Today’s coronavirus news: Ontario is reporting 870 new COVID-19 cases and 10 deaths; Canada hiking fines for hotel quarantine violators; 10K Tokyo Olympics volunteers drop out - Toronto Star

The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Thursday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.

1:07 p.m. As new COVID-19 variants continue to mutate and threaten several countries across the globe, here’s a look into the various strains and their origins.

The World Health Organization has recently provided new labels for the variants of concern and interest from their scientific string of characters and numbers to Greek letters, with the variant identified in the U.K. being named “Alpha,” the one identified in South Africa as “Beta,” the one discovered in Brazil as “Gamma,” and the one detected in India as “Delta.”

The variants are categorized into two categories — variants of concern and variants of interest. The variants are all being studied and researched and those that are under concern have spread rapidly and some pose the risk of rendering vaccines as useless.

There are four COVID-19 variants in Canada that are being tracked by provincial health authorities and the Public Health Agency of Canada.

1:05 p.m. The Israel Start-up Nation cycling team is pulling out of five races this month after three staff members tested positive for COVID-19.

But the team and Ottawa rider Michael Woods will compete as scheduled in the Tour de Suisse, which starts Thursday and runs through June 13.

Founded in 2014 as the Israel Cycling Academy, Team Israel Start-Up Nation is co-owned by Canadian-born Sylvan Adams, a former Canadian Masters cycling champion who emigrated to Israel in 2015.

Woods has ties to both Adams and team performance director Paulo Saldanha, also a Canadian.

Israel Start-Up Nation will not take part in the Grosser Preis des Kantons Aargau (June 4, Switzerland), Dwars door het Hageland (June 5, Belgium), Elfstedenronde (June 6, Belgium), Baloise Belgium Tour (June 9-13) and Adriatica Ionica Race (June 14-18, Italy).

"Obviously, we would have liked to line up in these great races, for which the riders have trained hard to do well," team GM Kjell Carlstrom said in a statement. "However, the health of our staff and riders, as well as safeguarding all other teams, will always come first. We don’t want to take any risk that may jeopardize anyone. In a situation like this, it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

12:21 p.m. The Manitoba government is preparing to spend up to $1 million to encourage more people to get a COVID-19 vaccine.

The province is offering grants of up to $20,000 each to community, religious, sports and arts organizations in areas where uptake has been low.

Those groups can spend the money on anything from new outreach programs to prizes such as meals or tickets to a sporting event.

Premier Brian Pallister says the aim is to boost the number of Manitobans getting a vaccine and to protect all areas of the province.

Data from the province shows there are areas of low vaccine uptake, including the core areas of Winnipeg and some rural areas south of the capital.

Groups must apply for the grants and lay out plans to use the money before the end of September.

12 p.m. Quebec is shortening the interval between first and second doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines to eight weeks.

The province previously recommended a 16-week interval.

Last week, Quebec shortened the interval between doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to eight weeks.

11:51 a.m. (updated) Ontario long-term-care residents who have been fully immunized against COVID-19 will be able to go out for day-long and overnight outings starting next week.

The province says it is relaxing restrictions starting next Wednesday, given the high level of vaccination in the long-term care sector and improvements in other public health indicators.

As part of the changes, residents with mobility limitations or other health conditions that make outdoor visits impossible will be allowed to have one visitor indoors as well as an essential caregiver.

The government says "brief" hugs will also be permitted regardless of the vaccination status of those involved.

As well, close physical contact such as holding hands will be allowed between fully immunized residents and visitors.

The province stresses, however, that everyone should continue to follow public health measures such as hand washing and wearing masks.

Families and advocates had been calling on the province to ease rules around visits since most residents have been fully vaccinated against the virus.

Officials said last month that additional guidance would be provided once Ontario's stay-at-home order was lifted. That order expired Wednesday.

11:37 a.m. Ontario is easing restrictions on long-term-care homes as of June 9. Residents who have been fully immunized can leave their homes for day and overnight social outings and trips.

Residents with mobility limitations or health conditions that make participating in outdoor visits highly unlikely or impossible can have one general visitor at a time inside home, in addition to an essential caregiver.

Brief hugs can now take place. Where both the resident and visitors are fully immunized, close physical contact, including handholding, can now take place.

11:35 a.m. The White House on Thursday unveiled President Joe Biden’s plans to share COVID-19 vaccines with the world, including its intent to direct 75 per cent of excess doses through the U.N.-backed COVAX global vaccine sharing program.

