Today’s coronavirus news: Ontario reporting 677 new cases of COVID-19; Quebec introduces bill to ban protests near schools, hospitals
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.
1:45 p.m. Ontario's COVID-19 vaccine passport is finally live, two months later than one young bar owner would have liked and with capacity limits still in place.
The capacity does make a difference. On the weekends, I'm turning people away constantly," said Robyn Harrison, the owner of the Cabin Fever pinball bar in Toronto's Parkdale neighbourhood. I'm literally sending money out the door.
I was really hoping they were going to introduce some changes to the capacity along with the vaccine passport, but they haven't," she added.
At 50 per cent capacity, Harrison has dealt with an equivalent halving of income, and says the government has given no sign when those limits might be relaxed even as help for small businesses to pay their rent and utilities is being removed entirely by the end of September.
1:30 p.m. An Illinois woman who was arrested in Hawaii last month for allegedly entering the state with a fake COVID-19 vaccination card that misspelled drug company Moderna as Maderna" is now wanted for missing her latest court date.
Chloe Mrozak, 24, of Oak Lawn was arrested Aug. 28 at Inouye International Airport in Oahu and faces a misdemeanor charge of falsified vaccination documents, according to court records. She was scheduled to appear at court on 8:30 a.m. Wednesday for a remote hearing before a judge in a Honolulu courtroom. When she did not show for the video-conferenced hearing, a $500 bench warrant was issued for her arrest on the charge of criminal contempt of court.
Investigators believed that Mrozak submitted the false card to avoid the state's 10-day mandatory quarantine that was put into place after Hawaii's governor issued an emergency proclamation, according to court records. Mrozak's card indicated that she was vaccinated in Delaware by the National Guard.
Investigators contacted Delaware's immunization program and learned that the state did not use its National Guard to administer vaccination shots, according to court records. The state also said there was no record of a vaccination under Mrozak's name and date of birth.
Mrozak's travel records indicated that she traveled to Hawaii on Aug. 23 on Southwest Airlines to visit friends or relatives, according to court records. She listed herself as staying at a Holiday Inn Express but an assistant general manager told investigators they did not have any reservations under Mrozak's name.
Mrozak's travel records listed her departure date as Aug. 28 on American Airlines, according to court records.
1:15 p.m. The COVID-19 pandemic pushed Manitoba's deficit for the last fiscal year to a record $2.1 billion.
The audited final report for the fiscal year that ended in March says the government took in far less in income tax than expected as the economy slowed.
Gambling revenues plummeted as casinos and video lottery lounges were closed due to public health orders.
On the spending side, a few departments - including health - ran well over budget as the government responded to the pandemic.
The province is forecasting a $1.5-billion deficit for the current fiscal year, due to more federal transfer payments and a recovering economy.
The consecutive years of red ink are expected to push Manitoba's total net debt to $30 billion.
1 p.m. More than 100 staff members at a Windsor, Ont., hospital are being placed on unpaid leave for not receiving their first COVID-19 vaccine doses by a set deadline.
Windsor Regional Hospital says the 140 staff members who did not receive their first shots by Sept. 22 have until Oct. 7 to do so.
After that date, the hospital says employees who remain unvaccinated will have their jobs terminated or privileges suspended.
It says the 140 people represent approximately four per cent of the hospital's workforce.
A statement from the hospital says the final number of unvaccinated staff after Oct. 7 will likely be lower because some were set to receive their first doses on Wednesday.
12:45 p.m. People are sicker and younger, said Simon Blais. A radiologist at the Cite-de-la-Sante hospital in Laval, Que., he was shocked to see patients in their 20s, 30s and 40s with lungs scarred by pneumonia and who have trouble breathing for months. Patients who are largely unvaccinated and often hospitalised because of the COVID-19 Delta variant, he said.
I am worried because it seems to me that those who are not vaccinated are very sick," Blais told La Presse on Wednesday.
The radiologist does not see the patients themselves, just images of their lungs. The images that passed by his desk in the past weeks struck him so deeply that he contacted Olivier Haeck, a fellow microbiologist-infectious disease specialist, who confirmed his hypothesis. These are young and unvaccinated patients. And often, it's the Delta variant, he said.
