The City of Toronto is looking at its biggest and busiest vaccination week yet, with more than 98,000 appointments booked in its nine city-run clinics alone.
In the city’s daily COVID-19 briefing, Chief Matthew Pegg said 17,000 additional appointments were opened up in city-run clinics for this week thanks to additional vaccine supply being made available.
While city operated clinics are 92 per cent booked for this week, as of Monday morning, 7,600 appointments were still available.
In addition, city operated clinics are close to being fully booked for a number of weeks, but there are still some appointments available between now and June 13, Pegg said.
Appointment availability in city-run clinics by booking percentage:
- Week of May 17 – fully booked
- Week of May 24 – 99 per cent booked
- Week of May 31 – 95 per cent booked
- June 7 – 53 per cent booked
Appointments can be booked via the provincial portal.
“Should the province of Ontario make additional vaccine available to us for any of these periods of time, we are able to open additional appointments to match,” said Pegg, adding that hospitals and Ontario Health are also administering vaccines every day.
To find vaccine appointments across that network of clinics click here.
Mayor John Tory said vaccination efforts over the last several weeks have been focused on the “hottest hotspot postal codes” and it is making a “major difference” in the fight against COVID-19.
“In the 13 hottest hotspot postal codes, where there were very low rates of vaccination, we have gone from under 15 per cent vaccinated as of April 5 to more than 40 per cent as of May 2,” he said.
Tory added that while it took from late last December to May 1 to get 40 per cent of eligible residents vaccinated, that number has jumped from 40 to more than 50 per cent in the past week alone.
Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health added that the city is on track to have over 65 per cent of residents 18 and older receive their first dose of the vaccine by the end of May.
As of Sunday, over 1.4 million doses of vaccines have been administered in the city.
On Tuesday, vaccine eligibility will be expanded to those with at risk health conditions like diabetes and dementia as well as to Group 2 of those who cannot work from home which includes grocery, restaurant and transportation workers.
Vaccine eligibility will expand to all those 40 years and older on Thursday.
Toronto police broke up a large party at a commercial building downtown over the weekend, charging 24 people and seizing $13,000 worth of alcohol.
In a release, police said they were first called to a laneway hear Huron Street and Dundas Street West for reports of a dispute on Sunday at around 1:30 a.m.
When officers arrived they could hear loud music and people partying at a nearby property.
Realizing they were dealing with a large crowd, COVID-19 enforcement teams were called to assist.
Police say around 150 people were inside the commercial building partying without masks on.
Twenty-four people were charged under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act (EMCPA) and $13,000 worth of alcohol was seized.
But police say more charges could be pending as investigators try to identify others in attendance.
“The Toronto Police Service continues to attend gatherings every day and has 16 dedicated enforcement teams which specifically target large gatherings indoors at short-term rentals and businesses, as well as outdoors. Anyone breaching the provincial orders could face a fine of $750 and officers will take steps to disperse and lay charges. Charges can also be laid at a later date.”
Toronto officials expressed their frustration and dismay at the large number of people who gathered indoors while ignoring public health guidelines.
“[Their friends] should be the ones who are the maddest about this kind of behaviour because this is slowing down the process of getting to the day when we can all get together again,” said Mayor John Tory.
“As for the people who did this – $13,000 worth of alcohol is not a couple of people getting together for a beer …so I don’t know what planet these people are on. …I don’t know why people behave in this selfish manner.”
MONTREAL (CityNews) – The Iskweu Project, an initiative of the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal, has put in place a tip line to immediately answer calls and provide assistance to families and loved ones in cases when Indigenous women, girls or trans people go missing.
Created in 2017, Iskweu, which mean women in Cree, works to reduce, and ultimately, eradicate the number of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and trans people in Quebec.
The new tip line in place, is meant to help them achieve their goal, by making communications smoother between the Indigenous community and law enforcement.
“We all know the history of missing and murdered women, especially what happened in B.C., where Indigenous women would go to the police and their complaints were not picked up,” explained Nakuset, Director of the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal.
“When the RCMP was created, it was to push people onto reservations and then later on to bring the children to residential school and parents to jail. I think there still needs to be a lot of work done in order to mend that relationship,” added Nakuset.
“The community cares about their people. And often government and police don’t necessarily care and that’s just the sad reality,” said Jessica Quijano, co-ordinator of Iskweu Project.
“My grandma was murdered back in 2005. So, I hope it gives justice to people who don’t have necessarily answers to their cases of their relatives being murdered or people who have been missing I really hope it brings light to some people,” explained Janis Qavavauq-Bibeau, Research Coordinator with Iskweu project.
