Today’s coronavirus news: World takes action as new variant emerges in southern Africa; Ontario reporting 927 new COVID-19 cases
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.
10:35 a.m. A slew of nations moved to stop air travel from southern Africa on Friday, and stocks plunged in Asia and Europe in reaction to news of a new, potentially more transmissible COVID-19 variant.
The last thing we need is to bring in a new variant that will cause even more problems," said German Health Minister Jens Spahn, amid a massive spike in cases in the 27-nation European Union, which is recommending a ban on flights from southern African nations.
Within a few days of the discovery of the new variant, it has already impacted on a jittery world that is sensitive to bad COVID-19 news, with deaths around the globe already standing at well over 5 million.
The first cases outside Africa emerged in Israel, Hong Kong and Belgium.
Medical experts, including the World Health Organization, warned against any overreaction before all elements were clear, but nations that acted said their concerns were justified.
10:17 a.m. Stocks fell sharply Friday as a new highly transmissible coronavirus variant from South Africa seemed to be spreading across the globe, threatening months of progress at getting the pandemic under control.
Health officials in Europe moved quickly to propose suspending air travel from southern Africa. Meanwhile cases of the variant were found in Hong Kong, Belgium and Tel Aviv as well as major South African cities like Johannesburg.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 900 points in the first 20 minutes of trading to trade at 34,917. The S&P 500 index was down 1.7 per cent, on pace for its worst day since late September. The Nasdaq Composite was down 1.1 per cent.
There have been other variants of the coronavirus before - the Dlta variant devastated much of the US throughout the summer - but early data on this variant appears to show it's more easily transmissible than other variants.
10:10 a.m. (will be updated) Ontario reporting 927 new COVID-19 cases Friday and 6 additional deaths, according to Dr. Jennifer Kwan.
Individuals who are not fully vaccinated represent 23.7 per cent of Ontario's total population and amount to 494 of Ontario's 927 new reported cases. 55 cases are in individuals with an unknown vaccination status. Nearly 89.2 per cenet of Ontarians 12+ have one dose and 86.2 per cent have two doses, according to tweets from Health Minister Christine Elliott.
10:08 a.m. Poland's resistance to introducing new lockdowns and restrictions amid skyrocketing COVID-19 infections and deaths is drawing criticism from the country's medical professionals and is bucking a growing European trend to put limits on the unvaccinated.
The populist right-wing government of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki appears unwilling to enact measures that would anger voters and deal another blow to an economy struggling with high inflation. In Western Europe, where vaccinations are markedly higher than Poland's 53 per cent, restrictions have recently led to protests and rioting.
We certainly know at the moment that restrictions are not an effective means of limiting the growth of the pandemic," Health Minister Adam Niedzielski said on Thursday, when 497 new deaths were recorded in Poland.
9:50 a.m. While some companies are forging ahead with in-person holiday gatherings, others have opted for virtual events or decided to deliver gifts to workers in lieu of a party. Some have even cancelled the festivities.
Caught in the middle are restaurants, party venues and caterers hoping to eke out a profit, but still nervously watching to see if rising cases in some provinces spook business owners out of their plans.
"'What is your cancellation policy?' is the biggest question we are getting," said Kevin Mazzone, the general manager of Vancouver catering service Lazy Gourmet.
Companies are keen to have a plan B, so Lazy Gourmet is offering the chance to switch parties to virtual from in-person, as long as clients give two week's notice.
The switches aren't easy. Mazzone must secure workers in a labour market starved for staff, deal with product shortages caused by global supply chain backlogs and adhere to client standards.
9:30 a.m. Federal health regulators say an experimental COVID-19 pill from Merck is effective against the virus, but they will seek input from outside experts on risks of birth defects and other potential problems in pregnant women.
The Food and Drug Administration posted its analysis of the pill ahead of a public meeting next week where academic and other experts will weigh in on its safety and effectiveness. The agency isn't required to follow the group's advice.
The FDA scientists said their review identified several potential risks, including possible toxicity and birth defects. Regulators also noted Merck collected far less safety data overall on its drug than was gathered for other COVID-19 therapies.
8:50 a.m. Coronavirus infections in the Czech Republic jumped to a new record high Friday, a surge that hit the country's president and delayed the appointment of the new prime minister.
The Health Ministry said the daily tally of new cases hit 27,717 the previous day. That's almost 2,000 more than the previous record, set on Tuesday.
The country's infection rate has risen to a new record high of 1,231 new cases per 100,000 residents over the past seven days.
8:35 a.m. A batch of British and Irish golfers withdrew from the Joburg Open before Friday's second round after the U.K. government announced it was banning flights from South Africa to counter the spread of a new COVID-19 variant.
The inaugural season of the DP World Tour started Thursday but more than a dozen players pulled out of the tournament because of the new restrictions, tour spokesman Steve Todd confirmed on Friday.
The U.K. announced it was suspending flights from South Africa and five other southern African countries and making travellers from these countries self-isolate for 10 days. From Sunday morning, travellers would have to go into hotel quarantine.
