The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world on Tuesday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.
7:30 am Pharmacist Kyro Maseh, a pharmacist at Lawlor Pharmasave on Kingston Road, tweeted Monday that he had “the honor” of providing Michael Kovrig with his first dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
“I want everyone to know this, vaccines are the way to fight this disease,” Kovrig said.
Kovrig received a standing ovation from the staff.
On Twitter, Maseh said: “He is a man who understands the value of freedom better than most people on this earth. He felt that he had to guarantee his safety and health in order to heal and enjoy his life. “
6:18 am: Right now in Ontario, if you are eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, you must be fully immunized to see the new Marvel movie in theaters. However, you do not need to be vaccinated to attend public school.
Right now, in Ontario, many fully vaccinated adults working from home have access to an arsenal of rapid personal COVID-19 tests. Many children not vaccinated at school, however, do not.
In other words, there are a lot of confusing and contradictory things about the Ontario pandemic response. There are many things that make you feel like your head is going to explode.
Read Emma Teitel’s column from Star.
6:17 am: A massive drop in routine childhood vaccines could be further complicated by uncertainty about whether COVID vaccines may overlap with other injections and which ones should be prioritized.
Regular vaccines for children, including those that protect against measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis B, meningococcal disease, and human papillomavirus, have been thwarted by school closings and public health measures, suggests a new report from researchers at the University of Toronto and McMaster University. .
As parents struggle to catch up, flu vaccination clinics begin in October and COVID injections could be implemented in four to six weeks. But guidance from health agencies on whether routine vaccinations and COVID should be spaced for children under 12 is yet to come.
Read the full story of star Maria Sarrouh.
6:16 am: The COVID-Zero movement, by its nature, does not gather in crowds or protest in the streets. But online it is loud and growing, full of keyboard warriors and stubborn believers that those jurisdictions that have tried to live with some level of COVID-19 have been wrong. For them, any level of COVID-19 transmission in the community is too much, and they are furious with public health officials and leaders who they say are responsible for allowing COVID-19 to thrive.
In many ways, COVID-Zero has become the antithesis of the antimasker crowd that is fighting all the public health restrictions that come their way. Unlike anti-maskers, they have rigorous scientific research on their side and real-world examples showing that COVID-Zero has worked in some places.
But like the antimaskers, the COVID-Zero crowd is directing intense anger at public health officials and politicians; In their case, they say that the restrictions are not strong enough and that if they had been stronger at the beginning, we could all go back to living normally. now.
Read the full story of Alex McKeen from Star.
6:07 am: Bulgaria and Romania are lagging far behind as the two least vaccinated nations in the EU, with just 22% and 33% of their adult populations fully inoculated. The rapid rise in new infections has forced authorities to tighten virus restrictions in the two countries, while other EU nations such as France, Spain, Denmark and Portugal have surpassed 80% vaccine coverage and eased The restrictions.
Stella Kyriakides, the EU health commissioner, said the “worrying gap” in vaccines urgently needs to be addressed. Slovakia, Croatia and Latvia have vaccinated around 50% of all their adults. But acceptance of the jab in many Central and Eastern European countries has remained weak or declined.
In Norway, which has vaccinated about 70%, authorities on Saturday lifted restrictions that Prime Minister Erna Holberg called “the strictest measures in peacetime.” Nordic neighbor Denmark lifted virus restrictions on September 10, while the UK also dropped most pandemic restrictions due to high vaccination rates.
In contrast, at the Marius Nasta Pulmonology Institute in Bucharest, the ICU’s chief physician, Genoveva Cadar, says that her beds are now at 100% capacity and about 98% of all her virus patients are not vaccinated.
“Compared to previous waves, people are coming in with more severe forms” of the disease, he said, adding that many patients in this latest surge are younger than in previous ones. “They end up intubated very quickly, and the prognosis is extremely bleak.”
6:02 am: A federal appeals panel says New York City may require teachers to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.
The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit acted Monday night to lift a temporary order issued Friday preventing the mandate from taking effect so a group of teachers could hear a challenge. .
The mandate was due to take effect on Monday for teachers and other employees of the city’s schools. The appeals panel’s ruling put the mandate back into effect.
