Good evening, here are the COVID-19 updates you need to know tonight.
Top headlines:
- If you or someone you know has been reinfected with COVID-19 recently, they’re part of a growing population that has been infected with COVID-19 more than once
- The federal government may end pandemic supports for businesses next month, as Ottawa looks to wind down two years of emergency spending
- Ontario expanding access to COVID-19 PCR testing, antiviral pill Paxlovid amid sixth wave
In the past seven days, there were 228 deaths announced, down 25 per cent over the same period. At least 4,892 people are being treated in hospitals.
Canada’s inoculation rate is 15th among countries with a population of one million or more people.
Sources: Canada data is compiled from government websites, Johns Hopkins and COVID-19 Canada Open Data Working Group; international data is from Johns Hopkins University.
Coronavirus explainers: Coronavirus in maps and charts • Tracking vaccine doses • Lockdown rules and reopening
Photo of the day
People gather to watch the procession of San Roque during Palm Sunday after processions were cancelled for the last two years due to the pandemic, in Seville, Spain, on April 10.MARCELO DEL POZO/Reuters
Coronavirus in Canada
- Ontario saw further increases in hospitalizations, as the province’s chief medical officer announced a number of high risk groups, like immunocompromised people aged 18 and up and all people 70 and over, would now be eligible for both PCR testing and the antiviral pill Paxlovid.
- In Quebec, the number of patients in hospital was also on the rise, and the province saw six deaths from the virus.
- This weekend, Victoria, B.C., welcomed the first international cruise ship to dock in Canada in more than two years. Meanwhile, the mink industry in the province is fighting the prohibition and eventual phasing out of breeding the animals, which was drafted based on concerns that farms would become a “reservoir” for COVID-19 infections.
- In Alberta, public-health measures to try to curb the spread of COVID-19 have sown a stark divide in Mackenzie County, the least vaccinated region in the province.
Reinfection from COVID-19 was considered unusual, but then the Omicron variant arrived.
- Not all provinces and territories report reinfection rates, but in Ontario, public health says nearly 12,000 people have gotten COVID-19 twice since November 2020 with the current risk of reinfection deemed “high.”
- Nazeem Muhajarine, an epidemiologist at the University of Saskatchewan, said unlike other variants Omicron is much better at working around immunity that’s either induced by vaccines or previous infections.
New sub-variants: The World Health Organization is tracking a few dozen cases of two new sub-variants of the Omicron strain to assess whether they are more infectious or dangerous. It has added BA.4 and BA.5, sister variants of the original BA.1 Omicron variant, to its list for monitoring.
Coronavirus around the world
- North Korea, commonly called a “hermit kingdom” because of its decades of isolationist policies, has been almost entirely closed off to the outside world since early 2020, even pausing most shipments from China, its major ally and economic partner. The effects on the country could last for years.
- In Shanghai, residents are questioning China’s COVID-19 quarantine rules. Everyone who tests positive must quarantine in specialized isolation sites, whether they show symptoms or not.
- Saudi Arabia will let up to 1 million people join the Haj pilgrimage this year, a significant expansion to participants from outside the kingdom after two years of tight COVID restrictions.
- Britain’s Queen Elizabeth’s experience with COVID-19? She says it “left one very tired and exhausted.”
Coronavirus and business
The federal government’s pandemic supports for businesses may end next month, as Ottawa looks to wind down two years of emergency spending.
- The government announced the first of many emergency aid programs for businesses on April 9, 2020. The suite of funds eventually grew to include wage and rent subsidies, as well as emergency loan programs.
- Economists have suggested that instead of incentivizing employers to keep workers on the payroll as designed, the stimulus has had a modest effect on the ability of insolvent firms to stay afloat. And research has shown that billions of dollars have gone to the bottom lines of already healthy companies (as a Globe and Mail investigation of publicly traded companies showed last year).
Also today: Handshake, or no? Morning muffins at the coffee station? What about masks? As pandemic restrictions lift across the country, many people will be seeing their colleagues in person again for the first time in a long while. Here are the dos and don’ts of going back to the office.
Globe opinion
- Nik Nanos: For Canadians, the only certainty is uncertainty
- Kim DeBon: Menopause is bad enough. Menopause and COVID? A new nightmare
- André Picard: Before Canada focuses on fourth COVID-19 shots, let’s get third doses to everyone
More reporting
- 76ers’ Matisse Thybulle ineligible for playoff games in Toronto after revealing he’s not fully vaccinated
Information centre
- Everything you need to know about Canada’s travel rules for vaccinated and unvaccinated people
- Where do I book a COVID-19 booster or a vaccine appointment for my kids? Latest rules by province
- Got a vaccine 'hangover'? Here's why
Sources: Canada data are compiled from government websites, Johns Hopkins University and COVID-19 Canada Open Data Working Group; international data are from Johns Hopkins.
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