“So, what’s different about this project is that we literally have a procedure where if someone goes missing instead of calling the police, they can call [Quijano with the Iskweu Project, where a there’s already a] procedure with the police, and she can help that woman by doing a three way phone call. If the woman doesn’t speak French, she can do the translation. She can support the clientele bring them to court, and she’s going to follow up on all the million of things,” explained Nakuset.
The tip line number will start appearing on buses, bus stops and billboards across the city.
“Donna Paré, I’m going to keep going back to her. She’s been missing since 2018, she a 33-year-old Inuuk women. Someone knows something out there,” explained Quijano. “So we just want some resolve when it come to that. We are really hoping that somebody will hear this will see this number call leave a tip and it might be able to resolve the case.”
If you have any information or need assistance on a missing Indigenous woman, girl or trans person, please call 1-855-547-5938.
A person is in custody after a driver allegedly crashed their vehicle into the front of a Toronto fire truck, then assaulted a firefighter.
Toronto Fire Services said they had responded to a report of a collision near Victoria Park Avenue and Ellesmere Road late Sunday afternoon.
When the crew arrived, a person was allegedly seen “acting irrational”– and then drove their vehicle into the front of a pumper truck, a spokesperson for Toronto fire said.
Toronto police allege a firefighter tried to deescalate the situation but was then assaulted by the driver.
Police said they have a male in custody in connection to the incident. The male has been taken to the hospital, police added.
No other information has been released at this time, including if the firefighter was injured during the incident or how damaged the fire truck is.
Photos and video from the scene showed a white sedan with front-end damage, but it is not known if this was the vehicle involved in the collision with the firetruck or the initial collision call.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the police directly. Tips can also be left anonymously with Crime Stoppers.
The coming week is expected to see more COVID-19 vaccine appointments open up for more individuals across the GTA.
Peel Region says it is aiming to get 150,000 shots into arms this coming week, adding 10,000 appointments for residents 18 years of age and older. Dr. Lawrence Loh, the region’s medical officer of health, says he hopes to administer a first dose to 75 per cent of residents by the end of May. As of Friday, just over 638,000 vaccine doses have been administered in Peel.
Starting Monday, adults over the age of 40 and those who cannot work from home will be able to start booking vaccine appointments in York Region. Approximately 78,000 appointments will be available.
Halton Region is also opening up COVID-19 vaccine appointments to anyone 16 years of age or older who cannot work from home as well as anyone 50 years of age and older starting on Monday. Health officials say anyone aged 40 and older can start booking their appointments on May 12 before lowering the threshold to anyone over the age of 30 by May 14. It’s hoped that anyone 16 years of age and older, regardless of postal code, will be able to start booking their appointments by May 19. The region has already been accepting appointments for those 40 and up as well as 50 and up who cannot work from home.
In Durham, adults 40 years of age and older will be eligible for a vaccine shot as well as those with at-risk health conditions.
The City of Toronto is adding more than 17,000 new appointments spread across its five City-operated clinics this week following the confirmation of additional vaccine supply. City-operated clinics are hoping to administer approximately 98,000 vaccine doses between May 10 and 16.
The City is also hoping to open up vaccine appointments at its clinics for anyone 40 years of age and older this week, as well as additional frontline workers who cannot work from home. Those with at-risk health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and autoimmune disorders are also eligible to book appointments at City-run clinics and hospital-run clinics. Visit toronto.ca/covid19 for more details on if you qualify within one of those groups.
The province of Ontario says it is on track to administer first doses to 65 per cent of adults by the end of May.
A COVID-19 vaccine likely won’t be a requirement to return to the physical classroom at some universities in September, with several large schools saying they have no intention of mandating proof of immunization for students.
Though some schools remain undecided, the decisions from the University of British Columbia, University of Alberta and McGill University come as governments around the world work out how to handle so-called vaccine passports.
“There’s quite a range of opinions,” said Andrew Kirk, an engineering professor and head of the McGill Association of University Teachers. “We haven’t taken a formal position.”
Some professors, he said, believe McGill should require that students be fully vaccinated before returning to laboratories and lecture halls.
“Others feel that as long as they themselves are vaccinated, and there are reasonable precautions, then it shouldn’t be a requirement,” Kirk said.
Though the faculty association doesn’t have a concrete take on the issue, a spokeswoman for McGill said the school is planning for several scenarios, but anticipates that everyone at high-risk for COVID-19 will be vaccinated before fall.
“We do not currently anticipate a requirement to show proof of vaccination before coming to campus in the fall,” Cynthia Lee said in an email.
“The university is using an approach to planning that will create flexibility so that we will be able to adapt if we need to.”
