for the fact that children are not currently approved to receive the vaccine and that some adults will not be vaccinated due to hesitancy or medical reasons.
Read the full story from the Star's Kenyon Wallace
10 a.m. The Biden administration's embattled plan to dispense COVID-19 booster shots to most Americans faced its first major hurdle Friday as a government advisory panel met to decide whether to endorse extra doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
Scientists inside and outside the government have been divided in recent days over the need for boosters and who should get them, and the World Health Organization has strongly objected to rich nations giving a third round of shots when poor countries don't have enough vaccine for their first.
The panel, made up of outside experts who advise the Food and Drug Administration, weighed a less than clear-cut case: While research suggests immunity levels in those who have been vaccinated wane over time and boosters can reverse that, the Pfizer vaccine is still highly protective against severe illness and death, even amid the spread of the highly contagious delta variant.
The FDA experts were scheduled to vote on one basic question: Does the evidence show that a Pfizer booster would be safe and effective for people 16 and older? In the event of a yes vote, the FDA is expected to quickly approve boosters for Pfizer's shot.
But that is just one step in the process. The more thorny question of who should get the shots and when will be debated next week by advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC generally adopts the group's recommendations, which set policy for U.S. vaccination campaigns.
9:35 a.m. Slovenia's government said on Friday that it would immediately start with compulsory COVID-19 vaccination for all government employees, stepping up anti-virus measures that had already sparked a major riot in the small Alpine state.
All government workers will need to receive one shot by Oct. 1 and a second a month later, unless they get the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
PCR tests will no longer be accepted to gain entry into government-funded workplaces, including state-run hospitals.
Earlier this week, the government introduced the compulsory display of COVID-19 passes proving vaccination or a negative PCR result in order to access private places of work as well as hospitals, gas stations, shopping malls, restaurants and other public places.
That measure spawned major street riots in the capital, Ljubljana, on Wednesday.
Slovenian health officials said that the COVID-19 pass measure has raised public interest in vaccination amid a significant upsurge in new infections.
9:16 a.m. It's a story as old as time. A figure rises up, hailed as hero by some, and conquers. Then, somewhere along the line, it all goes wrong.
In that tradition, if Jason Kenney was introduced to Alberta as a whip-smart federal minister on a crusade to unite the right, before rising to power with a climactic election win in 2019, he could now be said to be hurtling toward his demise, his province's health-care system pushed to the brink. Whether the storyline plays out, of course, remains to be seen.
For months, Albertans have had what Kenney triumphantly called their best summer ever," whether they wanted to or not, after the government lifted all major COVID-19 restrictions for the start of July, then denounced naysayers as fearmongers or shills for the political opposition.
The slogan was printed on signs and on hats. A widely shared tweet sent by Matt Wolf, Kenney's head of issues management" in June may yet go down in history books: The pandemic is ending. Accept it."
Read the full story from the Star's Alex Boyd and Kieran Leavitt
9:05 a.m. DineTOgether starts Friday in Toronto. The two-week program, which runs until Oct. 3, will showcase the breadth and diversity of Toronto's restaurants and encourage residents to patronize local eateries through a menu available by takeout, delivery, patio dining or indoor dining.
Mayor John Tory announced the program as part of the City of Toronto's ShowLoveTO initiative, to support the recovery of local restaurants and celebrate Toronto's diverse culinary scene.
8:44 a.m. British Columbia's health minister says the province won't be taking COVID-19 patients from Alberta due to current demands on its own health-care system.
Adrian Dix says the B.C. Health Ministry told its Alberta counterpart Thursday that the province will help in other ways if it can and may be able to take patients in the future.
Alberta is facing a COVID-19 crisis that is threatening to collapse its health system, with 269 patients in an intensive care system set up for 173.
British Columbia reported 706 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday along with four new deaths linked to the illness, bringing the death toll to 1,877.
8:20 a.m. On Friday, you can get vaccinated against COVID-19 in the park, at a bathhouse or, if you're a night owl, after midnight.
Taking the subway? You can even get the jab at some stations across the city.
The pop-up clinic locations are part of the #DaysofVaxtion campaign that began Thursday and runs until Sunday.
Unlike the Scotiabank Arena clinic in June, which vaccinated more than 26,000 people in one day, this latest campaign features micro clinics" targeting areas that have low vaccination coverage or are at high risk of contracting the virus.
