The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world on Saturday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.
11:15: The campaign to vaccinate Torontonians reached a milestone on Saturday, when public health announced that 70 percent of residents age 70 and older received their third dose.
“Now, our work continues to ensure all residents, in every part of our city, can get vaccinated and protected as soon as possible,” Toronto Public Health Chairman Joe Cressy tweeted Saturday morning.
10:20: Ontario reports that 3,957 people are hospitalized with COVID-19. According to Health Minister Christine Elliott, 53 per cent were admitted to hospital for COVID-19 and 47 per cent were admitted for other reasons but tested positive for the virus.
Additionally, 558 people are in ICUs in Ontario. Of that number, 78 percent were admitted due to COVID-19 and 22 percent were admitted for other reasons but tested positive for the virus.
The province is also reporting 10,732 new cases of COVID-19.
8:55 a.m.: As the demand for mental health care fired in canadaThe pandemic has fueled a frontline crisis that few are talking about: the burnout of psychiatrists, with burnout rates “extraordinary” in an overtaxed profession, one says.
Read the full story in the star.
8:53 a.m.: While waiting for news on when she will be able to have surgery, Cassandra Di Maria worries that the cancer inside her is growing.
The 30-year-old Woodbridge resident has stage 4 colon cancer and stopped chemotherapy in October after 17 rounds of treatment. She was hoping to undergo an operation to remove a tumor from one ovary and spots, including on her liver.
After the operation, Di Maria planned to focus on her recovery and organize her wedding, scheduled for later this year.
Omicron then arrived in Canada, filling hospitals to the brim with COVID-19 patients and dealing a severe blow to Di Maria’s hopes of putting his cancer behind him and moving on with his life.
Read the full story of Star’s Jeremy Nuttall.
8:51 a.m.: For the past two years getting sick has not been alone to get sick. The specter of the pandemic has hung over us all. Now governments and policymakers are struggling to adapt to a version of COVID-19 that is more transmissible and less deadly.
Many Canadians are now joining the Omicron Club, so to speak, those who have been through the Omicron variant and come out the other side.
Read the full story of Star’s Alex McKeen.
8:50 a.m.: It seemed that there was light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel. The Delta variant had been suppressed due to the launch of the vaccine. And another dark winter was not expected.
Until Omicron.
The much more infectious new variant, capable of partially evading immunity from previous infections and vaccines alike, rolled across the planet. The most vulnerable were once again most at risk. Children, the most resistant to the new coronavirus, were now getting sick in greater numbers.
Schools closed. Restaurants were closed. Infection rates skyrocketed and hospitals were overwhelmed.
Ontarians from parents to teachers to restaurateurs to doctors are grappling with unknowns, waiting for Omicron’s punishing wave to unleash. Here are five of their stories.
Read Grant LaFleche’s full story of Torstar.
8:45 a.m.: If Omicron hit you over the holidays this year, you may now be wondering, is there a possible silver lining to this misery? Are you now protected from getting it again?
There are still many unknowns about the variant that was only first detected in November. Experts say you should have some protection after an infection, but it will vary a lot and it’s not clear how long it will last.
They stress that that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get a third dose of the vaccine, as that’s what gives everyone the best chance against a serious outcome.
Read the full story of Star’s May Warren.
8 a.m.: Concerned but not giving up, President Joe Biden is eagerly pushing to encourage people to get vaccinated against COVID-19 after the Supreme Court halted the administration’s sweeping vaccination or testing plan for large employers.
At a time when hospitals are being overwhelmed and record numbers of people are becoming infected with the Omicron variant, the administration is hoping that states and companies will mandate their own vaccination or testing requirements. And if the presidential “thug pulpit” still counts for persuasion, Biden intends to use it.
While some in the business community applauded the mandate’s defeat, Biden insisted the administration’s effort has not been in vain. Thursday’s high court ruling “does not prevent me from using my voice as president to advocate for employers to do the right thing to protect the health and economy of Americans,” he said.
