Tag: Ontario

Posted on

Today’s coronavirus news: Ontario reports another 1,053 cases, eight deaths for Saturday; Outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel makes final appeal for Germans to get vaccinated

The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Saturday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.

10:57 p.m.: More cases of the Omicron COVID-19 variant were confirmed in Ontario on Saturday as the province recorded more than 1,000 new virus cases for the second day running.

The latest infections involving the variant of concern emerged in Hamilton and Peel Region, according to news releases from local authorities.

Officials said a Hamilton local resident who returned from travelling to South Africa recently tested positive for Omicron, while a second potential case is under investigation with sequencing results expected in the coming days.

It also noted that Hamilton Public Health Services is conducting case and contact management and the two individuals and their case contacts continue to self-isolate.

Read the full story here.

10:18 p.m.: Five people in Sydney have contracted the omicron variant locally, New South Wales health authorities said.

The cases are linked to two schools and a climbing gym in Sydney’s western suburbs, which may also be the source of a confirmed omicron infection in the Australian Capital Territory, NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said Sunday. Urgent genome testing is under way for a number of other cases linked to the venues and should be available in coming days, she said in a video update.

New South Wales state has confirmed 15 omicron infections and more are likely, Chant said. The outbreak was seeded from infected travelers on a flight from Doha who had been in southern Africa.

Separately, Australia will begin vaccinating young children starting early next year once authorities receive final approvals in the coming weeks.

9:41 p.m.: Ten people aboard a Norwegian Cruise Line ship approaching New Orleans have tested positive for COVID-19, officials said Saturday night.

The Norwegian Breakaway had departed New Orleans on Nov. 28 and is due to return this weekend, the Louisiana Department of Health said in a news release. Over the past week, the ship made stops in Belize, Honduras and Mexico.

More than 3,200 people are on board the ship, officials said.

According to the statement, Norwegian “has been adhering to appropriate quarantine and isolation protocols as new cases and exposures have been identified aboard this vessel.”

Prior to disembarking in New Orleans, each person on board will be tested for the coronavirus. Anyone who tests positive will either go directly home or self-isolate in accommodations provided by the cruise line, officials said.

Officials did not release any information about the conditions of those who have contracted the virus.

Cruise ships were an early source of outbreaks last year at the start of the coronavirus pandemic as some ships were rejected at ports and passengers were forced into quarantine. Some passengers died of COVID-19 at sea while others fell so ill they had to be carried out of the vessels on stretchers.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a no-sail order in March 2020, prompting a standstill that ended last June as cruise ships began to leave U.S. ports with new health and safety requirements. According to Norwegian’s website, the company requires all passengers and crew members to have been vaccinated against the virus at least two weeks prior to departure.

8:55 p.m.: About 15 people who attended an animé convention in New York in November with a Minnesota man who later was found to have the omicron variant have also tested positive for the coronavirus, the man has told health officials in his state. It is uncertain whether any of those cases involved the omicron variant.

The man said that his friends — a group of about 30 people — had come from all over the country for the event, which was held Nov. 19-21. About half of them also later tested positive for the virus, he told the officials.

The man, officials said, was fully vaccinated and had gotten a booster just weeks before the convention. He has recovered from mild symptoms that began shortly after the convention ended and has provided health officials with names and contact information of several in his group. Because the friends live in other states, their names were forwarded to those states’ health departments. Details of their cases are not known.

The Minnesota man’s case was among the first reports of omicron in the United States, and it presented a worrisome possibility for health officials: Might the animé convention, which drew tens of thousands of people to the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center for three days, have been a vector for spreading the new variant, which scientists fear may be able to spread more quickly than any other variant?

After learning that the man had attended a large convention in New York, Kathy Como-Sabetti, manager of the COVID epidemiology section for the Minnesota Department of Public Health, said, “I kind of went, ‘Wow, well, this changes our story.’ This changes the picture of what we’re dealing with.”

At the Animé NYC conference, focused around a popular animation style that originated in Japan, attendees were fairly compliant about wearing masks, the man told officials. But some rooms were very crowded, at capacity, with crowds standing shoulder to shoulder, he said.

Convention attendees were required to provide proof that they had received at least one vaccine shot, and they had to wear masks, according to the convention website. The rules allowed entry “immediately after” a first dose. People are seen as having full vaccination protection two weeks after a second dose of a two-dose vaccine.

7:37 p.m.: Australia’s Parliament House will be closed to the public for the foreseeable future after a political staffer for Greens leader Adam Bandt tested positive for the coronavirus.

The staffer is fully vaccinated and tested positive upon return to Melbourne after attending parliament last week, a spokesperson for Bandt said in a statement. Other staffers have been cleared while Bandt, who is vaccinated, is isolating until he receives a result, according to the statement.

Given the positive result, officials “have decided that Parliament House should close to the public until further notice,” the Department of Parliamentary Services said in a separate statement. Authorities said they are investigating possible close contacts, exposure locations in parliament as well as in the broader community.

The Australian Capital Territory, home to capital Canberra, recorded six cases on Sunday, a health department spokeswoman said by phone. Neighboring New South Wales state found 286 new virus cases, while Victoria state recorded 980 new infections, according to separate statements on Twitter.

6:06 p.m.: A rush of vaccine-seeking customers and staff shortages are squeezing drugstores around the U.S., leading to frazzled workers and temporary pharmacy closures.

Drugstores are normally busy this time of year with flu shots and other vaccines, but now pharmacists are doling out a growing number of COVID-19 shots and giving coronavirus tests.

The push for shots is expected to grow more intense as President Joe Biden urges vaccinated Americans to get booster shots to combat the emerging omicron variant. The White House said Thursday that more than two in three COVID-19 vaccinations are happening at local pharmacies.

And pharmacists worry another job might soon be added to their to-do list: If regulators approve antiviral pills from drugmakers Merck and Pfizer to treat COVID-19, pharmacists may be able to diagnose infections and then prescribe pills to customers.

“There’s crazy increased demand on pharmacies right now,” said Theresa Tolle, an independent pharmacist who has seen COVID-19 vaccine demand quadruple since the summer at her Sebastian, Florida, store.

5:46 p.m.: The U.K. will require all travelers to take a pre-flight COVID-19 test within 48 hours prior to their flight regardless of their vaccine status, a surprise government move that prompted a swift and angry reaction from the airline industry.

The measure, which takes effect on Dec. 7, will be temporary and be reviewed as the omicron outbreak develops, Health Secretary Sajid Javid said. More than 150 people across the U.K. have been identified with the new variant.

Travelers will be allowed to take either an instant test or a PCR test. After omicron was detected in the U.K. a week ago, the government added a required PCR test within two days of arrival, requiring travelers to self-isolate until they received a negative result.

The risk of a second lost winter has already tanked shares of airline stocks, with the Bloomberg EMEA Airline Index losing 18 per cent in November, its worst monthly performance in more than a year.

4:43 p.m.: As the number of confirmed cases of the omicron coronavirus variant rose to 160 in Britain, the government Saturday announced further tightening of travel restrictions to combat its spread. Beginning Tuesday, travelers will be required to take a coronavirus test within 48 hours of traveling to Britai…

As the number of confirmed cases of the omicron coronavirus variant rose to 160 in Britain, the government Saturday announced further tightening of travel restrictions to combat its spread.

Beginning Tuesday, travelers will be required to take a coronavirus test within 48 hours of traveling to Britain regardless of their vaccination status and restrictions will be placed on travelers from Nigeria, the country’s health secretary said in a statement. Nigeria announced Wednesday that it had detected the variant in three travelers who arrived from South Africa in November, according to Dr. Ifedayo Adetifa, director-general of the Nigeria Center for Disease Control.

The two additional measures being imposed by Britain are the latest to come after a week of heightened concern led to the introduction of a number of restrictions intended to slow the incursion of the omicron variant.

At the moment, travelers are required to self-isolate and take a coronavirus test on the second day after arriving. If that test is negative, they can end their isolation. If not, they are expected to remain in self-isolation until they do get a negative result.

4:22 p.m.: The major of Rio de Janeiro canceled plans for the city’s New Year’s Eve celebrations following advice from the state that they weren’t safe to go ahead as the first cases of the omicron variant were reported in Brazil.

“We respect science,” Mayor Eduardo Paes wrote on his Twitter account Saturday. “The City Council says it can go ahead. The State’s says no. So it can’t. We will thus cancel the official New Year’s Eve celebration in Rio.”

Paes said there was no way to organize the celebrations without a guarantee from all health authorities. The party “will be missed, but the important thing is that we continue vaccinating and saving lives,” he said.

Rio de Janeiro Gov. Claudio Castro said on his Twitter account that he’ll meet Paes next week to make a final decision on the issue.

Brazil has reported 22.1 million COVID-19 cases, with 10,627 confirmed in the last 24 hours, according to Health Ministry data. More than 20 capitals have canceled their New Year’s Eve events amid concerns regarding the omicron variant, Exame reports, citing official statements.

4:08 p.m.: One more case of the Omicron COVID-19 variant was confirmed in Ontario on Saturday as the province recorded more than 1,000 new virus cases for the second day running.

The latest infection involving the variant of concern emerged in Hamilton, according to a news release from the city. Officials said one local resident who returned from travelling to South Africa recently tested positive for Omicron, while a second potential case is under investigation with sequencing results expected in the coming days.

It also noted that Hamilton Public Health Services is conducting case and contact management and the two individuals and their case contacts continue to self-isolate.

“As we have since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Hamilton Public Health Services follows up directly with all individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 and their close contacts,” the release reads. “Hamilton Public Health Services is working with the Province of Ontario and Public Health Ontario to monitor COVID-19 variants of concern including Delta and Omicron and will take strong action if necessary.”

Canada’s first known cases of the Omicron variant emerged last week when two positive tests were confirmed in Ottawa.

3:36 p.m.: New York announced three more cases of the omicron variant of the coronavirus Saturday, bringing the number of state cases linked to the new variant to eight.

“The omicron variant is here, and as anticipated we are seeing the beginning of community spread,” state Health Commissioner Mary Bassett said in a news release.

The number of states finding the variant is growing as well, with authorities in New Jersey, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Maryland reporting their first confirmed cases Friday, and Missouri reporting its first presumed case.

The variant also has been detected in Nebraska, Minnesota, California, Hawaii, Colorado and Utah.

In New York, seven of the cases have been found in New York City, once a global epicenter of the pandemic, and the other in Suffolk County.

The arrival of omicron comes as hospitals statewide continue to strain under a surge in coronavirus cases, most traced to the delta variant, along with staffing shortages.

The number of people testing positive statewide each day for the virus has doubled in the last 30 days.

Gov. Kathy Hochul in recent days has authorized the Health Department to limit nonessential, non-urgent procedures at hospitals close to running out of beds and deployed National Guard teams to relieve healthcare workers at facilities dealing with staffing issues and surging caseloads.

Fifteen members of the National Guard arrived at Monroe Community Hospital in Rochester on Saturday, WROC reported. Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin said Wednesday the state would send 13 National Guard teams to the western New York county, where County Executive Adam Bello has declared a state of emergency.

3:15 p.m.: Health officials in New Brunswick are reporting 77 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday as the province prepared to enter the first phase of its so-called winter action plan.

The province will enter Level 1 of the plan as of Sunday, which is the least restrictive of the three tiers.

Among other things, masking will be required outdoors when physical distancing cannot be maintained.

Physical distancing will also be mandatory in indoor public spaces that do not require proof of vaccination, such as retail stores, malls, salons and spas.

A maximum of 20 people is permitted for informal indoor household gatherings, and 50 for informal outdoor gatherings.

And it is recommended that unvaccinated individuals who are eligible to be vaccinated should not attend household gatherings.

The province’s number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 722 as of Saturday, which included 51 people in hospital — 16 of them in intensive care.

Eighteen of the hospitalized patients were initially admitted for other reasons and contracted COVID-19 due to outbreaks at hospitals in Moncton, Saint John and Miramichi.

3:14 p.m.: Chile on Saturday reported its first case of the omicron variant of the coronavirus.

A foreign national residing in Chile returned from Ghana on Nov. 25 and tested positive in a PCR test at the Santiago airport, according to authorities.

The foreigner, who had two Pfizer vaccines, is in good health and in quarantine, while other passengers on the flight he was on were being monitored, health officials in Valparaíso said in a statement.

12:22 p.m.: A Hamilton resident who recently returned from travelling to South Africa has tested positive for the COVID-19 Omicron variant, the city of Hamilton said in a news release Saturday.

The resident is one of two people under investigation by the city’s Public Health Services.

Testing results for the second case are expected in the coming days.

The statement from the city said the two individuals and their case contacts are self-isolating.

11:47 a.m.: Quebec is reporting another jump in COVID-19 cases today with 1,512 infections and one further death attributed to the virus.

The Health Department says 225 people are hospitalized, a drop of five, including 60 people listed in intensive care, an increase of three patients.

The province hasn’t reported more than 1,500 daily infections since mid-April, and the seven-day average for new cases is 1,089.

More than half of the new cases were among people who were either unvaccinated or less than two weeks removed from receiving their first dose of vaccine.

Quebec has reported 453,380 COVID-19 cases and 11,586 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.

Due to a technical error, the province was not able to provide an update on vaccinations today.

10:49 a.m.: Rio de Janeiro on Saturday canceled its New Year’s Eve party due to renewed COVID-19 fears.

Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes announced the decision on social media.

Paes had previously promised the biggest New Year’s Eve party ever, with multiple firework displays and artists performing on a dozen stages across the city. He said there is no decision about Carnival taking place in March.

The yearly celebration on Copacabana beach has in the past gathered more than one million locals and tourists.

Other Brazilian cities, including Sao Paulo and Salvador, have also canceled New Year’s Eve celebrations due to fears of the omicron variant,. So far, the Ministry of Health has confirmed five omnicron cases in Brazil.

9:51 a.m.: Ontario is reporting another 1,053 cases and eight deaths on Saturday.

Individuals who are not fully vaccinated represent 23.4 per cent of Ontario’s total population, amounting to 494 of Ontario’s 1,053 new reported cases, and 60 cases are in individuals with an unknown vaccination status.

The current seven-day average is 894 cases per day, which is up 22.7 per cent in a week, or a doubling pace of every 24 days.

Additionally, in the province 23,913,372 vaccine doses have been administered — 90.0 per cent of Ontarians aged 12+ have had one dose and 87.3 per cent have had two doses.

There are 284 people hospitalized with the virus, of which 220 are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status and 64 are fully vaccinated.

In the ICU there are 160 people due to COVID-19 — 136 are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status and 24 are fully vaccinated.

8:08 a.m.: Public Health Sudbury and Districts says it is pulling out all the stops to help curb the rapid spread of COVID-19 cases in local schools.

With more than 3,000 vaccination appointments booked in the Sudbury and Manitoulin districts for children aged five to 11 and hundreds of rapid antigen screening kits distributed to students this week, there is hope that cases will decrease ahead of the Christmas break.

