Today’s coronavirus news: Some youth aged 12-17 in Ontario can book a COVID-19 booster

The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Friday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.

6:05 a.m. A new international study involving Canadian researchers has found that people who had COVID-19 during the pandemic’s first wave were more susceptible to nightmares — and the worse their infection, the more bad dreams they experienced.

The study found that, for some, the experience of a COVID-19 infection was as intense as a terrorist attack or a natural disaster.

Sleep researchers in 14 countries including Canada compared the frequency of nightmares and other dreams in two groups of 544 subjects, a group of people who had COVID-19 and a control group of people who were not infected. The data was gathered between May and July 2020. The researchers found that the frequency of dreams increased by about 15 per cent in the two groups during the first months of the pandemic.

6 am Germany has crossed over the peak of new daily infections with the Omicron variant of COVID-19, the country’s health minister said on Friday.

Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said government measures to curb infection numbers have been effective, but he warned against relaxing the public health rules too hastily.

“We are not really in safe waters,” he told reporters in Berlin. Lauterbach, an epidemiologist by training, noted that as many as 12 per cent of people over age 60 in Germany are still unvaccinated. That share is three to four times higher than that of unvaccinated, vulnerable population groups in comparable countries.

Germany has been slower than many of its neighbors to relax pandemic restrictions. Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the country’s 16 state governors agreed Wednesday on a three-step plan to end most of the country’s COVID-19 rules by March 20.

5:55 a.m. Toronto’s condo market has now been gripped by the same fever that has enveloped the region’s single-family home market throughout the pandemic. Realtors say a shortage of listings and fierce competition among buyers is boosting condominium prices on an almost week-over-week basis.

Andrew Harrild of Condos.ca says available condos are so scarce that buyers are seeing affordability eroded “on an almost daily basis.” In some cases, similar units in the same building are selling for tens of thousands more within a matter of days or weeks, he said.

He says a two-bedroom-plus-den, 39th-floor York Street condo sold on Dec. 12 for its asking price of $888,000. By Dec. 30, the same sized unit on the 43rd floor sold for $940,000, $25,000 over the asking price.

Read the full story from the Star’s Tess Kalinowski

5:45 a.m. The pandemic may have ground much of Toronto to a halt, but it hasn’t stopped the growth of the city’s bike share system.

Bike Share Toronto posted record trip numbers in 2020 and 2021, even as car use dropped and public transit ridership collapsed. And as the city emerges from COVID-19, the program’s leaders say it has a bright future. Not only are more people riding, but Bike Share is poised to build on that success by expanding to all corners of Toronto, and introducing steep discounts to make the program accessible to residents of all incomes.

“This is really a transformational point for Bike Share. It’s exciting for the program and for the city,” said Bike Share director Justin Hanna. He said his goal is to make bike sharing “an integral part of the city’s transportation network.”

Read the full story from the Star’s Ben Spurr

5:40 a.m. Ottawa is holding its collective breath as police appear ready to finally end the so-called Freedom Convoy protest that has paralyzed a good chunk of the capital city’s downtown core for the past three weeks.

With significantly bolstered ranks municipal, provincial and national police officers have established a perimeter with about 100 checkpoints covering Ottawa’s downtown to keep out anyone attempting to join the protest this weekend.

They have also arrested a number of people, including two organizers of the protest against COVID-19 public health measures. Tamara Lich was in custody Thursday night charged with counseling to commit mischief, while Chris Barber was also facing that charge along with charges of obstruction and counseling to commit obstruction.

As snow blanketed the city Thursday police spent much of the day going around warning protesters, once again, to pack up and pullout now, or else risk arrest and other tough sanctions.

But many demonstrators still refused to budge. And city residents, who have grown increasingly frustrated with their lives being upended by the protest, are now waiting to see if police will back up their words with action to take back the streets.

5:38 a.m. Some Ontario youth aged 12 to 17 can book a booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine through the provincial portal starting Friday.

The bookings open at 8 am for those who had their second shot six months ago, though some public health units have already been offering the third shots to teens since the province announced the expanded booster eligibility earlier this week.

The National Advisory Committee on Immunization has only recommended booster doses for high-risk adolescents, such as those who are immunocompromised.

A spokeswoman for Health Minister Christine Elliott says Ontario’s decision to expand eligibility to anyone 12 to 17 who had their second shot six months ago is based on the advice of the chief medical officer of health and the Ontario Immunization Advisory Committee. About 90 per cent of people aged 12 to 17 in Ontario have received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. In the next age group, of people aged 18 to 29, just 34 per cent have received a booster shot.