Coronavirus: What’s happening in Canada and around the world on Friday
The latest:
World Health Organization officials warned Friday that new European Union moves to tighten rules on the export of COVID-19 shots were « not helpful, » and said restrictions mustn’t get in the way of beating the disease worldwide.
Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and other WHO officials warned of supply-chain disruptions that could result and ripple through the world — potentially stalling the fight against the pandemic.
The EU’s executive commission on Friday introduced measures to tighten rules on exports of shots produced in its 27-member countries. The measures will be used until the end of March to control shipments outside the bloc.
The idea is to ensure EU nations get shots they bought from vaccine makers at a time when supplies are limited and production hiccups have emerged.
Speaking at a World Economic Forum event alongside Tedros and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, German Health Minister Jens Spahn said: « It’s important for us that Europe is safe, that the world is safe. »
« But if we want to have acceptance for this, of course we also need to vaccinate … our own people. So it’s about the right balance. »
Bourla said seeking an actual ban on exports — and he emphasized that wasn’t what the EU wasn’t doing — « could become a lose-lose situation rather than a win for Europe situation. »
Tedros acknowledged pressures faced by national politicians but said hoarding vaccine could lead to a « catastrophic moral failure, » a simmering pandemic and a slow economic recovery around the world.
« For now, what WHO is saying is if countries can vaccinate their health workers, and elderly, and people with underlying health conditions, it’s enough, » he told an earlier WHO news conference.
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Johnson & Johnson announced the results of its Phase 3 clinical trial for its coronavirus vaccine candidate. The company says the vaccine appears 66 per cent effective overall. 3:27
Dr. Mariangela Simao, the WHO’s assistant director-general for access to medicines and health products, warned of the effect of restrictions like those by the EU on the global supply chain.
« It’s not helpful to have any country at this stage put in export bans or barriers that will not allow for the free movement of the necessary ingredients that will make vaccines, diagnostics and other medicine available to all the world, » she said.
Dr. Bruce Aylward, a special adviser to Tedros, said such measures must not « get in the way of trying to beat this disease on a global scale. »
« What concerns us the most in a situation like this is that ultimately it’s the most vulnerable countries … that suffer the most in any situation where we end up with trade restrictions or barriers, » he said.
-From The Associated Press, last updated at 4 p.m. ET
What’s happening in Canada
WATCH | Trudeau announces new restrictions for international travel:
Justin Trudeau announced that Canada’s main airlines have agreed to suspend service to sun destinations until April 30. 3:13
As of 3:15 p.m. ET on Friday, Canada had reported 769,736 cases of COVID-19, with 55,450 cases considered active. A CBC News tally of deaths stood at 19,782.
Ontario reported 1,837 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday and 58 additional deaths. Hospitalizations stood at 1,291, a provincial dashboard said, with 360 patients listed as being in Ontario’s intensive care units.
The province’s health advisers warned Thursday that a highly contagious variant of COVID-19 first identified in the U.K. could become the dominant strain of the virus in the province by March.
Dr. Adalsteinn Brown, co-chair of the province’s pandemic science advisory table, said the new strain could cause cases to spike again if precautions aren’t taken.
On Friday, public health officials in Waterloo region said a woman in her 30s is the region’s first case of this variant.
WATCH | Double masking could be useful as variants spread, experts say:
Amid growing concern about more contagious COVID-19 variants, some health experts are recommending double masking in certain situations. 2:05
In Quebec, health officials reported 1,295 new cases on Friday and 50 more deaths, nine of which occurred in the last 24 hours.
Premier François Legault said on Thursday that while the situation is improving in the hard-hit province, the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations is « too high. » According to Friday’s provincial data, there are 1,217 people in hospital, including 209 in intensive care.
The province had previously suggested it hoped to lift some restrictions by Feb. 8, but the premier on Thursday suggested that was unlikely. « We have to be realistic — most of the measures will continue, » Legault said.
Manitoba reported 157 new cases and three new deaths on Friday, with more than half of the new cases in the province’s Northern Health Region.
A new public health order took effect in the province at 12:01 a.m. Friday, requiring most people travelling to Manitoba for non-essential reasons to self-isolate for two weeks.
Saskatchewan reported 328 new cases and seven more deaths on Friday.
WATCH | Increased pressure on B.C. premier to impose travel restrictions:
B.C. Premier John Horgan is facing increasing pressure to introduce travel restrictions for people who don’t live in the province, as COVID-19 cases spike in popular tourist destinations. 2:04
In Atlantic Canada, New Brunswick reported 16 new cases and one additional death on Friday, as the chief medical officer of health warned of an impending third wave of the pandemic that will be « much worse » than the first or second because of new variants.
Dr. Jennifer Russell said that because of the variant threat, no region will move past the orange level of restrictions for « many weeks. »
Newfoundland and Labrador reported four new cases, while Nova Scotia reported one new case.