Although it’s too early to tell if these “additional layers of protection” are doing the trick, a health promoter at Public Health said she is confident these measures will help protect the school community.

Joëlle Martel added the local response to these programs have been positive so far and the health unit has been on hand to answer any questions that parents/guardians might have.

“Right now, the goal is to keep kids in school,” said Martel, who works in Public Health’s school health, vaccine preventable diseases, and COVID prevention division.

“If we start seeing cases go down and the trend holds steady, then we can slowly start to remove some of those measures, but our goal remains to keep kids in school as much as possible.”

Saturday 8 a.m.: Outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday made what is likely her final appeal before leaving office next week for Germans to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

Merkel gave what is expected to be her last weekly video message two days after federal and state leaders decided on a series of measures meant to break a wave of coronavirus infections.

The measures include excluding unvaccinated people across the country from non-essential stores, restaurants and sports and cultural venues. In a longer-term move, Parliament will consider a general vaccine mandate.

At least 68.9{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of Germans are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, short of the government’s aim of a minimum 75{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} vaccination rate. The number of unvaccinated residents has been blamed as a key factor in a surge of new virus cases in recent weeks.

Official figures suggest that the infection rate may now be stabilizing, but at too high a level.

Read Friday’s coronavirus news.

Posted on

Today’s coronavirus news: Health Canada authorizes the use of the Pfizer vaccine as a booster shot; Ontario reporting 441 new COVID-19 cases

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.

4:10 p.m.: Ontario will “stay the course” with its less restrictive COVID-19 measures despite a 41 per cent increase in infections over the last 10 days, and leave local health units to deal with flare-ups for now, says Health Minister Christine Elliott.

“We know that the numbers have gone up somewhat. We anticipated that would happen,” Elliott told reporters Tuesday as the seven-day average of new cases rose for the tenth day in a row and the province reported 441 more people testing positive for the virus.

“So what we’re seeing right now are largely regional outbreaks which we’re going to be dealing with regionally.”

Read the full story here: Ontario will ‘stay the course’ with current COVID-19 restrictions despite surge in new cases, Christine Elliott says

3:45 p.m.: Health officials in Nova Scotia are reporting one new COVID-19-related death as an outbreak of the disease in a long-term care home continues to grow in another part of the province.

The Health Department says a man in his 80s in the province’s eastern zone has died and 56 new cases of the disease have been identified since Monday.

Officials have also noted community spread of the disease in the northern and western regions of the province, largely related to transmission of the virus during a multi-day faith gathering.

The gathering has been directly connected to the ongoing outbreak at East Cumberland Lodge, a long-term care home in Pugwash, as well as transmission at other faith services and in workplaces.

Thirteen more residents at the home and a second staff member have tested positive for the disease, bringing the total case count at the residence to 19.

The province now has 281 active cases of COVID-19, with 10 people in hospital and two in ICU.

3:30 p.m.: Quebec is expanding eligibility for COVID-19 vaccine booster doses to the general population aged 70 and older, Health Minister Christian Dubé said Tuesday.

Third doses of mRNA vaccines will also be available by the end of the month to residents who received two doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, Dubé added. Those residents will need to wait six months from their second doses for a third shot.

“I want to reassure the population, it’s not because we are worried about AstraZeneca, it’s because we want to make sure there’s an extra protection — especially after six months,” Dubé told reporters.

The government made the decision following recommendations by Quebec’s immunization committee. Despite Health Canada announcing on Tuesday it authorized boosters for all adults, Quebec said it would stick to its plan. Public health director Dr. Horacio Arruda told reporters the government preferred to follow the recommendations of its vaccine committee.

“Even if there is a recommendation from Canada, we refer almost all the time to our own committee because they are aware of our own epidemiology,” Arruda said.

Starting Nov. 16, people aged 80 and older will be able to book an appointment for a third dose, followed by people 75 and up two days later and then residents 70 and older on Nov. 23. Residents of any age who received the AstraZeneca vaccine can start booking third doses on Nov. 25. All groups must wait six months since their second doses to book a third shot.

In late September, the province announced it would offer people in long-term care homes and seniors residences booster shots to prevent outbreaks among vulnerable residents. Since August, Quebec has offered a third dose of COVID-19 vaccine to people who are severely immunocompromised.

For the general population, protection from two doses after six months remains high — especially against severe infection and death, according to Dr. André Veillette, an immunologist at the Montreal Clinical Research Institute. Veillette, however, said protection will inevitably start to decline.

“Some people will say it’s not a problem, because of what we call memory cells,” Veillette said in an interview on Monday. “That’s when your antibodies are low, then the memory cells are activated if you get infected, and then a week later, they will make a lot of antibodies.”

The problem, he said, is that for some people — and maybe eventually for everybody — a week of infection is too long to wait for the antibodies to kick in.

Veillette said the government’s immediate priority should be identifying high-risk groups and giving them third doses. He also said he believes boosters will eventually be available for all Quebecers, even for young people.

“We have billions of doses in Ottawa waiting on shelves, and tens of millions more have been bought for next year by the government,” Veillette said. “The vaccines are available.”

Arruda, however, said there is no need yet to offer a third dose to people under 70 years old.

“For the others that are healthy, and under 70, there are no recommendations for a third dose,” Arruda said. “Two doses are still a good thing.”

Meanwhile, Quebec reported 545 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday and six more deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus. Health officials said COVID-19-related hospitalizations dropped by six, to 219, and there were 45 people in intensive care, a drop of three.

The Health Department said 9,406 vaccine doses were administered in the previous 24 hours. Quebec’s public health institute said about 90.8 per cent of residents aged 12 and older have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 88.2 per cent are considered adequately vaccinated.

Quebec has 5,219 active reported cases of COVID-19.

2 p.m. Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers remains upset with the public’s reception to his admission that he is not vaccinated against COVID-19, according to People.

Rodgers tested positive for COVID-19 last week before missing Green Bay’s loss to the Chiefs on Sunday. Rodgers previously indicated he was vaccinated in an August press conference, telling the media when asked about his status, “I’m immunized.”

Green Bay’s signal-caller made an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show on Friday to address the apparent obfuscation, a segment that featured misinformation on both COVID-19 and vaccines. Rodgers now feels as though he’s “being crucified” for his remarks, per People.

1:34 p.m. Canadians are scrambling to get mortgage pre-approvals and rate holds as economists predict the pandemic-long stretch of low interest rates will soon end.

Estée Zacks says she recently noticed a surge in requests for rate holds, which freeze mortgage rates for up to 130 days.

The owner of Strategic Mortgage Solutions Inc. says her clients see the holds as a way to get a leg up on hot markets like Toronto that are favouring sellers.

CIBC Capital Markets analyst Benjamin Tal says even a one per cent increase in mortgage rates from current levels will cost an average new buyer $230 or 12 per cent more in additional monthly interest payments.

BMO Capital Markets senior economist Robert Kavcic says five-year fixed mortgage rates are already creeping higher, but people with pre-approvals in hand probably have another month or two to buy a home.

1:20 p.m. Quebec needs to quickly provide a coherent plan on how it intends to offer third doses of COVID-19 vaccine to the general population, Dr. André Veillette, an immunologist at the Montreal Clinical Research Institute, said Monday.

The province announced in late September it would offer people in long-term care homes and seniors residences booster shots to prevent outbreaks among vulnerable residents. Since August, Quebec has offered a third dose of COVID-19 vaccine to people who are severely immunocompromised.

While boosters for the general population weren’t part of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization’s recommendations at the end of October, provinces such as Ontario and British Columbia have already announced plans to expand eligibility for third shots.

1 p.m. Ontario plans to spend $12.4 million on more mental health and addictions supports for front-line health-care workers.

The province says $5.9 million will go to services offered through hospitals such as self-referral and intake services, online discussion groups and confidential clinician support.

There is also $1.9 million allocated for psychologist services specializing in trauma, anxiety and other conditions and $4.6 million for workplace mental health training.

12:45 p.m. Ontario’s health minister says the government isn’t changing course on its reopening plan despite a recent rise in COVID-19 infections.

Health Minister Christine Elliott says a bump in cases was anticipated during the colder weather as people move indoors, and that was factored into the province’s plans.

Experts told The Canadian Press this week that cold weather and the lifting of provincial crowd restrictions on some venues like stadiums and restaurants might be behind the growth in cases.

Tuesday saw 441 new cases reported in the province and seven-day average of 492 daily infections, up from 371 a week ago.

11:35 a.m. (updated) Health Canada has approved a booster of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for people over the age of 18.

The booster is designed to help people with their first two COVID-19 vaccine doses maintain their protection against the virus over time.

The booster is identical to the regular Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and is to be administered at least six months after the first two vaccine doses.

Different provinces have employed different rollout strategies for booster doses, and mRNA vaccines like Pfizer-BioNTech have already been used to offer longer-lasting protection to high-risk people in several parts of the country.

The National Advisory Committee on Immunization says there is no evidence of waning protection against over time against severe COVID-19 in the general vaccinated population.

11:22 a.m. Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu is apologizing for sharing misinformation about the severity of COVID-19 and the safety and efficacy of vaccines.

In a statement Tuesday, Gladu called her remarks “inappropriate.”

“Upon reflection, I recognize how dangerous it is to share misinformation about the severity of COVID-19 and the safety and efficacy of vaccines,” she said.

“I retract these comments in full.”

Read the full story from the Star’s Stephanie Levitz

11 a.m. India’s coronavirus crisis, which was killing thousands of people a day just seven months ago, has eased after the nation’s leaders revamped their policies and dramatically ramped up their vaccination drive.

Now, as India celebrates the delivery of its 1 billionth dose, a feat that until recently seemed improbable, public health experts are sounding a new warning: The turnaround is losing steam.

Vaccinations are slowing down. As the temperature dips amid India’s most important festival season, people are crowding markets and hosting unmasked friends and family indoors. And the government is telling vaccination campaign volunteers like Namanjaya Khobragade that they are no longer needed.

“Now is not the time to let our guard down,” said Khobragade, a coordinator for a health nonprofit in the eastern state of Jharkhand. “Many people have taken just the first vaccine. We cannot leave them like this. We need to increase the intensity.”

10:15 a.m. (updated) Ontario is reporting another 441 COVID-19 cases and three more deaths, according to its latest report released Tuesday morning.

Ontario has administered 13,049 vaccine doses since its last daily update, with 22,637,009 vaccines given in total as of 8 p.m. the previous night.

According to the Star’s vaccine tracker, 11,539,002 people in Ontario have received at least one shot. That works out to approximately 88.5 per cent of the eligible population 12 years and older, and the equivalent of 77.6 per cent of the total population, including those not yet eligible for the vaccine.

Read the full story from the Star’s Urbi Khan

10 a.m. A giant gap exists in Waterloo Region’s defences against COVID-19. About 126,000 residents are not yet vaccinated, giving the virus plenty of opportunity to spread through the community.

“This is equivalent to an entire mid-sized city such as Cambridge or Waterloo not being immunized,” medical officer of health Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang told regional council at Tuesday’s meeting.

Almost 44,000 people over 12 are not immunized. Almost 82,000 children under 12 are not yet eligible to get the vaccine.

9:45 a.m. The vast majority of staff members at Waterloo Region’s and Guelph-Wellington’s long-term- care homes are vaccinated, with the average staff vaccination rate in the neighbouring public health units sitting at 89.8 per cent, according to Ministry of Ontario data, last updated on Oct. 1.

The Ontario Ministry of Long-Term Care updates data on a monthly basis, typically in the middle of the month.

But with the provincial government issuing a vaccine mandate that takes place Nov. 15 and third-dose booster shots now available for all long-term care workers, almost all long-term care homes in the region will need to work on getting their staff 100 per cent vaccinated.

9:30 a.m. The health board governing Quebec’s Nunavik region says the COVID-19 situation in the northern territory is worse than it’s ever been.

Health officials reported 30 new cases Monday across the region, which is home to 14 Inuit communities.

The territory has 259 active reported cases.

Quebec’s public health institute says Nunavik is the most affected part of the province, with about 1,450 active COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people.

9:13 a.m. Book sales have thrived during the pandemic after initial concerns that it might hurt the publishing business. Come the holidays, some new nonfiction might hit your gifting sweet spots.

9 a.m. Hospitals in the southern Dutch province of Limburg warned the government Tuesday that they can no longer cope with new COVID-19 patients amid soaring rates of coronavirus infections.

Five hospitals in the province that borders both Belgium and Germany raised the alarm in a statement that said: “We are heading straight for a healthcare blockage and the entire system is grinding to a standstill.”

They added that, “we are convinced that other parts of the Netherlands will soon follow.”

Amid an autumn surge across much of Europe, the seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in the Netherlands has almost doubled over the past two weeks from 30.88 to 61.12 new cases per 100,000 people despite more than 80 per cent of the adult population being fully vaccinated.

8:45 a.m. The morgue in Romania’s main hospital has no space for the dead any more. In a stark illustration of the human cost of the coronavirus surge sweeping the nation, bodies of COVID-19 victims, wrapped in black plastic bags, line a hallway of the hospital in the capital, Bucharest.

Hundreds of people have been dying each day for the past two months in Romania which has been among the hardest-hit in the current virus onslaught raging through Central and Eastern European nations, where far fewer people have been vaccinated than in Western Europe.

A country of 19 million people, Romania currently has among the highest death rates in Europe. Last month the World Health Organization sent a team to help with the nation’s pandemic response.

8:30 a.m. A player on Germany’s national soccer team has tested positive for the coronavirus and four more are in quarantine as a precaution ahead of World Cup qualifying games against Liechtenstein and Armenia.

The German soccer federation said Tuesday that the unnamed player was fully vaccinated and does not have any symptoms. The other four tested negative for the virus but have been instructed by the local health authority in Wolfsburg to isolate because of their proximity to the infected player.

Germany has already qualified for next year’s World Cup ahead of its final qualifiers. The team hosts Liechtenstein in Wolfsburg on Thursday and then plays Armenia in Yerevan on Sunday.

8 a.m. Peel Public Health has confirmed seven schools in the region have active COVID-19 outbreaks. From Sept. 1 to Nov. 2, there have been a total of 31 outbreaks at schools in Peel region.

An outbreak is declared if the facility has two or more COVID-19 cases with an epidemiological link, which means at least one of the patients could have acquired the infection in the school.

7:46 a.m. Peel’s health agency is advising residents who attended a recent wedding event in Mississauga to get tested for COVID-19.

In a media release, Peel Public Health said those who attended an Oct. 29 wedding event at the Apollo Convention Centre in Mississauga were exposed to COVID-19 and should “seek immediate testing” whether they’ve been vaccinated or not.

