Today’s coronavirus news: Ontario reporting 587 COVID-19 cases; Pfizer to seek approval for its vaccine for kids as young as five in about a week
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.
11:35 a.m. Quebec's health minister says about 25,000 health workers in the province are still not fully vaccinated about one week ahead of the deadline.
Christian Dube told reporters today about 13,000 employees have not received a single dose of vaccine.
Quebec has set a firm Oct. 15 deadline for health sector employees to be fully vaccinated or be suspended without pay.
Dube is calling on workers to get a first dose and says there won't be any religious exemptions granted to them. He says a contingency plan to deal with missing staff will be unveiled next week.
Meanwhile, health officials are reporting 624 new COVID-19 cases today and five more deaths attributed to the coronavirus.
10:20 a.m. (updated) Ontario is reporting 587 new cases of COVID-19 Thursday, and six new deaths.
Health Minister Christine Elliott says 423 of those cases are in people who are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status.
There are 149 people in intensive care units due to COVID-19.
Of those people in intensive care, 12 are fully vaccinated, seven are partially vaccinated, 72 are unvaccinated, and the remaining 58 have an unknown vaccine status.
Today there were 121 new school-related cases reported, with 106 in students and 15 in staff.
Nearly 82 per cent of eligible Ontarians are fully vaccinated and 86.7 per cent have received at least one dose.
10:13 a.m. Pfizer Canada says it is preparing to ask Health Canada to authorize its COVID-19 vaccine for kids as young as five by mid-October.
The U.S. drugmaker submitted a formal request to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration today and the FDA intends to meet to discuss the submission on Oct. 26.
Last week Pfizer submitted data to both governments from a clinical trial on children five to 11 but hadn't formally requested authorization.
A spokeswoman for the company's Canadian arm says it is in the final stages of working with Health Canada ahead of the submission being made so kids between five and 11 can be given the shots here.
The vaccine was authorized for people at least 16 years old in December 2020 and for teenagers between 12 and 15 in May.
The dose for younger children is one-third the size given to adults and Pfizer and Health Canada have not yet said if vaccine supplies already in Canadian freezers can be adapted for use on children or if new shipments must be made.
9:04 a.m. The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell last week, another sign that the U.S. job market and economy continue their steady recovery from last year's coronavirus recession.
Unemployment claims fell by 38,000 to 326,000, the first drop in four weeks, the Labor Department said Thursday. Since surpassing 900,000 in early January, the weekly applications, a proxy for layoffs, had fallen more or less steadily all year. Still, they remain elevated from pre-pandemic levels: Before COVID-19 hammered the U.S. economy in March 2020, weekly claims were consistently coming in at around 220,000.
After hitting a pandemic low of 312,000 in early September, claims had risen three straight weeks, suggesting that the highly contagious delta variant was at least temporarily disrupting a recovery in jobs.
8:36 a.m. Pfizer asked the U.S. government Thursday to allow use of its COVID-19 vaccine in children ages 5 to 11 - and if regulators agree, shots could begin within a matter of weeks.
Many parents and pediatricians are clamoring for protection for children younger than 12, today's age cutoff for the vaccine made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech. Not only can youngsters sometimes get seriously ill, but keeping them in school can be a challenge with the coronavirus still raging in poorly vaccinated communities.
Pfizer announced in a tweet that it had formally filed its application with the Food and Drug Administration.
Now the FDA will have to decide if there's enough evidence that the shots are safe and will work for younger children like they do for teens and adults. An independent expert panel will publicly debate the evidence on Oct. 26.
One big change: Pfizer says its research shows the younger kids should get a third of the dose now given to everyone else. After their second dose, the 5- to 11-year-olds developed virus-fighting antibody levels just as strong as teens and young adults get from regular-strength shots.
8:22 a.m. This Thanksgiving will be a tough one for Carol Charles and her family.
The 50-year-old from Regina usually travels to her younger sister's house in Edmonton for the holiday.
But Jennifer Rosebluff-Thomas died of COVID-19 last month. She was about 29 weeks pregnant with her ninth child. She was also unvaccinated and contracted the more dangerous Delta variant.
When they did the emergency C-section, they explained to me that it was to help my sister get more oxygen into her lungs, and they confirmed at that same time that she wasn't vaccinated and that it was preventable," Charles said.
That was the most hurtful part, when they told me it was preventable."
8:17 a.m. Despite a nearly year-long efforts to immunize seniors against COVID-19, Toronto is one of the health units with the lowest vaccine coverage rates in the province among the 80-plus age group.
Just 87 per cent of seniors over 80 in Toronto have received both doses of the vaccine, according to city data. And Ontario as a whole is lagging behind other provinces when it comes to this age group.
The Toronto health unit is one of three reporting immunization rates under 90 per cent for older Ontarians, according to the province's data tool, a Ministry of Health spokesperson confirmed this week. The Northwestern health unit is recording just 86.6 per cent uptake of both doses among adults 80 and above. In Lambton, 89.7 per cent of seniors in that age category are fully immunized.
Read the full story from the Star's Maria Sarrouh
7:55 a.m. Toronto Public Health has declared outbreaks at Dante Alighieri Academy, Stephen Leacock Collegiate Institute, St. Jude Catholic School, St. Augustine Catholic School, Millwood Junior School and Huron Street Junior Public School.