Read the full story from the Star's Irelyne Lavery
8:05 a.m. At least 860 people have died of COVID-19 in an Ontario hospital outbreak, according to a new public health report that reveals a far larger death toll than had been previously known.
The total, contained in a Public Health Ontario (PHO) epidemiological summary updated earlier this month, means Ontario hospitals have been the province's second-deadliest setting for COVID-19 outbreaks in the pandemic, behind long-term-care homes and ahead of retirement homes - but with little of the public reckoning seen in those sectors.
There's no other way to depict this other than a completely unmitigated tragedy," said Dr. Abdu Sharkawy, an infectious diseases consultant at the University Health Network and assistant professor of medicine at the University of Toronto. The death toll highlights the changes hospitals need to make to better control the spread of respiratory diseases now and in the future, he added.
Read the full story from Ed Tubb and Kenyon Wallace
7:40 a.m. New York City's notorious Rikers Island jail complex, troubled by years of neglect, has spiraled into turmoil during the coronavirus pandemic. It's not just inmates and advocates saying that. City officials, including the mayor, admit there are serious problems.
One jail watchdog called it "a complete breakdown in the operation of the jails."
"In our office's 50 years of monitoring the city jails, this is one of the most dangerous times we've seen," said Mary Lynne Werlwas, a lawyer and the director of the Prisoners' Rights Project at the Legal Aid Society.
At one point during the summer, more than one-third of the city's jail guards - about 3,050 of 8,500 - were on sick leave or medically unfit to work with inmates, according to the agency that runs the city's jails, the Department of Correction. Some guards have been missing shifts without any explanation.
The growing crisis, brought to light in recent weeks by advocates, news reports and a federal monitor who wrote of grave concerns" with the city's jails, has sent officials scrambling for remedies amid plans to close Rikers by 2026.
Mayor Bill de Blasio this week unveiled reforms that include requiring absent guards to get a doctor's note if they're out for more than a day, speeding inmate intake procedures and fixing infrastructure problems like broken cell doors.
On Wednesday, the city started suspending jail guards for 30 days without pay if they refused to come to work. Last week, the city said the staffing situation was so dire it was enlisting a telemarketing company to entice recently retired correctional officers to return to work.
Advocates, lawmakers and even the union for jail guards say the measures aren't enough to fix a system where 10 inmates have died this year, at least five in suspected suicides.
Advocates want inmates released immediately. Some say Rikers should be closed right away.
5:44 a.m.: Florida surpassed 50,000 coronavirus deaths since the pandemic began, health officials reported Thursday, with more than one fourth of those succumbing this summer as the state battled a fierce surge in infections fuelled by the delta variant.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tallied 50,811 deaths after adding more than 1,500 COVID-19 deaths provided Thursday by the state's health department. Those reported deaths occurred over various dates in recent weeks.
Florida has the 11th worst per-capita death rate among the 50 states, the CDC says. New Jersey, Mississippi and New York have had the worst, but Florida has risen from the 17th spot in the past two weeks.
Overall, about one in every 400 Florida residents who were alive in March 2020 has since died of COVID-19. Only cancer and heart disease have killed more Floridians during that period, according to state health department statistics. Those have each killed about 70,000 Floridians.
Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke sombrely when asked about surpassing 50,000 COVID-19 deaths during a Fort Lauderdale news conference promoting the use of monoclonal antibodies, a treatment for people infected with the disease that reduces death and hospitalization if given early.
5:42 a.m.: Cambodia began vaccinating 6-to-11-year-olds Friday so students can safely return to schools that have been closed for months due to the coronavirus.
Prime Minister Hun Sen inaugurated the campaign to vaccinate the children, speaking live on state television and his Facebook page as his grandchildren and young family members of other senior officials were shown being given their jabs.
To protect children's health and their lives is our duty because we want to make sure that once they go back to their schools, these children and their teachers are safe from COVID-19," Hun Sen declared.
Cambodia already has been vaccinating older children, and Hun Sen said he ordered health officials to study if children ages 3 to 5 can also be vaccinated. No date has been announced for schools to reopen.
Nearly 72% of Cambodia's almost 17 million people have received at least one COVID-19 shot since vaccinations began in February. China's Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines account for most inoculations.