Those who attended the event and are not fully vaccinated should isolate while waiting for test results, the release said

7:21 a.m. Wage growth, higher costs, supply chain issues, inflation — all of these issues are driving expectations of lower corporate earnings at the end of 2021 for everyone. Dennis Mitchell, CEO and chief investment officer at Starlight Capital, isn’t surprised by that. Nor does he believe the COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally changed major trends in business like the rise of e-commerce or the oversupply of physical retail space.

Shying away from shiny investments in favour of long-term stakes in great businesses, regardless of where they happen to be, is part of Starlight Capital’s strategy. In an interview with the Star, Mitchell unpacks his firm’s philosophy on great businesses, creating a diverse team, and where he sees the office real estate market going.

6:32 a.m.: Nobody wants to say here we go again, but here we are. Ontario has lived a relatively charmed pandemic life since the summer, and it appears to be over. The province’s seven-day case average has risen approximately 30 per cent in a week; vaccination efforts are stalling as we go. One rule of the virus is that unchecked, it will spread exponentially. We’re back there.

“Do you remember where we were immediately before Thanksgiving? That’s the behaviour and the extent of restrictions that is compatible with control of the pandemic,” says Dr. Peter Juni, the scientific director of Ontario’s independent volunteer science table. “So think how it was before Thanksgiving, and think about how much you were inside with other people. You shouldn’t do it more than you did then.”

If it sounds like going backwards, it is, in the province where the premier keeps saying he never wants to go back. A return to pre-Thanksgiving restrictions would mean a return of capacity limits in restaurants, bars, gyms, theatres and at sporting events, for a start. A return to pre-Thanksgiving social patterns should be achievable, if we just keep a bigger picture in mind. This can be done.

Read the full column from the Star’s Bruce Arthur.

6:20 a.m.: The pandemic’s effects on mortality have been uneven. Life expectancy dipped in most places last year, shaving 28.1 million years off the cumulative longevity in 31 countries. But residents of a handful of places that successfully kept COVID-19 at bay — including New Zealand and Taiwan — actually lived longer.

Life expectancy is an indication of how long on average people will live once their age is taken into account, provided that there aren’t any big shifts in the number of people dying in each age bracket over time. Another measure — excess years of life lost — quantifies the impact when those changes do occur, and gives greater weight to deaths that occur at younger ages.

A study of 37 countries and territories in the journal BMJ found the pandemic was a killing field in most places. More than 28 million years of life were lost in 2020 across 31 of them, with Russia, Bulgaria, Lithuania, the U.S., and Poland recording the heaviest toll, the study led by Nazrul Islam, a physician-epidemiologist and medical statistician at the University of Oxford, found.

Years of life lost in 2020 were higher than expected everywhere except Taiwan, New Zealand, Norway, Iceland, Denmark, and South Korea.

The number of years of life lost due to Covid-19 was more than five times greater than those lost from influenza in 2015, during the worst seasonal flu epidemic since the turn of the century.

6:20 a.m.: People who are fully vaccinated are 16 times less likely to end up in intensive care wards or to die from COVID-19, an Australian study found, adding to a growing body of evidence that may bolster the case for countries to treat the disease as endemic.

6:20 a.m.: The three parties in talks to form the next German government agreed on a package of measures to tackle the latest surge in cases, seeking to avoid sweeping restrictions like school closures and curfews.

6:20 a.m.: Hong Kong needs at least six months before reopening to the world, a government adviser said. The territory must finish negotiating open borders with the mainland and boost the vaccination rate, with Hong Kong and China the only places still pursuing a “Covid Zero” strategy.

6:17 a.m.: Denmark wants to again consider COVID-19 as “a socially critical disease,” paving the way for the reintroduction of a digital pass months after the label was removed and restrictions were phased out.

The move, which still needs approval in parliament, will also allow Denmark to reintroduce other restrictions if deemed necessary. A majority seems to be backing the suggestion of the minority Social Democratic government.

The pass was introduced on July 1 but removed on Sept. 10, when Denmark declared that the outbreak no longer was to be considered “a socially critical disease,” citing the high rate of vaccination.

However, Denmark has like many other countries seen an uptick in cases, with health authorities saying the number of infections and hospitalizations has risen faster than expected.

On Monday, Health Minister Magnus Heunicke said the COVID pass must apply to nightclubs, cafes, party buses and indoor restaurants but also outdoor events where the number of people exceeds 2,000.

The Danish pass app shows a QR code with a green banner if the holder is fully vaccinated or received a first dose at least two weeks ago, has recently recovered from COVID-19 or has had a negative test in the past 72 hours. A paper version is also available.

The call to reintroduce the pass was immediately welcomed by the industry.

6:15 a.m.: Residents of a New York border town say they’re eager to welcome Canadians now that the United States has eased land border restrictions, but they worry that costly COVID-19 testing rules will keep many travellers away.

On Monday, Christmas music floated down the halls of the Champlain Centre mall in Plattsburgh, N.Y., about an hour south of Montreal, where some retailers dreamt of the return of tourist dollars — perhaps in time for the holidays.

“We cannot wait to have Canadian shoppers come back,” Emily Moosmann, the mall’s marketing director, said in an interview. “We miss hearing French in the hallway; we miss seeing their faces.”

To lure shoppers back, the mall created a web page — headed by a large maple leaf — highlighting new stores that have opened, local COVID-19 test sites and special discounts for Canadian residents.

“About 30 per cent of our traffic is Canadian, so, not seeing them here, we definitely feel the impact,” she said. While there were only a few cars with Quebec licence plates in the parking lot on Monday, Moosmann said retailers were optimistic things would pick up on the weekend.

Read the full story from the Canadian Press.

6:15 a.m.: The Yukon government has declared a state of emergency and announced a series of public health rules aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19, including a proof-of-vaccination requirement that’s set to take effect this Saturday.

The territory says it is “moving rapidly” to implement a proof-of-vaccination system for a range of settings, including restaurants, ticketed events, fitness facilities and personal services businesses, as well as faith-based and cultural gatherings.

It says the new measures also include mandatory masks in all indoor public settings and outdoor public settings where physical distancing isn’t possible, as well as capacity limits on different types of indoor and outdoor gatherings.

While the rules will be enforced starting Nov. 13, the territory says in a statement that Yukoners are “strongly encouraged” to adopt the measures immediately.

Posted on

Today’s coronavirus news: Ontario reports 508 new cases, three more deaths; expands eligibility for booster shots; U.S. COP26 delegate tests positive

The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Saturday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.

5:45 p.m.: In a gathering with more than 20,000 people from nearly every country in the world, one of the biggest major international summits since the pandemic began, a COVID-19 outbreak was always going to be a danger. So far, organizers have not revealed the number of positive COVID-19 …

GLASGOW, Scotland — In a gathering with more than 20,000 people from nearly every country in the world, one of the biggest major international summits since the pandemic began, a COVID-19 outbreak was always going to be a danger.

So far, organizers have not revealed the number of positive COVID-19 test results. But on Saturday, the State Department confirmed that a member of the U.S. delegation had tested positive. Earlier, Mayor Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles tested positive days after arriving in Scotland.

The State Department statement Saturday declined to identify the person but said the official had been fully vaccinated and was quarantining. The statement also said John Kerry, the U.S. presidential envoy for climate change who is leading the negotiations at the summit, had received several negative COVID-19 results, including daily lateral flow tests and a PCR test, since the delegate tested positive.

Asked this week about the number of positive tests at the conference, Alok Sharma, the British president of the talks, said the numbers were lower than in the rest of Scotland. “At this point, we’re comfortable where we are,” he said.

5:23 p.m.: Winter is coming, COVID-19 is accelerating at an alarming pace in Colorado and the state’s 43 rural hospitals continue to struggle through debilitating staff shortages.

Employees have left small-town health care facilities complaining of burnout, and now that vaccine mandates are in place, some have quit over being forced to receive the shot.

In one rural hospital, a pharmacist and a business office employee died of COVID-19 within a week of one another, leaving co-workers at Holyoke’s Melissa Memorial Hospital grief stricken and overworked as those positions remain unfilled.

“They died very tragically,” said MMH CEO Cathy Harshbarger. “Both required a lot of support and medical care. We had to ship them out to other hospitals for care. We’re stretched to the max.”

Holyoke, about three hours northeast of Denver, has a population of 2,200 people.

MMH has run a help wanted ad in the Holyoke Enterprise for 10 openings including a dietary cook, a paramedic and an EMT. The hospital has a separate ad for an executive director to lead its hospital foundation.

“More and more my employees are asking, ‘Why am I in health care?’ ” said Harshbarger.

5:20 p.m.: A month ago the coronavirus seemed headed for a long winter’s nap in masked and well-vaccinated California. Gov. Gavin Newsom boasted that the Golden State “continues to lead the nation” as the only state to reach the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s yellow “moderate” tier of community virus transmission.

But COVID-19 cases aren’t falling in California anymore. They have climbed back up to the CDC’s blood-red “high” level of virus transmission as the highly contagious delta variant continues to wreak havoc.

Meanwhile, the virus has gone quiet in Deep South states that abandoned mask orders, opposed vaccine mandates, posted lower vaccination rates and saw larger outbreaks over the summer. California’s case rate is now well above Texas’ and double Florida’s, which along with the rest of the Gulf Coast are down to the CDC’s orange “substantial” transmission level.

“There are early indications that the decline in the delta surge at the national level in the U.S. has ended,” said Ali H. Mokdad, professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington, which runs a widely followed model projecting the course of the pandemic. Currently, 19 states have increasing transmission, including several like California “that had previously appeared to have been declining.”

And while much of the Golden State’s current coronavirus woes are driven by virus spread in the less-vaccinated and restricted inland counties, the Bay Area hasn’t been immune. Most Bay Area counties that hoped to reach the yellow moderate level by now remain stubbornly stuck in orange. Marin and Santa Cruz counties, which had reached the yellow level, are back up to orange. San Francisco is the only county in yellow.

4:20 p.m.: A federal appeals panel in Louisiana has temporarily blocked the Biden administration’s new safety regulations directing businesses with more than 100 workers to require their employees to get vaccinations against the coronavirus by early January.

The three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit granted a temporary stay to a group of businesses, religious groups, advocacy organizations and several Republican-led states that had filed a joint petition in court, arguing the administration had overstepped its authority.

Numerous Republican-led states have filed legal challenges against the new rule, among them Texas, Mississippi, South Carolina and Utah.

4:04 p.m.: A Rhode Island man who federal prosecutors said used stolen identities to obtain more than $450,000 in pandemic-related unemployment assistance was arrested in Michigan, authorities said.

Dquintz Alexander, 34, of Cranston, Rhode Island, was indicted and charged in federal court in Boston on five counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft, according to the U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts.

As the coronavirus pandemic devastated the economy in March 2020, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, which among other things created a temporary federal unemployment insurance program called Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. The program granted unemployment insurance benefits to people who lost their jobs or were unable to work because of the coronavirus.

The pandemic unemployment program, which is administered by each state, lowered the barriers to collecting benefits, and the usual security methods intended to prevent fraud were not able to keep up with security breaches. Last year in California, an underground internet bazaar that specialized in selling stolen accounts and data had for-sale ads for filched unemployment insurance claims in the state that had been approved and offered benefits worth $17,550.

2:31 p.m.: New Brunswick is reporting 50 new cases of COVID-19 and 51 recoveries.

The active confirmed case count now sits at 476 across the province.

Health officials say 13 people are currently in hospital, with eight in intensive care.

Twenty-two of the new cases were identified in the Moncton region.

Sixty per cent of the new cases are in people who are unvaccinated against the disease.

Officials also say nearly 86 per cent of eligible New Brunswickers are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, while 92.8 per cent have received their first dose of a vaccine.

1:30 p.m.: Quebec is reporting 688 new cases of COVID-19 today and four deaths attributed to the virus.

Health officials say COVID-19-related hospitalizations dropped by 11 to 229, while the number of people in intensive care declined by six to 51.

The seven-day average for new cases stands at 561.

Of the latest reported infections, 409 were among people who were either unvaccinated or who had only received a first dose within the past two weeks.

Quebec says another 6,869 vaccine doses have been administered, most of which were given in the past 24 hours.

The province’s public health institute says about 91 per cent of Quebecers aged 12 and older have received at least one dose, while 87 per cent are considered fully vaccinated with two shots.

12 p.m.: Ukraine’s health ministry on Saturday reported a one-day record of 793 deaths from COVID-19.

Ukraine has been inundated by coronavirus infections in recent weeks, putting the country’s underfunded medical system under severe strain.

The ministry said 25,063 new infections had been tallied over the past day; a record 27,377 were reported on Thursday.

Although four different coronavirus vaccines are available in Ukraine, only 17.9 per cent of the country’s 41 million people have been fully vaccinated, the second-lowest rate in Europe after Armenia.

11:25 a.m.: Nearly two years of being caged in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic has some snowbirds anxiously waiting in their motorhomes and trailers in southern Alberta.

The Eight Flags Campground in the small windswept town of Milk River, 18 kilometres from the Canada-United States border crossing at Coutts, is full of shiny, large RVs.

It’s in anticipation of land and sea border crossings reopening Monday for fully vaccinated Canadians. Such crossings were closed to non-essential travel at the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020.

10:45 a.m.: An Independent member of Ontario’s legislature has apologized for a post in which he used names and photos of people who had died to suggest without evidence that they had died due to COVID-19 vaccination.

Randy Hillier, who represents Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston, has frequently posted COVID-19 misinformation and conspiracy theories throughout the pandemic.

In one recent social media post, he used an array of photos from news articles about what he believed to be the sudden and unexplained deaths of young people and called on police to investigate links to vaccines.

Family members of some of those people told various media outlets that they were angered by Hillier’s post and denied his allegations, while the legislature unanimously passed a motion last month condemning him.

Hillier shared an apology Friday night saying he has removed that post and offering sincere regrets for further distress his actions caused the grieving families.

Public Health Ontario says all deaths following vaccination that are reported to public health units are thoroughly investigated, and it has so far determined in one case that vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia was a cause of death in someone who received the AstraZeneca vaccine.

There are seven other reports of death after COVID-19 vaccination that meet the provincial surveillance definition. In four, the adverse events were found to have possibly contributed to the death but were not the underlying cause, and in the remaining three the vaccine was not a cause of death.

Public Health Ontario says another 30 deaths following COVID-19 vaccination that have been reported to public health units are “persons under investigation.” They don’t meet the provincial surveillance definition, but investigations are underway.

“Preliminary information suggests that these events occurred in individuals with multiple co-morbidities which may be related to the cause of death,” a recent Public Health Ontario report said. “There has been no association with the vaccine identified at this time.”

Health officials say the approved vaccines are effective and safe.

10:20 a.m. (updated): Ontario is reporting 508 new COVID-19 cases and three additional deaths in the province in its latest daily count.

In Ontario, 203 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 — 151 are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status and 52 are fully vaccinated.

The province also says due to data cleanup, three deaths were removed from the overall count.

