The Ford government has extended the provincial stay-at-home order and all public health measures for another two more weeks.
The order, which was set to expire on May 20, will end on June 2. Premier Doug Ford said his goal is to have the most normal July and August and the extension is necessary to make this happen.
“We need to do everything in our power to protect this summer for all Ontarians,” said Ford. “These are precious weeks we won’t put to waste.”
The province will be making those aged 12-17 eligible to book their COVID-19 vaccine on May 31. There will be special dedicated youth and family vaccine clinics during the weeks of June 14 and 21.
Virtual learning will also continue for the time being.
COVID-19 cases have been slowly decreasing amid the stay-at-home order and increased vaccinations since the surge of the third wave. The seven-day average currently sits at 2,731 cases.
“We are progressing, we are getting there, but we are not quite there yet,” said Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams.
Toronto Mayor John Tory welcomed the announcement, saying it gives people and businesses clear expectations for the next few weeks.
“I hope over the coming weeks we have a clear and simple reopening plan from the province so every resident and every business across our city can plan, as much as possible, for June, July and August,” said Tory.
Many have been calling for the reopening of outdoor recreation activities amid the nicer weather, but the provincial government will keep them closed until at least June 2.
When asked why they aren’t opening outdoor recreation activities, Dr. Williams said it’s less about the activity itself. “When you open up a lot of facilities, it’s not sometimes the activity, it’s the congregate activity before and after.”
“They pick up another buddy, two or three go out, go golfing, there’s nothing wrong with golfing,” Ford said. “The problem is, then after golf they go back, they have some pops. That’s the problem.”
“We just can’t risk it … Just a couple more weeks and we will do everything we can to get things back to normal,” he added.
Mississauga mayor Bonnie Crombie said she’s hopeful the extension of the order will help avoid a “fourth wave of the pandemic,” she expressed disappointment that the restrictions on outdoor recreation were not amended.
“The science is abundantly clear that these activities are safe if proper precautions are taken,” said Crombie. “I will continue advocating for these restrictions to be lifted.”
Opposition Leader Andrea Horwath expressed disappointment with that decision.
“I think it’s very clearly what leading public health and other science advisers are saying,” she said. “I think there’s a lot of room to give Ontarians a break.”
Ford has been visibly absent from the public since coming out of self-isolation after a COVID-19 exposure.
Ford also renewed his calls for tighter controls on domestic travellers and those who arrive through land crossings, saying Ottawa has yet to respond to his requests on these issues.
The premier said of the over 88,000 travellers who have landed in Ontario, one-third have been able to bypass the three-day hotel quarantine. They have also seen private jets landing at smaller airports and avoiding the quarantine.
“There are two sets of rules right now, one for those who can afford a private jet and those of us who can’t,” said Ford. “People are exploiting well-known loopholes that have been left in place.”
The premier has issued another letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, arguing additional measures — such as quarantine requirements for travellers coming into Canada by land — are needing to curb the spread of more contagious COVID-19 variants.
Trudeau said Thursday he was “frustrated” and “disappointed” with the Ontario premier.
Green party Leader Mike Schreiner also slammed Ford for being pre-occupied with attacking the federal government on border issues, saying he should in stead be doing more to prevent the predominate source of outbreaks – workplaces.
“The premier is using the border to deflect from his own failures to … avoid, or at least mitigate, the third wave,” he said.
Preliminary results of an ongoing study in the United Kingdom suggest alternating the Oxford-AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines causes more frequent mild to moderate symptoms, but there are no other safety concerns from mixing those vaccines.
However, researchers at the University of Oxford have not yet determined how a combination of shots would affect the immune system’s response compared with sticking with the same COVID-19 vaccine for both the prime and booster shots.
They say in a peer-reviewed letter published in The Lancet on Wednesday that an increase in short-term adverse reactions occurred after the Pfizer vaccine was followed four weeks later by AstraZeneca, or vice versa, as part of the study that began earlier this year.
Chief investigator Matthew Snape, associate professor in pediatrics and vaccinology at Oxford, said initial data are being released to inform people about symptoms as several countries consider mixing vaccines.