U.K. Health Secretary Sajid Javid said there were concerns the new variant may be more transmissible" than the Delta strain, and the vaccines that we currently have may be less effective" against it.
8 a.m. India restarted shipments of COVID-19 vaccines to the Covax initiative, a much needed boost for the beleaguered global sharing body that has struggled to inoculate the world's poorest nations and now faces a potentially more virulent strain of the coronavirus.
The Serum Institute of India Ltd., the world's largest vaccine manufacturer, said an unnumbered amount of doses of its locally made AstraZeneca Plc shot were shipped for export to Covax on Friday. Serum expects to increase doses substantially" into the first quarter of next year and to include Novavax Inc.'s inoculation at an unspecified time.
The decision by India after abruptly halting shipments in April follows growing confidence with the ramped-up pace of its once ponderous domestic inoculation drive. According to Bloomberg's vaccine tracker, more than half of India's 1.4 billion people have had at least one dose and infection rates have plateaued to relative lows last seen in early 2021, before the country's severe second-wave took hold.
7:45 a.m. A partnership between Peel Public Health and a certain caped crusader to promote COVID-19 vaccinations to kids aged five to 11 was short-lived.
Peel Public Health has taken down a video featuring its chief medical officer of health, Dr. Lawrence Loh, and Brampton Batman," played by local man Stephen Lawrence, who has portrayed the comic book and film hero at many events in recent years.
The video received a number of positive and negative comments on social media and Loh said while the superhero theme was similar to that used by other public health units, the attention the clip got was becoming a distraction."
7:30 a.m. The bars are shut in Vienna, and the Christmas market is empty in Munich, as several European nations tighten up or even lock down to combat a spike in coronavirus infections.
Meanwhile in London, couples sip mulled wine at a seasonal market near the River Thames, full-capacity audiences fill the seats at the nearby National Theatre, and friends huddle over pints in pubs throughout the city.
Not for the first time in the pandemic, Britain is out of step with many of its neighbors. But this time, it's happy to be different.
The U.K. has endured three nationwide lockdowns and recorded nearly 145,000 deaths from the coronavirus, the highest toll in Europe after Russia. Now, it is watching as hospitals struggle with surging cases in countries including the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic, bringing lockdowns and restrictions. But while Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned that a blizzard from the east" could still ruin Britain's Christmas, many scientists say the wind is now blowing the other way.
6:30 a.m.: Advisers to the World Health Organization are holding a special session Friday to flesh out information about a worrying new variant of the coronavirus that has been detected in South Africa, though a top expert says its impact on COVID-19 vaccines may not be known for weeks.
The technical advisory group on the evolution of COVID-19 was meeting virtually to discuss the so-called B.1.1.529 variant that has caused stock markets to swoon and led the European Union to recommend a pause in flights to southern Africa.
The group could decide if it's a variant of concern" - the most worrying type, like the well-known delta variant - or a variant of interest," and whether to use a Greek letter to classify it.
We don't know very much about this, yet. What we do know is that this variant has a large number of mutations, and the concern is that when you have so many mutations it can have an impact on how the virus behaves," said Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's technical lead on COVID-19, in a social-media chat Thursday.
Fewer than 100 full genome sequences of the variant are so far available, she said.
"It will take a few weeks for us to understand what impact this variant has on any potential vaccines, for example," Van Kerkhove said.
Reached by phone, advisory group chairman Dr. Anurag Agrawal, the director of Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology in New Delhi, said it was too soon to comment on the variant. He said that more data was needed before he could add to the information that was already available.
This is one to watch. I would say we have concern, but I think you would want us to have concern," Van Kerkhove said. We have people who are on this."
5:56 a.m.: COVID-19 outbreaks in Ontario elementary schools have reached a high since the beginning of the school year, with more than 160 current outbreaks, almost double the number from two weeks ago and almost triple the total from a month ago.
And while scientists and doctors say that community vaccination rates, masking and ventilation upgrades in classrooms have played a role in helping to keep cases in schools from rising even higher, they warn that outbreaks could very well continue to climb with the cold weather - even with Thursday's launch of COVID vaccine clinics for children aged five to 11.
That's because with the recommended eight-week interval between the two pediatric doses, it will take more than two months for the first group of kids who receive a shot to be considered fully vaccinated. For example, children who receive their first shot in late November won't complete their vaccine series until early February.
Read the full story from the Star's Kenyon Wallace
5:44 a.m.: Two cases of the new COVID-19 strain raising alarm in parts of southern Africa and unnerving financial markets worldwide have been found in travellers in compulsory quarantine in Hong Kong.
A traveller from South Africa was found to have the variant - currently known as B.1.1.529 - while the other case was identified in a person who'd travelled from Canada and was quarantined in the hotel room opposite his, the Hong Kong government said late Thursday. The traveller from South Africa used a mask with a valve that doesn't filter exhaled air and may have transmitted the virus to his neighbour when the hotel room door was open, a health department spokesperson said Friday.