10 a.m.: Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers will miss Sunday’s game at Kansas City after being placed in the NFL’s COVID-19 protocol. Because he is considered unvaccinated, he must stay isolated for at least 10 days.

Here’s an explanation of the NFL’s protocols and a breakdown of Rodgers’ case.

9:20 a.m.: I live in a world where Mike McCarthy kept his job as my boss for 13 years. I don’t trust authority.

If Aaron Rodgers had just said that, maybe the rest would have been an easier ride. But then again, he may be the greatest quarterback in the biggest pro sports league of a country where at least 775,000 people have died during the pandemic, and Friday he spent 45 minutes pumping out the kind of misinformation that can get people killed. You know what that means? Rodgers could be president, one day.

All grim, tight-faced jokes aside, the Green Bay Packers great has had himself a week. Rodgers contracted COVID, it turned out he wasn’t vaccinated, and Friday he went on former punter and current shouty bro Pat McAfee’s Sirius XM show and delivered almost every anti-vaccine talking point you can imagine.

Read the column from the Star’s Bruce Arthur.

8:40 a.m. Unvaccinated people in Austria who also haven’t had COVID-19 will no longer be allowed to enter restaurants, hotels and hair salons or attend public events larger than 25 people under new rules that take effect Monday, the government said.

Austrian Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg outlined the rules Friday night after a meeting with state-level leaders to discuss the country’s response to rapidly rising coronavirus cases.

“It is simply our responsibility to protect the people in our country,” Schallenberg told reporters, noting the case numbers and increasingly full hospital intensive care units.

7:30 a.m.: You can almost forget about the ongoing collective nightmare of the pandemic when you’re sipping a mojito in the pink twilight on the edge of the undulating Atlantic, and a long arc of surf foams over the distant reef, and a soft breeze rustles the palm fronds and laps against your sun-tender skin.

But you can’t.

For despite having to navigate a whole bureaucracy of attestations and electronic paperwork to embark abroad these days, there’s no guarantee the people around you are COVID-free. You hope everyone is vaccinated. But you can’t be sure. And even then, it’s still possible to get infected.

Yet after almost two years living with the coronavirus, we are experiencing a cautious re-emergence. And the door is open to vacation again.

Travel is back, but is pandemic tourism fun? Read the story by the Star’s Alex Ballingall.

7:15 a.m. Russia’s COVID-19 cases hit another one-day record as the country struggles to contain a wave of infections that has persisted for more than a month.

The national coronavirus task force on Saturday reported 41,335 new cases since the previous day, exceeding the previous daily record of 40,993 from Oct. 31. The task force said 1,188 people with COVID-19 died, just seven fewer than the daily death record reported Thursday.

Officials cite Russia’s low vaccination rate as a major factor in the sharp rise in cases that began in mid-September. The task force reported about 57.2 million full-course vaccinations, or less than 40{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of the country’s 146 million people.

7 a.m. Several groups of high-risk Ontarians will be eligible to book COVID-19 booster shots starting this morning at 8 a.m.

An additional 2.75 million people become eligible for boosters today, following the quarter of a million people already eligible who include certain immunocompromised individuals and residents of long-term care and retirement homes.

Starting today, people can book an appointment for a booster dose if they are aged 70 and older, health-care workers or essential caregivers in congregate settings, people who received two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine or one dose of Janssen, and First Nations, Inuit and Metis adults and their non-Indigenous household members.

They can make appointments that are at least six months after their second dose. Ontario’s chief medical officer of health says evidence suggests that’s when immunity starts to wane.

Dr. Kieran Moore says those groups of people are at an increased risk of waning immunity and greater risk of exposure and serious illness.

Ontario officials say the protection from two doses is still very high for the general population after six months, especially against severe illness and death, so a booster dose would provide additional protection against more mild illness.

The province is planning to eventually offer booster doses to everyone, and is eyeing early 2022 to start the broader rollout.

6:45 a.m.: The United States is steadily chipping away at vaccine hesitancy and driving down COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations to the point that schools, governments and corporations are lifting mask restrictions yet again.

Nearly 200 million Americans are fully vaccinated and the nation’s over-65 population, which bore the brunt of the pandemic when it started nearly two years ago, is enthusiastically embracing vaccines.

Nearly 98{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of the over-65 population has received at least one COVID-19 shot and more than 25{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of them have gotten boosters, just weeks after they were authorized. The improving metrics could get a boost from President Joe Biden’s workplace mandate unveiled Thursday and the launch of COVID-19 shots in elementary-age students.

6:30 a.m. Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers said Friday he sought alternative treatments instead of the NFL-endorsed COVID-19 vaccinations because he is allergic to an ingredient in two of the FDA-approved shots.

Speaking on SiriusXM’s “Pat McAfee Show,” Rodgers said: “I’m not an anti-vax, flat-earther. I have an allergy to an ingredient that’s in the mRNA vaccines. I found a long-term immunization protocol to protect myself and I’m very proud of the research that went into that.”

Rodgers, who turns 38 on Dec. 2, did not say what ingredient he was allergic to, or how he knows he is allergic.

Rodgers, who has been tested daily as part of NFL protocols for the unvaccinated, found out he contracted COVID-19 on Wednesday. The reigning NFL MVP said he didn’t feel well on Thursday but was much better on Friday.

6 a.m. Monday’s reopening of the Canada-U.S. land border is sparking a mixed reaction among Canadian business leaders: They’re excited that people and not just goods will be crossing the border again but are wary of remaining red tape.

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce and the Business Council of Canada say the Canadian requirement for returning travellers to provide a recent, negative molecular test is an unnecessary obstacle to kick-starting business travel and tourism.

They say proof of vaccination is all that should be needed and the test requirement should be scrapped.

They argue that the continued testing requirement is too cumbersome for Canadian business travellers wanting a quick visit to an American destination, and too expensive for families who want a vacation or reunion with loved ones.

“If we believe, as we should, that being fully vaccinated is the best way of minimizing risk, we should be trusting the vaccination systems. We should be monitoring what’s taking place in terms of outbreaks in the two countries,” chamber president Perrin Beatty said in an interview.

5:45 a.m. As Ontario slowly creeps toward the goal of having 90 per cent of the eligible population vaccinated against COVID-19, new data shows vaccine rates are stubbornly lagging in some neighbourhoods and among groups of people across the province.

The latest numbers from non-profit research group ICES, formerly known as the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, out Friday, show there are still stark differences hiding behind the overall vaccination rate.

“There is a huge range, with some areas hovering around 50 per cent of the population fully vaccinated and some areas as high as 90 per cent,” said Dr. Jeff Kwong, lead of the Populations and Public Health Research Program at ICES.

“The risk of outbreaks in these areas with low vaccination coverage is worrisome. It means there is a lot of fuel for a fire to burn.”

Read the full story from the Star’s Megan Ogilvie and May Warren here.

5:30 a.m. Eleven patients died Saturday after a fire broke out in a hospital’s COVID-19 ward in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, police said.

An official told New Delhi Television that around 17 patients were in the ward when the fire broke out. The remaining patients have been moved to a COVID-19 ward in another hospital, district collector Rajendra Bhosle said.

While the fire has since been brought under control, the cause was not immediately clear, he added, saying officials will carry out an investigation.

The former chief minister of the state, Devendra Fadnavis, took to Twitter to express his condolences and called for “strict action” against those responsible.

Such incidents are not uncommon in India. In May, when the country was battling a devastating surge in coronavirus cases, a fire in a COVID-19 ward in western India killed at least 18 patients.

Poor maintenance and lack of proper firefighting equipment often cause deaths in India.

Posted on

Today’s coronavirus news: Dutch join Belgians in restoring restrictions amid surging cases; Ontario reporting 331 new cases; international flights to return to regional airports

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.

4:11 p.m.: Brazil’s seven-day total for deaths from COVID-19 has fallen to its lowest level since the start of the pandemic, according to online research website Our World in Data.

In the seven days through Nov. 1 the nation recorded 2,188 deaths — a level unseen since April 2020 — amid increasingly widespread vaccination.

After a sluggish start, Latin America’s largest nation has now fully vaccinated more than half its population. That share is even higher in some large cities, such as Sao Paulo, where virtually 100 per cent of the adult population has had at least one shot and more than 90 per cent are fully vaccinated.

That has put the nation’s number of virus deaths on a downward trend for four months. The nation’s current daily toll is just one-tenth the gruesome peak witnessed in April 2021; that surge triggered the formation of a Senate committee to investigate the government’s handling of the pandemic.

After six months of hearings, the committee last week recommended President Jair Bolsonaro and dozens of others face criminal charges. Its nearly 1,300-page report drew attention to his government’s delayed response to pharmaceutical companies’ offers to sell millions of vaccines, as well as Bolsonaro’s insistent touting of dubious, unproven treatments such as hydroxychloroquine.

Brazil has recorded about 609,000 deaths, the world’s second-highest total after that of the U.S.

4:05 p.m.: The Saskatchewan government says the province’s fourth wave is waning as COVID-19 cases decline, but health officials say hospitals are still under significant pressure.

Dr. Saqib Shahab, the province’s chief medical health officer, says it will take four to six weeks to see hospitals return to sustainable levels — and that’s only if people remain vigilant by getting vaccinated and reducing their gathering sizes. The province is reporting 107 new cases, down from the peak of 650 cases reported five weeks ago.

According to the province’s website, active cases are down 121 on Tuesday to 1,829,the lowest since late August. Hospitalizations, which have reduced somewhat in recent weeks, are unchanged at 222.

The Saskatchewan Health Authority says it’s too early to tell if the drop in cases numbers is a trend.

Shahab says there are rural areas in the province where 30 to 40 per cent of the population remains unvaccinated, which is enough to drive more substantive waves.

3:30 p.m.: Faced with sharply rising coronavirus cases, the caretaker prime minister of the Netherlands said Tuesday that the Dutch government is reinstituting an order to wear face masks in public places like stores and libraries and mandating an extension for the use of COVID-19 passes.

COVID-19 cases have increased rapidly in the Netherlands for weeks. The country’s public health institute reported Tuesday that confirmed infections rose 39 per cent compared to the week before and hospital admissions were up 31 per cent. The upward trend began soon after the government ended most remaining lockdown restrictions in late September.

“It won’t surprise anybody that we again have a tough message this evening,” Prime Minister Mark Rutte said during a nationally televised press conference. He urged people to socially distance, work from home at least half the time, and to avoid travel to busy places and during the morning and evening rush hours.

As part of the new restrictions, students will have to wear face masks at school when they walk between classes. The new mask rules and requirements for COVID passes to be shown at more public locations, including museums and theme parks, are set to come into force on Saturday.

Earlier Tuesday, the Dutch health council advised the government to begin giving vaccine booster shots to everyone age 60 and older and to nursing home residents. The health council said it was seeing indications that COVID-19 protection was waning among older people.

Just under 80 per cent of adults in the Netherlands are fully vaccinated. A week ago, neighbouring Belgium also ratcheted up its COVID-19 restrictions amid a spike in infections.

3:27 p.m.: New Brunswick is reporting 40 new cases of COVID-19 today and one more death attributed to the novel coronavirus.

Health officials say a person in their 80s in the Campbellton region is the 118th resident to die of the disease since the start of the pandemic. They say more than 85 per cent of people 12 and up are fully vaccinated and 92.7 per cent have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Chief medical officer Dr. Jennifer Russell said today in a statement that vaccination and so-called circuit-breaker measures are reducing transmission and allowing recoveries to outpace the number of new daily cases. Officials are reporting 75 more recoveries today, adding that New Brunswick has 470 active cases.

New Brunswick’s government says a strike involving public servants is reducing testing capacity and as a result, certain people such as long-term care residents and people who need a test for travel are being prioritized.

2:50 p.m. A Calgary pastor and his brother are appealing sanctions they received for violating Alberta’s COVID-19 rules.

Justice Adam Germain issued the sanctions for civil contempt last month for Pastor Artur Pawlowski and his brother Dawid Pawlowski, which included stiff fines, periods of probation and paying Alberta Health Services costs.

The two men, as part of their probation, were also ordered to include in any public speeches that criticize COVID-19 measures a reference to the fact their views are contradicted by the majority of scientific opinion.

In their appeal, the two argue that the punishments are unreasonable, excessive and violate their Charter rights by forcing them to give opinions which are not their own.

They have already filed appeals of their convictions for civil contempt.

Artur Pawlowski was fined $23,000 and Dawid Pawlowski $10,000 plus an additional $20,000 in costs to Alberta Health Services for holding church services that flouted rules on masking and physical distancing.

2:05 p.m. An Alberta member of the legislature says she is outraged after COVID-19 protesters came to her house on the weekend and hung up a noose.

Tracy Allard calls the threats and intimidation inexcusable and says her private life and her family are out of bounds to protesters.

Allard made the comments on her Facebook page where she described what happened at her home in Grande Prairie, Alberta on Sunday.

She says it began with a small group of protesters that soon grew to 30, prompting police to be called.

Allard says the protesters left behind a crude wooden gallows, with a noose, and the words “No to masks. End the gov’t. Hang ‘em all.”

Last summer, then-health minister Tyler Shandro and his family were publicly harassed at a Canada Day event by protesters upset by COVID-19 public health restrictions.

2 p.m. Dancing and karaoke will again be allowed in Quebec bars after the province Tuesday announced an end to several health measures introduced to limit the spread of COVID-19.

The requirement for high school students to wear masks in the classroom and a recommendation for employers to favour remote working are among the other restrictions that will be lifted as of Nov. 15.

Health Minister Christian Dubé says a high vaccination rate among Quebecers aged 12 to 17 — 86 per cent are fully vaccinated — means masks won’t be obligatory in class but will still be required in hallways and on school transit.

1:45 p.m. The ghost light that has illuminated the stage of the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto for the last year and a half will finally be turned off and put away as the theatre reopens, Mirvish Productions announced Tuesday.

Performances of the hit musical “Come From Away” will begin again in December.

The announcement comes after Ontario lifted some pandemic health measures on Oct. 25, allowing for most indoor settings that require proof of vaccination to operate at full capacity.

Performances of the successful musical ran for three years before the shows were abruptly halted in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read the full story from the Star’s Urbi Khan

1:30 p.m. International air traffic will be returning to more regional airports soon, after flights were restricted for most of the year as part of the government’s efforts to control the COVID-19 pandemic.

At a news conference Tuesday, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said airports at eight mid-sized cities can reopen their runways to planes from across the border as of Nov. 30.

The airports range from Victoria to St. John’s, N.L. The other six are in Waterloo and Hamilton in Ontario, Abbotsford and Kelowna in British Columbia, as well as Saskatoon and Regina.

“I’m pleased that increased vaccination levels have allowed us to safely reopen these additional Canadian airports to international passenger flights,” Alghabra said on the tarmac at Waterloo International Airport.

“This move will help ensure travellers are able to access more regional airports for their international travels this winter, while continuing to support our government’s measured approach to reopening our borders.”