“The results from this study suggest that mixed dose schedules could result in an increase in work absences the day after immunization, and this is important to consider when planning immunization of health-care workers,” Snape said in a EurekAlert! statement issued by the service, which provides science-related releases.
Researchers also noted that while the study participants were aged 50 and over, it’s possible that adverse reactions may be more prevalent in younger people, though they did not provide any details.
Results on whether immune response to mixed doses would be affected are expected to be released by the Oxford team in the coming months.
Snape said they’ve adapted the ongoing study to assess if early and regular use of acetaminophen in Tylenol, for example, reduced the frequency of fever and mild to moderate pain.
The study recruited 830 people to evaluate four combinations of vaccination: a first dose of AstraZeneca followed by either a booster shot of the Pfizer vaccine or another dose of AstraZeneca, or the Pfizer vaccine followed by a second shot of either AstraZeneca or Pfizer.
Research was expanded last month for a new study with 1,050 volunteers who received either the AstraZeneca or Pfizer vaccine before randomly getting either the same vaccine for their second dose or the Moderna or Novavax vaccine.
Horacio Bach, an infectious diseases expert at the University of British Columbia, said the small size of the initial study does not make it possible to know whether some people would get severe reactions from mixing the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines.
AstraZeneca, for example, was tested in about 32,000 people but rare blood clots were not detected until millions of people received the vaccine, which a national vaccine panel in Canada has suggested should be sidelined in favour of the “preferred” Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.
Bach said it’s possible that knowing about an increase in adverse reactions from mixing vaccines could deter some people from getting a second dose, though symptoms following vaccination from even the seasonal flu shot vary widely.
Three Canadians — in Alberta, New Brunswick and Quebec — have died from a rare blood clot associated with AstraZeneca.
On Wednesday, even as the federal government announced it’s expecting to receive hundreds of thousands of doses of the vaccine, Nova Scotia and Manitoba said they would limit its use to second doses after similar restrictions on Tuesday in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Quebec. Some of the provinces have used up their AstraZeneca supply.
B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix said Wednesday the province is expecting to use some of its forthcoming supply of AstraZeneca for second doses and more doses had been distributed to pharmacies in the Island and Interior health regions.
Elections commissioner Yves Cote says his office investigated some 400 complaints about false statements allegedly made during the 2019 federal election campaign.
He says all but two or three have been resolved and none have been prosecuted.
While 400 may seem like a large number, Cote says the complaints were clustered around roughly a half-dozen allegedly false statements — with many of them using identical language, suggesting an organized campaign.
To the best of his recollection, Cote says the complaints all involved misinformation targeting white males.
Cote offered those details Wednesday during testimony before a Senate committee that is conducting a pre-study of the federal government’s budget implementation bill.
The massive omnibus bill includes an amendment to the Canada Elections Act to bring it into compliance with a recent Ontario Superior Court ruling that struck down a provision intended to curb misinformation during elections.
The provision was added to the election law in 2018 as part of the Liberal government’s broader reform of election rules.
It made it an offence for any person or entity to make a false statement about the citizenship, place of birth, education, professional qualifications, criminal record or membership in a group of any candidate, would-be candidate, party leader or public figure associated with a party.
Largely because the provision did not specify that a person must “knowingly” make a false statement, it was struck down by the Ontario court as a violation of freedom of speech.
The amendment now being proposed adds the word “knowingly” to the provision.
Cote told the Senate’s legal and constitutional affairs committee that he always interpreted the provision as applying only to knowingly peddled misinformation and instructed his office to investigate only those complaints that met that standard.
That led some senators to question the value of the provision since it resulted in no prosecutions.
But Sen. Paula Simons, a former journalist who now sits in the Independent Senators Group, questioned the potential chilling effect on individuals who might constrain their opinions during an election for fear of being prosecuted.
Joanna Barron, executive director of the Canadian Constitution Foundation which launched the court challenge, said she believes the provision, even with the proposed amendment, remains a threat to free speech.
“Canadians should not have to fear prosecution for communicating information that the state deems to be false or for sharing ideas that politicians deem unworthy of dissemination,” she told the committee.
Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc argued that the amended version strikes a fine balance between free speech and disinformation that can be used to manipulate election outcomes. He suggested that the victims of misinformation are most frequently women and racialized individuals.
However, Cote said the complaints received about the 2019 campaign involved false statements allegedly made about men, none of whom, to the best of his recollection, were racialized.
Both Cote and chief electoral officer Stephane Perrault told the committee that they support the amendment.
A woman in her 30s has been injured in a multi-vehicle collision involving a TTC streetcar in The Beaches.
Police were called to Queen Street East at Maclean Avenue just after 9 p.m. Wednesday to a crash between three vehicles, a Mercedes-Benz, Jeep Wrangler and Lamborghini, and a streetcar.
One patient was taken to hospital with injuries. The severity of their injuries and whether anyone else suffered injuries is unknown.
Police are on the scene investigating what caused the collision.
Queen is closed between Glen Manor Drive and Balsam Avenue.
The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) has announced they will be using a quadmester schedule for secondary schools for the 2021-2022 school year.
The quadmester model, where students take two courses at a time, was also used for the 2020-2021 school year as students spent multiple months online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
TDSB sent a letter home to parents this week, saying the decision was made to use the quadmester approach as it meets anticipated health measures and student needs.
The quadmesters would be from Sept. to mid-Nov., mid-Nov. to Jan., Feb. to mid-April and mid-April to June with two course in each timeframe.
The model will also allow a “common entry” point for those who may be transferring between schools.
It was also previously announced that parents will be able to choose between in-school learning and virtual learning for their children.
The deadline to make a decision is expected to be June 1, but the board reassured parents that if anyone misses the deadline, there will be place saved for them at their home school.
If a students has opted to go back to the in-class learning, there will be an option to switch to virtual learning halfway through the year in Feb. 2022.
Secondary schools with Intensive Support Programs (ISPs) for special needs students will continue to use the semester model.
The TDSB says they are also reaching out to students to receive feedback on the quadmester model. “Hearing directly from students is integral and we have reached out to the Student Senate for insight that will help inform our work,” read the TDSB letter to parents.
The province announced earlier this month that it will be increase funding to school boards by $561 million next year to help address continued pandemic-related costs.
Toronto schools are currently closed for in-person learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic and have been since April 7. They were previously closed from the Christmas break until Feb. 17 during the second wave of the pandemic.
Ontario health officials have announced they will be no longer administering the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine as a first dose option, due to increased concerns of the vaccine’s link to blood clots.
Over the last few days, there have been increased rates of vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT) from 0.9 per 100,000 doses to 1.7 per 100,000 doses. That means about 1 in 60,000 people could be affected by the rare, but at times deadly, side effect.
As of May 8, Ontario has seen eight cases of VITT. There have been approximately 850,000 AstraZeneca doses administered in the province.
Health officials are currently reviewing the use of the vaccine for second doses and will provide guidance to those waiting for second doses of AstraZeneca in the next few weeks.
The vaccine is currently only available at pharmacies for adults aged 40 and over.
Health officials say their decision was also influenced by the high and reliable supply of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams says they have been reviewing data out of the U.K. that shows the risk of blood clots is much lower when AstraZeneca is used as second dose.
Mixing doses of the COVID-19 vaccine is also being studied.
“We maintain that those who received their first dose with the AstraZeneca vaccine did absolutely the right thing to prevent illness and to protect their families, loved ones and communities,” he said.
Health policy expert for McMaster University Dr. Firas Khalid said he was not surprised by the province’s announcement and believes they are just trying to “err on the side of caution.”
“Right now with an abundance of the other types of vaccines, I think it makes sense why [Ontario] has decided right now to pause the vaccine,” said Dr. Khalid.
He said it’s important for those who have taken the first does of AstraZeneca to contact their health care provider to receive guidance on the best way forward for them.
Dr. Khalid said he believes this could be the end of the distribution of AstraZeneca.
“I don’t suspect that they will resume the rollout of them. I think if we continue getting the supply of Pfizer and Madonna, as expected. I think that it will be the end of AstraZeneca for the time being,” said Dr. Khalid.
