Today’s coronavirus news: Ontario reporting record 3,220 hospitalizations with COVID-19; Ontario set to give health care capacity updated
The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Tuesday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.
10:35 a.m. In Ontario, 3,220 people are hospitalized with COVID-19; 54 per cent were admitted to the hospital for COVID-19 and 46 per cent were admitted for other reasons but have tested positive for COVID-19, according to tweets from Health Minister Christine Elliott.
There are 7,951 new cases of COVID-19.
In Ontario, 28,693,247 vaccine doses have been administered, with over 141,000 doses administered yesterday. 91.1 per cent of Ontarians 12+ have one dose and 88.5 per cent have two doses.
9:45 a.m. Justin Trudeau says Canada will have enough COVID-19 vaccines for all those eligible to receive a fourth dose if needed.
The prime minister spoke with provincial and territorial leaders yesterday, and a statement issued by his office says he assured them Canada has secured enough shots for a third and potential fourth round of vaccinations.
The statement says Ottawa will do all it can to help provinces and territories cope with the fifth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, as infections fuelled by the Omicron variant threaten to overwhelm health systems.
The federal government has said provinces and territories will receive a combined 140 million rapid tests this month, although the statement did not provide any new details on when the deliveries will be scheduled.
9:30 a.m. The Ontario government is expected to give an update Tuesday on the capacity of the province's health-care system in the face of the fast-spreading Omicron variant of COVID-19.
Health Minister Christine Elliott is set to speak on the issue at 12:30 p.m., alongside the Matthew Anderson, the CEO of Ontario Health.
The province's health-care system has been under growing strain in recent weeks due to the highly transmissible variant, which has also caused staffing shortages across several sectors.
The number of people in hospital with COVID-19 has skyrocketed, and there has been an overall surge in infections, even as the government limited access to testing to groups deemed more at risk.
Earlier this month, Premier Doug Ford invoked the potential for a "tsunami" of cases as he announced a temporary return to online learning for students.
9:20 a.m. According to the Ontario Hospital Association, Critical Care Services Ontario (CCSO) is now reporting at least 465 adult ICU patients with COVID-19 at provincial hospitals.
80 adults are newly admitted to intensive care with COVID-related critical illness, a single-day pandemic record for Ontario.
More people are now in Ontario ICUs with COVID-related critical illness than at the peak of the province's deadliest second wave, around this time last year.
9:15 a.m. Between the deep freeze and the deluge of new COVID-19 cases connected to the Omicron variant, Mike Brown and his family thought it best to hunker down over the holidays.
There was a sense of relief on Dec. 30 when he heard his daughter would have a little more time before returning to her Grade 3 classroom after the Alberta government delayed reopening until Jan. 10.
The relief didn't last long. This week, his daughter is back in school.
I was hoping that there'd be some kind of a change ... Why was last week not OK for her to go back and this week is as if, in my view, nothing has changed?" said Brown, whose daughter attends King George School in Calgary.
Read the full story from the Star's Omar Mosleh and and Jeremy Nuttall
8:55 a.m. Poland has become the latest European nation to reach the sad milestone of 100,000 deaths related to the coronavirus.
Nearly a quarter of those deaths - some 24,000 - occurred in the most recent wave of infection that began in October, a period in which vaccines have been widely available in the European Union nation of 38 million people.
Health Minister Adam Niedzielski said Tuesday that 493 more people with COVID-19 had died, pushing the overall pandemic death toll to 100,254 in the central European nation.
8:45 a.m. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced a wave of public and political outrage on Tuesday over allegations that he and his staff flouted coronavirus lockdown rules by holding a garden party in 2020 while Britons were barred by law from mingling outside the home.
Opposition politicians called for a police investigation after broadcaster ITV published a leaked email invitation to socially distanced drinks" in the garden of the prime minister's Downing Street office and residence in May 2020. The email from the prime minister's private secretary, Martin Reynolds, was sent to dozens of people and urged attendees to bring your own booze."