5:42 a.m.: Mississippi has surpassed New Jersey as the state with the highest rate of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S., with roughly 1 of every 320 Mississippians having succumbed to the coronavirus.
The state's top health official on Thursday warned that more deaths will come.
We're recording well over 2,500 (cases) a day, in recent days, far more than we'd like to see," said State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs. A lot of that's going to translate into the tragedy."
Since the start of the pandemic, at least 9,165 people in Mississippi have died of the virus. The state has a population of roughly 3 million and has had one of the worst vaccination rates in the country.
New Jersey was throttled in the spring of 2020 at the start of the pandemic, long before vaccines were available.
Of specific concern during the delta variant surge in Mississippi have been pregnant mothers, Dobbs said. Over the course of the pandemic, 15 pregnant women in Mississippi have died of coronavirus, according to the Department of Health. Eight of those deaths occurred between July 25 and Sept. 16.
The age range of the mothers who died was between 23 and 40, with the median age being 30. Dobbs said 60% were Black. None of the women were fully vaccinated. One woman had received her first shot.
As for health conditions, some were overweight, but so are the majority of Mississippians, so I don't think that that's much of a surprise," Dobbs said.
5:42 a.m.: Seattle and King County officials have issued a health directive requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a negative test to enter certain establishments and attend large outdoor events.
Public Health-Seattle & King County Health Officer Dr. Jeff Duchin issued the order Thursday to go into effect Oct. 25. Duchin says high levels of preventable COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations and increased deaths driven by the highly contagious Delta variant prompted the order.
The order applies to outdoor events with 500 or more people and indoor establishments such as museums, theatres, gyms, restaurants and bars.
The order does not affect outdoor dining, takeout orders and shopping in places including grocery stores.
5:42 a.m.: Nevada officials believe some state employees may follow through on threats to quit their jobs if forced to get COVID-19 shots.
But they said Thursday they expect most will comply with Gov. Steve Sisolak's mandate that workers at health care facilities and prisons be vaccinated by Nov. 1 or face administrative leave or reassignment.
DuAne Young, the governor's policy director, says they are developing contingency plans in the event more people quit their jobs than expected and monitoring the situation closely.
He says they believe there will be some attrition, but in the end, most state employees will step up and do what is right."
5:41 a.m.: Alaska's state epidemiologist says Alaska is experiencing one of the sharpest surges" in COVID-19 in the country.
Dr. Joe McLaughlin added that it's not clear when the situation might stabilize. He says a lot will depend on vaccination rates and measures such as masking and distancing.
Health officials says hospitals are stressed, with staffing and capacity issues. The state health department reports 20% of patients hospitalized in Alaska have COVID-19.
Meanwhile, Bartlett Regional Hospital in Juneau announced Thursday that as a condition of employment, staff must be vaccinated against COVID-19 by Dec. 15.
5:41 a.m.: South Korea has reported more than 2,000 new cases of the coronavirus, nearing a one-day record set last month, continuing an alarming surge as the nation enters its biggest holiday of the year.
The 2,008 cases reported Friday was the 73rd consecutive day of over 1,000 despite officials enforcing the country's strongest social distancing rules short of a lockdown in capital Seoul and other large population centres for the past 10 weeks.
More than 1,500 of the new case came from the greater Seoul area, home to half of a population of more than 51 million, where infections have surged as schools reopened and people returned from summer vacations in recent weeks.
There are concerns that transmissions will worsen nationwide the Chuseok holiday break, the Korean version of Thanksgiving that begins over the weekend and continues through next Wednesday. Millions usually travel across the to meet relatives during Chuseok.
We plead once again that people who aren't fully vaccinated not to visit their aging parents who are in their 60s or older," Deputy Health Minister Lee Ki-il said during a briefing. In the greater capital area, transmissions are continuously happening at indoor gyms, cram schools, churches and wherever there's many people in confined spaces. Capital area residents should always keep in mind that they could get infected any where at any time, and be very careful."
5:41 a.m.: Australians will soon have a third COVID-19 vaccine option with 1 million Moderna shots about to arrive in Sydney.
Moderna will arrive in two shipments on Friday night and over the weekend, Health Minister Greg Hunt said.
Australians currently have access to Pfizer and AstraZeneca as authorities race to build the population's immunity against the delta variant that has taken hold in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra.