He added his concerns is there will be a spillover effect of vaccine hesitancy towards the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. Dr. Khalid said one of the factors that contributes to vaccine hesitancy is misinformation or lack of answers to their questions so the government should be focused on communicating to the public that the vaccines currently available in Canada are all safe.
“So our job, whether it’s a health policy experts, or whether it’s the government is to really supply the best available evidence to people, and let individuals make their best informed decision. At the end of the day, the choice of what vaccine you want to take is upon the person themselves.”
Of the more than two million people vaccinated with AstraZeneca in Canada, 12 have been were diagnosed with vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT), and three of them died.
Alberta became the first province to pause administering AstraZeneca as a first dose vaccine because there weren’t any confirmed new shipments of the vaccine.
Fewer than 200,000 doses remain of the 2.3 million already shipped, and only 1.65 million more are expected before the end of June.
With files from The Canadian Press
The federal government announced Tuesday that they will be helping Ontario fund four major subway projects in the GTA and a rapid transit project in Hamilton.
The $12-billion funding plan is being billed as “once-in-a-generation” and the largest single announcement of transit funding in Canadian history.
The four projects receiving the cash infusion in Toronto are:
- Ontario Line: from Exhibition Place through downtown to the Ontario Science Centre
- Eglinton Crosstown West extension: connecting Scarborough and Mississauga directly along Eglinton Avenue
- Yonge Street North subway: extending Line 1 to Vaughan, Markham and Richmond Hill
- Scarborough subway: extending Line 2 at Bloor-Danforth at Kennedy Station to Sheppard Avenue East – a 7.8 kilometre extension, adding three more stops along Line 2.
In Hamilton, the funding will go toward a rapid transit line that will go from McMaster University in the west, through downtown to Eastgate Centennial Park in Stoney Creek.
“The GTA represents 20 per cent of Canada’s population and growing, and it has the third highest transit system ridership in North America,” said Catherine McKenna, Federal Minister of Infrastructure and Communities. “When complete, over six-million people across the GTA will have better access to Toronto services with public transit routes covering 1,200 kilometres. These investments are a key part of our plan to kickstart our economy and create one million jobs.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also said the projects will help “support jobs, make people’s commutes better and cut down on pollution.”
“Public transit is at the heart of a strong recovery and growing middle class. It’s also part of our plan to reach net-zero by 2050,” he said. “This $12-billion in funding means people will get where they need to go faster, all with tens of thousands fewer cars on the road daily. The bottom line is this — rapid transit shortens commutes which gives parents more time with their kids and ensures kids will inherit a cleaner future.”
Part of the funding will also go toward buying zero-emissions streetcars for the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). Trudeau said the new streetcars will keep Toronto’s air cleaner and help protect “good middle class jobs” at the Alstom automotive plant in Thunder Bay.
“Canada is a world leader in the public transit manufacturing sector … we will continue to encourage this industry in our country,” said Trudeau.
The funding agreement includes key conditions that are expected to improve the outcomes from the projects including community and environmental benefits, affordable housing and more citizen engagement.
McKenna said that every dollar invested in infrastructure must have multiple benefits. As such, federal funding will depend on satisfying those conditions, including:
- Demonstrating how the investments will drive down emissions and build climate resilience
- Substantive environmental reviews
- Community benefit agreements
- Incorporating barrier free and accessibility features
- Ensuring affordable housing along the new lines
- Meeting employment thresholds for underrepresented communities including Black, Indigenous, people of colour and women.
Provincial and municipal officials lauded the announcement and hailed it as a historic partnership between all levels of government.
Ontario’s Minister of Transportation, Caroline Mulroney, said when she took over the transportation portfolio, she received a clear mandate from Premier Doug Ford to move these transit projects forward.
“Reaching this milestone with our federal partners brings us one step closer to delivering on our promise to build a modern, reliable and sustainable transit system that the City of Toronto and York Region so desperately need,” she said. “Today’s announcement is an endorsement by the federal government of our government’s and premier Ford’s vision for transit in the GTA.”