The event was scheduled for May 20, 2020 - the same day the government at a televised news conference reminded people they could only meet up with one person outside their household. London's Metropolitan Police force also published reminders about the rules that day.
8:20 a.m. The urgent care centre at Peel Memorial Centre for Integrated Health and Wellness will be closed for at least three weeks, to direct staff and physicians to sites where demand is greatest.
William Osler Health System announced on Sunday, Jan. 9 the hospital would be closed until at least the end of day on Monday, Jan. 10. On Monday night, Osler announced Peel Memorial would be closed until at least Feb. 1.
Osler explained the decision was made as a result of increasing volumes in Osler's emergency departments and patients who require admission for care, further compounded by extreme capacity and staffing pressures."
8:10 a.m. Novak Djokovic held a practice session on Tuesday, a day after he left immigration detention, focusing on defending his Australian Open title even while he still faces the prospect of deportation because he's not vaccinated against COVID-19.
The top-ranked tennis star hit the show courts of Melbourne Park, where the tournament is held, within hours of winning a legal battle that allowed him to stay in the country.
At issue is whether he has a valid exemption to rules requiring vaccination to enter Australia since he recently recovered from COVID-19. A judge ruled Monday he could stay, but the immigration minister could still send him home.
There were also new questions raised Tuesday over an immigration form, on which he said he had not traveled in the 14 days before his flight to Australia. The Monte Carlo-based athlete was seen in Spain and Serbia in that two-week period.
7:20 a.m. As COVID-19 hospitalizations in Ontario hit pandemic highs, hospitals are racing to care for an influx of patients sick with a wider variety of symptoms and conditions, making this surge different from previous waves and placing additional stresses on a system already struggling to cope.
While patients are still being admitted with plummeting oxygen levels requiring breathing support - the typical COVID presentation seen in prior waves - a broader range of patients with the virus are also needing care.
Hospital leaders report COVID is now sickening greater numbers of elderly patients, people who are immunocompromised, those considered medically fragile and patients for whom the virus has exacerbated an underlying medical condition, such as heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or insulin-dependent diabetes.
Read the full story from the Star's Megan Ogilvie
7:03 a.m. As Omicron sweeps through Ontario, it could take billions of dollars out of the province's economy.
Economists say that's the potential toll if 20 to 30 per cent of Ontario workers book off sick with the rapidly-spreading COVID-19 variant, as predicted by the province's chief medical officer of health Dr. Kieran Moore.
It's certainly in the billions," said David Macdonald, senior economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
While Moore's prediction was meant to be across all sectors, some will fare worse than others when it comes to the economic impact from Omicron-related worker absences, Macdonald argued.
Read the full story from the Star's Josh Rubin
5:32 a.m.: Justin Trudeau says Ottawa will do all it can to help provinces and territories cope with the fifth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, as infections fuelled by the Omicron variant threaten to overwhelm health systems.
The prime minister spoke with provincial and territorial leaders yesterday, and a statement issued by his office says he assured them that there are enough vaccine doses available for all eligible Canadians to receive third booster shots.
The federal government has said provinces and territories will receive a combined 140 million rapid tests this month, although the statement did not provide any new details on when the deliveries will be scheduled.
The statement says Trudeau also emphasized the need to promote support programs, such as the federal wage subsidy, to help people and businesses survive the latest lockdowns and public health restrictions.
The call with the First Ministers came as COVID-19 case numbers and hospitalizations continue to surge throughout Canada.
5:31 a.m.: A new poll suggests a slim majority of Canadians support the latest round of lockdowns and other government-imposed restrictions as the Omicron variant continue to fuel an explosion in new COVID-19 infections.
Fifty-six per cent of respondents in the poll conducted by Leger and the Association of Canadian Studies agreed governments are making the right decisions to limit the spread of Omicron and keep the health system from being overrun.
Another 31 per cent said they did not believe Omicron poses a serious health risk to most of those who are infected, and that governments should leave things open and let Canadians live with the risk.