Dozens of universities in the United States have opted to require proof of vaccination, including Rutgers, Brown, Cornell and Northeastern.
But there are some concerns around the equity of vaccine passports, with the Canadian Civil Liberties Association saying it’s “flashed red and yellow lights at any effort by a Canadian government to mandate public disclosure of private health-care information.”
It argues that the same groups that have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 — including new immigrants and racialized communities — may also face an added impact from vaccine passport requirements.
“Systemic racism may influence choices of service providers and others about who to demand ‘proof’ from, and who to deny access, particularly in the absence of a strict legal regime governing their use,” the CCLA said in an online FAQ on the issue.
The federal government, meanwhile, is working with other G20 countries to establish a common vaccine passport requirement for international travel.
“We are looking very carefully at it, hoping to align with allied countries,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last week.
Some schools are pointing to government guidance in saying they don’t plan on requiring proof of vaccination, including the University of British Columbia.
“All adult students will be eligible to receive the vaccine, including international students,” the return-to-campus primer paper reads. “The COVID-19 vaccine will not be mandatory.”
Gillian Glass, who heads up CUPE 2278, which represents teaching assistants at UBC, said her union is hopeful the university will consult with them before finalizing anything.
“At this point, because the university doesn’t have a set plan for return to campus, we don’t have a stance yet,” she said.
But that will likely change when the school lays out the conditions for returning to the classroom, she said, and she hopes the school will take the TAs’ position into consideration.
Meanwhile, other schools are still mulling whether to require proof of vaccination, such as the University of Toronto.
“The approach to vaccination is a matter all post-secondary institutions in Ontario are considering at this time,” a spokesperson said. “We are working closely with the guidance of the province when it comes to health and safety requirements in coming to any decisions.”
Likewise, Universities Canada said it’s still weighing the options.
“We are all experiencing this pandemic in real time, and it is too early to say what the world will look like at the beginning of the next academic year,” spokesman Karl Oczkowski said. “Our recommendation to students and universities is to keep the lines of communication open.”
On May 3, the British government announced that only one person had died of COVID-19 in the previous 24 hours.
It was a sharp turn around in a little over three months, from the country’s worst ever death toll in the pandemic, to almost none.
It’s also something, health experts say, Canadians can look to with hope.
“The U.K. shows the best way forward for Canada,” said Dr. Fahad Razak, an internal medicine specialist at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto.
The way, said Razak, is about getting more vaccines into arms, and keeping smart public health measures in place for as long as possible, to let the vaccines do their thing.
In January, the U.K. saw record numbers of new cases, deaths, hospitalizations and intensive care admissions. They were three to five times the worst numbers Canada has ever seen.
On January 8, more than 68,000 people were diagnosed with COVID-19, on Jan. 20, more than 1,820 people died. There were that month, more than 39,000 people in hospital on the worst day, and more than 4,000 in intensive care.
Now, after half the British population has had a single vaccine dose, one-quarter have had two, and the entire country faced a strict lockdown with a gradual, staged, reopening, the U.K.’s picture isn’t just better, it’s a whole new world.
Every one of those statistics is down. New cases? Down 96 per cent. Deaths? Down 99 per cent. Hospitalizations and ICU patients? Down 97 per cent.
“This is the remarkable effect of getting those vaccines into people’s arms, and effective and smart restrictions on public health measures,” said Razak. “This is the effect, you’re seeing it right now.”
Britain, like Canada, is one of the only countries in the world to delay second doses for several months, so that more people can get protected from at least one dose faster.
It was, in both countries, an experiment with many critics. With a pandemic underway and the need to get clinical trials completed quickly, vaccine makers had generally tested their products with three and four-week delays between two doses.
But with the B.1.1.7 driving crisis-levels of infections, and loaded with vaccine science that says delaying a second dose often generates a stronger immune response, Britain decided to push the second dose to 12 weeks.
Canada decided in March to delay second doses for most people up to 16 weeks, as production issues delayed deliveries and doses were in short supply.
Razak said it was, in both cases, “absolutely the right decision.”
“We’re going to see the benefit of that if we continue our aggressive vaccine rollout,” he said.
The U.K. — which was in a strict nationwide lockdown in January and February — is gradually returning to normal. Kids are back in school, hair salons are open, restaurant patios are hopping, and even small backyard gatherings are allowed.
It has all been done in calculated stages, with restrictions gradually lifting every few weeks starting in early March.
Next week, on May 17th, comes one of the biggest steps forward yet: restaurants will be allowed to have indoor dining and people can entertain up to 6 friends and family from two households indoors. Outdoor gatherings will be increased to a limit of 30 people. Children’s play places, movie theatres, hotels and indoor fitness classes, will once again be allowed.