We're carefully investigating & following our process of working with our school community to notify close contacts and ask them to stay home, monitor for symptoms & get tested," TPH tweeted.
7:40 a.m. Los Angeles leaders have voted to enact one of the nation's strictest vaccine mandates.
The sweeping measure requires the shots for everyone entering bars, restaurants, nail salons, gyms and a Lakers game. The City Council on Wednesday voted 11-2 in favor of the ordinance that will require proof of full vaccination by Nov. 4.
Supporters say it's a way of preventing more coronavirus surges. Critics say the measure raises concerns about enforcement.
The nation's second-most populous city faced a huge rise in infections and hospitalizations last winter and a smaller surge this summer linked to the spread of the Delta variant.
7:30 a.m. Torontonians can expect to pay a premium on their energy bills this winter as prices for North American fuel, natural gas and coal reach heights not seen in years.
Dan McTeague, president of Canadians for Affordable Energy, projects that gasoline prices at Greater Toronto Area pumps will hit $1.50 per litre in the coming weeks, up 44 per cent from a year ago.
That would be the highest price point for auto fuel anywhere in Ontario since the summer of 2014, when a litre sold for $1.43.
And unlike price surges in recent years, experts say this one could last longer than a few weeks.
Read the full story from the Star's Jacob Lorinc
7:15 a.m. More pollution, billions of dollars in lost productivity, poorer health and increased stress. All of those problems could await residents of post-pandemic Toronto, if the city doesn't get a handle on its resurgent traffic woes.
Eighteen months after COVID-19 plunged Toronto into crisis and emptied out its streets, drivers have returned to the roadways in numbers this fall. The city's famous gridlock is back.
And while the roads are not yet as crowded as before the pandemic, there are troubling signs that the travel patterns that have taken root over the last year and a half could pose a serious threat to the city's long-term sustainability.
For one, the roadways are busy again despite the city's office occupancy remaining historically low and commuters staying home. Secondly, and perhaps more worryingly, car use is returning at much faster rates than transit ridership.
Read the full story from the Star's Ben Spurr
6:01 a.m.: The National Advisory Committee on Immunization and the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada recommend that pregnant women get two doses of COVID-19 vaccine.
Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta's chief medical officer of health, recently stressed that pregnant women are at a high risk of severe outcomes from the infection.
With a lot of misinformation about pregnancy and vaccinations circulating online, I would like to assure Albertans that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are safe for those who are pregnant or breastfeeding," she tweeted last month. There is also no evidence that COVID-19 vaccines cause fertility problems."
Kerry Williamson, a spokesman for Alberta Health Services, said that from July 15 to Sept. 28 of this year, 14 pregnant women were admitted to intensive care units.
All of them had been unvaccinated, he said.
We need those who are pregnant, trying to become pregnant or have recently delivered to get both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible," Williamson wrote in an email.
Vaccines are safe and effective, and they are the best way to protect you and your baby from COVID-19."
He said there is no data available about how many pregnant Albertans have died from the virus.
6 a.m.: Ontario's chief medical officer of health is set to release his advice today for safely celebrating Thanksgiving and Halloween.
Earlier this week, Dr. Kieran Moore did touch on some of his recommendations for Thanksgiving, saying celebrating indoors and unmasked with a fully vaccinated group is absolutely appropriate."
Ontario's gathering limits of 100 outdoors and 25 indoors are still in place.
Moore says if there is a combination of vaccinated and unvaccinated people in the group, attendees may consider keeping masks on indoors, particularly for older people or those with chronic medical conditions.
Last year, Ontario recommended that kids in the four COVID-19 hot spots at the time, which were Toronto, Ottawa, Peel and York regions, should not go trick-or-treating.
5:58 a.m.: The World Health Organization is working to ship COVID-19 medical supplies into North Korea, a possible sign that the North is easing one of the world's strictest pandemic border closures to receive outside help.
WHO said in a weekly monitoring report that it has started the shipment of essential COVID-19 medical supplies through the Chinese port of Dalian for strategic stockpiling and further dispatch" to North Korea. WHO officials on Thursday didn't immediately respond to requests for more details, including what those supplies were and whether they had yet reached North Korea.
Describing its anti-virus campaign was a matter of national existence," North Korea had severely restricted cross-border traffic and trade for the past two years despite the strain on its already crippled economy.
Thursday 5:57 a.m.: Can I get the flu and COVID-19 vaccines at the same time?
Yes, you can get the shots in the same visit.
When COVID-19 vaccines were first rolling out in the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended waiting 14 days between the shots and other immunizations as a precaution. But the agency has since revised its guidelines and says the wait is unnecessary.
The CDC and other health experts point to past experience showing that vaccines work as they should and any side effects are similar whether the shots are given separately or in the same visit.
We have a history of vaccinating our kids with multiple vaccines," says flu specialist Richard Webby of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
Staying up to date on all vaccinations will be especially important this year, experts say.
Since people were masked and staying home, last year's flu season barely registered. This year, it's unclear how intense the flu season will be with more places reopening.