COVID-19 news today: Vaccine uptake among Canada’s oldest residents higher than for flu shot

Seniors are getting vaccinated in higher numbers for COVID-19 than they did for the flu, Health Canada data suggest.

Deputy Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Howard Njoo says almost nine in 10 Canadians over the age of 80 have now received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

He also says at least one dose has been given to more than eight in 10 people in their 70s.

Health Canada’s annual flu shot survey found about seven in 10 seniors were vaccinated for this year’s flu season. That is similar to the vaccination rate for seniors last year as well.

“I think many people, obviously including our seniors, who were hard hit in the first and second waves [of COVID-19], recognize how important it is to be vaccinated,” Njoo said Thursday during the weekly briefly on Canada’s vaccination roll-out.

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In Canada, 11 per cent of all COVID-19 cases were diagnosed in people over the age of 70. But that age group accounts for 87 per cent of all deaths, and 51 per cent of all hospitalizations.

Njoo is also hoping the success of this vaccination campaign may lead to higher uptake of flu shots or other vaccines in the future.

“I would hopefully anticipate that there’s a sort of a knock on, or spillover effect, that people recognize that for the flu or for lots of other vaccine-preventable diseases, vaccination really is one of the most important public health tools,” he said.

Njoo said about 61 per cent of people in their 60s are now vaccinated with one dose, and 35 per cent of Canadians in their 50s.

He did not provide numbers for younger age groups and the data on the Health Canada website are almost two weeks out of date.

Nationally, close to 12 million Canadians have been given at least their first dose of vaccine, with close to a quarter million doses now being injected every day.

Almost one-third of Canadians now have received one dose, and about three per cent have had two.

Canada’s COVID-19 vaccination coverage for seniors is comparable to, or closing in on, that seen in the United States and the United Kingdom, at least as far as getting one dose goes.

Both countries have been among the world leaders in vaccinations since the first vaccines were approved in December. Canada initially dragged far behind but has been gaining ground in April. It is now vaccinating at a faster rate than the U.K. and almost as fast as the United States.

The U.S. has vaccinated about 30 per cent of its population with one dose, and 43 per cent with all required doses.

Among American seniors over the age of 65, 82 per cent have received at least one dose, and 68 per cent are fully vaccinated.

The U.K., which has delayed second doses up to 12 weeks, is leading the way with 96 per cent of people over the age of 80 vaccinated with at least one dose, and 95 per cent of those between 70 and 79.

The U.K. has given at least one dose to half its population now, and 20 per cent are fully vaccinated.

Ontario’s science advisers say more workplace limits required to control spread

Ontario’s science advisers say COVID-19 cases are decreasing as the province remains under a stay-at-home order but further limits on essential workplaces are needed to bring rates under control.

The findings come in new projections released today that show workplace mobility remains too high and keeping sick workers home will help reduce spread.

The group says case rates are flattening but pockets of growth remain in hot spots, with positivity rates still high in Peel Region and Toronto.

It says occupancy in intensive care units has hit record highs and continues to climb, putting the health care system under “incredible pressure.”

The advisers say the province’s surgical backlog has now reached 257,536 procedures and will be an “enormous challenge” to clear.

The group also says 90 per cent of the province’s new COVID-19 cases are now due to more transmissible variants of concern.

Meanwhile, Ontario will send half its available vaccines to hot spots in the first two weeks of May to help fight the virus in those hard-hit regions.

That will be an increase from the current 25 per cent allocation for hot spots and follows a recommendation from the province’s science advisers to allocate shots based on transmission rate rather than age group.

The government says it will return to a per capita distribution for vaccines across the province on the week of May 17.

Officials say Ontario will also lower the age eligibility for mass vaccination clinics to 55 and older starting tomorrow.

Ontario expects to lower age eligibility for the vaccine throughout May, with access to for people aged 18 and older forecast to start on the week of May 24.

The government also says it will allow those with high-risk health conditions to get vaccinated at mass sites starting on Monday.

The changes come as the province expects to receive larger volumes of vaccines in May and June, with weekly shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech shot nearly doubling during that period.

Ontario is also starting a pilot project that will distribute the Pfizer vaccine through pharmacies in hot spots to people aged 55 and older.

That will start on Friday with eight pharmacies in Peel Region and eight in Toronto. The program is expected to expand to additional pharmacies and public health units in May, as supply allows.

The province says it has administered more than five million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine so far.

Ontario reported 3,871 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday and 41 new deaths, a figure that pushed the province’s overall death toll from the virus past 8,000.

‘Cautious relief’ as vaccinations begin at two Alberta meat plants

Jamie Welsh-Rollo was all smiles Thursday as COVID-19 vaccination clinics began at two of Canada’s largest beef-packing plants in southern Alberta.

