Today’s coronavirus news: Ontario reports 573 new cases; New modelling for Canada shows reason for optimism amid fourth wave
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.
1 p.m.: Nova Scotia health officials say a Halifax-area school is being temporarily closed to contain the spread of COVID-19.
Chief medical officer of health Dr. Robert Strang said today in a news release he is recommending that Duc d'Anville Elementary School be closed to students from Oct. 12 to Oct. 15 to prevent further spread. He says remote learning will begin Tuesday, after the Thanksgiving holiday.
Officials say students will need to test negative for COVID-19 before they can return to in-person classes on Monday, Oct. 18.
Nova Scotia has 234 active reported cases of COVID-19 and 15 people in hospital with the disease, including four in intensive care.
About 81.5 per cent of the province's population has had at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine and 75.9 per cent is fully vaccinated.
12:15 p.m.: The union representing RCMP officers says it will support members' choice "to be vaccinated or not" against COVID-19 following a federal order that Mounties be immunized.
The government announced this week that core public servants, including members and reservists of the RCMP, must be vaccinated or face suspension without pay as early as Nov. 15.
Brian Sauve, president of the National Police Federation, says today the union expected a more "meaningful and authentic" dialogue with the government on the policy.
He says the federation, which represents some 20,000 members, is disappointed by the government's "engagement-by-notification" approach to the policy announcement.
11:35 a.m.: Quebec is reporting 643 new cases of COVID-19 today and five more deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus.
Overall hospitalizations rose by five, to 302, while the number of people in intensive care dropped by two, to 86.
The province says it administered another 16,745 doses of COVID-19 vaccine, including more than 16,000 in the previous 24 hours.
Quebec's public health institute says 89.8 per cent of the population 12 and over has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 86.3 per cent are fully vaccinated.
11:30 a.m.: Canada's chief public health officer has shot a dose of optimism into the country's fight against the fourth wave of COVID-19.
Dr. Theresa Tam says the efforts made to slow the spread where the virus is surging appear to be working.
She says hard lessons must be learned about the risks of removing public health measures too soon, particularly in areas where not enough people have been vaccinated.
Tam says more than 80 per cent of Canadians eligible to receive a shot are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
She cautioned that people should follow public health measures heading into the Thanksgiving weekend.
The health agency today released its latest modelling for the pandemic which shows it saw an average of 3,700 new cases reported daily across the country this week, far less than initially projected.
Tam says nationally, this is also the first time since July where it does not appear the pandemic is in a growth pattern.
She says there are still some six million eligible Canadians who are not properly immunized.
10:17 a.m. (updated): Ontario is reporting another 573 COVID-19 cases and 10 more deaths, according to its latest report released Friday morning.
Ontario has administered 30,575 vaccine doses since its last daily update, with 22,004,768 vaccines given in total as of 8 p.m. the previous night.
According to the Star's vaccine tracker, 11,320,412 people in Ontario have received at least one shot. That works out to approximately 86.8 per cent of the eligible population 12 years and older, and the equivalent of 76.2 per cent of the total population, including those not yet eligible for the vaccine.
The province says 10,684,356 people have completed their vaccinations, which means they've had both doses. That works out to approximately 82.0 per cent of the eligible population 12 years and older, and the equivalent of 71.9 per cent of the total population, including those not yet eligible for the vaccine.
The province now includes data that reflects hospitalizations and cases by vaccination status. Ontario warns that the new process may cause discrepancies between other hospitalization numbers being collected using a different process, and that the data may not match daily COVID-19 case counts.
Read more from the Star's Urbi Khan.
9:30 a.m.: Two Hills, a town of about 1,400 people, is best known for the nearby hills from which it gets its name. But it now has the dubious distinction of residing in a county with one of the lowest vaccination rates in Alberta, which some have linked to a large Mennonite community that calls the area home.
The province is being crushed by the fourth wave, having to expand ICU capacity, fly in nurses from other provinces and reintroduce public health measures that were previously declared over for good. The province's ICUs in city centres such as Edmonton and Calgary are seeing a disproportionate number of patients from rural areas such as Two Hills, where vaccination rates have lagged.
The low vaccination rate in the county, which has about 5,000 people, has caused tension and exposed a rift in the usually tight-knit community.
The Unger family told the Star they've been mocked by other members of the faith for getting the shot and have opted to not reopen their dine-in service, to avoid harassment.
