Today’s coronavirus news: More Canadians say worst of COVID-19 yet to come as the Delta variant spreads, poll shows; Delta variant behind increase in case numbers in B.C., experts say – Toronto Star
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.
6:40 a.m. As restaurants reopen their doors and look for workers to fill long-empty positions, some are making permanent changes to the way they distribute tips to their employees in an effort to make wages fairer and jobs more attractive.
Paul Bognar, president and COO of restaurant operations group Service Inspired Restaurants, which owns and operates franchises such as Jack Astor’s, Scaddabush and Canyon Creek, said the company made two changes in recent months to help improve the wages for back-of-house workers, which have been especially difficult to find recently.
The firm permanently boosted the base pay for back-of-house workers by a dollar or two, said Bognar.
Read the full story from the Star’s Rosa Saba
6:30 a.m. The White House delivered a stern message on Tuesday to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over the Republican’s opposition to mask mandates: “Get out of the way.”
DeSantis has attributed the state’s uptick in COVID-19 cases to seasonal factors and rejected calls to impose a mask mandate. He last week signed an executive order threatening to withhold state funds from school districts that put mask mandates in place to follow federal health guidance for areas experiencing a surge in coronavirus cases.
“Most Republican governors are doing exactly the right thing,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in response to a question about DeSantis. “But if you aren’t going to help, if you aren’t going to abide by public health guidance, then get out of the way and let people do the right thing to lead in their communities, whether they are teachers, university leaders, private sector leaders or others who are trying to save lives.”
For the third consecutive day, COVID-19 hospitalizations in Florida reached a pandemic high at 11,863 patients. Federal health officials said on Monday that one in three cases of coronavirus nationwide occurred in Florida and Texas last week.
DeSantis has likened the recent surge to the spike in cases last summer.
“These things have a pattern,” he said last month. “We saw the pattern last summer. It’s similar. I think it started a little later. I think people should just be prepared for that.”
6:10 a.m. Despite rising COVID-19 cases, Chicago’s public health commissioner said Tuesday the city is not at this point mandating vaccination proof for indoor bars, restaurants and gyms, as New York City mayor’s announced will be required in that city.
Dr. Allison Arwady called New York’s move “appropriate” and praised Chicago businesses who independently implemented such a practice. But New York City was a lot less resistant at the idea of a vaccine passport than Chicago has been, she said.
“At this point, we’re interested in this,” Arwady said. “We’ll be watching to see how this plays out, but we don’t have a current plan to do something like that at the city level.”
Both Chicago and Illinois saw a jump in new COVID-19 statistics, with the city’s daily average of new cases rising from 205 Monday to 234 Tuesday. Chicago’s also expanded its travel warning to several more states Tuesday and since late last week is strongly recommending that everyone where masks indoors, regardless of vaccination status.
6 a.m. The Chinese city of Wuhan is testing its entire population for coronavirus in response to the spread of the Delta variant.
Chinese state media reported Tuesday that authorities in the city of 11 million people decided to carry out mass testing after the city’s first three cases in around a year were registered.
The first coronavirus cases worldwide were detected in Wuhan in December 2019. The government locked down the central Chinese city for 76 days to squash the outbreak.
The country has used strict measures to tackle coronavirus since then, and aside from several small-scale local outbreaks, has recorded almost no infections since last summer.
But after an outbreak at an airport in the eastern city of Nanjing two weeks ago, the delta variant is spreading to a rising number of Chinese cities.
So far, more than 400 delta infections have been recorded nationwide. Mass testing is being carried out in many places and travel restrictions have brought in for parts of the country.
5:30 a.m. In What COVID Reveals, award-winning journalist Stephanie Nolen follows working women, migrant workers, asylum seekers and people with no place to “just stay home” as the virus surged. Through the story of their pandemic year, Nolen charts what COVID showed us, and what we’ve chosen to do about it.
Learn more about the exclusive series here.
5:20 a.m. As high school students across the province get ready to head back to school this September, many may be wondering whether their classmates have been vaccinated against COVID-19.
But while one health unit gets top marks for transparency on vaccination rates, other parents and teens in the province are in the dark, at least for now.
The province’s official back to school plan, released Tuesday, calls for continuing with masks, cohorts and physical distancing measures from last year, with a return to extracurricular activities, field trips and assemblies. But the 29-page plan does not make vaccines mandatory for staff or students, or require public health units to publish school vaccination rates.
Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health is so far the only health unit to publicly post an easily accessible school-by-school breakdown of the proportion of students who’ve been vaccinated on its website.
Read the full story from the Star’s May Warren
Wednesday 5 a.m. Since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, the TTC has made frequent cleaning of its vehicles a staple of its pandemic response.
The transit agency instituted enhanced disinfection protocols even before officials declared COVID-19 a global emergency, and TTC officials have cited their early adoption of frequent cleaning as evidence of the organization’s proactive approach to fighting the virus.
But that attention to cleanliness appears to have come with a potentially troubling tradeoff. According to a Star analysis of the most recently available TTC data, vehicle cleaning has become the leading cause of bus service delays during the pandemic.
That has some observers urging the agency to rethink its approach, particularly in light of increasingly clear evidence that the risk of transmitting the virus via surfaces is low, and the fact that delays have the potential to exacerbate crowding on buses that could be more dangerous.
Read the full story from the Star’s Ben Spurr
Wednesday 4 a.m. Canadians may have to wait a few days to find out the final results of a federal election called in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Canada’s chief electoral officer warns.