The White House has previously stated its intent to share 80 million vaccine doses with the world by the end of June. The administration says 25 per cent of doses will be kept in reserve for emergencies and for the U.S. to share directly with allies and partners.

The long-awaited vaccine sharing plan comes as demand for shots in the U.S. has dropped significantly as more than 63 per cent of adults have received at least one dose, and as global inequities in supply have become more glaring.

11:30 a.m. Quebec is reporting 267 new cases of COVID-19 and six more deaths attributed to the virus, including one within the past 24 hours.

Health officials say hospitalizations have dropped by 23 to 317, and 68 people are in intensive care — a drop of nine.

The province says 85,230 doses of vaccine were administered yesterday, for a total of just over 5.8 million.

Just over 62 per cent of Quebecers have received one dose.

Quebec has reported a total of 371,082 cases of COVID-19 and 11,144 deaths linked to the virus.

10:15 a.m. (updated) Ontario is reporting another 870 COVID-19 cases and 10 more deaths, according to its latest report released Thursday morning.

Ontario has administered 150,884 vaccine doses since its last daily update, with 9,493,005 vaccines given in total as of 8 p.m. the previous night.

According to the Star’s vaccine tracker, 8,658,024 people in Ontario have received at least one shot. That works out to approximately 58.8 per cent of the total population and the equivalent of 72.8 per cent of the adult population.

Read the full story from the Star’s Michael Akrit

10 a.m. Canadian airlines are offering domestic flights at rock-bottom prices for the summer and fall in an effort to stir up demand while they wait for travel restrictions to loosen.

As of mid-afternoon June 2, one-way flights on WestJet and Air Canada between Toronto and Vancouver and between Calgary and Ottawa were as low as $114 from mid-June to December.

Heading from Ottawa to Vancouver this August? $132. Calgary to Toronto later this June? $112.

“They’re trying to restart the engine,” said Frederic Dimanche, director of the Ted Rogers School of Hospitality and Tourism at Ryerson University.

Read the full story of the Star’s Rosa Saba

9:55 a.m. The federal government is increasing the fine for air travellers who refuse to quarantine in a designated hotel for three days after arriving in Canada.

Travellers who had faced a $3,000 fine if they didn’t abide by the requirement will instead be liable for a $5,000 penalty starting on Thursday.

The move comes a week after a federal advisory panel raised a number of problems with the hotel quarantine and recommended the government end it.

The panel instead suggested travellers be required to quarantine in a hotel only if they fail to present a credible quarantine plan.

Hundreds of tickets have reportedly been doled out to violators since the hotel quarantine was first introduced in February.

The quarantine requirement has been criticized for several reasons, including whether it actually prevents the spread of COVID-19 and concerns many air travellers are avoiding the requirement by flying into the U.S. and driving into Canada.

9:47 a.m. Nova Scotia has begun to offer earlier second shots of COVID-19 vaccine.

The province says people who received their first shot between March 11 and March 21 and are scheduled to receive their booster shot between June 24 and July 3 can now reschedule for earlier dates.

About 8,600 people received their first doses between those dates.

People will receive a notice to reschedule by email, while those who didn’t provide an email when they received their initial shot must call to reschedule or to request that an email address be added to their file.

When rescheduling the second dose, people can select a new date and time at any clinic across the province that has an available appointment.

Nova Scotia has set a target of getting at least 75 per cent of its population fully vaccinated.

9 a.m. The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell last week for a fifth straight week to a new pandemic low, the latest evidence that the U.S. job market is regaining its health as the economy further reopens.

The Labor Department said Thursday that jobless claims dropped to 385,000, down 20,000 from the week before. The number of weekly applications for unemployment aid, which generally reflects the pace of layoffs, has fallen steadily all year, though it remains high by historical standards.

The decline in applications reflects a swift rebound in economic growth and the job market’s steady recovery from the coronavirus recession. More Americans are venturing out to shop, travel, dine out and congregate at entertainment venues. All that renewed spending has led companies to seek new workers.

Employers have added 1.8 million jobs this year — an average of more than 450,000 a month — and the government’s May jobs report on Friday is expected to show that they added an additional 656,000 last month, according to a survey of economists by the data firm FactSet. The economy remains down 8.2 million jobs from its level in February 2020, just before the virus tore through the economy.

Yet U.S. employers are posting a record number of available jobs. And many of them have complained that they can’t find enough workers to meet rising customer demand.

8:45 a.m. (updated) Ontario residents who got a first dose of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine and want to switch can get a booster shot of Pfizer or Moderna at the 12-week mark.

