The Ontario government is moving to activate an “emergency brake” for four weeks across the entire province in response to rising COVID-19 cases and strained capacity at intensive care units, multiple sources tell Global News.
While the move came after an hours-long meeting of the Ontario cabinet on Wednesday, several health-care professionals in the province have pleaded for government intervention in recent weeks.
Two Ontario seniors are threatening to take Canada’s pandemic authorities to court over the country’s unprecedented decision to prescribe four-month gaps between doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
The pair provided written consent for their first dose in early March, when official Ontario guidelines said that the vaccine comprised “2 doses given 21 days apart.”
#BREAKING The @fordnation cabinet is considering these options: either the whole province will go into a 28 day “shutdown” or specific regions like Toronto & Peel will. No word on schools yet, but boards across the province are preparing for remote learning. Developing. #onpoli
— Toronto Sun (@TheTorontoSun) March 31, 2021
Admissions of COVID-19 patients to Ontario’s intensive care units (ICUs) have surpassed the previous pandemic high, a government agency that tracks hospitalizations said Wednesday, as the province reported another 2,333 cases of the illness.
There are now 421 patients with the virus in ICUs across the province, according to Critical Care Services Ontario (CCSO), which puts together daily internal reports for hospitals and health organizations. That number includes 32 people admitted Tuesday, CCSO said, after a single-day record of 46 Monday.
You’ve got questions, and they’ve got answers! Tune in as our country’s top doctors – Dr. Tam (@CPHO_Canada), Dr. Njoo, Dr. Sharma, and Dr. Adams – sit down with @HeyScienceSam and @DanielleSipsTea to answer some of your questions about #COVID19Vaccines: https://t.co/hvAlZp1CD9
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) March 31, 2021
Ontario is reporting 2,333 cases of #COVID19 and over 52,500 tests completed. Locally, there are 785 new cases in Toronto, 433 in Peel, 222 in York Region, 153 in Hamilton, 124 in Ottawa and 120 in Durham.
— Christine Elliott (@celliottability) March 31, 2021
Tight lockdown coming soon for Toronto, predicts member of Ontario’s science advisory table
With COVID-19 infections surging, and younger adults filling up intensive care units, the Toronto area is almost certainly heading back into tight lockdown, predicts a member of Ontario’s science advisory table.
“I’d be shocked if we were not in lockdown shortly before or after this weekend,” said Dr. Nathan Stall, a researcher and geriatrician at Mount Sinai Hospital.
“There are many things in jeopardy — not just people’s lives and health-care capacity. The school year is in jeopardy, businesses are in jeopardy if they’re facing a prolonged lockdown. Everyone is going to suffer. Even the summer is in jeopardy now — day camps and overnight camps for kids.”
Covid Capitalism Triumphs!
Ottawa, province to kick in millions to help fund new vaccine manufacturing facility in Toronto
The funding will help Sanofi build a new facility that will expand its influenza vaccine production capacity, while giving it the tools to fill-and-finish other vaccines on a mass scale.
The project, expected to be completed in 2027, will enable Sanofi to produce enough influenza vaccine for the entire population of Canada in six months. It will also enable Sanofi to implement fill-and-finish capacity that could be used to create vaccines for coronaviruses and other diseases in the future.
In Canada, between March 2020 and February 2021, more than 80,000 residents and staff members of long-term care homes were infected with the coronavirus. Outbreaks occurred in 2,500 care homes, resulting in the deaths of 14,000 residents, according to the report.
Health Canada has issued a warning after face masks issued to schools and daycares in Quebec were found to contain a toxic chemical.
Where did these masks come from? As if we need to ask.
Canada, the United States and 12 other countries expressed concerns Tuesday that the released World Health Organization (WHO) report on the origins of the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 was delayed and lacked access to complete data, according to a joint statement.
Men who contract Covid-19 treble their risk of developing erectile dysfunction, according to new research.
Doctors at the University of Rome asked 100 men, with an average age of 33, to report recent problems with sexual function.
Nine per cent of those who had not had Covid said they’d had difficulties.
Maybe it’s not a full-fledged farce, but nothing happened in this investigation that didn’t have the tacit approval of an authoritarian government
Even in liberal democracies with a free press, attempting to probe the origins of a massive catastrophe can be a messy affair. The 9/11 Commission, for instance, took two years and thrice had to exercise its powers of subpoena (each time against a U.S. government agency). Even then, some of the commission’s conclusions have since attracted criticism for relying on flawed testimony from U.S. intelligence.
By contrast, the WHO-led investigation into COVID-19’s origins was a team of 17 Chinese scientists and 10 non-Chinese investigators that spent two weeks conducting interviews under the constant supervision of the People’s Republic of China.
OTTAWA —Just as 1.5 million doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Canada Tuesday new guidelines will restrict the number of people who can take it, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged Canadians to trust the science and accept the first vaccine they are offered.
Public health officers across the country suspended the use of the Astrazeneca vaccine in people under the age of 55 over concerns the vaccine might cause rare, but serious and potentially fatal blood clots. Canada has already received 500,000 doses of the vaccine and a further 1.5 million were on route from the United Stated on Tuesday.
Variants that are more deadly are circulating widely, new daily infections have reached the same number at the height of the second wave, and the number of people hospitalized is now more than 20 per cent higher than at the start of the last provincewide lockdown, states an analysis from Ontario’s COVID-19 science advisory table published on Monday night.
The premier made the comments during a news conference on Tuesday, saying that he’s “extremely” concerned with the direction the province is heading.
I’m starting to think Ford isn’t a whole lot different from the guy that preceded him.
One of Toronto’s local TV stations recently ran a segment on an elderly woman who was accidentally given the wrong address for her COVID jab. Her daughter drove her to the designated spot, which was deserted. Turned out the vaccinations were being done elsewhere.
Shocka! Canadians far more wary of AstraZeneca than other COVID-19 vaccines: Poll
JUST IN – Berlin suspends AstraZeneca vaccinations for under 60 years olds as the German Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI) reports 31 suspected cases of brain thrombosis and nine deaths after vaccination nationwide.
— Disclose.tv 🚨 (@disclosetv) March 30, 2021
