Coronavirus Update: Ontario names new head of expert COVID-19 advisory group

Good evening, here are the COVID-19 updates you need to know tonight.

Top headlines:

1. Ontario names new scientific director of the province’s COVID-19 advisory group
2. Moderna seeks Health Canada approval of COVID-19 vaccine for youngest children, announces new Montreal facility
3. A leaner Cirque du Soleil is slowly making its way back from its pandemic plummet

In the past seven days, there were 488 deaths announced, up 17 per cent over the same period. At least 6,539 people are being treated in hospitals.

Canada’s inoculation rate is 13th 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

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Coronavirus in Canada

• Ontario has 1,679 people in hospital and 209 in ICU for COVID-19, a slight increase over yesterday’s numbers. Meanwhile Dr. Fahad Razak, an internist at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, has been named the new scientific director of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table. Dr. Razak will replace Dr. Peter Juni as director.
• Quebec is reporting 26 more deaths linked to the novel coronavirus and a 36-patient decline in hospitalizations.
• In British Columbia, nearly 900,000 people – 20 per cent of the province’s population – don’t have a family doctor, leaving walk-in clinics and ERs swamped.

It’s official – Moderna has now asked Health Canada to approve its vaccine to protect babies, toddlers and preschoolers against the virus.

• It’s too early to say how soon Health Canada will make a ruling on Moderna’s application. In the past, a few weeks to a few months have elapsed between vaccine-makers submitting their data on COVID-19 shots and the regulator granting approval.
• The Massachusetts-based company also fleshed out its plans for a manufacturing plant in the Montreal area that will eventually make COVID-19 vaccines. When the pandemic hit, Canada had scant vaccine manufacturing capacity, leaving the country to rely on imported COVID-19 shots.

Coronavirus around the world

• In China, more Beijing businesses and residential compounds were closed down today, while resentment at the month-long lockdown in Shanghai grew, with many residents protesting by banging on pots and pans.
• South Africa has likely entered a new wave of COVID-19 earlier than expected as new infections and hospitalizations have risen rapidly over the past two weeks, the country’s health minister said today. It is the country’s fifth wave.
• South Korea has lifted its outdoor mask mandate for citizens after already getting rid of most pandemic precautions. The decision came just days ahead of newly elected President Yoon Suk-yeol’s inauguration on May 10 and despite his team’s opposition.
• A racial divide has emerged in the U.S. on current COVID-19 attitudes, with 71 per cent of Black Americans saying they favour requiring face masks for people travelling on airplanes, trains and other types of public transportation. That’s more than the 52 per cent of white Americans who support mask mandates for travellers, while among Hispanic Americans, 59 per cent are in favour.
• Four members of Switzerland’s special forces who were fired for refusing to get vaccinated against COVID-19 have lost their bid for reinstatement, a court said today.

Coronavirus and business

Cirque du Soleil is back with a vengeance, after all its shows were forced to close during the pandemic, triggering mass layoffs and putting the company into insolvency.

• “We’ve had to adjust our reopening plans a few times, but we came out of the restructuring with a business that’s leaner, more agile, less siloed and less capital-intensive than it was before,” said Stéphane Lefebvre, Cirque’s former chief financial officer, who took over the top job from long-time Cirque chief Daniel Lamarre last November.
• Of its eight touring shows, five have reopened, with the rest slated to restart in the coming months.

Also today: The death of in-store shopping experience could well be exaggerated, if these business owners opening up stores and innovating on business plans have anything to say about it.

And: Going back to the office is like “a double-tap of inflation,” writes columnist Rob Carrick.

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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