The dosing interval was one of the last remaining questions after the National Advisory Committee on Immunization said earlier this week that different types of vaccines can be mixed in the wake of concerns about increased risk of rare blood clots from AstraZeneca, mainly after first inoculations.

Ontario’s chief medical officer Dr. David Williams confirmed Thursday that Ontario will adopt the mixing recommendation starting Friday.

“It is vital that everyone who received the AstraZeneca vaccine for their first dose receives a second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine,” he said in a statement.

Read the full story from the Star’s Rob Ferguson

8:30 a.m. Jason Kenney with a bottle of Jameson Irish whiskey on the patio of the Sky Palace.

It’s not quite the answer in a game of Clue, but it is what photographs sent to Alberta web series the Breakdown purport to show: the province’s premier, seated around a table with a handful of senior cabinet members — including the health minister — in apparent defiance of public health orders.

But in a province where public health restrictions have been particularly polarizing, it’s the photo’s location that has hit a particular nerve.

The senior politicians are seated on the patio of what’s known locally as the Sky Palace, seven years after the renovation of the tall white stone building, and the whiff of government entitlement that came with it, became the most enduring symbol of unpopular former premier Alison Redford.

Spokespeople for Kenney are adamant that no rules were broken in the outdoor scene captured by an unknown photographer. With case numbers dropping, the province moved to Stage 1 of its reopening plan Tuesday, which permits small outdoor gatherings as well as patios.

Read the full story from the Star’s Alex Boyd

8:15 a.m. Bahrain has begun offering a booster shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for some people six months after they received two shots of China’s Sinopharm vaccine.

The mixing of vaccines comes as the Mideast island nation struggles through its worst wave of the virus despite being one of the top countries in the world in per-capita inoculations.

The government’s BeAware mobile phone app allows those living in Bahrain to register for booster shots of either the Pfizer or the Sinopharm jabs. However, the government now recommends that people over 50, the obese and people with weakened immune systems receive the Pfizer shot regardless of if they first received Sinopharm.

Bahraini government and health officials, as well as its embassies abroad, did not respond to a request for comment Thursday from The Associated Press. Officials at Sinopharm could not be immediately reached.

The Wall Street Journal in its Thursday edition quoted Waleed Khalifa al-Manea, Bahrain’s undersecretary of health, as describing Sinopharm as providing a high degree of protection. But he acknowledged offering Pfizer to those with special needs, without explaining why the kingdom made that decision.

8:05 a.m. About 10,000 of 80,000 unpaid volunteers for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics have told organizers they will not participate when the games open on July 23.

Organizers said some dropped out because of worries about COVID-19. Few volunteers are expected to be vaccinated since most will have no contact with athletes or other key personnel.

Only about 2-3 per cent of Japan’s general population has been fully vaccinated in a very slow rollout that is just now speeding up. Conversely, the IOC expects at least 80 per cent of athletes and residents of the Olympic Village to be fully vaccinated.

“We have not confirmed the individual reasons,” organizers said in a statement. “In addition to concerns about the coronavirus infection, some dropped out because they found it would be difficult to actually work after checking their work shift, or due to changes in their own environment.”

Organizers said the loss would not affect the operations of the postponed Olympics.

8 a.m. Brampton’s lone full-service hospital is finally seeing light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel after being stretched beyond its limits during most of the pandemic’s third wave.

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As recently as three weeks ago, Brampton Civic Hospital was treating dozens of confirmed and suspected COVID-19 patients and transferring more than 130 patients per week to hospitals across the GTA.

As of June 2, the hospital was treating 37 confirmed COVID-19 in-patients, including nine in the intensive care unit (ICU) and 24 suspected COVID cases awaiting test results.

“That’s the smallest number I’ve reported in months,” Mayor Patrick Brown told reporters on June 2. “The picture continues to get better at (Brampton Civic). As you know, we were on the front lines of the pandemic, we had the busiest hospital in the province. And right now, we are starting to see some real relief on the pressure on our hospital.”

7:50 a.m. The Delta COVID-19 variant of concern, first detected in India, has been identified in Peel region, according to the region’s medical officer of health, Dr. Lawrence Loh.

At the June 2 COVID-19 presser for the city of Brampton, Loh confirmed he was alerted by the Ontario Science Table that there are currently 97 cases in Peel.

“Members of the science table this week have advised Peel Public Health that B.1.617.2, now known as the Delta variant, first detected in India, is increasingly being detected in Ontario and that Peel region has the highest proportion of this variant of the entire province,” he said.

This information was found through “preliminary data,” although the trends being observed “are concerning,” said Loh.

