Today’s coronavirus news: NHL season kicks off with some restrictions for fans attending in person; U.S. to reopen land borders next month for fully vaccinated
The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Wednesday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.
10:05 a.m. Ontario is reporting 306 COVID-19 cases and 12 deaths, according to Dr. Jennifer Kwan; 23,219 tests were conducted, with a 1.7 per cent positivity rate.
10 a.m. Nearly 1,500 hospital staff and physicians are unvaccinated against COVID in Hamilton and potentially face termination after November.
The stricter staff vaccine policies come as Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) and St. Joseph's Healthcare already have hundreds of unfilled jobs between them.
It's also at the same time that the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table has warned that burnout has increased over the pandemic to levels that pose a threat to maintaining a functioning health-care workforce."
Health worker burnout is now threatening Ontario's overall health workforce, and will probably outlast the pandemic," the science table said in a tweet Tuesday. Ontario needs to pay particular attention to those most at risk of burnout: nurses, ICU and emerg staff, women, recent graduates and trainees. Even small changes have big effects on patient safety, absenteeism and mental health."
8:45 a.m. Need new snow tires? Better start shopping now before the opportunity rolls away.
The same COVID-related supply-chain woes that have hit everything from microchips to food to used cars means it will be harder than usual to get winter tires this year. (You can also thank a lousy harvest for rubber trees in Southeast Asia, the world's largest source of natural rubber.)
A director at one of Canada's biggest tire retailers said the company has been working hard to keep an adequate supply on hand. Still, Ron Pierce says customers should probably hedge their bets.
Read the full story from the Star's Josh Rubin
8 a.m. TTC stations are holding vaccination clinics this week, Mayor John Tory tweeted Wednesday:
They will be held at Wilson station Oct. 13 - Oct. 15 from 8 a.m. - 8 p.m. and at Victoria Park station Oct. 14 - Oct. 15 8 a.m. - 8 p.m.
7:50 a.m. Russia on Wednesday reported another record of daily coronavirus deaths amid a slow vaccination rate and authorities' reluctance to tighten restrictions.
The government coronavirus task force reported 984 coronavirus deaths over the past 24 hours, the pandemic's new high. The country has repeatedly marked record daily death tolls over the past few weeks as infections soared to near all-time highs, with 28,717 confirmed new cases reported Wednesday.
The Kremlin has attributed the mounting contagion and deaths to a laggard vaccination rate. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said Tuesday that about 43 million Russians, or about 29 per cent of the country's nearly 146 million people, were fully vaccinated.
President Vladimir Putin has emphasized the need to speed up the vaccination rate, but he also has cautioned against forcing people to get the shots by applying administrative pressure. Experts have attributed the slow pace of vaccination to widespread vaccine skepticism and disinformation about COVID-19 vaccines.
The Kremlin has ruled out a new nationwide lockdown like the one during the first months of the pandemic that badly crippled the economy and dented Putin's ratings, delegating the power to enforce coronavirus restrictions to regional authorities.
Some Russian regions have restricted attendance at large public events and limited access to theaters, restaurants and other places to people who have been vaccinated, recently recovered from COVID-19 or tested negative in the previous 72 hours.
7:35 a.m. Puerto Rico's governor announced Tuesday that he would be lifting a curfew and a ban on alcohol sales as the U.S. territory reports a drop in the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths.
Current restrictions prohibit certain businesses from operating between midnight and 5 a.m. and also bar alcohol sales during that time, two measures that will be lifted Thursday.
However, Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said other restrictions, including an indoors mask requirement, remain in place.
He noted that 70 per cent of the island's 3.3 million people are vaccinated, and that the positivity rate for coronavirus tests dropped to 3 per cent, compared with 10 per cent in August.
Puerto Rico has reported more than 150,500 confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 3,000 deaths from COVID-19, the disease that can be caused by the virus.
7:22 a.m. Florida has issued its first fine to a county it accuses of violating a new state law banning coronavirus vaccine mandates and for firing 14 workers who failed to get the shots.
The Florida Department of Health on Tuesday issued the $3.5 million fine for Leon County, saying the home to the state capital of Tallahassee violated Florida's vaccine passport" law that bars requiring people to show proof of vaccination.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says that no one should lose their jobs because of COVID shots."
The law is being challenged in court and conflicts with a Biden administration order that companies with more than 100 employees require their workers to be vaccinated or face weekly testing.
The Leon County administrator says the county believes its vaccination mandate is legally justifiable and necessary to keep people safe.
6:15 a.m.: A growing chorus of health experts and business groups are questioning the recent decision by the Ford government to allow large venues to return to 100 per cent capacity while leaving strict capacity rules in place for bars, restaurants and gyms.