Welsh-Rollo, who is a union steward and works on the line packaging meat at Cargill, said there was an “air of excitement” inside the plant, which employs 2,200 people.

“It’s really exciting to know we’re all going to be protected and there hopefully isn’t another outbreak here,” she said, still wearing her face shield and a black hoodie with the words “Straight Outta Quarantine.”

Plans for a clinic at Cargill had been put off last week when a vaccine shipment was delayed.

The Cargill plant, near High River south of Calgary, and the JBS Canada facility in Brooks were hit hard by COVID-19 outbreaks last year.

Nearly half of Cargill’s workers tested positive last spring and the plant was shut down for two weeks.

JBS reduced operations to a single shift each day for a full month. It reported 650 cases among its 2,500 workers.

The two plants together process about 70 per cent of Canada’s beef.

Welsh-Rollo said she’s worked at Cargill since 2018 and the last year has been unsettling. She said she’s been afraid of testing positive.

“I have a five-year-old son at home and I’ve been worried that he’s going to get sick and, if he gets sick, then it’s going to be awful for me because I don’t like seeing my son with a cold, let alone, COVID,” she said.

“In the last year I’ve been tested about six times because my son would get sick and I would get sick and it’s crazy.”

On Thursday, employees were being called off the line, 40 at a time, and taken upstairs for their shots. Welsh-Rollo was waiting outside to get her dose of Moderna and there was a long lineup from the middle of the plant all the way to the entrance.

“I’m off tomorrow because my son has an appointment, so I need to get in today for sure.”

Ricardo de Menezes, southern director for United Food and Commercial Workers Local 401, said vaccinations are an important part of worker safety.

“The virus spreads that much faster with the proximity of the workers and the sort of atmosphere and environment that they work in,” he said. “It’s important to have as much protection for workers at Cargill and JBS and all the food-processing facilities as possible.”

De Menezes said any further delay would put workers further at risk.

Local 401 President Thomas Hesse said an overwhelming majority of members wanted early access to a safe vaccine.

“It’s sort of a cautious optimism, a cautious relief.”

Hesse said polls at Cargill indicate 70 to 80 per cent of workers are reasonably comfortable with receiving the vaccine, while others are somewhat hesitant.

It’s not mandatory, he said, but he hopes most will decide to get a shot.

Nova Scotia at ‘critical’ turning point in COVID-19 pandemic, says chief medical officer

Two days into a provincewide lockdown, Nova Scotians are at a crucial turning point, the province’s chief medical officer of health warned Thursday.

Dr. Robert Strang reported 70 new cases and said what happens next could go “one of two ways.” Nova Scotians’ collective actions, he said, will determine the path to come.

“Either we get things under control now and we can loosen restrictions as we head into the summer, or we don’t,” he told reporters. “We need to closely follow the restrictions. It’s critical – lives, jobs, businesses and our health-care system are all at stake.”

Strang said 14 people are in hospital with the disease, including four in intensive care. The province has 548 active reported infections.

The majority of the new cases reported Thursday were in the Halifax area, with 59. Nine of the remaining cases were in the province’s eastern health region and two were in the northern region.

Strang said 4,909 people have been identified as high-risk contacts and are self-isolating for two weeks. He added that hundreds, if not thousands, more people have had lower-risk exposures, particularly in the Halifax area.

Those deemed at lowest risk need to get tested, Strang said, adding that people who experienced moderate-risk exposures need to isolate until they test negative.

“So there are large numbers of people who are impacted by this and having even further restrictions on their lives because of known or possible exposures,” he said.

Community spread has been detected in the Halifax area, but Strang said that’s not the case in other areas of the province.

He said many of the cases recently identified outside the Halifax area involve returning travellers, including rotational workers and foreign workers who are quarantining, while he said the other cases involve close contacts of previously reported infections.

“So we are not seeing signs of community spread outside the Halifax area,” Strang said. “Every day we keep it that way is a day forward and good news.”

The province reported 75 new cases on Wednesday, slightly down from the record single-day high of 96 cases on Tuesday.

Under the lockdown – scheduled to last until at least May 12 – all schools and non-essential indoor services and businesses are closed, while indoor and outdoor gatherings are limited to household bubbles. Residents are prohibited from leaving their communities, except for essential travel.

Premier Iain Rankin told the business community that he understands the ongoing cycle of closures and openings has left livelihoods at stake. He assured businesses that his government is working on a support package but couldn’t say when the assistance would be ready.

“There is a cash flow shortage, obviously, and we are going to try to look at how we fill the gaps,” he said about businesses across the province.