7:40 a.m. If your child gets an in-person, outdoor class celebration or graduation this June, thank Arthur from Etobicoke.

Premier Doug Ford promised Wednesday that after hearing the idea from a young neighbour, he’d work to ensure schools plan outdoor celebrations or graduations for students in every grade before the end of June.

Boards, however, say holding in-person, graduations in the next three weeks — as schools across Ontario remain closed on provincial direction — will be extremely difficult to pull off.

Read the full story from the Star’s Kristin Rushowy

7:30 a.m. Premier Doug Ford is raising expectations Ontario will get the “green light” to start reopening from the third wave of COVID-19 before the target of mid-June.

Just two weeks after warning against such a prospect, Ford said Wednesday he is “cautiously optimistic” because of a steady decline in key indicators and has asked soon-to-retire chief medical officer Dr. David Williams for an opinion.

“I’m so hopeful that, as things are going, we may be able to enter step one safely earlier than June 14. Right now we’re waiting for Dr. Williams and his team to tell us when we may be ready to do so.”

Ontario reported 733 new cases of COVID-19 Wednesday, getting closer to the goal of 550 to 600 on a consistent basis set last month by Williams, who holds a regularly scheduled news conference Thursday.

Read the full story from the Star’s Rob Ferguson

7:20 a.m. Taiwan’s foreign minister on Thursday said China is seeking political gains abroad in return for providing vaccines and other pandemic assistance, partly to increase pressure on Taiwan, which it claims as its own territory.

Beijing’s Communist Party leaders “further exploited the pandemic to impose their political agenda on many others,” Joseph Wu said in a video conference with the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan.

In particular, China’s “vaccine diplomacy” is creating divisions among countries in Central and South America, giving Beijing an opportunity to exert its influence in the Western Hemisphere, Wu said.

Beijing is providing access to its domestically produced vaccines, other anti-coronavirus resources and development funding to “those who are willing to accept political partnership with Beijing,” he said.

“China then uses this partnership to lure or pressure those allies of Taiwan and the U.S. to lean toward Beijing. Through these maneuverings, China is trying to gain political influence in the region at the cost of Taiwan and the U.S.”

China says its overseas assistance comes without political conditions, but has aggressively used its economic might in recent years to poach Taiwan’s few remaining allies and erode the influence of the U.S. and other democracies.

Wu said China has already left a “trail of debt, corruption and an erosion of democratic governance” in some countries in Asia, Africa and Europe that agreed to Chinese financing for ports, railways and other infrastructure projects under leader Xi Jinping’s signature Belt and Road Initiative that has boosted China’s influence abroad.

China has sold hundreds of millions of coronavirus vaccine doses abroad and donated millions more, mainly to developing nations in Africa. The World Health Organization has given emergency authorization for two Chinese-developed vaccines, but the companies, particularly Sinopharm, have faced criticism over a lack of transparency in sharing data.

China has shut Taiwan out of an increasing number of international organizations, including the WHO, and has blocked Taiwan’s cooperation with the U.N. organization’s anti-pandemic efforts, including the COVAX initiative that distributes vaccines to middle- and low-income countries, Wu said.

7:12 a.m. Premier Doug Ford is touring the CAA Centre ‘Hockey Hub’ mass vaccination site, operated by Peel Public Health and Bruce Power, at 9 a.m. Thursday. It’s an NHL-size rink.

6:15 a.m.: Toronto’s Zanzibar strip club has rarely had a problem drawing a crowd.

This week, the renowned Yonge Street nightclub has a new star attraction emblazoned on its marquee: The COVID-19 vaccine.

On Friday, the Zanzibar Tavern teams up with Maggie’s Toronto Sex Workers Action Project, a community advocacy group run for and by sex workers, for a “low-barrier” vaccination clinic at the club, at 359 Yonge Street.

The clinic will offer first-dose Pfizer shots between 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. on a walk-in basis.

Read more from the Star’s Akrit Michael.

6:10 a.m.: In the span of just five days last month, China gave out 100 million shots of its COVID-19 vaccines.

After a slow start, China is now doing what virtually no other country in the world can: harnessing the power and all-encompassing reach of its one-party system and a maturing domestic vaccine industry to administer shots at a staggering pace. The rollout is far from perfect, including uneven distribution, but Chinese public health leaders now say they’re hoping to inoculate 80% of the population of 1.4 billion by the end of the year.

As of Wednesday, China had given out more than 704 million doses — with nearly half of those in May alone. China’s total is roughly a third of the 1.9 billion shots distributed globally, according to Our World in Data, an online research site.