The announcement, which came into effect Friday at midnight, means that large venues where proof of vaccination is required - including movie theatres, concert halls and arenas - can now fill every seat. Masks are recommended but are not required for patrons who are enjoying a cold beer or hot dog in the stands, perplexing many who say such venues are less safe than restaurants where patrons can also remove masks to eat and drink.
Epidemiologist Colin Furness said the announcement doesn't make sense to him.
It's anti-science," said Furness, a professor at the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto. What you don't want is large gatherings. You want small gatherings."
Read the full story from the Star's Rosa Saba.
6 a.m.: The puck will drop on a new NHL season tonight for most of Canada's teams.
Fans attending the games in Toronto and Edmonton in person will be subject to restrictions designed to slow the spread of COVID-19.
This campaign is also the end of the one-and-done North Division, which had all seven Canadian teams play each other - and no one else - last season. The North Division was necessary as the Canadian-American border was closed to non-essential travel because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now that the border has reopened, Canada's NHL teams are returning to their usual divisions.
5:40 a.m.: Wages and COVID-19 restrictions pushed workers out of the restaurant and food services industry and into professional service roles in white-collar sectors, according to an analysis by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).
By February 2021, almost a quarter-million workers in Canada who used to be employed in food and accommodation had found new jobs outside that sector, many of them switching to roles as secretaries or assistants for accountants, lawyers, architects and more, the study finds.
Employment in food services is now 14.8 per cent below its pre-pandemic level, according to Canada's September labour-force survey. That's an improvement from the worker shortages during third-wave restrictions earlier this year, but it means there are still 180,000 workers who left food-service positions in February 2020 and never returned.
Read more from the Star's Jacob Lorinc.
5:20 a.m.: Yvonne Binda stands in front of a church congregation, all in pristine white robes, and tells them not to believe what they've heard about COVID-19 vaccines.
The vaccine is not linked to Satanism," she says. The congregants, members of a Christian Apostolic church in the southern African nation of Zimbabwe, are unmoved. But when Binda, a vaccine campaigner and member of an Apostolic church herself, promises them soap, buckets and masks, there are enthusiastic shouts of Amen!"
Apostolic groups that infuse traditional beliefs into a Pentecostal doctrine are among the most skeptical in Zimbabwe when it comes to COVID-19 vaccines, with an already strong mistrust of modern medicine. Many followers put faith in prayer, holy water and anointed stones to ward off disease or cure illnesses.
The congregants Binda addressed in the rural area of Seke sang about being protected by the holy spirit, but have at least acknowledged soap and masks as a defense against the coronavirus. Binda is trying to convince them to also get vaccinated - and that's a tough sell.
Read more from The Associated Press.
5:15 a.m.: It's hard to know where Kyrie Irving is getting his vaccination information. Hope it's not the same sources that had him convinced for a while the Earth was flat.
True story.
So maybe it wasn't much of a surprise Tuesday, when science tripped up the seven-time All-Star again. Hemmed in by a New York COVID-19 vaccine mandate that covers pro athletes and would have limited Irving to playing road games only, the Brooklyn Nets gave him an ultimatum: a.) take the shot; or b.) take the 2021-22 season off.
The argument for a.) is pretty straightforward. The Nets are paying Irving $34 million per year to blend with Kevin Durant and James Harden - two of the best players in the game - and maybe deliver an NBA title to Brooklyn. But b.) is not bad, either.
Irving can stay glued to his couch and still collect a cool $16 million or so. That's because Nets general manager Sean Marks and owner Joe Tsai, who together decided the half-a-loaf" approach wasn't worth the disruption, also said Irving would be paid for road games where he would have been eligible to play.
Will there be pushback from Kyrie and his camp?" Marks said at a news conference. I'm sure that this is not a decision that they like. ... But again, this is a choice that Kyrie had, and he was well aware of that."
Irving has ducked questions about whether he was vaccinated, saying three weeks ago in a Zoom interview with reporters, I think I just would love to just keep that private, handle it the right way with my team and go forward together with the plan."
Whatever that plan is, Marks made clear that Irving, a vice president of the NBA Players Association, was not among the 96% of players the union said had taken the jab. If he was vaccinated," Marks said, we wouldn't be having this discussion."
5 a.m.: The U.S. government is planning in early November to allow fully vaccinated Canadians to cross its land border with Canada, officials said Tuesday night. The border has been closed since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020.
In a statement, New York Rep. Brian Higgins broke the news, which was also confirmed by senior Biden administration officials who previewed the new policy to the Associated Press.
At long last, there is action by the United States to open the doors and welcome back our Canadian neighbours," Higgins said in the statement. The U.S. lawmaker, a Democrat, has been pushing for the border between the two countries to re-open for months now.
According to The Associated Press, the U.S. will reopen its land borders to nonessential travel in November, as the country moves to require all international visitors to be vaccinated against COVID-19. By mid-January, even essential travelers seeking to enter the U.S., such as truck drivers, will need to be fully vaccinated.