Good evening, here are the COVID-19 updates you need to know tonight.
Top headlines:
- The saga of COVID-19 and its variants is probably not over, writes the Globe’s editorial board. The virus may be around for a long time. It may be around forever.
- Governments micromanaged in-person arts events for two years. Now, masks are off, and institutions are on their own
- “The only thing more anxiety-making than learning to wear a mask in public is learning when to take one off.”
Due to changes in the prevalence of testing, case counts alone are no longer a reliable indicator of the spread of COVID-19. Going forward, we will only be including the weekly death rates and hospitalizations in the newsletter. For a snapshot of COVID-19 data in Canada, go to the coronavirus tracker.
In the past seven days, there were 299 deaths announced, down 15 per cent over the same period. At least 3,576 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 are compiled from government websites, Johns Hopkins and COVID-19 Canada Open Data Working Group; international data are from Johns Hopkins University.
Coronavirus explainers: Coronavirus in maps and charts • Tracking vaccine doses • Lockdown rules and reopening
Photo of the day
A man has his swab sample taken at a mobile nucleic acid testing site amid a coronavirus disease outbreak, today, in Beijing, China.TINGSHU WANG/Reuters
Coronavirus in Canada
- Uncertainty around BA. 2, the Omicron subvariant that has surged in parts of Europe, is making it hard to predict hospitals and ICU admissions, according to a caveat that was disclosed with new modelling by Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table on Thursday. The province is reporting 615 people in hospital with COVID-19 today, as well as 193 in intensive care.
- Quebec is reporting 13 more deaths attributed to COVID-19 and a 13-patient drop in hospitalizations.
- Nova Scotia announced it will keep its mask mandate in place for public schools as it drops the requirement for most other public spaces on Monday.
Canada’s top public health official Dr. Theresa Tam expects a rise in cases of COVID-19 as public health measures are lifted in Canada, but says severe outcomes in the country should be manageable.
- Since the peak of the Omicron wave in January, cases have been declining steadily and have since levelled off, with approximately 5,000 cases reported daily, and the number of people in hospital has begun to dwindle.
- But even as Canada’s situation has stabilized, worrying trends have begun to emerge elsewhere in the world. The World Health Organization warned this week that several regions have seen increases in cases in the Western Pacific, Africa and Europe.
Pediatric vaccine: The National Advisory Committee on Immunization has released new guidelines that favour giving kids a Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, and that Moderna’s vaccine can be offered to kids as an alternative.
Vaccine patent lawsuit: The biotech company that makes mRNA-delivery technology for Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine sued Arbutus Biopharma Corp in Manhattan federal court on Friday. The lawsuit is part of a growing web of patent disputes over COVID-19 vaccine technology.
Coronavirus around the world
- Hong Kong’s cumulative coronavirus infections have exceeded 1 million as the city grapples with a widespread outbreak that has killed more people than the reported COVID-19 deaths in all of mainland China.
Coronavirus and business
WestJet is preparing for an “immediate and dramatic” uptick in travel demand since the government of Canada decided to remove pre-entry COVID-19 testing requirements for vaccinated travellers.
- The move comes after months of lobbying by the Canadian travel industry, which had argued that the requirement to seek out and pay for a rapid antigen test before boarding a flight home was an unnecessary barrier to family and business travel.
Also today: In post-pandemic workspaces, CIBC unveils something informal, comfortable, flexible and totally self-contained in Toronto.
Globe opinion
- Elizabeth Renzetti: How to survive the awkward dance of unmasking
- Naomi Buck: Asking students to wear masks doesn’t have a downside. COVID has several
- The Editorial Board: We can’t make COVID disappear. But we can make the pandemic history
- J. Kelly Nestruck: Governments micromanaged in-person arts events for two years. Now, masks are off, and institutions are on their own
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
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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