Along with connecting underserved communities and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, Mulroney said the projects will support over 16,000 jobs each year during construction, with continued employment for the operation and maintenance of the new lines.
Toronto Mayor John Tory said the announcement “proves that when people work together we can get things done” and thanked Trudeau and Ford for being good partners to the City of Toronto.
“It was a bit of a difficult path to get to where we are, but the bottom line is we got there,” he said. “As mayor of Canada’s largest city and the country’s economic engine, I am proud to secure the support from these governments, both federal and provincial, for our transit system because transit expansion is vitally important to the future of our city.”
He added that Toronto is a partner with the federal and provincial governments in this plan and will continue to invest the City Building Fund in transit infrastructure upgrades and repairs.
Markham mayor Frank Scarpitti has been a longtime supporter of the Yonge North extension and called the investment an “outstanding commitment” that will contribute to creating a sustainable future for generations to come.
“With the addition of the Yonge North subway extension we will reduce greenhouse gases annually by 4,800 tons … and it will also eliminate the over 3,300 bus trips that are taken daily on an already jam-packed Yonge Street corridor,” he said.
Scarpitti added that Minister McKenna has been instrumental in pushing through the funding agreement and thanked both Trudeau and Ford for their commitment to York Region’s transit needs.
Ontario’s science advisors say the province could safely reopen many outdoor recreational facilities even if it extends a stay-at-home order in the coming weeks.
The scientific director of Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table says outdoor activities like golf, tennis and beach volleyball are low risk.
Dr. Peter Juni says that in some cases, if physical distancing cannot be maintained during the activity, people should wear masks.
Juni says public health officials must address activities linked with the sports — like car-pooling or sharing a locker room — which represent greater risk of COVID-19 exposure.
The province imposed a stay-at-home order last month that closed thousands of business and outdoor recreational facilities, except playgrounds.
The science table criticized the restriction of outdoor activities, saying they will not control COVID-19 and disproportionately harm children and those who don’t have access to their own green space.
Health Minister Christine Elliott said Monday that the province was considering extending the stay-at-home order, which would mean the outdoor facilities would likely remain closed.
The province’s top doctor said he would like to see “well below 1,000” daily cases before Ontario lifts the stay-at-home order. Dr. David Williams stressed that while the province is bending the pandemic curve, it has not brought the numbers down far enough.
Ontario reported 2,073 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday and 15 additional deaths from the virus.
The case numbers were based on more than 28,100 tests completed since the last daily report.
The province said there are currently 1,782 people hospitalized with COVID-19, including 802 in intensive care units.
Meanwhile, people with at-risk health conditions in Ontario became eligible to book their COVID-19 vaccines on Tuesday. That includes people with dementia, diabetes and sickle cell disease.
Another group of people who cannot work from home including grocery store, restaurant and transportation workers also became eligible to book a shot.
Starting Thursday, anyone 40 or older will be able to book a shot anywhere in the province.
The government said it has been able to expand eligibility to more age groups because it is expecting to receive millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses in the coming weeks.
Ontario said it expects 65 per cent of adults to have their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of May.
The North Division playoff matchups have been set after the Winnipeg Jets beat the Vancouver Canucks 5-0 Tuesday to clinch third place in the division.
As a result, the top-seeded Toronto Maple Leafs will host the fourth-seeded Montreal Canadiens, while the No. 2 seed Edmonton Oilers will host the Jets.
Both series carry plenty of historical significance. The Original Six matchup between Toronto and Montreal will be the 16th such series but the first one since 1979, when the Canadiens swept the Maple Leafs on the way to winning the Stanley Cup.
Overall, the Canadiens have won eight of the 15 prior series but the Maple Leafs have won four of the seven times when the teams met in the championship round.
The Oilers and original Jets rivalry has plenty of playoff history as well. The Oilers and Jets both entered the NHL in 1979-80 and would go on to meet in the Stanley Cup Playoffs six times over the next 10 years.
The rivalry was very one-sided, however, with the dynasty Oilers winning all six series and the Jets only winning four games, three of them in the final series in 1990.
Now these teams will get a chance to write a new playoff chapter with their first meeting since Atlanta re-located to Winnipeg 10 years ago.