Health officials said that as of Wednesday, the province had administered 304,187 doses of COVID-19 vaccine, with 35,994 people having received a booster shot.

Rankin said further details on the province’s vaccine plan will be released Friday, when the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine becomes available to people 40 to 54 years old.

Alberta pediatricians seek tighter COVID restrictions, say kids increasingly at risk

Alberta’s pediatricians are urging Premier Jason Kenney to immediately bring in new public-health measures to better protect children from COVID-19.

The doctors, in a public letter, say the dominance of the more infectious virus variants can have serious health consequences for the young, such as a serious pediatric illness causing inflammation of body organs including the heart and brain.

They are urging Kenney to further shut down businesses and provide supports, including paid sick leave, to those affected.

The letter is sent on behalf of 300 members of the Alberta Medical Association who practise pediatric medicine.

Kenney has said the province might increase health restrictions in areas with fast-rising cases.

But he has also said existing rules would work if more people would follow them.

Opening of Atlantic bubble delayed due to concerns about rising case counts

The reopening of the Atlantic travel bubble has been delayed for the second time as health officials in the region try to control the spread of COVID-19.

Atlantic Canada’s premiers met Wednesday to discuss the bubble and concluded that outbreaks in the region “accelerated by variants of concern” have made it necessary to maintain restrictions on travel, the four premiers said in a joint statement.

And unlike the previous time they announced a delay, the four premiers did not provide a date on which they planned to allow free travel again within the region. “Premiers will revisit the reopening of the Atlantic travel bubble when the threat of further outbreaks has been reduced,” they said.

Last summer, Atlantic Canadian residents were permitted to travel freely within the four provinces without being required to isolate for 14 days when they crossed provincial boundaries. Restrictions were maintained for the rest of the country. The travel bubble was closed last fall when infection rates began to rise in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

The four premiers had hoped to reinstate the bubble on April 19, but another COVID-19 outbreak in New Brunswick led them to push the opening to May 3 at the earliest. A recent outbreak in Nova Scotia has led to record numbers of daily infections in that province and prompted health officials this week to impose a two-week lockdown. Nova Scotia reported 70 new cases Thursday.

Non-essential travel is either prohibited or discouraged in most of the Atlantic region but the four premiers say the bubble will likely reopen soon.

“Premiers remain optimistic that travel within Atlantic Canada will resume by summer, when most Atlantic Canadians have been vaccinated against COVID-19,” they said.

Worker fears getting COVID-19 without sick leave, wants B.C. to act

Avtar Badesha says he fears getting COVID-19 or being exposed to the virus because he couldn’t support his family without any paid sick leave during quarantine.

The 33-year-old power engineer in Vancouver’s education sector said his wife doesn’t work and they have a six-month-old baby so affording rent and groceries would be tough if he lost two weeks’ wages.

The possibility of infection is a daily worry and he is taking every precaution when meeting with contractors, co-workers and others on the job, which requires the maintenance of boilers and heating systems.

“I’m just dodging the bullet,” he said in an interview.

Badesha is counting on the British Columbia government to create a sick-leave program that would encourage workers to stay home and look after themselves while also protecting others in the community.

“It would also be productive for companies, and people would be mentally more secure,” he said.

In B.C., a public health order can be issued that requires workplaces to shut down if three or more employees have tested positive for COVID-19.

Premier John Horgan has said the province is considering its own sick-leave program after the federal government failed to bring in a national one that would fill in the gaps of the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit.

Employees should have the confidence of getting paid when they’re ill instead of being forced to go to work and potentially causing outbreaks, Horgan said.

Ontario introduced measures Wednesday providing all workers with three paid sick days to help them take time off to self-isolate during the pandemic, with a plan to reimburse businesses for the cost.

British Columbia Labour Minister Harry Bains said the province is trying to strike a balance between the needs of workers who sometimes can’t take a single unpaid day off even to wait for COVID-19 test results and businesses that are trying to stay afloat.

“How do we ensure that our workers can stay home when they’re sick and at the same time they don’t lose pay? And also looking at the employer side, they’re hurting right now. How do we make sure that we don’t put the economic burden on them as much either?”

Bains couldn’t say how many paid sick-leave days the province’s program would provide, but he said it’s partnering with WorkSafeBC and plans to unveil a plan in the coming days.

B.C. is considering a long-term solution beyond the federal program, which expires in September, Bains said.

Laird Cronk, president of the BC Federation of Labour, said the federal program requires employees to wait several weeks to find out if they qualify for lost wages of $450 a week after taxes, which is less than the province’s minimum wage.

“For a new worker who just started working this year, if you didn’t make $5,000 last year you don’t qualify,” he said.