B.1.1.529 carries an unusually large number of mutations and is clearly very different" from previous incarnations, Tulio de Oliveira, a bio-informatics professor who runs gene-sequencing institutions at two South African universities, said at a briefing on Thursday. Early PCR test results showed that 90% of 1,100 new infections in the South African province that includes Johannesburg were caused by the new variant, de Oliveira tweeted.
South Africa's Health Minister Joe Phaahla said the mutation was of serious concern," while World Health Organization officials have met to discuss the virus.
5:43 a.m.: The German air force will begin assisting the transfer of intensive care patients Friday as the government warned that the situation in the country is more serious than at any point in the pandemic.
Citing the sharp rise in cases, Health Minister Jens Spahn said contacts between people need to be sharply reduced to curb the spread of the virus.
The situation is dramatically serious, more serious than it's been at any point in the pandemic," he told reporters in Berlin.
Spahn said Germany was having to organize large-scale transfers of patients within the country for the first time since the outbreak began in early 2020.
German news agency dpa reported that a Luftwaffe A310 medevac plane will fly seriously ill patients from the southern town of Memmingen to North Rhine-Westphalia state Friday afternoon.
Hospitals in southern and eastern regions of Germany have warned they are running out of intensive care beds because of the large number of seriously ill COVID-19 patients.
The country's disease control agency said 76,414 newly confirmed cases were reported in the past 24 hours. The Robert Koch Institute, a government agency, said Germany also had 357 new deaths from COVID-19, taking the total since the start of the outbreak to 100,476.
Responding to a newly discovered variant that's been spreading in South Africa, Spahn said airlines coming from there would only be able to transport German citizens. Travellers will need to go into quarantine for 14 days whether they are vaccinated or not, he said.
The last thing we need is to bring in a new variant that will cause even more problems," he said.
5:42 a.m.: Members of Parliament are able to work from home again after passing a motion Thursday to resume hybrid sittings of the House of Commons.
Liberals and New Democrats joined forces to pass the motion over the objections of Conservative and Bloc Quebecois MPs who had wanted to fully return to normal, in-person operations.
The motion gives MPs the option of participating virtually in proceedings, including votes and debates in the Commons and its committees, starting Friday and continuing until the House breaks for the summer in June.
It passed late Thursday by a vote of 180-140 after the NDP supported the Liberals in putting an end to two days of debate on the matter.
MPs first adopted the hybrid format a year ago, aimed at limiting the number of members in the Commons to avoid spreading COVID-19. But the all-party agreement to allow that format expired last June.
Since Parliament resumed Monday after a five-month hiatus, all but one of the country's 338 MPs have been in the Commons because there was no unanimous agreement to return to hybrid sittings.
The missing MP - Conservative Richard Lehoux - tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday, two days after attending an in-person Tory caucus retreat.
5:41 a.m.: Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Israel is on the threshold of an emergency situation" on Friday after authorities detected the country's first case of a new coronavirus variant in a traveller who returned from Malawi.
The Health Ministry said the traveller and two other suspected cases, all of whom had been vaccinated, were placed in isolation.
A new coronavirus variant has been detected in South Africa that scientists say is a concern because of its high number of mutations and rapid spread among young people in Gauteng, the country's most populous province.
At a Cabinet meeting convened Friday to discuss the new variant, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said it is more contagious and spreads more rapidly than the delta variant. He said authorities were still gathering information on whether it evades vaccines or is deadlier.
We are currently at the threshold of an emergency situation," he said. I ask everyone to be prepared and to fully join in the work around the clock."
Late Thursday, Israel declared South Africa and six other African nations to be red countries" from which foreign nationals are barred from travelling to Israel. Israelis are prohibited from visiting those countries and those returning from them must undergo a period of isolation.
Israel launched one of the world's first and most successful vaccination campaigns late last year, and nearly half the population has received a booster shot. Israel recently expanded the campaign to include children as young as 5.
5:40 a.m.: European Union nations were moving to stop air travel from southern Africa on Friday, seeking to counter the spread of a new COVID-19 variant as the 27-nation bloc battles a massive spike in cases.
The last thing we need is to bring in a new variant that will cause even more problems," said German Health Minister Jens Spahn.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement that she proposes, in close coordination with the member states, to activate the emergency brake to stop air travel from the southern African region."
Scientists say the new coronavirus variant detected in South Africa is a concern because of its high number of mutations and rapid spread among young people in Gauteng, the country's most populous province.
Germany said von der Leyen's proposal could be enacted as soon as Friday night. Spahn said airlines coming back from South Africa will only be able to transport German citizens home, and travellers will need to go into quarantine for 14 days whether they are vaccinated or not.
Germany has seen new record daily case numbers in recent days and passed the mark of 100,000 deaths from COVID-19 on Thursday.
Italy's Health Ministry also announced measures to ban entry into Italy of anyone who has been in seven southern African nations - South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia and Eswatini - in the past 14 days due to the new variant.