1 p.m. Nova Scotia is reporting 11 new cases of COVID-19 Tuesday. Officials have identified five cases in the Halifax area, four in the province’s eastern zone and two in the northern zone.

With 16 recoveries, there are a total of 161 active infections in the province. Officials say eight people are currently in hospital in the province with coronavirus. According to provincial data, 83.3 per cent of the province’s population has received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 78.6 per cent are fully vaccinated.

Since Aug. 1, officials say there have been 1,528 positive COVID-19 cases and seven deaths.

12:45 p.m. Pfizer Inc. (PFE) posted stronger-than-expected third quarter earnings Tuesday, and boosted its full-year profit forecast while lifting its vaccine sales estimate to around $36 billion (U.S.).

Pfizer said adjusted earnings for the three months ending in September were pegged at $1.34 per share, an 86 per cent increase from the same period last year and well ahead of the Street consensus forecast of $1.09. Group revenues, Pfizer said, nearly doubled from last year to $24.1 billion, again topping analysts’ estimates of an $22.71 billion tally. Around $13 billion of the topline came from vaccine sales, Pfizer said.

Looking into the final months of the year Pfizer said its sees adjusted earnings in the region of $4.13 to $4.18 per share, up from its prior forecast of $3.95 to $4.05 per share, on improved revenues of between $81 billion and $82 billion.

12:27 p.m. (updated) Low COVID-19 transmission, high testing capacity and a declining number of new cases in Prince Edward Island are allowing the province to ease restrictions, chief medical officer Dr. Heather Morrison said Tuesday.

Effective immediately, private gatherings are limited to 50 people, up from 20, Morrison told reporters. The government is also dropping restrictions around capacity and distancing for organized events that require proof of vaccination, she added.

“The downward trend of cases in Canada and the Atlantic region is encouraging,” Morrison said. “The easing of some measures is a positive sign that we are able to move in the right direction.

“We are moving toward the light at the end of the tunnel.”

The province’s proof-of-vaccination application for smartphones is expected to launch in the coming days, Morrison said.

Prince Edward Island has four active reported cases of COVID-19 and has reported a total of 319 infections since the onset of the pandemic.

11:50 a.m. Quebec is reporting 490 new cases of COVID-19 Tuesday and six more deaths attributed to the coronavirus.

Health officials say hospitalizations rose by six, to 250, after 22 people entered hospital and 16 were discharged.

The number of people in intensive care rose by four, to 71.

Health workers administered an additional 10,759 doses of COVID-19 vaccines, including 10,063 in the previous 24 hours.

The province’s public health institute says about 90.6 per cent of residents aged 12 and over have received at least one vaccine dose and 87.9 per cent are fully vaccinated.

Quebec has 4,497 active reported cases of COVID-19.

11:15 a.m. Unvaccinated teenagers have been more likely to test positive for the coronavirus than unvaccinated adults in Los Angeles County, officials said.

The trend illustrates how a group less likely to have been vaccinated in the nation’s most populous county is playing an outsize role in continuing transmission of the Delta variant.

“The highest case rates have been among unvaccinated teens, who were eight times more likely than vaccinated teens to test positive for COVID and are important drivers of transmission across our communities,” L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said in a recent briefing.

Previously, health officials had noted that it was younger adults who were most likely to contract the coronavirus.

11 a.m. Pop-up and community clinics are open for walk-ins for both first or second doses, as well as appointments.

In an effort to boost vaccine rates and increase access to vaccines, York Region Public Health is hosting a series of walk-in, pop-up and community vaccination clinics.

Clinics are offering Pfizer for those 12-years (born in 2009) and older and Moderna to those 25-years and older.

10:41 a.m. Bayern Munich coach Julian Nagelsmann will return to the bench against Benfica in the Champions League on Tuesday after missing four games with the coronavirus.

Bayern said Nagelsmann took charge of a training session on Tuesday, nearly two weeks after he had to step aside hours before the team’s last Champions League game. Bayern initially cited a “flu-like infection” and said a day later that Nagelsmann tested positive for the coronavirus.

10:19 a.m. (updated) Ontario is reporting another 331 COVID-19 cases and seven more deaths, according to its latest report released Tuesday morning.

Ontario has administered 13,774 vaccine doses since its last daily update, with 22,535,918 vaccines given in total as of 8 p.m. the previous night.

According to the Star’s vaccine tracker, 11,504,396 people in Ontario have received at least one shot. That works out to approximately 88.3 per cent of the eligible population 12 years and older, and the equivalent of 77.4 per cent of the total population, including those not yet eligible for the vaccine.

Read the full story from the Star’s Urbi Khan

9:35 a.m. A “mystifying” COVID-19 outbreak among fully vaccinated adult rec hockey players in York Region has led to calls for a full investigation.

The virus spread like wildfire among players in adult leagues earlier this month — with 15 confirmed cases and one 75-year-old’s death — and has raised a spiderweb of concerns about indoor sport safety, vaccine verification and dangers that might be lurking in the air, especially in hockey rinks and older facilities.

“It’s certainly eyebrow raising — not at all what one would expect,’ said Colin Furness, an infection control epidemiologist at the University of Toronto. “It’s mystifying and really worth investigating: genotypes, ring testing, vaccination verification, full contact tracing … We want to find the smoking gun.”

Furness said the outbreak is “disquieting” for a number of reasons.

“Is this an early warning for a new variant? That’s unlikely … but you want to know. Is this a change in the epidemiology of COVID? Do we have a big blind spot? What’s going on?”

8:32 a.m. Romania reported a record daily number of 591 COVID-19 deaths Tuesday amid a persistently low vaccination rate and a wave of coronavirus infections that has overwhelmed the country’s ailing health care system.

Only 37 per cent of adults in Romania, a European Union member with around 19 million people, have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 compared to an EU average of 75 per cent. Within the 27-nation EU, only Bulgaria has a smaller share of its population vaccinated.

Romanian authorities said Tuesday that 541 of the 591 people who had died of COVID-19 since the day before were unvaccinated.

The unfolding disaster prompted authorities to impose tighter restrictions starting last week. Vaccination certificates are required for many day-to-day activities, such as going to the gym, the cinema or a shopping mall. For everyone, there is a 10 p.m. curfew.

8:15 a.m. Nearly two dozen Hamilton businesses were charged for alleged COVID-19 violations last week, despite no change in the city’s level of enforcement.

During the city’s COVID-19 update Monday, Emergency Operations Centre director Jason Thorne said bylaw officers have been conducting the “same level” of pandemic-related enforcement over the past few weeks. That includes both reactive and proactive enforcement.

Thorne noted that bylaw has shifted their focus from education to enforcement, as current COVID rules and regulations “have been in place for some time,” and both patrons and businesses “should be well aware of them.”

Twenty-two businesses were charged last week, according to the city’s online enforcement list, which is updated weekly.

7:25 a.m. Air Canada reported a loss of $640 million in its latest quarter as its operating revenue nearly tripled compared with a year ago as the airline ramped up capacity.

The airline says the loss amounted to $1.79 per diluted share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a loss of $685 million or $2.31 per diluted share a year earlier.

Revenue totalled $2.10 billion, up from $757 million in the same quarter last year.

Air Canada increased its capacity in the quarter as measured by available seat miles by 87 per cent compared with the third quarter of 2020, however it was still down 66 per cent when compared with the third quarter of 2019.

6:40 a.m.: Mayor John Tory tweeted early Tuesday morning that 84 per cent of eligible Torontonians have now received two doses of the vaccine.

“I want to thank everyone who has stepped up to get vaccinated and all involved in the #TeamToronto effort that has administered more than 4.9 million doses of the vaccine so far,” Tory wrote in his tweet.

6:15 a.m.: Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, said Monday that the state of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States is a “mixed bag” entering the holiday season and that Americans should get their vaccine booster shots as soon as they are eligible.

More than 64 million U.S. adults are not vaccinated, and the Biden administration is preparing for significant resistance from parents as vaccines become available to children ages 5 to 11 this week.

“It’s a mixed bag,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told McClatchy in an interview. “I feel good that the cases, the hospitalizations and the deaths are coming down. I’m still concerned that we have 64 million people who are eligible to be vaccinated who have not been vaccinated.

“So it’s a mixed feeling in reaction to where things are,” he added. “It’s good news that we’re continuing to come down. It’s a bit frustrating when we have so many people who are eligible to be vaccinated who are not.”

Those who are vaccinated can plan to celebrate the holidays with a greater sense of normalcy, he said.

6:11 a.m.: According to the Peel board, 519 full-time teachers took a sick leave for three months or longer in the last school year, almost double the number of teachers who were on sick leave before the pandemic. And it’s not just Peel: at York Region District School Board, 711 teachers were on sick leave for three months or longer in the 2020-21 school year — an increase from 372 from 2018-19, before the pandemic.

At the Toronto District School Board, 808 elementary school teachers took a sick leave for three months or longer in the last school year — up from 388 in 2019-2020. GTA schools spent the majority of the second half of last school year learning online due to province-wide lockdowns amid rising COVID-19 cases. A similar increase in sick leaves, however, was not observed among secondary teachers at the TDSB.

It’s difficult to ascertain how many of those teachers went on sick leave for mental-health-related reasons, boards and teachers unions said, because the paperwork for long-term disability leave does not clearly distinguish between mental and physical ailments. But teachers continue to be absent at higher rates than before, both at the elementary and secondary level, and many of them due to stress.

Read the full story from the Star’s Nadine Yousif here.

6:10 a.m.: Hawaii remains among the most restrictive states for COVID-19 mandates, despite having one of the highest vaccination rates in the country.

Various state and county rules have changed often, leaving some businesses, travellers and residents confused and frustrated.

Hawaii Gov. David Ige said earlier this year that all restrictions would end once 70{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of the population was fully vaccinated. But a surge of delta variant cases filled hospitals and extended rules to guard against COVID-19.

Now, case counts have dropped and about 83{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of eligible Hawaii residents are fully vaccinated. But many rules remain in place.

6:10 a.m.: Unvaccinated teenagers have been more likely to test positive for the coronavirus than unvaccinated adults in Los Angeles County, officials said.

The trend illustrates how a group less likely to have been vaccinated in the nation’s most populous county is playing an outsize role in continuing transmission of the highly contagious delta variant.

“The highest case rates have been among unvaccinated teens, who were eight times more likely than vaccinated teens to test positive for COVID and are important drivers of transmission across our communities,” L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said in a recent briefing.

Previously, health officials had noted that it was younger adults who were most likely to contract the coronavirus.

Not coincidentally, it’s young L.A. County residents who are least likely to be vaccinated. While 80{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of L.A. County residents eligible for vaccination have received at least one shot, only 70{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of 12- to 15-year-olds have done so, as have 76{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of those age 16 to 17. By comparison, 98{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of residents age 65 to 79 have received at least one shot.

6:07 a.m.: Elections Canada was curious to know how many Canadians believed in conspiracy theories in the lead up to the recent federal vote.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had two years left in his minority mandate in August when he plunged the country into an election while a fourth wave of COVID-19 raged.

Protesters opposed to public health measures like masking and mandatory vaccinations staged demonstrations, some of them following Trudeau as he crisscrossed the country, hurling obscenities at him and, at one point, even gravel.

Months before triggering the vote, the federal agency in charge of running elections commissioned its first stand-alone survey into the level of trust Canadians had in the electoral process. That included finding out how many held a “conspiracy mindset.”

“Questions about conspiracies allow for a better understanding of what can trigger distrust toward electoral administration,” Elections Canada spokeswoman Natasha Gauthier said in a statement, adding the “COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant social and economic changes, including in the realm of election administration.”

“Looking at mistrust in general also helps us better understand what sorts of information and communication approaches can be effective in instilling trust in elections.”

Conducted by the firm Leger over 10 days in April, the poll surveyed 2,500 Canadians online and through computer assisted interviewing technology.

It found a majority of respondents trusted Elections Canada and believed the voting system was “safe and reliable.”

When it came to conspiracy beliefs, the study, recently posted to a government website, reported 17 per cent believed the government was trying to cover up the link between vaccines and autism, and 30 per cent thought new drugs or technologies were being tested on people without their knowledge.

The research also found 40 per cent of respondents subscribed to thinking that certain big events have been the product of a “small group who secretly manipulate world events.”

6 a.m. Authorities in Beijing halted classes at 18 schools in one district after a teacher was infected with Covid-19, days before a key Communist Party meeting in the city.

6 a.m. Bulgaria reported record daily COVID-19 deaths. Infections in Thailand declined to a four-month low and new cases fell in Australia’s two most-populous states as both nations ease international border restrictions.

6 a.m. Japan plans to let business travellers and students enter the country but isn’t loosening curbs for tourists, Nikkei reported.

6 a.m.: Singapore expects 2,000 coronavirus deaths each year, even after achieving one of the world’s highest vaccination rates.

7:24 p.m. Monday: Close to 300 employees of WestJet, Canada’s second-largest airline, have been suspended for failing to meet the company’s mandatory COVID-19 vaccine policy and may face termination if they do not comply.

The airline said Monday that “less than four per cent” of its 7,300 active employees, representing about 290 people, are being placed on a one-month unpaid leave of absence for not being fully vaccinated. The company warned that those who do not comply with its vaccination mandate “may face termination of employment.”

Posted on

Today’s coronavirus news: Mandatory vaccination rule extended to staff and visitors to Senate workplaces; Ontario reporting 422 COVID-19 cases, 3 deaths;

The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Monday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.

4:35 p.m.: Amazon.com Inc. says its vaccinated workers in the U.S. will no longer have to wear masks beginning on Tuesday, unless required to do so by federal or local rules.

“Vaccines are universally available across the U.S. and vaccination rates continues to rise which enables the ability to return to our previous mask policy,” the company said in a notice to employees on Friday. A spokesperson confirmed the decision.

The online retailer, the second largest U.S. employer after Walmart, in August ordered employees to resume masking up regardless of vaccination status, as the delta variant spread. The company has so far stopped short of mandating vaccinations in its ranks, instead offering cash raffles and other perks for vaccinated employees.

4:29 p.m.: Prince Edward Island is reporting two new cases of COVID-19 Monday. One new case involves a contact of a previously reported infection and the other is related to recent travel outside the province.

Prince Edward Island has four active reported infections. Officials say that as of Oct. 27, about 88 per cent of Islanders were fully vaccinated and 93.4 per cent had received at least one dose.

P.E.I. has reported 319 COVID-19 cases since the onset of the pandemic.

4:19 p.m.: Saskatchewan reported 128 new cases and three deaths on Monday as its active case total fell to 1,950, its lowest since Aug. 27.

The number of hospitalized cases in the province whose hospitals have been severely strained by the fourth wave recently is down four to 222, the lowest since mid-September.

3:50 p.m. New Brunswick is reporting 31 new cases of COVID-19 Monday and 38 more recoveries from the disease.

Health officials say the number of active infections in the province stands at 506.