“Probably one of the most glaring deficiencies of the federal program is a provision that says you have to be off at least half of the work week. So for a Monday-to-Friday full-time worker, one minute after lunchtime on Wednesday if you get COVID symptoms and have COVID, you’re not covered that week.”

Cronk is calling for 10 days’ sick leave every year, to be paid by employers who would get a 75 per cent wage subsidy if they can show they endured financial hardship due to the pandemic.

Over 90 per cent of workers in B.C. earning $30,000 or less a year do not have a sick-pay plan, Cronk said, adding many of those are doing essential jobs in grocery stores, warehouses and food processing plants.

“Workers will be going to work today, undoubtedly, with symptoms because they’re worried about the economic impact of not going to work,” Cronk said.

Tony Singh, owner of the grocery chain Fruiticana, which has 15 stores in B.C. and three in Alberta, said over a third of his 60 warehouse employees have been in quarantine and he paid them all two weeks’ wages while they were off.

“They’re the ones who are running the company. They’re the ones who are making money for us,” said Singh.

It would be up to franchisees running the stores to decide on sick leave at the chain’s retail outlets, he said.

However, Singh said while grocers have fared well during the pandemic, other businesses have struggled to survive, so it’s up to the government to bring in legislation to protect all employees and those trying to keep their companies going.

Anita Huberman, CEO of the Surrey Board of Trade, said 14 days’ sick leave would be most beneficial for workers in the city, where a third of the land base is agricultural and employs many foreign workers and newcomers to Canada.

“The most efficient sick-leave program would be one that requires employers to automatically pay workers when they’re sick and then the employer is compensated by the government immediately. And there has to be a mechanism online for application by the employer so they’re not compromised on their bottom line either.”

Manitoba teachers will have chance to get COVID-19 vaccine at U.S. border

Manitoba teachers and other school workers will soon be able to get a COVID-19 vaccine by driving into the United States, but Premier Brian Pallister’s announcement Thursday was quickly panned by the teachers union.

The province and North Dakota are finalizing an agreement to allow teachers to drive over the border, get a shot in the state where vaccines are plentiful, and then return immediately. They would be exempt from a mandatory 14-day quarantine the Manitoba government requires for international travellers.

Pallister said he would like to have one vaccination site on the highway south of Winnipeg and another on the highway south of Brandon. A similar deal was announced earlier this month for truckers who frequently cross the border.

“This is just one other access point,” Pallister said.

“I’m not trying to overplay it as the sole answer. It’s just another way to help people get vaccinated.”

The Manitoba Teachers’ Society has urged the Progressive Conservative government to prioritize teachers for vaccines. The union’s president said Pallister’s plan falls short and includes many hurdles.

“What it is saying is, if you live close enough [to the border], if you have access to a car … if you’ve got the time available to you, here’s something that you could do,” James Bedford said.

Manitoba has given first responders and health-care workers priority for vaccines. Teachers and others who work with the public can also get a shot in a few health districts with high transmission rates, including core neighbourhoods in Winnipeg and Brandon, as long as they are at least 18.

Outside those areas, teachers must wait along with the general population for their age eligibility to come up. It’s currently set at 30 for First Nations members and 40 for everyone else.

Bedford said members of the teachers union are concerned about rising COVID-19 infections in Winnipeg in recent weeks. He suggested all public schools in the capital should switch to remote learning for two weeks to help reduce spread of the virus.

Education Minister Cliff Cullen, saying he was following advice from chief public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin, rejected that idea.

“Dr. Roussin has indicated this week again that our schools are safe. Most of the transmission we are seeing is occurring outside of schools,” Cullen said.

Health officials reported 230 new COVID-19 cases Thursday and two deaths. The percentage of people testing positive, averaged over five days, stood at 7.2 per cent provincially and 8.3 per cent in Winnipeg.

Pallister also announced a revamped version of a wage subsidy program from last year that encourages people to hire students and young adults for summer jobs.

The program will again offer wage subsidies of up to 50 per cent, but this year employers won’t have to wait until after the summer to be fully paid. They’ll be eligible to apply for advance payments of up to $750 per worker, the premier said.

Toronto to start expanding sidewalks ahead of patio season

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The City of Toronto is plowing ahead with expanding sidewalks to account for patios, even before the end of Ontario’s stay-at-home order.

Mayor John Tory says the patio installation is estimated to take three weeks, so construction will begin on May 8, as planned.

The stay at home order isn’t scheduled to lift until at least May 19, and even then, there’s no guarantee that the province will allow patios to open.

But Tory says it’s important to make sure that restaurants have the infrastructure in place to serve customers as soon as it’s safe to do so.

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