12:35 a.m. Saskatchewan's only children's hospital is opening its pediatric intensive care unit to younger adults who have COVID-19 as the province runs out of critical care beds.
The Jim Pattison Children's Hospital in Saskatoon has begun accepting patients under the age of 40 as the province works to expand its ICU bed capacity, including at the children's hospital.
Critical care capacity is under strain and all avenues of support need to be explored so we can continue to care for extremely ill patients," Dr. Susan Shaw, chief medical officer for the Saskatchewan Health Authority, said Wednesday.
The health authority said two adults had been admitted to the children's hospital, but no children were being displaced.
12:10 p.m. Ontario is reporting another 677 COVID-19 cases and seven more deaths. Of the seven, one death occurred more than a month ago and is being added to the cumulative count due to a data cleanup, according to the province's latest report released Thursday morning.
Ontario has administered 44,754 vaccine doses since its last daily update, with 21,519,784 vaccines given in total as of 8 p.m. the previous night.
According to the Star's vaccine tracker, 11,141,404 people in Ontario have received at least one shot. That works out to approximately 85.5 per cent of the eligible population 12 years and older, and the equivalent of 75.0 per cent of the total population, including those not yet eligible for the vaccine.
Read the full story from the Star's Urbi Khan
11:55 a.m. The coroner investigating 47 deaths at a Montreal long-term-care home that occurred during the pandemic's first wave says she is prolonging the hearings that were set to end Thursday.
Coroner Gehane Kamel told the inquiry she wants to find out whether employees at Residence Herron abandoned their posts on March 29, 2020, as things spiralled out of control at the privately owned care home.
She says she will also view video surveillance footage from the facility captured in late March 2020.
Kamel told the inquiry she slept badly last night, noting that the families of residents who died at the facility have unanswered questions and heard contradictory testimony regarding what happened at the care home.
The inquiry has heard that regional health authorities arrived on March 29, 2020, to find residents dehydrated, unfed and soiled.
The inquiry into Herron was set to close today with the cross-examination of owner Samantha Chowieri, but the coroner says three more dates will be added at the end of October to hear from at least four other witnesses.
11:40 a.m. The Quebec government tabled legislation Thursday that would ban protests related to the COVID-19 pandemic within 50 metres of schools, daycares and health-care facilities.
People who violate the ban would face fines of between $1,000 and $6,000, with the penalty doubled if they threaten or intimidate anyone who is entering or leaving one of the sites specified in the bill.
The special law targeting protests against COVID-19 health orders and vaccination would expire when the health emergency order that has been in place since March 2020 is lifted.
Premier Francois Legault said Wednesday that he hopes to pass the bill within a day, however that will require the unanimous consent of all members of the legislature.
The single elected member of the Quebec Conservative party, Claire Samson, told reporters this morning she has concerns about the law and needs time to ask questions and propose amendments.
Quebec reported 754 new cases of COVID-19 today and seven additional deaths linked to the novel coronavirus as hospitalizations rose by three, to 283, with 90 patients in intensive care.
11:05 a.m.: Sunnybrook Health Services in Toronto announced on Thursday that it'll stop appointment booking for first and second COVID-19 vaccinations on Friday as it shifts focus on providing third doses to eligible patients.
The hospital will still accept walk-ins for first and second vaccine doses until Oct. 1.
11 a.m. An elementary school in Chilliwack, B.C., has been temporarily closed due to what the principal says is a spike in COVID-19 cases.
A statement on the Promontory Heights Elementary website says cases of the virus have been climbing since the first week of school.
Principal Chuck Bloch says the school's medical health officer has ordered a halt to in-person learning to stem the spread of infections.
Online learning will be offered until the school's expected reopening on Oct. 4.
The Ministry of Health reported 759 new cases of COVID-19 in B.C. on Wednesday, with 5,458 active cases provincewide.
The Fraser Health authority, which includes Chilliwack, has the most active cases at 1,734, followed closely by Interior Health, which has 1,223.
10:45 a.m. A union representing workers on university campuses in Ontario is calling for the government to put classroom capacity limits and distancing requirements in place.
Ontario announced earlier this month that it wouldn't require distancing or class caps when post-secondary institutions resume in-person learning.
