The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Wednesday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.
6:15 a.m. The number of new coronavirus cases and deaths globally have continued to fall in the past week, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, with only the Western Pacific reporting an increase in COVID-19.
In its latest report on the pandemic issued on Wednesday, the UN health agency said new COVID-19 infections dropped by 5 per cent in the last week, continuing a declining trend that started more than a month ago. Deaths were also down by 8 per cent and have been falling globally for the last two weeks.
Only the Western Pacific saw a rise in coronavirus cases, reporting a 46 per cent increase. In the last week, Hong Kong has been recording about 150 deaths per day, giving it the world’s highest death rate per 1 million people, according to data from Oxford University.
5:45 a.m. Ontario’s top doctor is set to hold a news conference this morning about how the province plans to “live with and manage COVID-19.”
Dr. Kieran Moore is due to speak at 11 am
Moore has said in recent weeks that mask mandates will be lifted in the province by the end of this month if public health trends continue.
Read more from The Canadian Press.
5:30 am I can think of a hundred reasons our leaders shouldn’t scrap mask mandates, but I’ll stick to five, writes the Star’s Emma Teitel.
1) To new study published in the journal Nature indicates that even mild cases of COVID-19 may cause “brain related abnormalities,” such as shrinkage to parts of the brain related to sense of smell.
2) Children under five years old are still ineligible to be vaccinated against the virus.
3) BA.2, the Omicron subvariant believed to be roughly 30 per cent more contagious than the Omicron variant is currently spreading in Ontario.
4) The Children’s Health Coalition, a collective of children’s health organizations from Sick Kids to McMaster Children’s Hospital thinks it’s a bad idea. In his own words: “Masking in indoor school settings protects children and their families. As soon as the evidence suggests otherwise, then alternatives can be considered.”
5) Masking is a cheap, effective and virtually harmless way to curb the virus.
Read more here.
5:25 a.m. People stand when Dr. Matshidiso Moeti enters a room at the World Health Organization’s Africa headquarters in the Republic of Congo and they listen intently to what she says.
Small in stature and big in presence, Moeti is the first woman to lead WHO’s regional Africa office, the capstone of her trailblazing career in which she has overcome discrimination in apartheid South Africa to become one of the world’s top health administrators.
As WHO Africa chief, Moeti initiates emergency responses to health crises in 47 of the continent’s 54 countries and recommends policies to strengthen their health care systems.
Read more from The Associated Press: WHO Africa’s first woman leader helps continent fight COVID
5:15 a.m. The Austrian government said Wednesday that it won’t start enforcing a vaccine mandate for most adults in mid-March as it had been planned.
The mandate for people 18 and over became law in early February, 2 1/2 months after the plan was first announced amid a surge of Delta-variant cases that sent the country into a since-lifted lockdown. By then, much of the sense of urgency had disappeared.
The plan was for police in mid-March to start checking people’s vaccination status during traffic stops and checks on coronavirus restrictions. People who can’t produce proof of vaccination would be asked in writing to do so and would be fined up to 600 euros ($653) if they don’t. Fines could reach 3,600 euros if people contest their punishment.
5:10 a.m. On this day in 2020, Canada recorded its first COVID-19 death. BC
Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry confirmed a man in his 80s with pre-existing conditions died at the Lynn Valley care center in North Vancouver.
5 am Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said Wednesday that reducing the skyrocketing number of deaths in the latest coronavirus surge is the city’s priority, putting a plan to test the entire population on hold in the latest flip-flop in the government’s pandemic response.
Lam said there is “no specific time frame” for a citywide test, two weeks after she announced it would happen this month. Her earlier announcement of her, coupled with rumors of an accompanying lockdown of the city, left store shelves bare as residents stockpiled daily necessities.
The city of 7.4 million people is in the grip of a spiraling Omicron outbreak that has swamped hospitals and morgues and reduced hours or shut restaurants and other shops in the normally bustling financial hub. More than 500,000 infections and over 2,000 deaths have been recorded since the fifth wave began at the end of December, with many of the victims among the unvaccinated elderly.
Read more from the Associated Press.
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