Meanwhile, just down the street at the Mexican Family Store, owner Gerard Neufeld says he will never" get vaccinated, refusing to wear a mask in his store and expressing anger about public health restrictions.
Call it a tale of Two Hills.
Read the full story from the Star's Omar Mosleh.
9:20 a.m.: Russia's daily coronavirus death toll hit a new record on Friday amid the country's sluggish vaccination rate and the government's reluctance to tighten restrictions.
Russia's state coronavirus task force reported 936 new deaths on Friday, the highest daily number since the start of the pandemic. It was a third straight day when daily COVID-19 deaths topped 900.
Russia already has Europe's highest death toll in the pandemic - more than 214,000 - and the authorities' conservative way of recording COVID-19 fatalities suggests the actual number could be even higher.
On Friday, the government's task force reported 27,246 new confirmed cases, just slightly less than Thursday's number of 27,550, which was the highest so far this year.
A steep rise in infections and deaths began in late September, with authorities blaming it on the low vaccination rate. As of Tuesday, almost 33% of Russia's 146 million people had received at least one shot of a coronavirus vaccine, and 29% were fully vaccinated.
But the Kremlin has shrugged off the idea of imposing a new nationwide lockdown, delegating the power to tighten restrictions to regional authorities.
9 a.m.: Britain announced Friday that it will offer new vaccinations to thousands of people who volunteered for trials of the Novavax coronavirus vaccine, which has not yet been approved for use in any country.
Some 15,000 people in the U.K. got Novavax shots as part of a clinical trial. While the U.K. recognizes them as vaccinated, most countries don't, meaning they can't travel.
Britain's health department said more than 15,000 participants will be given two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The government says it plans to expand the offer to about 6,000 U.K. participants in trials of other vaccines that also have not been approved for use.
Britain has appealed to other members of the G-20 group of nations to classify clinical trial volunteers as vaccinated, but most have not done so.
England's deputy chief medical officer, Jonathan Van-Tam, noted that if more countries around the world had reciprocated by allowing U.K. volunteers to enjoy fully vaccinated status for overseas travel, these measures would not have been necessary."
8:54 a.m.: Statistics Canada says the economy added 157,000 jobs in September, bringing employment back to February 2020 levels for the first time.
The unemployment rate fell to 6.9 per cent, down from 7.1 per cent in August.
The last time Canada has this large an employment gain was in June 2021, when the economy added 231,000 jobs.
6:01 a.m.: Politicians accustomed to sparring in British Columbia's legislature have joined forces outside the house to push for higher vaccination rates in the north, but a longtime member of the Opposition Liberals says the Alberta influence" is a factor in a part of B.C. where intensive care units can't accommodate the influx of COVID-19 patients.
Mike Bernier said proximity to neighbouring Alberta set us back from day one" when it comes to some northern residents shunning vaccination.
It would be the Alberta influence. A good portion of people in Dawson Creek, Pouce Coupe, the Fort St. John area, are very closely related, whether it be for personal reasons or through work, with Alberta," he said. And we've seen the problems in Alberta with a solid message of trying to get people vaccinated until just recently, and the crisis that they're in."
Bernier said some were so angry when B.C. introduced vaccine passports that they posted online messages about shooting him for supporting the policy.
Most residents in the B.C. region aren't anti-vaxxers, Bernier said. They're strong willed and do not like government intervention. They just want to work and raise their families and are very skeptical of government officials in general telling them what to do."
Friday 5:58 a.m.: The vaccines were supposed to be the ticket out of the pandemic. But in Singapore, things did not go according to plan.
The Southeast Asian city-state was widely considered a success story in its initial handling of the coronavirus. It closed its borders, tested and traced aggressively and was one of the first countries in Asia to order vaccines.
A top politician told the public that an 80% vaccination rate was the criterion for a phased reopening. Singapore has now fully inoculated 83% of its population, but instead of opening up, it is doing quite the opposite.
In September, with cases doubling every eight to 10 days, the government reinstated restrictions on gatherings. The United States said its citizens should reconsider travel to the country. Long lines started forming at the emergency departments in several hospitals. People were told once again they should work from home.
The country's experience has become a sobering case study for other nations pursuing reopening strategies without having had to deal with large outbreaks in the pandemic. For the Singapore residents who believed the city-state would reopen once the vaccination rate reached a certain level, there was a feeling of whiplash and nagging questions about what it would take to reopen if vaccines were not enough.