The court’s conservative majority nearly struck down the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s requirement that employers with 100 or more employees require their workers to be vaccinated or tested weekly for the coronavirus. However, it left in place a vaccination requirement for healthcare workers.
Meanwhile, the White House announced Friday that the federal website where Americans can order their own free COVID-19 tests will begin accepting orders next Wednesday. Those tests could motivate some people to get vaccinated, and the administration is seeking to address shortages across the country. Supplies will be limited to just four free tests per household.
8 a.m.: China said the Omicron variant of covid-19 has been confirmed in infections in Shanghai and Guangdong province, adding further pressure on authorities to contain the highly contagious strain ahead of the Winter Olympics.
Two patients were in Zhongshan and Zhuhai in southern China’s Guangdong province, National Health Commission spokesman Mi Feng told a briefing in Beijing. A case in Shanghai reported on Thursday was also confirmed to be infected with Omicron, it said, without giving details.
Beijing confirmed a case of Covid-19 on Saturday night, CCTV reported, citing the local health authority. The report did not specify the strain. The Winter Olympics begin on February 4 in Beijing.
8 a.m.: Novak Djokovic was re-detained by immigration on Saturday after his legal challenge to avoid being deported from Australia for not being vaccinated against COVID-19 was moved to a higher court.
A Federal Court hearing was scheduled for Sunday, a day before the No. 1-ranked men’s tennis player and nine-time Australian Open champion began his title defense at the first Grand Slam tennis tournament of the year.
Djokovic and his lawyers met with immigration officials in the morning, and by mid-afternoon, Australian media reported that the tennis star had been detained again. Television footage showed the 34-year-old Serb wearing a face mask while sitting in a vehicle near an immigration detention hotel.
He spent four nights confined to a hotel near central Melbourne before being released last Monday when he won a procedural court challenge against the cancellation of his first visa.
Immigration Minister Alex Hawke on Friday blocked the visa, which was originally revoked when he landed at a Melbourne airport on January 5.
Deportation from Australia can result in a three-year ban on returning to the country, although this can be waived depending on the circumstances.
Djokovic acknowledged that his travel statement was incorrect because it did not indicate that he had been to multiple countries in the two-week period before his arrival in Australia.
8 a.m.: The abrupt departure of Quebec’s public health director last week was further evidence of the rocky road the country’s top medical officials are traversing as the wave of Omicron pushes the fight against the pandemic into a third year.
Quebec’s Dr. Horacio Arruda, who had been director of public health since 2012, cited criticism of the government’s handling of the latest wave when he abruptly resigned Monday after 22 months overseeing the province’s pandemic response.
“Recent comments about the credibility of our views and our scientific rigor are undoubtedly causing some erosion of public support,” Arruda wrote in a letter tendering his resignation.
It was a long way from March 2020, when Arruda was among the group of senior provincial occupational health officials when the pandemic hit. Arruda and the others, including Dr. Bonnie Henry from BC, Dr. Deena Hinshaw from Alberta, and Dr. Robert Strang from Nova Scotia, rose to prominence almost overnight, offering calming voices in times of crisis.
“In the beginning, when we didn’t know what we didn’t know and there was a lot of uncertainty, the chief medical officer played an incredibly helpful role, as they’re supposed to: being the public face of government and explaining what’s going on,” said Patrick Fafard, professor of public and international affairs at the University of Ottawa who has been studying the role of the country’s medical officials.
“His status in terms of the media or public opinion has diminished; some of that is inevitable, but it’s also due to tensions and contradictions on paper.”
Fafard said that while medical officers play an advisory role, each province sees the role differently. In a widespread pandemic, when scientific evidence is rapidly evolving, they have had to reconcile divergent viewpoints and governments that do not make decisions based solely on science. They are often left to explain the policies, although the decisions ultimately rest with the politicians.
Most of those on the job in 2020 remain at their posts, with the exception of Arruda and Ontario’s Dr. David Williams, who had come under fire before retiring last year.
Reference-www.thestar.com