CUPE Ontario represents workers - including those in administrative, food service, research, and teaching assistant positions - on 17 university campuses.
President Fred Hahn says that the universities' proof-of-vaccination and mandatory masking policies are not enough to stop the spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19.
He says he's hearing from members that classrooms are packed with sometimes hundreds of people, and he calls that a "recipe for disaster."
A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Colleges and Universities said earlier that schools are able to institute their own, stricter rules.
10:22 a.m. Ontario is reporting 677 new cases of COVID-19 and seven deaths; 529 cases are in individuals who are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status and 148 are in fully vaccinated individuals.
In Ontario, 21,519,784 vaccine doses have been administered. Nearly 85.5 per cent of Ontarians 12+ have one dose and 79.6 per cent have two doses.
10:20 a.m. An influential panel of advisers to the Centers for the Disease Control and Prevention grappled Wednesday with the question of which Americans should get COVID-19 booster shots, with some members wondering if the decision should be put off for a month in hopes of more evidence.
The doubts and uncertainties suggested yet again that the matter of whether to dispense extra doses to shore up Americans' protection against the coronavirus is more complicated scientifically than the Biden administration may have realized when it outlined plans a month ago for an across-the-board rollout of boosters. The rollout was supposed to have begun this week.
Much of the discussion at the meeting of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices focused on the possibility of a scaled-back booster program targeted to older people or perhaps health care workers. But even then, some of the experts said that the data on whether boosters are actually needed, precisely who should get them and when was not clear-cut.
What would be the downside" of simply waiting a month in hopes of more information? asked Dr. Sarah Long of Drexel University.
The two-day meeting had been scheduled to resume on Thursday, but it was not immediately clear whether that would happen.
10:08 a.m. Canadian retail sales dropped 0.6 per cent to $55.8 billion in July as sales at supermarkets and grocery stores fell with more people returning to restaurants and patios.
However, Statistics Canada said Thursday that its initial estimate for August suggests retail sales gained 2.1 per cent for that month, but cautioned the figure will be revised.
BMO economist Shelly Kaushik said that as the economy reopened shoppers diverted some of their spending from goods to services.
"While the drop in retail sales is consistent with a pullback in July GDP, the early indications for August point to a broader rebound in activity," Kaushik wrote in a report.
9:45 a.m. The number of Americans applying for unemployment aid rose last week for a second straight week to 351,000, a sign that the Delta variant may be disrupting the job market's recovery, at least temporarily.
Thursday's report from the Labor Department showed that jobless claims rose by 16,000 from the previous week. As the job market has strengthened, unemployment aid applications, which generally track layoffs, have tumbled since topping 900,000 early this year, reflecting the economy's reopening after the pandemic recession. The four-week moving average of claims, which smooths out week-to-week swings, registered its sixth straight drop - to a pandemic low of 336,000.
Jobless claims still remain somewhat elevated: Before the virus tore through the economy in March 2020, they generally numbered about 220,000 a week.
9:30 a.m. Indoor dining is being suspended at St. Lawrence Market due to vaccine certificate requirements.
Starting today, indoor dining will not be permitted at the Market due to the Province of Ontario's proof of vaccination requirements. To avoid closing all the entrances and screening each customer that comes into the Market, the indoor seating will be removed until further notice. Outdoor picnic tables will continue to be available for people who wish to eat and drink outside," read a post on the market's Instagram account.
8:40 a.m. The Ontario government is changing regulations that will allow the Maple Leafs to open their pre-season in front of a half-full Scotiabank Arena this weekend, according to sources.
Approximately 9,500 fans will be permitted for Saturday night's game against the Montreal Canadiens.
Provincial regulations had previously limited the Maple Leafs, Raptors and Ottawa Senators to a maximum of 1,000 fans per event. That number is being increased to 50 per cent of building capacity, with an eye toward bumping the amount of fans further over time if things progress well.
Read more from columnist Chris Johnston
8:30 a.m. (updated) The Blue Jays are hoping to boost fan support for their final homestand of the regular season, as well as a potential playoff run.
The club announced on Thursday it is working with provincial health officials on increasing ballpark capacity, in line with all public health protocols. Additional tickets will be sold for the team's final six home games.