On the 21st of June, the British government hopes to be able to lift all restrictions completely.
They can do that, said Razak, because there are more people vaccinated, and therefore fewer people available for the virus to infect.
The U.K. was fast out of the gate with vaccines, having made smart deals to get early doses from Pfizer, investing heavily in Oxford-AstraZeneca early on, and expanding production to make some of it at home.
In January, it outpaced even the United States in vaccinations, trailing only Israel and the United Arab Emirates in doses given per person.
Still the U.K. is not without supply woes. Vaccinations slowed considerably in April, as AstraZeneca couldn’t get all its deliveries to the U.K. and Moderna reduced British deliveries along with Canada’s.
Canada, with vaccine deliveries in May expected to be greater than the last five months combined, is catching up. It outpaced the U.K. in much of April, and expects to get a first dose to everyone over the age of 12 by the end of June.
The U.K. is targeting that by the end of July.
Dr. David Naylor, co-chair of Canada’s National COVID-19 Immunity Task Force, said the sharp down curve of British COVID-19 statistics can happen here.
“I would be not surprised and very relieved if we actually see a pretty significant pickup (in) the drop in case counts when we once we get about 40% first doses, which we’re heading toward quickly,” Naylor said.
On Friday, Canada hit 14 million people vaccinated with at least one dose, more than 37 per cent of all Canadians. At current rates of vaccination, Canada should get to 40 per cent by mid-week.
With vaccines coming in faster now, the 50 per cent marker should come before Victoria Day.
“When we get about 50% then I think we should see a lot more light at the end of the tunnel,” said Naylor. “I just hope there isn’t a bunch of premature opening up at that time, because that could that could set us back.”
Razak said there is no magic formula for when and how to lift restrictions but he said it has to be driven by the data. If it is done too quickly, before enough people are vaccinated and the virus has limited places to take hold, a fourth wave is very likely.
Naylor said, if things are done right there is no reason why Canada can’t be where Britain is now, in the not too distant future.
“We are in a position here with this flood of effective vaccines to really go after this virus and get ourselves out of limbo and get our lives back,” he said.
Health officials in Toronto have issued an order requiring schools and other educational settings to limit in-person attendance for most purposes, not just classes, in an effort to reduce the spread of COVID-19.
Toronto Public Health says the order is meant to supplement the provincially mandated school closures and will take effect at 12:01 a.m. Monday.
The agency says the new rule applies to all educational settings, not just those designated as schools or private schools under the Education Act.
And it says in-person attendance by students is restricted “as much as possible” regardless of whether it’s for teaching or other instruction.
It says there are some exceptions, such as day care services and instruction for children with special needs who cannot be accommodated through remote learning.
The order comes in the wake of concerns raised by residents who reached out to CityNews, describing hundreds of students and staff going in and out of private schools in the Bathurst and Lawrence area. The schools claim that they were closed for in-person learning but are operating as a place of worship and hold religious services for children.
The City said it was aware of the situation and commenced an investigation, noting that enforcement may have been due to ambiguity around the wording of regulations.
The order is aimed at education providers, and the agency says parents cannot be charged under the new rule, though they are encouraged to comply.
Toronto Public Health says the move is necessary because the city continues to see extensive community spread of COVID-19 variants of concern, and the risk of transmission is highest indoors.
It says the provincial order halting in-person classes only applies to institutions deemed a “school or private school” under the Education Act, and does not prohibit children from attending schools for purposes other than attending classes.
The agency says its order is aimed at “supplementing the schools closure in order to stop school-aged children from congregating indoors, in enclosed spaces, for extended periods, on a regular basis.”
The chair of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization says people who already got the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine should not feel they made a bad choice.
Dr. Caroline Quach and the other 15 members of NACI were accused of sowing seeds of confusion and vaccine hesitancy when they recommended for a second time that Canadians who aren’t at high risk from COVID-19 may want to wait to get immunized until a dose of Pfizer-BioNtech or Moderna is available.
Those two vaccines, which use mRNA technology and haven’t been linked in any way to blood clots, are the “preferred” vaccines, they said, leading some medical experts to worry NACI was grading the vaccines and Canadians would wonder if that means AstraZeneca is substandard and should therefore be avoided.
Some of the 1.7 million Canadians who had been vaccinated with it already questioned whether they should have waited instead.
Quach said people who took AstraZeneca did not get a “second-best shot.”
“The recommendation is not a retrospective one,” said Quach. “That means that everyone who has received the AstraZeneca vaccine has been protected against COVID-19.”