Pfizer is the preferred option for many because of the slight risk of blood clots from AstraZeneca.
Moderna, like Pfizer, is an mRNA vaccine. Australia has failed to source sufficient Pfizer to meet demand, while there is a surplus of locally manufactured AstraZeneca.
Over 70% of the Australian population aged 16 and older had taken at least one dose of a two-shot vaccine, Hunt said.
5:34 a.m.: China has reported another 62 cases of COVID-19, even as the number of Chinese citizens fully vaccinated has topped 1 billion.
All but one of the cases was detected over the previous 24 hours in the eastern coastal province of Fujian in China's latest outbreak of the delta variant, the National Health Commission said on Friday.
Of those, 31 were in the major port city of Xiamen, with 28 others in the city of Putian and one in the city of Quanzhou.
That came a day after health officials announced that more than 1 billion Chinese, or 72% of all 1.4 billion citizens of the world's most populous country, have been fully vaccinated. The National Health Commission says 2.16 billion doses have been administered.
Nearly 300 cases have been detected in Fujian over the past week, prompting authorities to lock down affected neighbourhoods, close schools and entertainment venues and restrict travel out of the province.
China has largely stopped the spread by imposing restrictions and mass testing whenever new cases are found. It also limits entry to the country and requires people who arrive to quarantine in a hotel for at least two weeks.
The efficacy of Chinese vaccines has been questioned, however, and it's not clear how many of those newly infected had received their jabs.
China has recorded a total of 4,636 deaths among 95,577 cases of COVID-19, with 916 people currently receiving treatment for the disease.
5:31 a.m.: Sri Lanka on Friday extended the COVID-19 lockdown by another two weeks amid pressure from medical experts.
The current lockdown was to end on Tuesday. A special meeting of the COVID-19 Control Committee chaired by President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa decided to extend the measures until Oct. 1, according to presidential spokesman Kingsly Rathnayaka.
Medical experts have said although Sri Lanka has seen a decline in daily cases, oxygen requirements and deaths, it remains at risk. The last 24 hours saw 2,314 confirmed cases.
The lockdown was first imposed on Aug. 20 and extended four times.
The government has allowed export-oriented factories and agriculture work to continue, in addition to essential services.
Sri Lanka has so far reported 496,423 confirmed cases and 11,699 deaths.
5:31 a.m.: With just three days now until the federal election, the main party leaders will be keeping the campaign throttle wide open today as they chase any still undecided votes in Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia.
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau is to begin his day with a scheduled announcement this morning in Windsor, Ont.
Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole is also in southwestern Ontario. He'll be making an announcement in London, Ont., early this afternoon before moving on to St. Catharines, Ont., for an event with supporters this evening.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has a packed agenda which begins this morning in Sherbrooke, Que., where he'll talk about the Trudeau government's record on climate change. Singh will then head east to Sackville, N.S. to visit a local business this afternoon before moving on to Halifax to meet with supporters.
Much of yesterday's campaigning was dominated by the leaders pointing fingers and firing broadsides of blame at each other over the spiralling COVID-19 crisis in Alberta.
As the clock ticks down to Monday's election the latest polling suggests the race between the Liberals and Conservatives is still too close to call.
It remains to be seen whether the high level endorsements Justin Trudeau and Erin O'Toole received this week - Trudeau from former U.S. president Barack Obama and O'Toole from former prime minister Brian Mulroney - will help tip the scales.
5:30 a.m.: As an emergency alert blared across the province notifying Albertans of another round of public health restrictions, some felt a range of emotions: anger, confusion, exhaustion.
Edmonton mother Amanah Khursheed remembers looking at her husband.
Here we go again," she said as her phone lit up Wednesday evening.
The notification told her that Alberta has declared a state of public health emergency to protect the health-care system.
New restrictions - including gathering limits and a proof of vaccination program for non-essential businesses - began Thursday, as Alberta's health system nears collapse during a fourth wave of the pandemic.
Every few months we go into lockdown and we're hearing false promises from our leaders," Khursheed said in an interview.
The whole pandemic ... I don't think, from the beginning, was managed right."
Medical experts had warned the United Conservative government about potential for the Delta variant to spread exponentially, when Premier Jason Kenney celebrated his Open For Summer" plan.