They say 16 of the new cases reported today involve people who are unvaccinated.

Officials say 24 people are in hospital with the disease, including 16 patients in intensive care.

The government says that beginning this week, people 65 and older and school personnel will be able to book appointments for mRNA COVID-19 booster vaccine doses if six months have passed since their second doses.

People who have received one or two doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine will be able to book appointments for mRNA COVID-19 booster doses if 28 days have passed since their second doses.

3:20 p.m. Anyone wanting access to workplaces in Canada’s Senate will need to be fully immunized against COVID-19.

The Senate’s internal economy committee has announced a mandatory vaccination rule for all Senate staffers, journalists, visitors and anyone else wanting admittance to the parliamentary buildings that house the upper chamber and its offices.

Last week, Senate Speaker George Furey announced that all senators would have to be double vaccinated to participate in person in Senate proceedings.

That followed consultations with the leaders of the various groups in the Senate.

The Independent Senators Group, the Progressive Senate Group and the Canadian Senators Group have said all their members are fully vaccinated.

Conservative Senate leader Don Plett’s office won’t say how many of the 18 Tory senators have received two shots of an approved vaccine.

2:30 p.m. A former Quebec health minister told a coroner’s inquest today that “systemic ageism” and outdated health-care facilities contributed to the tragedy that unfolded in the province’s long-term care homes during the first wave of COVID-19.

Réjean Hébert, who is also a gerontologist, told coroner Géhane Kamel that nearly 10 per cent of the province’s long-term care patients died of COVID-19 in the early months of the pandemic, which is a rate five times higher than that in Canada as a whole.

The former health minister said that even before the pandemic there was a tendency to shift health-care resources toward other priorities, leading to a lack of doctors and nurses to care for vulnerable seniors in care homes.

Hébert also pointed to outdated facilities where patients were subjected to inadequate ventilation and forced to share bedrooms and bathrooms as factors that contributed to Quebec’s high mortality rate.

The coroner’s inquest is examining the deaths of elderly and vulnerable people in residential settings during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to formulate recommendations to avoid future tragedies.

About half the province’s COVID-19 deaths during the first wave occurred in long-term care homes, and some 92 per cent of victims who died between Feb. 25 and July 11 2020 were 70 and older, according to the province’s public health institute.

2:05 p.m. Newfoundland and Labrador is reporting two new cases of COVID-19 since its last update on Friday.

One case involves a resident under the age of 20 in the eastern health region who is a contact of a previously reported infection.

The other new case is related to travel within Canada and involves a man in his 50s.

Officials say there had been 10 new recoveries from the disease as of Saturday, adding that one person is in hospital with COVID-19.

The province has 91 active reported infections.

Officials say data on COVID-19 testing isn’t available due to a suspected cyberattack that has damaged the province’s IT infrastructure.

2 p.m. Nova Scotia is reporting its 101st death related to COVID-19. Health officials said Monday a man in his 70s died from the disease in the eastern region of the province.

Officials are also reporting 59 new cases of COVID-19 and 61 recoveries since their last update on Oct. 29.

Five new cases are in the eastern zone, 44 in the central zone, six in the northern zone and four are located in the western zone.

1:55 p.m. As of Nov. 1, cruise ships are no longer banned in Canadian waters. “Canada is looking forward to welcoming them back into our waters for the 2022 cruise season,” says a tweet from Transport Canada.

1:40 p.m. Anticipating a green light from vaccine advisers, the Biden administration is assembling and shipping millions of COVID-19 shots for children ages 5-11, the White House said Monday. The first could go into kids’ arms by midweek.

“We are not waiting on the operations and logistics,” said coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients.

By vaccinating children, the U.S. hopes to head off another coronavirus wave during the cold-weather months when people spend more time indoors and respiratory illnesses can spread more easily. Cases have been declining for weeks, but the virus has repeatedly shown its ability to stage a comeback and more easily transmissible mutations are a persistent threat.

1:25 p.m. A transit agency serving the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area says 89 bus trips were cancelled Monday as its COVID-19 vaccine mandate took effect.

Metrolinx says the number represents approximately six per cent of daily bus trips, and some train cancellations are also possible.

Employees at the transit agency had until Nov. 1 to get vaccinated, provide a medical exemption or be placed on leave without pay.

Spokeswoman Anne Marie Aikins says the agency was gathering final numbers Monday but estimated that between two and three per cent of staff were on leave.

1:10 p.m. Ontario’s health minister says she now has enough responses from hospitals and health-care groups across the province to inform her decision on a mandatory vaccine policy at hospitals.

Premier Doug Ford sent a letter last month to hospital CEOs, local medical officers of health and other related organizations asking for input on mandating vaccines for staff at hospitals.

He had asked for responses by Oct. 19, but last week Health Minister Christine Elliott said they were still waiting for responses from some hospitals so the government could make its decision.

She says today that she has now received most of them and is reviewing them in detail, so she can make a decision.

Elliott says one factor to consider is whether a vaccine mandate would lead to staff shortages affecting patient care, such as needing to cancel surgeries.

Several hospitals who have already implemented their own mandates have seen roughly two per cent of staff being placed on unpaid leave or terminated because of the policies.

12:45 p.m. A judge on Monday suspended a Dec. 31 deadline for Chicago police officers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 but didn’t interfere with a requirement that they be regularly tested.

Disputes over vaccinations should be submitted to an arbitrator as a labor grievance, Cook County Judge Raymond Mitchell said.

“The effect of this order is to send these parties back to the bargaining table and to promote labor peace by allowing them to pursue“ remedies under Illinois law, Mitchell said.

12:26 p.m. Chicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane has been removed from the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol.

Assistant coaches Tomas Mitell and Matt Meacham also have left the protocol.

The move means Kane is cleared to play when Chicago tries for its first win of the season Monday night against the Ottawa Senators.

11:55 a.m. Authorities in Russia’s Novgorod region on Monday ordered most residents to stay off work for one more week starting Nov. 8 as coronavirus infections and deaths remained at all-time highs.

The Novgorod region was the first region to extend the nationwide non-working period between Oct. 30-Nov. 7 that was ordered by President Vladimir Putin.

Russia’s state coronavirus task force on Monday reported more than 40,000 new confirmed COVID-19 cases for the third straight day and more than 1,100 deaths for the seventh day in a row – the highest levels in each category since the start of the pandemic.

Putin has said that governments in regions where the situation is the most dire could start the non-working days earlier and extend them if needed.

In Moscow, the non-working period started on Oct. 28, with city authorities shutting down many non-essential businesses. In the Novgorod region roughly 500 kilometers (310 miles) northwest of the Russian capital, non-working days began on Oct. 25.

On Monday, Novgorod’s regional coronavirus task force reported 284 new infections — double the daily tally from a month ago when just over 140 new confirmed cases were reported each day. Governor Andrei Nikitin said there is no reason to expect the situation improving any time soon.

Russia’s daily numbers of coronavirus infections and deaths have been surging for weeks amid low vaccine uptake, lax public attitudes toward taking precautions and the government’s reluctance to toughen restrictions. Less than 35 per cent of Russia’s nearly 146 million people have been fully vaccinated so far, even though Russia was among the first in the world to approve and roll out a coronavirus vaccine.

11:35 a.m. Peel Public Health (PPH) has announced its ambitious fall and winter COVID-19 vaccination plan, with aims to open a combination of large and small vaccine clinics.

As Dec. 1 draws closer, PPH is expected to double its vaccine system as new directives, including third and pediatrics doses, are approved by the province.

Top priorities include the “final push” for 90 per cent vaccine coverage, pediatric first doses for children aged 5-11 upon approval and expanded eligibility for third doses.

To achieve this, large and small clinics will be sprouting up across Peel so residents can choose the settings that best fits their needs.

11:10 a.m. Airlines are adding flights and capacity in the hope that passengers are eager to jump back onto flights after more than 18 long months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’ve been going through the equivalent of about 11 years of historical growth over the past six months, so the growth has been really tremendous over a very, very short period of time,” says John Weatherill, chief commercial officer at WestJet.

After a near-grounding of flights, the Calgary-based airline expects to be at about 70 per cent its pre-COVID capacity by the end of December, fully restore its domestic business by next summer and see its international capacity fully return by the end of 2022.

10:45 a.m. When, not if, the next pandemic strikes, Canada and the United States need to work more closely together on a mutual, integrated strategy for managing risk at the shared border, rather than trying to shut it down entirely, a new report says.

A task force assembled by the D.C.-based Wilson Center, which included former Quebec premier Jean Charest and former Canadian justice minister Anne McLellan, concluded in its final report that closing the border entirely to non-essential travel likely did as much harm as good.

Next time — and there will be a next time, the panel warns — a plan to mitigate risk rather than trying to reduce it to zero would ultimately be a better solution, its members said Friday.

10:22 a.m. Biotechnology company Novavax Inc. says it has submitted its COVID-19 vaccine for approval in Canada.

The U.S. company says it has now completed the submission of all modules required by Health Canada for the regulatory evaluation of its protein-based COVID-19 vaccine.

The submission includes clinical data from a trial of 30,000 participants in the U.S. and Mexico.

The company says the trial found 100 per cent protection against moderate and severe disease and 90.4 per cent efficacy overall.

Novavax also recently announced regulatory filings for its vaccine in the United Kingdom and Australia and expects to complete additional regulatory filings shortly in several additional markets.

10:09 a.m. (updated) Ontario is reporting another 422 COVID-19 cases and three more deaths, according to its latest report released Monday morning.

Ontario has administered 7,427 vaccine doses since its last daily update, with 22,522,144 vaccines given in total as of 8 p.m. the previous night.

According to the Star’s vaccine tracker, 11,499,285 people in Ontario have received at least one shot. That works out to approximately 88.2 per cent of the eligible population 12 years and older, and the equivalent of 77.4 per cent of the total population, including those not yet eligible for the vaccine.

Read the full story from the Star’s Urbi Khan

10 a.m. Canadian musician Bryan Adams ducked out of a scheduled performance at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on Saturday night after testing positive for COVID-19.

His management team says Adams is fully vaccinated against the virus and is not experiencing any symptoms.

The rocker was to sing “It’s Only Love,” a duet he recorded with Tina Turner, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame at the ceremony.

9:36 a.m. With COVID-19 cases holding steady in Ontario, and the provincial government allowing full capacity for music venues and event spaces as of Nov. 15, concerts and other live events are happening once again, slowly creeping up to pre-pandemic levels.

Venues such as the Scotiabank Arena are mandating all guests 12 years and older to be fully vaccinated before attending events.

Whether you’re looking for a comedy show or a concert, here are several events worth checking out during the month of November.

8:45 a.m. Israel on Monday began welcoming individual tourists for the first time since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

Authorities hope that opening the country’s gates to solo travelers will breathe new life into the struggling tourism industry. Before the pandemic, the Christmas season saw hundreds of thousands of people visit Bethlehem, believed to be birthplace of Jesus, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Israel had planned to reopen to tourists last spring but delayed the move amid a spike in cases driven by the highly contagious delta variant. Israel has since rolled out a booster campaign in which nearly half the population has received a third vaccine dose, driving cases back down.

Travelers must show proof of vaccination, a booster shot, or recovery from coronavirus within the last six months. Authorities recognize most vaccines, but those vaccinated with Russia’s Sputnik must undergo a serological test upon arrival. Travelers must also present a negative coronavirus test before boarding their flights and take another one upon arrival.

8:25 a.m. At a Georgia state House of Representatives hearing on prison conditions in September, a corrections officer called in to testify, interrupting his shift to tell lawmakers how dire conditions had become.

On a “good day,” he told lawmakers, he had maybe six or seven officers to supervise roughly 1,200 people. He said he had recently been assigned to look after 400 prisoners by himself. There weren’t enough nurses to provide medical care.

“All the officers … absolutely despise working there,” said the officer, who didn’t give his name for fear of retaliation.

Staff shortages have long been a challenge for prison agencies, given the low pay and grueling nature of the work. But the coronavirus pandemic — and its impact on the labor market — has pushed many corrections systems into crisis. Officers are retiring and quitting in droves, while officials struggle to recruit new employees. And some prisons whose prisioner populations dropped during the pandemic have seen their numbers rise again, exacerbating the problem

7:25 a.m. A move by Swiss police in a resort town to shutter a restaurant because its owners flouted a government requirement to check patrons’ COVID-19 passes has again brought to the forefront tensions with some people who view such measures as infringing on civil rights.

Swiss media reported on Monday that police in Zermatt, a resort town at the foot of the famed Matterhorn peak, swept into the 19th century Walliserkanne restaurant a day earlier and sealed it off after its owners had defied a closure order and kept serving.

The three owners who were taken into custody, had reportedly transformed a stack of cinder blocks that police had used to block off the front entrance into a makeshift bar and let patrons to enter from the back.

The showdown points to renewed tensions in Switzerland and beyond over government measures aimed to fight the coronavirus pandemic that some people claim are treading on civil liberties. The reports said dozens of people over the weekend turned out at the restaurant to protest the arrests.

7 a.m.: Researchers at McMaster University and the Offord Centre for Child Studies are tracking the impact of the pandemic on the health and well-being of families. In some key areas parents were worse off this year than last year.

“The overall depressive and anxiety symptoms were higher than our original findings during the first wave,” said lead researcher Andrea Gonzalez, associate professor and Tier II Canada Research Chair in Family Health and Preventative Interventions.

During the first wave they surveyed 7,434 parents and caregivers with children up to age 17. This year, between May 4 and July 3, during the third wave, they garnered input from 10,778 respondents.

Last year, 57 per cent of caregivers reported feeling significant depressive symptoms in the previous week, compared with 69 per cent this year. Also last year, 30 per cent reported moderate to high levels of anxiety, compared with 38 per cent this year.

Almost half of parents surveyed this year said they had sought help from a mental health professional and 40 per cent reported needing help at least once during the pandemic, but not getting it.

Read the full story from the Star’s Isabel Teotonio.

6:47 a.m.: Quebec is lifting capacity restrictions in bars and restaurants starting Monday, more than a year after imposing the limits to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Health Minister Christian Dubé announced last month that bars and restaurants across the province could operate at full capacity and resume normal operating hours starting Nov. 1.

Bars and restaurants gradually reopened in Quebec over the summer after being shuttered to in-person dining, but some restrictions remained.

Establishments that serve alcohol will now be allowed to stay open until 3 a.m. and the distance between tables will drop from two metres to one metre.

But there are still some rules in place — each table is limited to 10 people from no more than three different households.

The ban on dancing and singing remains in effect until further notice, and Quebecers are still required to present their vaccine passport before entering and wear masks when moving around indoors.

6:45 a.m.: South Korea on Monday began to allow larger social gatherings and lifted business-hour restrictions on restaurants in what officials described as the first step toward attempting to restore some pre-pandemic normalcy.