The call to get vaccinated comes from every corner of society. Companies offer shots to their employees, schools urge their students and staffers, and local government workers check on their residents.

That pressure underscores both the system’s strength, which makes it possible to even consider vaccinating more than a billion people this year, but also the risks to civil liberties — a concern the world over but one that is particularly acute in China, where there are few protections.

Read the whole report from The Associated Press.

6 a.m.: Two of the Quebec cities most affected by COVID-19 — Montreal and its northern suburb Laval, Que., — have among the lowest vaccination rates in the province, according to data from Quebec’s public health institute.

Experts say those lower rates aren’t surprising: vaccine hesitancy, low trust in government and negative experiences with the health system are all factors that help explain why people in some communities haven’t been as eager as others to get a shot.

Only four of the province’s 18 regions have vaccination rates below 60 per cent, according to recent data by Institut national de santé publique du Québec. Among those regions are Montreal and Laval — the only two areas left at the red pandemic-alert level. They are to move to the lower orange level on Monday.

5:50 a.m.: Essential workers in COVID-19hot spots need second doses of vaccine as soon as possible or we risk reversing a rapid drop in infections — and open the door to a possible fourth wave of the virus.

That’s according to Dr. Nathan Stall, a geriatrician at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto and member of Ontario’s science advisory table on COVID-19.

With the first-dose vaccination rate for adults now above 70 per cent, the Ontario government is tightly limiting eligibility for second doses. Only those aged 80 and older can book second-dose appointments at city-run clinics, while the first recipients of AstraZeneca vaccine can ask pharmacies for a followup shot.

Meanwhile, a new highly contagious variant is gaining traction in the GTA.

Stall says, with Ontario getting increasing supplies of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, the required interval between shots for the oldest residents — most at risk of serious illness or death — should be reduced to get them protected quicker.

Read the full story from the Star’s David Rider.

5:45 a.m.: Ontario pharmacies have administered more than one million COVID-19 vaccines across the province.

Justin Bates, CEO of the Ontario Pharmacists Association confirmed the figure in a tweet Wednesday, adding that number will keep rising.

Read more from the Star’s Zena Salem.

4:15 a.m.: More than 24.5 million people across Canada have now had at least one dose of a vaccine. Nationwide, 2,263,622 people or 6.0 per cent of the population has been fully vaccinated.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says by the summer, Canada will have enough vaccines so that every eligible resident will have gotten their first dose, and by September, it will have enough doses for everyone to be fully vaccinated.

The National Advisory Committee on Immunization says people who got the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine for the first dose can be offered either Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna for the second.

The advice affects more than two million Canadians who received the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine before provinces stopped using it for first doses last month as it is potentially linked to a rare but serious blood clotting syndrome.

NACI said it is basing their advice on the risk of the syndrome, and emerging evidence that mixing and matching different types of vaccines is not only safe but may produce a better immune response.

The advisory panel has also recommended that Canada turn toward the ultimate goal of fully immunizing the population, now that supplies of COVID-19 shots are increasing.

4 a.m.: In Canada, the provinces are reporting 344,941 new vaccinations administered for a total of 24,514,134 doses given. Nationwide, 2,263,622 people or 6.0 per cent of the population has been fully vaccinated. The provinces have administered doses at a rate of 64,682.326 per 100,000.

There were 256,252 new vaccines delivered to the provinces and territories for a total of 27,984,444 doses delivered so far. The provinces and territories have used 87.6 per cent of their available vaccine supply.

4 a.m.: The latest numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Canada as of 4:00 a.m. ET on Thursday, June 3, 2021.

There are 1,385,278 confirmed cases in Canada.

Canada: 1,385,278 confirmed cases (29,277 active, 1,330,389 resolved, 25,612 deaths).*The total case count includes 13 confirmed cases among repatriated travellers.

There were 2,067 new cases Wednesday. The rate of active cases is 77.03 per 100,000 people. Over the past seven days, there have been a total of 17,174 new cases. The seven-day rolling average of new cases is 2,453.

There were 46 new reported deaths Wednesday. Over the past seven days there have been a total of 252 new reported deaths. The seven-day rolling average of new reported deaths is 36. The seven-day rolling average of the death rate is 0.09 per 100,000 people. The overall death rate is 67.39 per 100,000 people.

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Today’s coronavirus news: Ontario is reporting 870 new COVID-19 cases and 10 deaths; Canada hiking fines for hotel quarantine violators; 10K Tokyo Olympics volunteers drop out - Toronto Star
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