In the event that capacity limits are not approved by the government in time, impacted ticket purchasers will be directly notified of their ticket cancellation and issued a refund via their original method of payment," according to the Jays.
Read the full story from the Star's Laura Armstrong
7:50 a.m. New York Transit officials have announced a crackdown on riders who skirt a state rule that requires them to wear a mask while on transit.
The new enforcement push begins Thursday, officials said. It comes more than a year after former Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Sept. 10, 2020, order mandating all commuters in New York wear face masks or else face a $50 (U.S.) fine.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman Michael Cortez said the agency's police department has issued just 41 summonses to subway, bus and commuter railroad riders who flouted the mask mandate, or about one every nine days since the policy took effect.
That figure doesn't include summonses that might have been issued by NYPD Transit Bureau officers.
MTA surveys conducted during the first six months of 2020 found more than 80 per cent of subway riders wore their masks over both their noses and mouths - but that figure dipped to 71 per cent in early July and remained below 75 per cent in early September.
6:21 a.m.: As Portugal closes in on its goal of fully vaccinating 85 per cent of the population against COVID-19 in nine months, other countries in Europe and beyond want to know how it was accomplished.
A lot of the credit is going to Rear Adm. Henrique Gouveia e Melo. With his team from the three branches of the armed forces, the naval officer took charge of the vaccine rollout in February - perhaps the moment of greatest tension in Portugal over the pandemic.
Now, the county could be just days away from hitting its target. As of Wednesday, 84 per cent of the total population was fully vaccinated, the highest globally, according to Our World in Data.
Along with the rising number of shots, the COVID-19 infection rate and hospitalizations from the virus have dropped to their lowest levels in nearly 18 months. Portugal could end many of its remaining pandemic restrictions in October - a coveted development for many countries still in the grip of the highly infectious delta variant and lagging in their own vaccination rollouts.
Previously unheralded outside the military, Gouveia e Melo is now a household name in Portugal, having made a point of going on television regularly to answer public concerns about the vaccination program.
Easily recognizable even behind a face mask due to his blue eyes, close-cropped salt-and-pepper hair and 1.93-meter (6-foot-3-inch) height, he's often greeted in the street by people wanting to thank him.
People are very nice," he says. But the 60-year-old officer also is quick to insist he is just the tip of the iceberg" in the operation and that many others share the credit.
6:18 a.m.: Early last week, while dozens of anti-vaxxers flocked to downtown Toronto hospitals, roughly 4,500 Torontonians got their vaccines at clinics around the city.
Last week between Thursday and Sunday, during which anti-vaxxers protested COVID-19 mandates near Queen's Park, nearly 8,000 doses of vaccine were administered to Torontonians at clinics all around the city - the result of its Days of Vaxtion" mobile clinic blitz.
I'm not a statistician, but I'd wager that for every anti-vaxxer telling lies in Toronto there are thousands of unvaccinated Torontonians seriously considering getting the jab or lining up to do so. Day by day, week by week, the undecided are making good decisions.
This is in large part because the city's vaccination campaign, once a gargantuan thing with millions of willing participants, is today pared down and hyper focused on immunizing hesitant stragglers.
Tenzin Wangmo helps those stragglers reach the finish line.
Read the column from the Star's Emma Teitel
6:15 a.m.: With a month still to go before Ontario launches its vaccination verification app, concerns are being raised about how easy it is to modify the province's existing vaccination certificates - potentially letting unvaccinated people gain access to restaurants, bars, gyms and even flights.
According to forensic document examiner Shabnam Preet Kaur, the existing vaccination certificates, which are in the form of Portable Document Format (PDF) files, can be quickly edited to change the name, birthdate and other personal information using a number of easily accessible programs.
For instance, Microsoft Word allows a user to open the watermarked vaccine certificate and change the name and other identifying information to that of an unvaccinated person, then re-save the file as a PDF. The Star verified that this can be done quickly and easily using the existing software found on most home computers.
Read the full story from the Star's Rosa Saba
5:59 a.m.: Is the delta variant of the coronavirus worse for kids?
No, experts say there's no strong evidence yet that it makes children and teens sicker than earlier versions of the virus, although delta has led to a surge in infections among kids because it's more contagious.