The capital area has been under the country’s strongest social distancing measures short of a lockdown since July. Citing pandemic fatigue and economic concerns, officials had eased the measures in mid-October to allow for gatherings of up to eight people if at least four were fully vaccinated.

Under the changes starting Monday, the limit on private social gatherings in the capital, Seoul, and nearby metropolitan areas was raised to 10 people and 12 in other regions, regardless of whether participants are fully vaccinated or not.

Restaurants and coffee shops are now allowed to open for 24 hours, rather than being forced to close at 10 p.m. in the greater Seoul area and at midnight in the rest of the country. However, high-risk entertainment venues such as nightclubs are required to close at midnight.

To use indoor sports facilities or visit patients at hospitals, people must show smartphone apps or documents issued by public health authorities proving that they are fully vaccinated or were tested negative for the virus within 48 hours.

The gathering limits on political rallies or social events such as exhibitions or weddings were raised to a maximum of 499 people if all the participants are fully vaccinated. Larger crowds will also be allowed at professional sports.

6:45 a.m.: Fireworks boomed as visitors at Shanghai Disneyland waited for COVID-19 test results, surrounded by health care workers dressed from head to toe in white protective suits.

Shanghai Disneyland announced suddenly Sunday evening that it was no longer accepting any new visitors and was cooperating with an epidemiological investigation from another province. They then locked down the park as Shanghai city healthcare workers and police rushed to conduct a mass testing of the visitors already inside.

After testing everyone, the park will remain shut on Monday and Tuesday as it continues to cooperate with pandemic prevention efforts, Shanghai Disneyland said in a statement Monday.

The park’s sudden lockdown and temporary closure underscored just how serious China is about enforcing its zero-tolerance pandemic prevention strategy.

Globally, many countries have turned to living with the virus, whether out of choice or necessity, although as virus surges come and go, many face overburdened health care systems and additional deaths.

6:45 a.m.: Sydney’s international airport came alive with tears, embraces and laughter on Monday as Australia opened its border for the first time in 20 months, with some arriving travelers removing mandatory masks to see the faces of loved ones they’ve been separated from for so long.

Australia and other countries in the Asia-Pacific have had some of the world’s strictest COVID-19 pandemic lockdown measures and travel restrictions, but with vaccination rates rising and cases falling, many are now starting to cautiously reopen.

Some, like China and Japan, remain essentially sealed off to foreign visitors, but Thailand also started to substantially reopen Monday and many others have already started, or plan to follow suit.

6:45 a.m.: The global death toll from COVID-19 topped 5 million on Monday, less than two years into a crisis that has not only devastated poor countries but also humbled wealthy ones with first-rate health care systems.

Together, the United States, the European Union, Britain and Brazil — all upper-middle- or high-income countries — account for one-eighth of the world’s population but nearly half of all reported deaths. The U.S. alone has recorded over 740,000 lives lost, more than any other nation.

“This is a defining moment in our lifetime,” said Dr. Albert Ko, an infectious disease specialist at the Yale School of Public Health. “What do we have to do to protect ourselves so we don’t get to another 5 million?”

The death toll, as tallied by Johns Hopkins University, is about equal to the populations of Los Angeles and San Francisco combined. It rivals the number of people killed in battles among nations since 1950, according to estimates from the Peace Research Institute Oslo. Globally, COVID-19 is now the third leading cause of death, after heart disease and stroke.

Posted on

Today’s coronavirus news: Ontario reporting 304 cases of COVID-19, 4 deaths; White House details plans to vaccinate 28M children age 5-11

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.

3:40 p.m.: It seems Manitoba politicians may not have needed to apologize for recently appearing maskless in pictures at an art gallery event.

Chief public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin says while he doesn’t know details of what happened, people are allowed to remove their masks briefly to take photos.

Manitoba requires mask use in all indoor public places under its COVID-19 public health orders.

The orders spell out some exemptions, such as temporarily removing a mask to eat or drink, to give a speech or to receive a service that requires the mask to be off.

Last weekend, three Manitoba cabinet ministers and a Winnipeg city councillor were seen in pictures on social media without masks and standing alongside other people at the Winnipeg Art Gallery.

They later said they were sorry.

“For the most part, that mask should be on. There are brief periods where it’s reasonable for it to come off,” Roussin said Wednesday.

“If it was simply to remove a mask for the purposes of getting a photograph, and then you put it back on, then … that’s in keeping with advice we’ve provided.”

Health Minister Audrey Gordon and Winnipeg Coun. Markus Chambers have both said they removed their masks while sitting down to eat and stood up briefly to pose for the pictures. Families Minister Rochelle Squires and Sport, Culture and Heritage Minister Cathy Cox were also photographed maskless while standing.

Health officials reported 51 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday and one additional death. Almost half of the new cases came in the southern health region, an area that makes up 15 per cent of the province’s population and has low vaccination rates.

The province also said it is preparing to distribute Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines to kids ages five to 11 as early as the end of November, if federal regulators approve the lower age eligibility that Pfizer applied for this week. Children of that age would be given smaller doses, with smaller needles, than what has been supplied to date.

“We have spoken with Pfizer as recently as yesterday,” said Dr. Joss Reimer, medical lead of Manitoba’s vaccination effort.

“They haven’t provided us with any numbers but are signaling generally that we can expect a large supply to be available fairly quickly after approval occurs.”

— With files from CTV Winnipeg

3:11 p.m. A Brazilian Senate report recommended Wednesday pursuing crimes against humanity and other charges against President Jair Bolsonaro for allegedly bungling Brazil’s response to COVID-19 and contributing to the country having the world’s second-highest pandemic death toll.

Sen. Renan Calheiros presented the proposal to a committee of colleagues that has spent six months investigating the Brazilian government’s management of the pandemic. The decision on whether to file most of the charges would be up to Brazil’s prosecutor-general, a Bolsonaro appointee and ally.

In a nearly 1,200-page report based on the committee’s work, Calheiros called for Bolsonaro’s indictment on charges ranging from charlatanism and inciting crime to misuse of public funds and crimes against humanity. The report can be modified before the 11-member senatorial committee considers endorsing it; a vote is set for Oct. 26.

The committee “collected evidence that abundantly demonstrated that the federal government was silent and chose to act in a non-technical and reckless manner,” the report states.

Bolsonaro has consistently downplayed the threat of the coronavirus and touted misinformation and unproven COVID-19 treatments while ignoring international health guidelines for curtailing the spread of the the disease. He steadfastly rejected restricting activity during the worst of Brazil’s outbreak, claiming the poor would suffer worse hardship if the economy ground to a halt.

Read more from The Associated Press.

3:05 p.m. Nova Scotia is reporting six new cases of COVID-19 today.

Officials have identified three cases in the Halifax area, two cases in the province’s western zone and one case in the northern zone. Among the cases is a fourth patient who tested positive for novel coronavirus as part of a small outbreak at the Valley Regional Hospital in Kentville, N.S.

Officials say testing is continuing for the hospital’s patients, staff and doctors who have been identified as close contacts.

The province now has 165 active infections with 16 people hospitalized, including five who are in intensive care.

According to provincial data, 82.6 per cent of the province’s population have had at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 77.2 per cent are fully vaccinated.

3 p.m. Health officials in New Brunswick say another five people have died, bringing the number of COVID-19-related deaths in the province to 99.

In a statement, Premier Blaine Higgs said his thoughts are with the family and friends mourning their loved ones.

There are 69 new COVID-19 cases today and 761 active cases in the province. There are 55 people hospitalized, including 16 in intensive care. Officials say 14 of the people listed in intensive care are unvaccinated.

Currently 82.9 per cent of eligible New Brunswickers are fully vaccinated while 91.8 per cent have received at least one dose of vaccine.

2:50 p.m. Ontario’s Liberals are being accused of saying one thing and doing another after their Thunder Bay MPP sought special treatment for a personal support worker who was about to become unemployed for refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Michael Gravelle (Thunder-Bay Superior North) made the request in an Oct. 14 email to Health Minister Christine Elliott and Long-Term Care Minister Rod Phillips despite Liberal party policy, which urges Premier Doug Ford to make full vaccination mandatory for all health-care and education workers.

Elliott’s office took aim at Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca as it released the email Wednesday.

“Steven Del Duca’s Liberals continue to say one thing in the media and another behind closed doors,” a statement said.

Read more from the Star’s Rob Ferguson.

2:45 p.m. Premier François Legault says that while the province plans to lift the pandemic state of emergency after younger children have been vaccinated, some health measures may stick around longer.

Legault told reporters in Quebec City Wednesday the state of emergency has given the province flexibility to introduce measures such as masking rules and a website to recruit health-care help. He said the province would look at measures one-by-one and introduce a bill to maintain those that are needed.

“We have to see what we have the right to do and then what we need to do once the children between the ages of five and 11 are going to be vaccinated,” Legault said. “We think that, for the most part, we will be able to remove most of the measures, but it is possible that some should be kept.”

Legault had been vague about when the health emergency might end, but said Tuesday it could come in early 2022, depending on how quickly vaccination begins for younger children.

2:15 p.m. The first easy-to-use COVID-19 treatment could be available in the U.S. by the end of this year, but it is unlikely to reach developing countries, where hundreds of millions of people remain without access to vaccines until at least the middle of 2022, according to public health officials.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced Wednesday that it would attempt to expedite the timetable for getting the drug, the antiviral molnupiravir, to low-income countries. It pledged an initial investment of up to $120 million to prompt eight generic drugmakers that have signed licensing agreements with the drug’s developer Merck to start producing the medicine now, a sort of insurance policy gambling that it will be approved by regulatory bodies.

Molnupiravir was developed in record speed by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, who have submitted an application to the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization. Merck is already manufacturing the drug in anticipation of that approval, which could come in December.

The U.S. government has a prepurchase contract for 1.7 billion courses of the medication, a simple pill that in a large clinical trial halved the risk of hospitalizations and death from the coronavirus among high-risk people who took it in the first days of infection.

2:05 p.m. The campaign to vaccinate young children in the U.S against the coronavirus will not look like it did for adults. There will be no mass inoculation sites. Pediatricians will be enlisted to help work with parents. Even the vials — and the needles to administer doses — will be smaller.

Biden administration officials, anticipating that regulators will make the vaccines available to 5- to 11-year-olds in the coming weeks, laid out plans on Wednesday to ensure that some 25,000 pediatric or primary care offices, thousands of pharmacies, and hundreds of school and rural health clinics will be ready to administer shots if the vaccine receives federal authorization.

The campaign aims to fulfill the unique needs of patients largely still in elementary school — and an age group containing far more people than the teenage cohort already approved to receive the vaccine — while absorbing the lessons from the rollout of vaccines to other age groups.

This month, Pfizer and BioNTech asked the Food and Drug Administration to authorize emergency use of their vaccine for 5- to 11-year-olds, a move that could help protect more than 28 million people in the U.S. A meeting to discuss the authorization is set for Oct. 26, and an FDA ruling could come in the days after, possibly clearing a path for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to make recommendations on a pediatric dose in early November.

1:50 p.m. A pair of unmasked NYPD cops shoved a straphanger out of a Manhattan subway station on Tuesday after he says he repeatedly asked them why they weren’t following a state rule that requires people to cover their faces in mass transit facilities.

Andy Gilbert, 27, said he got off his downtown W train at 8th St. in the East Village around 8:40 a.m. when he saw the cops standing on the platform without masks.

“Recently I started doing short videos whenever I see that and ask why the cops aren’t wearing masks,” said Gilbert, who lives in Queens.

“This morning I did the same thing. I asked both of them if they realize it’s illegal to not have a mask on in the subway. I asked, ‘Why don’t you just put on a mask?’”

A state rule that took effect in September 2020 requires everyone to cover their faces on the subway or face a $50 (U.S.) fine.

1:40 p.m. Newfoundland and Labrador is reporting nine new cases of COVID-19 and 46 active reported infections across the province.

The province’s acting chief medical officer of health says there are still 76,000 people who are eligible to be immunized against COVID-19 but are not yet fully vaccinated.

That group represents about 16 per cent of those eligible and Dr. Rosann Seviour said they pose one of the greatest challenges to public health officials as they battle the pandemic’s fourth wave.

1:30 p.m. Under pressure from rising infections and worried health experts, the British government on Wednesday urged millions of people to get booster vaccine shots but resisted calls to reimpose coronavirus restrictions such as mandatory mask-wearing.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the government would “stay vigilant, preparing for all eventualities,” but would not trigger its “Plan B” of bringing back restrictions on daily life.

Britain is relying heavily on vaccines to keep the virus at bay during the fall and winter months. Almost 80 per cent of people 12 and over in the U.K. have received two vaccine doses and millions are being offered a booster shot, including everyone over 50.

But critics say the booster campaign is moving more slowly than the virus. The U.K. recorded 49,139 new infections on Wednesday, by far the highest total in Europe, and cases are averaging more than 45,000 a day, up 17 per cent from a week earlier.

1:15 p.m. A Florida battalion chief has been fired for refusing to discipline workers who hadn’t gotten a COVID-19 vaccine in violation of a requirement for county employees.

Orange County Fire Rescue battalion chief Stephen Davis was fired Tuesday for failure to follow a direct order and issue disciplinary actions earlier this month, said Lisa McDonald, a spokeswoman for the fire department in metro Orlando.

But a union representing firefighters told WFTV that Davis didn’t write up the disciplines because the workers on his list were mistakenly identified as unvaccinated or hadn’t gotten their requests for religious exemptions in on time.

“He didn’t do what he was asked to do because he realized some people on the spreadsheet that he received were fully vaccinated and had religious exemptions at the time and he knew it was unlawful and violating state law,” firefighter Jason Wheat told the Orlando television station.

12:35 p.m. (updated) The federal Conservatives are challenging the decision-making process behind the move to require mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations on Parliament Hill.

On Tuesday evening, the group of MPs charged with setting rules for the House of Commons declared that as of Nov. 22, all members of Parliament and their staff members will need to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to enter the Parliament buildings.

While the decision was heralded by the Liberals and New Democratic Party, both of which have advocated for that approach, the Conservatives were initially silent.

But on Wednesday, one of the Conservative MPs on the board of internal economy, which made the decision, said his party objects to the way it was made.

Read the full story from the Star’s Stephanie Levitz

12:20 p.m. The Vancouver Coastal Health Authority is taking over operations of a Vancouver care home where dozens of residents died during a COVID-19 outbreak that began last November and took months to contain.

A statement from the health authority says the Ministry of Health has approved the transfer of operations and assets from Little Mountain Residential Care and Housing Society.

The transfer includes Little Mountain Place, a 116-bed long-term care home for seniors, where 41 deaths and many more COVID-19 illnesses were reported last winter.

The statement says the transition, which also includes a 96-unit independent living facility and a 73-bed long-term care home for younger adults with complex needs, is expected to be completed in the next few months.

12:10 p.m. Quebec is reporting 458 new COVID-19 cases and two more deaths attributed to the coronavirus.