The North Division playoffs will begin next week.
TORONTO — Ontario has become the latest province to signal it will likely mix COVID-19 vaccine brands as the country prepares for a flood of Pfizer and Moderna shots while some doctors questioned further use of Oxford-AstraZeneca.
Health Minister Christine Elliott said Monday it’s likely that Ontarians who have received a dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine may get a different shot for their second dose.
“We don’t have a supply date for more AstraZeneca, so it’s very likely that we will need to mix the different products together,” she said.
Elliott said the province is waiting for the results from a U.K. study on mixing different vaccines and on advice from a federal immunization panel.
“I expect that should come very soon because there are some people who are coming up in terms of times for their second shot.”
Quebec has also said that it plans to mix vaccines due to supply shortages, substituting the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines for the Moderna vaccines in order to quickly give booster shots to long-term care residents.
Dr. Theresa Tam, the country’s top doctor, has also said that Canada is closely following the results of the U.K. study on mixing doses.
Molecular biologist and science communicator Samantha Yammine said some Canadians who have already received the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine may be comforted to know they have the option of a different dose, given recent attention directed at the shot.
“It’s nice to know that people will have the option depending on what risks they’re comfortable to take on,” she said in a recent interview.
Yammine, who goes by “Science Sam” on social media, said the pandemic has given rise to an “infodemic,” with a flood of advice about areas like the low risk of blood clots from viral-vector shots compared with mRNA vaccines.
Conflicting advice coming from experts and officials, even if well-intentioned, can overwhelm the public, Yammine said. And Oxford-AstraZeneca’s vaccine has been in the spotlight in Canada in recent weeks.
The National Advisory Committee on Immunization, or NACI, attracted criticism when it recommended that Canadians who aren’t at high risk from COVID-19 may want to wait until a dose of Pfizer-BioNtech or Moderna is available, calling them the “preferred” vaccines.
Since then, the chair of the committee has said people who took the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot did the right thing, and some prominent physicians have suggested on social media that Canada could focus on distributing mRNA shots with millions of doses expected to arrive over the next few weeks.
Dr. Andrew Morris, an infectious diseases specialist and a member Ontario’s COVID-19 science advisory table, argued on Twitter this weekend that while AstraZeneca “was a good vaccine that served its purpose,” Canada has enough Pfizer and Moderna shots to avoid using AstraZeneca, removing the risk of rare but serious blood clots.
Yammine said the biggest damage from NACI’s initial remarks was feelings of remorse among people who took the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot.
She stressed that people should not regret taking the vaccine and said it’s still advisable for people in virus hot spots to take the first vaccine they can get, but highlighted the importance of local guidance for those in lower-risk areas who are trying to make sense of the advice.
“What we really need now, in my opinion, is for the provinces to now do the risk calculation for the people in their province, because it’s all a gradient, it’s not black or white,” she said.
Yammine has also shared infographics on social media comparing normal side-effects and possible signs of the rare blood-clotting disorder in some COVID-19 recipients, so people who have received the shots can seek treatment if necessary.
“We don’t want people to be scared and freaking out, but we want you to know what to look out for, so that you’re prepared and you can get the treatment that you deserve,” she said.
Jessica Mudry, an associate professor in health communication at Ryerson University, said communication about the difference between vaccines has been poorly handled by officials and it may end up hurting Canada’s vaccination campaign.
She said new government plans to mix doses without preparing the public for that possibility ahead of time may backfire among people who took already one shot and are now caught off guard.
“I think that this kind of this concept of the cocktail, you do one, then you do a different one, is actually going to be quite difficult for people, because people don’t like surprises,” Mudry said.
Even with more mRNA vaccines on the way, Yammine noted that Canada should be careful before outright dismissing shots like Oxford-AstraZeneca’s because they are important to ending the global pandemic and Canada has a strong healthcare reputation on the world stage.
“We act locally but we have to think globally,” she said. “By us just saying, no, these vaccines are not for Canadians, what message does that send to people in crisis around the world who don’t have the luxury of choosing a vaccine.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 10, 2021.