Delta's ability to spread more easily makes it more of a risk to children and underscores the need for masks in schools and vaccinations for those who are old enough, said Dr. Juan Dumois, a pediatric infectious disease physician at Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Weekly infection rates among U.S. children earlier this month topped 250,000, surpassing the wintertime peak, according to data from the American Academy of Pediatrics and Children's Hospital Association. Since the pandemic began, more than 5 million children in the U.S. have tested positive for COVID-19.
The delta variant has been identified in at least 180 countries, according to the World Health Organization. In many of them, the spike in infections has also meant an increase in hospitalizations in young children and teens.
In the U.S., the hospitalization rate for COVID-19 was less than 2 per 100,000 children in late August and early September - similar to the peak last winter, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But the portion of kids hospitalized with severe disease hasn't changed significantly.
The sheer numbers can make it seem like children are getting sicker with the delta variant, but experts say that does not appear to be the case. Most infected kids have mild infections or no symptoms and do not need to be hospitalized.
5:58 a.m.: A lawyer has told an Idaho legislative committee the state should adopt a health policy making vaccine status a private medical record that employees could refuse to make available to employers as a way to thwart President Joe Biden's vaccine mandate.
Attorney Christ Troupis told the legislature's Committee on Federalism on Wednesday that such a policy would insulate employers from potential federal penalties involving coronavirus vaccine mandates.
The committee is looking for potential legislation that could draw enough support among lawmakers to reconvene the legislature before it meets for its regular session in January.
The committee that deals with state sovereignty issues took no action, but plans to meet again Tuesday.
5:57 a.m.: Michigan has recorded more than 1 million confirmed cases of coronavirus infections since the start of the pandemic.
Officials said Wednesday that the state crossed that threshold by reporting 6,079 new cases over the last two days. There have been at least 20,781 deaths in Michigan linked to COVID-19, the disease that can be caused by the virus.
The state health department says nearly 58% of eligible Michigan residents 12 and older are fully vaccinated.
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, meanwhile, tells The Detroit News that he worries another major wave" of cases is coming this fall. He adds that because of staff shortages at hospitals, I think we're going to have a major problem in Michigan in the next couple of months."
5:57 a.m.: The Australian state of Victoria is reporting its biggest daily increase in coronavirus cases since the pandemic began as an outbreak in the city of Melbourne continues to grow.
Police in Melbourne are preparing for more protests against the pandemic lockdown, although the situation remains relatively calm Thursday afternoon.
Victoria reported a record 766 cases as well as four deaths from COVID-19.
The city of Sydney in New South Wales state is also dealing with a large outbreak. Officials report more than 1,000 new daily cases in the state and six COVID-19 deaths.
Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews says the state will ease lockdown rules by the end of the month, to allow people to return from Sydney and quarantine at home if they are fully vaccinated.
5:57 a.m.: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says she doesn't want to use lockdowns in the future and sees vaccinations as the golden ticket" to navigating the pandemic.
Her remarks came as Auckland remained in a sixth week of lockdown following an outbreak of the coronavirus' delta variant.
New Zealand has taken an unusual zero-tolerance approach to the virus and is trying to completely eliminate the outbreak in its largest city through drastic measures, at least until vaccination rates improve. Fifteen more local transmissions were reported Thursday.
Ardern says she sees a hopeful path in using vaccinations coupled with public health measures to prevent widespread hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19. About 62% of New Zealanders have had at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine.
5:50 a.m.: CBRE Group Inc. says the national office vacancy rate hit 15.7 per cent in the third quarter for the highest level since 1994 as people continue to work from home because of COVID-19.
The commercial real estate firm says that a fourth wave has slowed an expected return to work, helping push up the vacancy rate from 15.3 per cent in the last quarter.
It does, however, say that leasing activity is picking up, driven especially by demand from the technology sector, and that four of 10 major Canadian markets saw increased occupancy.
Vancouver's vacancy rate remains the lowest at 7.4 per cent, while Toronto stands at 13.7 per cent and Calgary at 30.1 per cent.
The story is quite different on the industrial front, where vacancies are low as demand for distribution and logistics space remains at an all-time high.
CBRE says the national vacancy rate for industrial space was at two per cent in the quarter, while several markets including Vancouver, London, the Waterloo Region and Toronto have availability rates of less than a per cent.