The Health Department reports there are 287 people hospitalized with the virus, 10 fewer than the day before, and 72 of those patients are in intensive care, a decline of three.

According to the province’s public health institute, 90.2 per cent of those aged 12 and older have received at least one dose of vaccine, with 87.2 per cent considered adequately vaccinated against COVID-19.

Health Minister Christian Dubé tweeted a chart today showing that since he delayed mandatory vaccinations for health-care workers last week by one month, about 1,000 have received a first dose and 2,000 have received their second dose.

11:45 a.m. Canada’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes must be vaccinated to compete at the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing.

The Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Committees announced a COVID-19 vaccine mandate on Wednesday, saying the decision was made with support of the boards of directors and athlete commissions.

Canadian Olympic Committee CEO David Shoemaker pointed out that 840 coaches and staff travelled to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics this past summer without a positive case.

“We want to do the same for Beijing,” he said in a statement.

The United Stated Olympic Committee announced a similar vaccine mandate recently.

The Olympic open Feb. 4 and the Paralympics on March 4.

11:20 a.m. CaféTO, Toronto’s popular pandemic innovation that saw restaurant and bar patios spill into sidewalks and roadways, will become permanent if city council approves a proposal supported by Mayor John Tory.

A city staff report going to Tory’s executive committee next week, and then city council, suggests making the program permanent through a “phased” approach.

The report also advocates waiving fees for next year to give a further boost to hospitality businesses hit hard by COVID-19 restrictions.

The hastily developed, enthusiastically received way to let pandemic-struck eateries and bars expand patios onto new public and private spaces was launched in June 2020 amid fears over infection risk from indoor dining.

Read the full story from the Star’s David Rider

10:45 a.m. A&W Revenue Royalties Income Fund says its same-store sales grew nearly 17 per cent in its latest quarter as COVID-19 public health restrictions eased, allowing the fast-food chain to reopen more restaurants and serve more customers.

The Vancouver-based company’s gross sales in the royalty pool totalled $409.5 million for the three months ended Sept. 12, up from $340.6 million in the same quarter of 2020.

The company reported net income excluding non-cash items of $9.2 million for the third quarter, up from $7.7 million in the same period the previous year.

It says there were 994 open restaurants in the royalty pool at the end of the quarter, compared to 971 in 2020.

The company says its monthly distribution rate will increase to 15.5 cents per unit, up from 15 cents per unit, beginning with its October 2021 distribution payable Nov. 30.

A&W Revenue Royalties Income Fund owns the A&W trademarks used in the A&W quick service restaurant business in Canada.

10:15 a.m. (updated) Ontario is reporting another 304 COVID-19 cases and four more deaths, according to its latest report released Wednesday morning.

Ontario has administered 25,284 vaccine doses since its last daily update, with 22,290,203 vaccines given in total as of 8 p.m. the previous night.

According to the Star’s vaccine tracker, 11,421,523 people in Ontario have received at least one shot. That works out to approximately 87.6 per cent of the eligible population 12 years and older, and the equivalent of 76.8 per cent of the total population, including those not yet eligible for the vaccine.

Read the full story from the Star’s Urbi Khan

10 a.m. Morocco is suspending until further notice all flights to and from the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands amid rising coronavirus infections in those countries. The new restriction will come into force just before midnight Wednesday, the North African kingdom’s airports authority said.

In a tweet, national carrier Royal Air Maroc said the move was due to “the pandemic situation.” It did not provide further detail.

Morocco’s Health Ministry warned Monday of the threat of a new virus surge, stressing “the need to avoid possible a relapse of serious and critical cases and COVID-19-related deaths, which have occurred in several European countries.”

COVID-19 cases have been rising sharply in the Netherlands over the past two weeks and also are climbing in Germany.

9:50 a.m. (updated) Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy will table a mini-budget on Nov. 4 to outline the Progressive Conservatives’ plans for tackling the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bethlenfalvy emphasized “the job is not done” in dealing with a global health crisis that has killed more than 9,800 Ontarians since March 2020 and upended the province’s economy.

“Our government’s next fiscal update (is) a plan that will protect the hard work and sacrifice of the people of Ontario in our fight against the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said Wednesday.

Read the full story from the Star’s Robert Benzie

9:45 a.m. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered the country’s workers to stay off work for a week starting later this month amid rising coronavirus infection and death numbers, and he strongly urged reluctant citizens to get vaccinated.

The government task force on Wednesday reported 1,028 coronavirus deaths over the past 24 hours, the highest number since the start of the pandemic. That brought Russia’s total death toll to 226,353 which is by far the highest in Europe.

Putin said Wednesday he supports the Cabinet’s proposal to introduce a nonworking period starting Oct. 30 and extending through the following week, when four of seven days already are state holidays. He added in some regions where the situation is the most threatening, the nonworking period could start as early as Saturday and be extended after Nov. 7.

9:30 a.m. Children age 5 to 11 will soon be able to get a COVID-19 shot at their pediatrician’s office, local pharmacy and potentially even their school, the White House said Wednesday as it detailed plans for the expected authorization of the Pfizer shot for younger children in a matter of weeks.

Federal regulators will meet over the next two weeks to weigh the benefits of giving shots to kids, after lengthy studies meant to ensure the safety of the vaccines.

Within hours of formal approval, expected after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory meeting scheduled for Nov. 2-3, doses will begin shipping to providers across the country, along with smaller needles necessary for injecting young kids, and within days will be ready to go into the arms of kids on a wide scale.

“We’re completing the operational planning to ensure vaccinations for kids ages 5-11 are available, easy and convenient,” said White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients on Wednesday.

9:10 a.m. It’s a scary Halloween season for retailers that are scrambling to stock their shelves in time for the holiday.

Geoff Waszek, owner of Candy’s Costume Shop in Toronto, said he was wary of placing orders in January, as is customary in the industry for Halloween, out of fears that another lockdown would cancel the festivities.

Once he did start ordering, Waszek said he had to scrounge to source stock from a patchwork of suppliers who were struggling with supply chain issues.

U.S.-based HalloweenCostumes.com, which ships directly to Canadian consumers, said many of the goods they ordered won’t even arrive until after the holiday.

8:45 a.m. Statistics Canada says the annual pace of inflation picked up in September to reach its highest level since February 2003.

The agency says its consumer price index in September was up 4.4 per cent compared with a year ago.

The reading compared with a year-over-year increase of 4.1 per cent in August.

Driving most of the increase were prices at the pumps as consumers paid 32.8 per cent more last month for gasoline than in September 2020.

The statistics agency says the annual inflation rate would have been 3.5 per cent had it excluded gasoline prices from its calculation.

Statistics Canada also says that food prices overall rose 3.9 per cent year-over-year, compared to the 2.7 per cent recorded in August.

8 a.m. Immigration authorities in Singapore seized 23,100 tablets of the parasite-killing drug ivermectinat the country’s border in recent weeks. Despite the Centers for Disease Control’s warnings, ivermectin has surged in popularity as a bogus COVID-19 cure.

Singapore’s Immigration and Checkpoints Authority stopped the thousands of tablets from entering the country between Sept. 10 and Oct. 6 and posted a spicy Facebook meme about it Tuesday.

In three of the ICA’s five busts, the tablets were not declared at all. In one bust, they were labeled “health care products” and in another they were described as a “supplement pharma product.” One of the “no declaration” shipments included 2,000 tablets of hydroxychloroquine, the ICA said.

Side effects of ivermectin include nausea, comas, seizures, vomiting and diarrhea. In severe cases, it can be fatal to take ivermectin.

7:40 a.m. Canadian airline ticket prices are bouncing back from their deep pandemic lows — and with Christmas around the corner consumers can expect sky high prices for the holidays.

Experts say a perfect storm of pent-up demand, higher costs and rising fuel prices mean round-trip tickets this holiday season may be higher than ever.

As recently as June, one-way flights between Toronto and Vancouver were as low as $114. While there are still low-cost tickets available from now until mid-December, tickets closer to Christmas are back up to seasonal highs, currently going for between $450 and $1,200 each way for economy flights from Toronto to Vancouver on Air Canada and WestJet.

Read the full story from the Star’s Rosa Saba

7:20 a.m. New York City will require police officers, firefighters and other municipal workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or be placed on unpaid leave, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday, giving an ultimatum to public employees who’ve refused and ensuring a fight with some of the unions representing them.

The mandate affecting the nation’s largest police department and more than 100,000 other Big Apple workers — including trash haulers and building inspectors — carries a Nov. 1 deadline for getting the first vaccine dose, de Blasio announced.

Jailers on Rikers Island, where the city has been grappling with staffing shortages creating unsafe conditions, will be subject to the mandate on Dec. 1.

Of the workers affected by the new mandate, 71 per cent have already received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the city.

The city previously mandated vaccines for public school teachers and the state has previously mandated vaccines for hospital workers.

6:25 a.m.: What do you call someone who graduates last in their class at medical school? Doctor. It’s an old joke, but the point is that not everyone who attains the rank has the same level of acumen. Monday, two doctors were censured by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario for peddling flimsy vaccine, masking, and even COVID test exemptions. Physicians, heal thyselves.

By Tuesday, there were four such quacks on the docket, and there are clearly more. It’s a clear breach of proper medical practice, and in this time of plague, it’s clearly a loophole that needs to be filled. So, how?

Read the full column from the Star’s Bruce Arthur here.

6:24 a.m.: An Ontario mayor who has pushed COVID-19 disinformation may lose part of his pay following a scathing report by an integrity commissioner.

West Lincoln Mayor David Bylsma is one of a small band of politicians in the fiercely conservative communities of western Niagara who have embraced anti-vaccination or anti-lockdown rhetoric. He is the only one to face sanctions from the political bodies he is a part of.

First, his own council stripped him of most of his powers, and now the regional council that his mayoralty entitles him to sit on will consider suspending his pay.

Bylsma’s decision earlier this year to ask a St. Catharines woman, Emily Spanton, through Facebook if the COVID-19 vaccine impacted her menstruation was “alarmingly invasive,” “arguably insulting” and “irresponsible,” Niagara Region’s integrity commissioner found in an Oct. 8 report.

Read the full story from Torstar’s Grant LaFleche here.

6:22 a.m.: Russia’s coronavirus deaths surged to another daily record Wednesday as soaring infections prompted the Cabinet to suggest declaring a nonworking week to stem contagion.

The government task force reported 1,028 coronavirus deaths over the past 24 hours, the highest number since the start of the pandemic. That brought the total death toll to 226,353 — by far the highest in Europe.

Amid a spike in infections and deaths, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova suggested introducing a nonworking period starting Oct. 30 and extending through the following week, when four of seven days already are state holidays. The proposal is yet to be authorized by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The daily coronavirus mortality numbers have been surging for weeks and topped 1,000 for the first time over the weekend amid sluggish vaccination rates, lax public attitude toward taking precautions and the government’s reluctance to toughen restrictions. About 45 million Russians, or 32{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of the country’s nearly 146 million people, are fully vaccinated.

6:21 a.m.: The Czech Republic has been hit by a steep rise in coronavirus infections that have reached levels unseen since late April, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday.

The government was set to meet later in the day to approve new measures to tame the surge.

The day-to-day increase in new cases reached 3,246 on Tuesday, more than double the cases a week ago when it was 1,507. It was the highest number since April 20.

The new infections surpassed 100 per 100,000 people in seven days with 117 positive cases.

The fast rise of infections is accompanied by increasing numbers of people who need hospitalization and those who die.

6:20 a.m.: The World Health Organization said there was a 7{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} rise in new coronavirus cases across Europe last week, the only region in the world where cases increased.

In its weekly assessment of the pandemic released late Tuesday, the U.N. health agency said there were about 2.7 million new COVID-19 cases and more than 46,000 deaths last week, similar to the numbers reported the previous week. Britain, Russia and Turkey accounted for the most cases.

The biggest drop in COVID-19 cases were seen in Africa and the Western Pacific, where infections fell by about 18{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} and 16{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809}, respectively. The number of deaths in Africa also declined by about a quarter, despite the dire shortage of vaccines on the continent. Other regions including the Americas and the Middle East, reported similar numbers to the previous week, WHO said.

But for the third consecutive week, coronavirus cases have jumped in Europe, with about 1.3 million new cases. More than half of countries in the region reported a rise in their COVID-19 numbers, WHO said.

In the past week, Russia has repeatedly broken new daily records for COVID-19 cases and the number of infections in the U.K. has surged to levels not seen since mid-July.

6:19 a.m.: Statistics Canada is scheduled to say this morning what the country’s headline inflation barometer registered in September.

The consumer price index in August rose 4.1 per cent compared with the same month one year earlier, marking the largest year-over-year increase since March 2003.

The pace of increases in August reflected the rebound in prices from the lows witnessed one year earlier, a surge in consumer demand and supply-chain bottlenecks that have driven up transport costs being passed on to buyers.

RBC economists Nathan Janzen and Claire Fan say they expect to see an annual inflation rate of 4.2 per cent in September with home and gasoline costs as key drivers.

They also write in a note that supply-chain issues may be more persistent and over time fuel higher, longer-run inflation expectations for households and businesses.

Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem has said the central bank would act to rein in inflation if the current bout of price increases look to become more than one-off pressure points.

6:18 a.m.: It’s a scary Halloween season for retailers that are scrambling to stock their shelves in time for the holiday.

Geoff Waszek, owner of Candy’s Costume Shop in Toronto, said he was wary of placing orders in January, as is customary in the industry for Halloween, out of fears that another lockdown would cancel the festivities.

Once he did start ordering, Waszek said he had to scrounge to source stock from a patchwork of suppliers who were struggling with supply chain issues.

U.S.-based HalloweenCostumes.com, which ships directly to Canadian consumers, said many of the goods they ordered won’t even arrive until after the holiday.

Spokeswoman Ashley Theis said the company will just have to use the late items as stock for next year.

The retailers said supply shortages made it difficult to bounce back from a dismal 2020, when many didn’t celebrate Halloween because of high COVID-19 numbers. This year, however, Waszek says he’s happy to see how excited people are to celebrate the holiday again.

6:15 a.m.: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will continue today consulting with opposition leaders about how the House of Commons should resume work and what the priorities should be once it is back in operation.

He is scheduled to have separate phone conversations with Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and the parliamentary leader of the Greens, Elizabeth May.

On Tuesday, he exchanged ideas on the resumption of Parliament with Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet.

First on the agenda is whether the House of Commons should resume the hybrid sittings adopted to get through the COVID-19 pandemic or return to normal in-person operations.

That is likely to be a testy topic with O’Toole in the wake of a decision Tuesday by the multi-party board of internal economy to allow only fully vaccinated individuals to have admittance to the House of Commons precinct.

The Liberals, Bloc Québécois and NDP all support mandatory vaccinations and have said all their MPs have had two shots of approved vaccines; but O’Toole has refused to say whether all his 118 MPs are fully vaccinated and has opposed making it mandatory.