The remaining 14 per cent said they did not know.
The results suggest there is a growing level of fatigue among Canadians when it comes to lockdowns, including among those who have been fully vaccinated, said Leger executive vice-president Christian Bourque.
5:31 a.m.: As Quebec officials consider tightening the rules for the unvaccinated, health experts in the province say expanding the vaccine passport system is justified because of the high number of COVID-19 patients in hospital who have refused to be jabbed.
Others, however, say the people who are rejecting COVID-19 vaccines are doing so out of ideology and likely won't be swayed by the government's latest restrictions.
Last week, Health Minister Christian Dube said proof of vaccination will be required to shop at Quebec's cannabis and liquor monopolies starting Jan. 18 and that the passport could be expanded further to include businesses such as shopping malls and personal care salons. Quebec's College of Physicians on Friday said the vaccine passport should be required for places such as large department stores, libraries and museums.
Dube has repeatedly said that about 10 per cent of Quebec adults are unvaccinated but represent about 50 per cent of COVID-19-related hospitalizations. But data published by the Health Department on Monday indicated that 32 per cent of the 4,094 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in the past 28 days had either been unvaccinated or were fewer than 14 days removed from their first dose.
Dr. Donald Vinh, an infectious disease specialist at McGill University Health Centre, said he supported an expanded vaccine passport system because it could encourage more people to get vaccinated. Any reduction in the number of COVID-19 patients in Quebec's hospitals would help, he added.
5:29 a.m.: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced more allegations that he and his staff flouted coronavirus lockdown rules, this time by holding a garden party in 2020 while Britons were barred by law from mingling outside the home.
Opposition politicians called for a police investigation after broadcaster ITV published a leaked email invitation to socially distanced drinks" in the garden of the prime minister's Downing Street office and residence in May 2020. The email from the prime minister's private secretary, Martin Reynolds, was sent to dozens of people and urged attendees to bring your own booze."
The event was scheduled for May 20, 2020 - the same day the government at a televised news conference reminded people they could only meet up with one person outside their household. London's Metropolitan Police force published reminders about the rules on the same day.
During Britain's first lockdown, which began in March 2020, gatherings were banned with a few exceptions, including work and funerals.
Johnson's Conservative government has repeatedly been accused of flouting the rules it imposed on others.
5:29 a.m.: The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church Patriarch Porfirije has tested positive for COVID-19, the church said on Tuesday, amid a surge in infections in the country and elsewhere in the Balkan region.
Porfirije has developed very mild symptoms of the virus infection" and remains in home isolation, said the statement. It added that Porfirije is carrying out administrative duties entirely without problems.
The 60-year-old patriarch became the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church after the previous patriarch, Irinej, died in November 2020 after contracting the coronavirus.
Porfirije on Sunday attended a mass ceremony in Republika Srpska, the Serb-run part of neighbouring Bosnia, where few people wore face masks.
5:28 a.m.: Poland has become the latest European nation to reach the grim milestone of 100,000 deaths related to the coronavirus.
Nearly a quarter of those deaths - some 24,000 - occurred in the most recent wave of infection that began in October, a period in which vaccines have been widely available in the European Union nation.
Health Minister Adam Niedzielski said early Tuesday that 493 deaths of people with COVID-19 had been registered in the past day, pushing the death toll to over 100,000.
The vast majority of the deaths are among people who have not been vaccinated. The vaccination rate in Poland is 55.8%.
Poland now joins Italy, the U.K, France and Germany as those European nations that have recorded 100,000 deaths.
Tuesday 5:26 a.m.: A third Chinese city has locked down its residents because of a COVID-19 outbreak, raising the number confined to their homes in China to about 20 million people.
It wasn't clear how long the lockdown of Anyang city, home to 5.5 million, would last as a notice said it was being done to facilitate mass testing but did not indicate if it would end when the testing is completed.
Another 13 million people are locked down in the city of Xi'an and 1.1 million in Yuzhou.