Included in the report is a “stringency index” which evaluates the overall strictness of lockdowns and public health orders. The index takes into account over a dozen variables including mask policy, gathering limits, restaurant closures and much more.
A well-respected science writer has published a thoughtful and convincing piece this week that helps confirm what most people with common sense have long believed: COVID-19 wasn’t just randomly discovered in a Chinese wet market; it escaped from a human lab.
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney will be announcing details on a COVID-19 vaccine partnership between Alberta and Montana at a Friday morning news conference.
The announcement on cross-border vaccinations will happen at 10 a.m. and will be streamed live in this article.
Ontario is reporting 3,166 cases of #COVID19 and over 51,300 tests completed. Locally, there are 876 new cases in Toronto, 817 in Peel, 300 in York Region, 205 in Durham and 148 in Hamilton.
— Christine Elliott (@celliottability) May 7, 2021
Ontario’s official count of COVID ICU patients is missing dozens of cases, hiding the true scale of the crisis in hospitals
As the third wave crests in Ontario, physicians warn the daily tally of COVID-19 patients in ICUs is an undercount of the true number receiving critical care for the virus.
Almost 100 patients who in pre-pandemic times would qualify for the ICU are instead being treated on medical wards, according to data obtained by the Star from more than a dozen GTA hospitals. This represents a substantial portion of critically ill COVID patients not being counted by the province, masking the full extent of the crisis in hospitals.
To cope with the surge in COVID patients, hospitals have had to change the threshold for who is admitted to ICUs, saving those beds only for the very sickest, with most requiring ventilation and other life-support measures.
There’s something to this. Mom was never placed in the ICU at Toronto Western, she was kept in an isolation ward. They did not consider her a candidate for intubation given the havoc created in her lungs from the Hospital acquired Covid she contracted. They had their reasons for denying intubation, still I wonder if she was “triaged” to death.
Economy lost 207,000 jobs in April, unemployment rate up
OTTAWA — Statistics Canada says the economy lost 207,000 jobs in April as a new rise in COVID-19 cases led to renewed public health restrictions that closed businesses.
The unemployment rate rose to 8.1 per cent from 7.5 per cent in March.
Statistics Canada says the number of employed people in April working less than half their usual hours increased by 288,000 or 27.2 per cent.
Nearly one year ago, as that first detailed picture emerged of the true scale of the horror faced by residents of Ontario’s long-term care system during the pandemic, a visibly emotional Premier Doug Ford vowed: “There’s going to be justice.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau may not be able to attend the G7 meeting in Britain in June, because he may not be eligible to receive his second shot until Aug. 28, due to Canada’s four-month dosage-delay policy. And it’s entirely the prime minister’s fault. This week, Ottawa doubled-down on its policy of treating the population like human guinea pigs by opening the door to mixing vaccines. This is playing jazz with Canadian lives.
Ontario is scheduled to break out of its stay-at-home order on May 20, but health experts say we’re likely not going to be ready, especially if we don’t want to end up back in another pandemic wave.
The Ontario government strengthened rules three times in April, all as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations surged.
Those sweeping changes started less than two months after eastern Ontario came out of the winter shutdown.
Desperate Canadians fly south to get COVID vaccine shots as U.S. demand falls
OTTAWA — With COVID-19 vaccine demand declining in the United States, some Canadians facing third-wave lockdowns are flying south to get inoculated, perhaps months earlier than they would be able to at home.
Jimmy Simmons, 37, saw friends in their 40s struggling to get a shot in Ontario. The Toronto businessman decided to spend a few weeks in New York City to meet clients and get vaccinated. He got his first of two shots on Tuesday.
Study suggests COVID-19 vaccine dose spacing strategy considerably less effective against variant strains
A new study involving tens of thousands of participants in Qatar found a single dose of the Pfizer-BioNech coronavirus vaccine was only 30 per cent effective at preventing infection by the B.1.1.7 variant now pervasive in Ontario, and only 55 per cent effective at preventing hospitalization or death.
Number of new COVID-19 cases in Ontario jumps above 3,400 today
The number of new COVID-19 infections reported in Ontario jumped above 3,400 today after falling below 3,000 for the past two days but virus-related hospitalizations still appear to be on the decline.
Ontario is reporting 3,424 new cases of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus today, up from 2,941 on Wednesday and 2,791 on Tuesday.
Canada may struggle to reach herd immunity, experts say
Herd immunity may not be reached in Canada but a return to life similar to that before COVID-19 is possible through immunization, experts say.
Such immunity is achieved when enough people are immune to a virus, either through vaccinations or natural infections or a combination of both.
Prof. Paul Tupper of Simon Fraser University’s mathematics department said herd immunity is unlikely to happen with COVID-19 for a few reasons.
Joe Biden could barely complete a sentence on Tuesday during his presser from the White House.
Biden struggled to read the teleprompter and couldn’t even properly pronounce the name of the government’s vaccine website.
Easy mistake, he meant to say CCP.
The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) plans to investigate physicians who speak out against government lockdown measures, according to a statement issued Friday.
“The college is aware and concerned about the increase of misinformation circulating on social media and other platforms regarding physicians who are publicly contradicting public health orders and recommendations,” said CPSO’s statement.
The “Atlas of Civil Society” report is full of examples of restricted freedoms: overcrowded prisons in the Philippines, arrested journalists in Zimbabwe, threatened human rights defenders in Mexico. For the fourth time, the organizations Bread for the World and Civicus published a comprehensive report on the situation of civil society organizations and their members in almost 200 countries.
“2019 was a year of protests,” said Dagmar Pruin, chairperson of Bread for the World. “Worldwide, people took to the streets. And this mobilization continued in 2020, for example in the US, or in Belarus.”
Canada’s overall response to the Covid pandemic has been a blow to the country’s national prestige. Canadians are asking themselves why America will get back to normal months before Canada.
They’re supposed to have a superior health care system. They’re supposed to have a more competent and civilized government. They’re supposed to be better than the U.S.
Canada’s leaders used this fantasy to explain away their own failings. “You think it’s bad here, just look at what’s happening in America!”
Politics and journalism share the dubious distinction of being activities where no prior experience is considered necessary.
You could be, say, a teacher and end up as prime minister, or a graphic designer who becomes health minister.
Ontario is reporting 2,941 cases of #COVID19 and nearly 45,800 tests completed. Locally, there are 924 new cases in Toronto, 565 in Peel, 254 in York Region, 171 in Durham and 149 in Hamilton.
— Christine Elliott (@celliottability) May 5, 2021
When will the Canada-U.S. border reopen?
Travel across the Canada-U.S. border could resume by late summer or fall, according to the cautious estimates of some experts, but they say the process will be complicated.
The border has been closed to non-essential travel like tourism and recreation since March 2020, and the closure agreement between Ottawa and Washington is expected to be renewed on May 21.
The agreement makes exceptions, for example, on compassionate grounds like attending a funeral, or to apply for refugee status, and enforcement has been less than absolute.
