The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Thursday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.
5:40 a.m. Ontario’s expert pandemic advisers are set to release new COVID-19 projections today.
The Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table says its latest modeling on the disease will be published today at noon.
The projections are expected as the province prepares to drop most of its COVID-19 public health measures.
Capacity limits and proof-of-vaccination rules have already been dropped in most spaces and masks will no longer be required in many settings as of March 21.
Read more from The Canadian Press.
5:35 a.m. A new report says women’s historically high numbers in the country’s labor force remain below where they might have been if COVID-19 had never occurred.
The report from the Labor Market Information Council says female employment is almost one per cent lower than where it could have been if the global pandemic hadn’t altered the trajectory of the economy.
For men, employment levels are about 0.5 per cent below what they may have been had the labor market grown along its historical average over the preceding decade.
The report points to these figures, among others, to suggest the jobs rebound for women may be slightly weaker than the headline numbers suggest.
Read more from The Canadian Press.
5:30 am Two years, five shutdowns and countless pandemic guidelines to boot, Toronto is finally getting the party it was promised. The St. Patrick’s Day parade is back.
St. Patrick’s Day festivities were the first COVID casualty of Toronto’s legendary party scene, back in March 2020.
Since then, we have all reeled from the strain and devastation this pandemic has caused throughout the world. With the death of 4,065 people in Toronto, 12,288 in Ontario, six million around the world, so many of us have lost a loved one. Work went virtual, smiles got veiled behind masks and social celebration became a distant memory, in a fog of public health guidelines.
Now, in 2022, as restrictions seem to be retreating for good, St. Patrick’s Day will once again mark a first — the first parade to return in-person fanfare back to Toronto streets.
Read more from the Star’s Akrit Michael.
5:25 a.m. South Korea reached another daily record in COVID-19 deaths on Thursday as health officials reported more than 621,000 new infections, underscoring a massive Omicron surge that has been worse than feared and threatens to buckle an over-stretched hospital system.
The 429 deaths reported in the latest 24 hours were nearly 140 more than the previous one-day record set on tuesday. Fatalities may further rise in coming weeks considering the intervals between infections, hospitalizations and deaths.
The outbreak has been significantly bigger than what had been forecast by government health authorities, who maintain that Omicron is nearing its peak. Officials have tried to calm public fears amid concerns about a faltering pandemic response, saying that Omicron is no more deadly than seasonal influenza for vaccinated people and less dangerous than the Delta strain that hit the country hard in December and early January.
Read more from The Associated Press.
5:10 a.m. The World Health Organization will “very likely” reject the only Canadian-developed COVID-19 vaccine for use globally because of its ties to tobacco giant Philip Morris International, a top WHO official said Wednesday.
Health Canada greenlit the dose made by Quebec-based Medicago less than a month ago. The vaccine, which is manufactured using a cousin of a tobacco plant — one the company has stressed cannot be smoked — was found to be 71 per cent effective against symptomatic COVID in trials.
But it’s the fact that the company is partially owned by the famed tobacco maker that has raised eyebrows in Geneva: “It’s well-known that WHO and UN has a very strict policy regarding the engagement with tobacco and arms industry,” Dr. Mariangela Simao , the WHO’s assistant director general for access to medicines and health products, told media on Wednesday.
Read more from the Star’s Alex Boyd.
5 am As pandemic restrictions ease across the country, Canada will soon stop requiring fully vaccinated travelers to show evidence of negative COVID-19 tests, federal sources say.
The change to the border testing requirement will come into effect by the end of the month and will be announced on Thursday by Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra and Tourism Minister Randy Boissonnault.
Proof of vaccination will still be needed to board any plane, train or boat that is federally regulated.
Read more from the Star’s Stephanie Levitz.
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