The teachers’ attorneys said they will now ask the US Supreme Court to intervene. One attorney said: “With thousands of unvaccinated teachers, the city may regret what it wanted. Our children will be left without teachers and without security in schools. “
6:02 am: New Zealand is relaxing travel restrictions in Auckland six weeks after the country’s most populous city was locked down due to the coronavirus.
People will be able to cross city limits starting Monday night if they are permanently relocating, have shared care and care arrangements, or are returning home. Those leaving Auckland on care trips will need to be tested for the virus within a week of their departure.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says more flexibility is being given because the pandemic restraint system “is currently doing its job.”
The city reported eight new infections Tuesday in the latest 24-hour period. Auckland was blocked on August 17 after the delta variant leaked from the hotel quarantine of a New Zealander who had returned from Sydney.
Pandemic restrictions in other parts of New Zealand amount to little more than the mandatory use of masks.
6:02 am: Australia’s Victoria state has recorded more coronavirus infections than New South Wales for the first time since an outbreak of the delta variant began in Sydney in June.
Victoria is Australia’s second most populous state and on Tuesday the state capital of Melbourne reported 867 new virus cases and four deaths from COVID-19 in the last 24-hour period.
It was the highest daily number of infections and deaths in Victoria for the latest outbreak. Victoria’s previous high count of infections was 847 reported on Saturday.
New South Wales is the most populous state and home to Sydney, which reported 863 new infections on Tuesday and seven deaths. The state has seen a plateau of daily infections as vaccines increased.
Sydney has been closed since June 26 and Melbourne since August 5.
6:01 am: Pakistan’s planning minister says the government will start a campaign to vaccinate children aged 12 and over to protect them from the coronavirus.
Planning Minister Asad Umar’s announcement came on Tuesday amid a steady decline in COVID-19 deaths across the country.
Umar said in a tweet that the government would soon launch a campaign to vaccinate children in schools. He did not give a precise date.
Pakistan currently offers free vaccines to adolescents and adults.
The country reported 41 more deaths from COVID-19 and 1,400 new cases in the last 24 hours on Tuesday. It was the first time since July that Pakistan confirmed fewer than 1,500 cases a day.
6 am: Portugal is wrapping up its military-led vaccine task force after nearly reaching its goal of fully inoculating 85% of the population against COVID-19.
The task force, led for the past eight months by a senior naval officer from a NATO building near Lisbon, will be replaced by three teams reporting to the Ministry of Health.
Portugal’s vaccination campaign is the most advanced in the world, with 84.88% of the 10.3 million people in the country receiving vaccines, according to Our World in Data.
Portugal is lifting most of its pandemic restrictions as of Friday.
Prime Minister Antonio Costa said many people deserved credit for the rapid launch of vaccines in the country, but highlighted the acceptance of the vaccines by Portugal as the main reason for the success.
Portugal does not have a significant anti-vaccination movement and is one of the leading countries in the European Union in terms of acceptance of vaccines for diseases such as measles and influenza.
6 am: Japan’s government says the coronavirus state of emergency will end on Thursday so the economy can revive as infections slow.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced Tuesday that virus restrictions will be gradually eased.
With the lift, Japan will be completely free of emergency requirements for the first time in more than six months.
Japan’s current state of emergency, declared in April, was repeatedly extended and expanded. Despite public exhaustion and frustration over the measures, Japan has managed to avoid the most restrictive lockdowns imposed elsewhere, while recording around 1.69 million cases and 17,500 deaths from COVID-19.
5:45 am: Ontario’s Scientific Advisory Board is ready to release new COVID-19 projections today.
The new model will be posted online approximately one hour before Ontario’s Medical Director of Health holds his weekly briefing.
Ontario’s daily case counts have so far stayed below 1,000 during the fourth wave, and Ontario’s seven-day average chart shows roughly a plateau from early September.
That’s well below the worst case in Ontario’s previous model, which showed around 4,000 cases a day so far.
The reality is more in line with the best-case scenario, in which cases would have fallen steadily since September 1.
On Monday, Ontario reported 613 new COVID-19 cases and no new deaths.
Reference-www.thestar.com