Here’s a look at what’s happening across the country:
-From The Canadian Press and CBC News, last updated at 4 p.m. ET
What’s happening around the world
As of Friday afternoon, more than 101.8 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide, with 56.2 million of those considered recovered or resolved, according to a tracking tool maintained by Johns Hopkins University. The global death toll was approaching 2.2 million.
Europe’s medicines regulator on Friday recommended approving AstraZeneca and Oxford University’s COVID-19 vaccine for people over the age of 18.
Europe urgently needs more shots to speed up its inoculation program with suppliers such as AstraZeneca and Pfizer facing difficulties in delivering the quantities promised for the early months of the year.
The shot is the third COVID-19 vaccine given the green light by the European Medicines Agency, after ones made by Pfizer and Moderna. Both were authorized for all adults. The decision requires final approval from the European Commission, a process that occurred swiftly with the other vaccines.
« There are not yet enough results in older participants (over 55 years old) to provide a figure for how well the vaccine will work in this group, » the regulator said, but noted that « protection is expected, given that an immune response is seen in this age group and based on experience with other vaccines.
« EMA’s scientific experts considered that the vaccine can be used in older adults. »
WATCH | EMA executive director Emer Cooke on AstraZeneca vaccine approval:
The European Medicines Agency has approved the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine amid a row over AstraZeneca’s decision to send the European Union less vaccine in the first batch than promised. 2:24
Denmark will extend its current coronavirus restrictions by three weeks in order to curb the spread of a more contagious coronavirus variant first registered in Britain.
Portugal, which is facing serious strain on its health-care system, extended a nationwide lockdown until mid-February and announced curbs on international travel.
In the Asia-Pacific region, Vietnam’s health minister said on Friday a new COVID-19 outbreak was « basically under control » in the areas most affected, as cases spread to Hanoi, the capital.
Vietnam reported 53 new cases on Friday, including one in Hanoi and eight in nearby Haiphong city and Hai Duong, Quang Ninh and Bac Ninh provinces. That brought the total number of cases in the outbreak that began on Thursday to 149, the government said in a statement.
Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long told reporters on the sidelines of the Communist Party congress, which is being held in Hanoi, that 3,674 tests had been conducted. Testing capacity was 50,000 a day, and the outbreak was under control in areas where the most cases had been found, Long said.
Sri Lanka on Friday began inoculating front-line health workers, military troops and police officers against COVID-19 amid warnings that the medical sector faces a collapse because of health personnel being infected with the coronavirus.
Sri Lanka on Thursday received 500,000 vaccine doses as a donation from neighbouring India. The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, also known as the Covishield, is manufactured by the Serum Institute of India.
In the Americas, Dr. Anthony Fauci said he hopes to see children being vaccinated in the U.S. starting in the next few months. « Hopefully by the time we get to the late spring and early summer we will have children being able to be vaccinated, » the government’s top infectious disease expert said during a White House coronavirus briefing on Friday.
Vaccines are not yet approved for children, and Fauci was looking ahead to a time they will be plentiful. Even older adults are having difficulty getting shots at the moment. As of Thursday, only about 1.3 per cent of Americans had been fully vaccinated with the required two doses of the currently available vaccines.
Mexico’s death toll from COVID-19 surpassed India to be the third highest in the world. The country has seen more than 1.8 million cases and more than 155,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins.
Power outages in Rio de Janeiro may have spoiled hundreds of doses of COVID-19 vaccines, city health officials told Reuters on Friday, in a fresh setback for Brazil’s hamstrung immunization efforts.
Up to 720 doses of the CoronaVac vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech may need to be thrown out after a power outage at the federal hospital in the city’s Bonsucesso neighbourhood left them stored at an inappropriate temperature.
In the Middle East, Turkey says it has detected the possibly more infectious coronavirus variant first found in southeast England. Health Minister Fahrettin Koca says on Twitter that 128 people have been diagnosed with the new coronavirus variant in 17 cities across the country.
Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister and its president on Friday condemned overnight violence in the city of Tripoli, where protesters angry over a strict lockdown clashed with security forces and set the municipality building on fire.
Thursday was the fourth straight night of unrest in one of Lebanon’s poorest cities, after the Beirut government imposed a 24-hour curfew to curb a surge in the COVID-19 pandemic that has killed more than 2,500 people and compounded an economic crisis.
In Africa, the African Union secured another 400 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine in a push to immunize 60 per cent of the continent’s population over a three-year period.
Meanwhile, Algeria received its first coronavirus vaccines Friday, a shipment of Russia’s Sputnik V, according to the health minister. Minister Amar Belhimeur didn’t indicate how many arrived, although the government has said it had ordered a first batch of 500,000 doses.
-From The Associated Press and Reuters, last updated at 4 p.m. ET