Quach said a single dose of AstraZeneca has proven to be as good at preventing hospitalizations or deaths from COVID-19 as a single dose of Pfizer or Moderna. That includes against both the original SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19, and the B.1.1.7 variant of it.
That variant is the dominant one in Canada.
“People who did get their AstraZeneca vaccine, mainly when COVID-19 was being transmitted in their community, actually did the right thing,” she wrote. “They protected themselves and their families against COVID-19 complications.”
They also got it at a time when it wasn’t entirely clear when they might be able to get a dose of Pfizer or Moderna. Most people going forward won’t have to choose between AstraZeneca now or an mRNA later, because more than 80 per cent of the doses coming to Canada in the next two months are mRNA.
Almost all the 2.3 million doses of AstraZeneca already delivered have been used, and only 655,000 doses are scheduled to arrive this month. Another million are expected in June.
Quach said NACI was only saying that with shorter waits for Moderna or Pfizer, younger people living in regions where COVID-19 infections are low, should look at whether they want to wait a bit longer for a vaccine.
That does not hold for people who live in places with high infection rates, or who are at high risk of serious illness or death from COVID-19.
“If your risk of COVID is moderate to high, get the first vaccine available now,” she said.
“If not, then one needs to balance out the risk of COVID complications against the risk of VITT that, although rare, does exist and may lead to severe complications.”
Dr. Fahad Razak, a general internist who treats COVID-19 patients at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, said NACI’s communication of its advice was more problematic than the advice itself.
He said the doctors, nurses and other vaccine experts on NACI are “incredibly smart and well-meaning” but that they, like he and other scientists and medical experts, aren’t experts in communications.
“I think the challenge that you saw this week is in the messaging, of how to talk about a very serious but rare side effect, and how to say that in a way that doesn’t lead to people worrying about vaccines in general,” he said.
Razak said all the vaccines approved in Canada, including AstraZeneca, are good vaccines to take.
Canada has confirmed 12 cases of VITT — vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia. Three women have died.
The blood clot risk did not surface during clinical trials but was picked up in Europe after widespread use of AstraZeneca began. Health regulators in Canada, the United Kingdom and Europe rapidly investigated and concluded the risk is somewhere between one case in every 100,000 doses and one in 250,000.
But they said the risks of COVID-19 are much greater, VITT is generally treatable if it is diagnosed on time, and therefore the benefits of getting vaccinated still outweigh the risks.
Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath is asking provincial police to investigate if criminal charges are warranted in the wake of reports into the government’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis in long-term care settings.
A 322-page report released late last week by the independent Long-Term Care Commission, along with the Auditor General’s report released several days earlier, both concluded the Ford government was slow in responding to COVID-19 in long-term care settings while calling for sweeping reforms in a sector that had long been neglected by past and present governments.
In a letter to OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique, Horwath says the deaths of many long-term care residents were not due to COVID-19, but the “callous, documented neglect of their basic necessities of life.” She pointed to at least 26 seniors who died, not from COVID-19, but from a lack of water and personal care.
“Ontarians have learned that their loved ones perished in long-term care homes from the Ontario government’s failure to protect our most vulnerable seniors in their most critical moments of need, and these seniors and their families are owed justice,” writes Horwath.
“I am asking for the Ontario Provincial Police to evaluate whether a criminal investigation is warranted into these deaths.”
The Long-Term Care Commission report noted that when the military was called in to assist at several long-term care facilities struggling with COVID-19 outbreaks, “they found deplorable conditions” and that 26 residents died due to dehydration prior to the arrival of the CAF team due to the lack of staff to care for them.
“They died when all they need was ‘water and a wipe down,’” they were quoted as saying in the report.
The military team also reported that there had been resident deaths due to dehydration and malnourishment, according to the commission which noted staff were “struggling to maintain fundamental standards of care which, in some cases, expose[d] patients to elevated risks.”
At the time when the military’s disturbing allegations were presented, Premier Ford said they would be launching a “full investigation” into the allegations and would be sharing those results with police so they can look into any possible criminal charges. However, on Wednesday, Solicitor General Sylvia Jones indicated no such investigation had been carried out by her ministry.
“Investigations would not happen at a provincial level or a ministry level, they would be the responsibility of either local police departments, or in some cases, they would refer it to another division or another police operation,” said Jones. “There was no Solicitor General led investigation, nor would there ever be, frankly.”
Opposition leaders have called for the resignation of Long-Term Care Minister Merrilee Fullerton, but Premier Doug Ford staunchly defended her in the legislature saying he has “full confidence” in her and that the blame should fall on him instead.
“I know it’s easy for the Leader of the Opposition to blame my great minister, but the buck stops with me. It stops with me and I’ll take responsibility,” Ford said.