And they may find themselves voting in unusual places or having to go a bit further afield to cast their ballots.
But Stephane Perrault wants Canadians to know there’s nothing nefarious about the departures from the norm.
They’re part of a process Elections Canada has devised to ensure an election can be conducted safely and produce trustworthy results while the country remains in the grip of COVID-19.
“It’s important for Canadians to understand that this is part of the plan of deliberate choices that we’ve made,” Perrault said in an interview with The Canadian Press.
“It’s not an accident, it’s not a sign of things going wrong but in fact is part of the process as we’ve designed it in these very unique circumstances of the pandemic.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is widely expected to pull the plug on his minority Liberal government later this month for an election in mid to late September. All parties are gearing up for a campaign, even as chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam is warning that Canada is on the verge of a fourth wave of COVID-19, driven by the more infectious Delta variant.
Should a summer election call occur, Elections Canada is ready for a potentially explosive increase in the number of Canadians who choose to vote by mail during the pandemic — as many as five million, compared to fewer than 50,000 in the 2019 election.
Perrault said mail-in ballots will not be counted until the day after the election, in order to allow them to be received right up to the last minute before polls close and to give election officials time subsequently to carefully conduct checks to ensure no one who voted by mail also cast a ballot in person.
In a worst-case scenario, he said it may take two to five days to complete the mail-in ballot count.
That could mean the results of close races in some ridings won’t be known immediately. And, if the national results are tight, it could mean the overall outcome — which party wins the most seats, whether it has a minority or majority — could be equally in limbo.
Wednesday 4 a.m. A new poll suggests more Canadians believe the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic has not passed as concerns rise about a fourth wave of infections driven by the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant.
Fifty-four per cent of respondents to an online survey by Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies say the worst of the COVID-19 crisis is already over, compared with 63 per cent who believed so in a survey last month.
Leger executive vice-president Christian Bourque said there is a nine per cent drop in the percentage of people who believe that the worst is behind us and a six per cent increase in the percentage of those who say the worst is yet to come.
“We are seeing an impact of all the talk around the Delta variant,” he said. “It is scaring some Canadians.”
The poll also found that 73 per cent of Canadians believe that governments should not lift all restrictions related to COVID-19 at the moment.
Bourque said that number is up by three points since another survey asked the same question last month.
The online poll of 1,534 adult Canadians was carried out July 30 and Aug. 1, and it cannot be assigned a margin of error because internet-based surveys are not considered random samples.
Canada’s top doctor warned last week that the country is at the start of a fourth wave of COVID-19 that could lead to a sharp resurgence in cases if public health restrictions are lifted before vaccination rates pick up.
“The trajectory will depend on an ongoing increase in fully vaccinated coverage and the timing, pace and extent of reopening,” Dr. Theresa Tam said Friday as she revealed new COVID-19 modelling.
“While some resurgence is expected as measures are eased, this updated model shows that if we maintain current levels of community-wide contacts, we would expect to see a modest increase in cases.”
Tuesday 9 p.m.: Pharmacists are scrambling to use up thousands of doses of the Moderna vaccine that are days away from expiring, with some proposing using the “liquid gold” for third shots.
There’s been a “deep decline” in demand for the Moderna vaccine, specifically in the last few weeks, said Justin Bates, CEO of the Ontario Pharmacists Association, who is trying to find ways to avoid wasting the vaccine. Doses have a limited shelf life and will spoil 30 days after they are delivered to fridges and are in a thawed state.
“We’re certainly in a position that is precarious. No health-care provider wants to contemplate having to dispose of what is essentially liquid gold in the vaccines,” said Bates. Each vial contains 14 doses, which must be used within 12 hours once the vial is punctured.
Confusing messaging from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization, which said mixing COVID-19 vaccines is not ideal, and delayed consensus from international bodies over accepting mixed doses, as well as lower brand recognition, are likely fuelling hesitancy around Moderna, said Bates.
Along with improving public perceptions of dose mixing, potentially opening up Moderna vaccines for a third shot is among solutions being considered as time runs out, he said.
Read the full story by the Star’s Olivia Bowden here: Pharmacists scramble to use up expiring ‘liquid gold’ Moderna shots
Tuesday 7:25 p.m.: Premier Jason Kenney offloaded responsibility on Alberta’s top doctor for lifting all COVID-19 public health orders, as local leaders and health-care experts from across the country continue to condemn the province’s plans.
In defence of Alberta’s move to end isolation requirements, contact tracing and asymptomatic testing, Kenney said Tuesday the decision was based on science and data. But he didn’t provide specifics.
“People are understandably anxious about both the disease itself and the damaging affect of restrictions,” said Kenney.
He noted that Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, has previously commented about widespread vaccine coverage changing the nature of the provincewide risk of COVID-19.
Read the full story here: Premier offloads responsibility to Alberta’s top doctor, defends COVID-19 response
Tuesday 4 p.m. Back to school this fall for Ontario’s two million students isn’t quite back to normal, but there will be fewer COVID-19 restrictions than the 2020-21 year.
And — after Ontario shut down its schools more than any other province since the pandemic began — Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore says he does not expect that to happen in 2021-22.
“I really don’t see our schools closing going into the fall and winter and spring … we will do our utmost to keep schools open for all students and families,” Moore said Tuesday after the province unveiled its long-awaited fall plan for in-person learning that includes mandatory masks for staff and students starting in Grade 1, but allows for music programs and a full return of competitive sports and extracurricular clubs.
