Coronavirus Update: Provinces might have to consider broader vaccine mandates, says health minister

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

Top headlines:

1. Broader vaccine mandates may need to be considered by provinces to continue fighting COVID-19, Canada’s health minister Jean-Yves Duclos said Friday
2. A new poll shows Canadians are very much in favour of getting booster shots, and a fair number of people would like to see the U.S.-Canada border closed to non-essential travel

In the past seven days, 293,224 cases were reported, up 49 per cent from the previous seven days.

There were 304 deaths announced, up 104 per cent over the same period. At least 5,491 people are being treated in hospitals. Canada’s inoculation rate is 16th among countries with a population of one million or more people.

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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

• The pressure on Ontario’s hospitals is expected to worsen in the coming weeks as more staff are forced off the job due to COVID-19 and more patients are admitted into care, said Anthony Dale, president of the Ontario Hospital Association. He called it a dire situation. A number of Ontario parents are opting to keep young children – who aren’t yet eligible for vaccination – out of daycares amid a lack of safety measures. The province is offering a $10,000 grant to small businesses forced to close due to public health measures. Also, the chief of Bearskin Lake says the northern community is “almost at a breaking point” and is asking for help from the federal government as it faces a mounting coronavirus crisis. Meanwhile, Ontario is reporting 2,472 patients in hospital with COVID-19, including 338 people in intensive care.
• Quebec is reporting 27 more deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus today and a nine per cent rise in COVID-19-related hospitalizations. And, Montreal homeless shelters say they’re facing a crisis as rising staff absences due to COVID-19 threaten to disrupt services during the coldest part of winter.
• Rankin Inlet, a community of about 3,000 people north of Churchill, Man., is one of 14 fly-in communities in Nunavut grappling with cases of COVID-19 believed to be caused by Omicron, which is spreading through the territory like no variant has before.
• New Brunswick is expanding COVID-19 booster shots starting next week to residents 18 and older as long as five months have passed since their second dose.
• In Victoria, British Columbia, the police department is anticipating staffing shortages caused by the rapid spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, and is moving all its available officers to front-line policing duties.
• Saskatchewan residents are sending much sought-after COVID-19 rapid tests to family members across the country.
• Premier Jason Kenney says Alberta will not mandate COVID-19 vaccinations in response to comments from federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos. And, oil sands companies in the province are operating with critical staff only, approximately 40 to 65 per cent fewer people than normal, as workers fall sick with COVID-19.

Provinces may consider implementing a broader vaccine mandate to counter rising COVID-19 cases, Canada’s health minister says.

• Given the fragility of Canada’s health-care system and the aging population of the country, Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said he thinks broader vaccine mandates will be considered by provinces over the next weeks and months, while stressing that it would be their decision to make.

Booster shots: The majority of Canadians polled say they will definitely get a vaccine booster shot as Omicron drives an increase in COVID-19 case counts across the country.

The Beijing Games: Getting Canada’s top athletes to China without testing positive for COVID-19 seems like the first round of competition.

Coronavirus around the world

• Novak Djokovic might not be the only person hoping to take part in the Australian Open to face removal from Australia, as up to three other participants in the tournament entered the country under the same exemption framework, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.
• Two cases challenging the legality of President Biden’s vaccine-or-testing mandate for large businesses are in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. Republican state officials and business groups asked the justices to block the administration’s rule, arguing the federal government exceeded its authority by imposing requirements not specifically authorized by Congress and failed to follow the proper administrative processes for issuing emergency regulations.
• With infections breaking records almost daily as the Omicron variant sweeps across Europe, economic growth in the region is likely to take a hit even though governments have largely avoided the debilitating measures that brought their economies to a standstill a year ago.
• New modelling from Sydney, Australia shows a peak in cases by the end of January. The country is experiencing infection rates higher than anywhere else in the Asia-Pacific region. In Sydney’s state of New South Wales, the premier has postponed non-urgent surgeries and reinstated a ban on singing and dancing in clubs and pubs.
• North Korea said “hostile forces” and COVID-19 risks were the reasons why it won’t attend Beijing Games, the upcoming Winter Olympics in Beijing, although the country’s athletes already weren’t eligible to compete.

Coronavirus and business

Canada has some of the strictest travel policies among G7 countries, prompting travel groups to push for more relaxed testing restrictions for foreign travellers like other countries have done recently.

• “As we watch the loosening of other requirements, such as isolation periods, it would seem that loosening of requirements around travel should follow suit,” said Beth Potter, president of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada. “We would love to get to the point where you only need to do a rapid test on arrival, then carry on.”

Also today: Over the last year, the tally of working Canadians jumped about 885,000 – a record annual gain that highlighted the economy’s rebound from the depths of the pandemic-induced recession. But, Omicron threatens the next round of employment data.

And: Grocery store executives have received multimillion dollar bonuses as sales and profits soar during the pandemic – even as they refuse to bring back pay ‘hero pay’ for employees. Unifor national president Jerry Dias says this needs to change.

Also see: The highly contagious Omicron COVID-19 variant is a concern for Canadian food production, farm groups say.

Globe opinion

• Robyn Urback: Denying health care to the unvaccinated is one step too far
• The Editorial Board: Canada has more than enough booster shots. Why is getting them into arms taking so long?
• Zain Chagla: For COVID-19 to become endemic, we will also need to focus on how we can treat it
• Andrew Coyne: The dance of the ‘do-we-haftas’ – no matter how artfully we try to avoid it, the reality of COVID is inescapable
• Elizabeth Renzetti: Lessons from the COVID not-so-sick bed
• Cathal Kelly: Canadian NHL teams should go on the road until Omicron subsides

More reporting

• Moderna CEO says people may need another COVID-19 booster in fall of 2022
• Amplify: Planning is how I cope, but COVID-19 has forced me to live more in the moment
• Canadian dollar seen higher if global economy copes with COVID variants
• Bearskin Lake First Nation, in Ontario, is almost at the ‘breaking point’ after a COVID-19 outbreak has put more than half its population into isolation
• NHL postpones Saturday’s Canucks-Senators game over ongoing capacity restrictions
• Maple Leafs place forwards Mitch Marner, Pierre Engvall in NHL’s COVID-19 protocol
• Edmonton Oilers place forward Kailer Yamamoto in NHL’s COVID-19 protocol
• OHL postpones two games, reschedules another due to COVID-19 protocols
• COVID-19 spectre hangs over Canada’s Olympic figure skating trials in Ottawa

Information centre

• Everything you need to know about Canada’s travel restrictions for vaccinated and unvaccinated people
• Where do I book a COVID-19 booster or a vaccine appointment for my kids? Latest rules by province
• What is and isn't 'paid sick leave' in Canada? A short primer
• Got a vaccine 'hangover'? Here's why
• How do I know if I have a cold, the flu or COVID-19?

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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