COVID-19: Provincial & Federal Briefings - Dec. 10, 2021
Gowling WLG
An international law firm that's in tune with your world, aligned with your opportunity and ambitious for your success.
As COVID-19 continues to have a major global impact, our online resource hub is here to help you manage the challenges and mitigate the risks for your business.?Visit our COVID-19 resource hub by clicking here.
A summary of developments for Friday, December 10, 2021 follows.
Federal Government
Minister of Health Jean-Yves Duclos stated that testing capacity at international airports is gradually increasing. As of November 30, testing capacity for international travellers was 11,000 per day. As of December 9, that capacity has increased to 17,000 per day. To test all non-US international air travellers, capacity must reach 23,000 tests per day nationally. Minister Duclos announced that contracts have been awarded to private companies to increase testing and processing services. Private contractors include Switch Health, LifeLabs, and Dynacare.
Minister Duclos met with his provincial counterparts earlier this week to discuss increasing testing capacity. Through the Safe Restart Agreement, the federal government has transferred over $3 billion to provinces and territories for testing and tracing. 86 million rapid tests have been shipped to provinces and territories. The federal government will assist with increasing demand from provinces and territories for rapid tests.
Dr. Tam, Chief Public Health Officer of Canada, stated that national daily case counts are increasing. Considerable regional variation continues. Areas with higher vaccination rates are in a better position as Canada enters the respiratory infection season. Average daily new case reports over the last 7-days reached over 3,300. National severity trends could rise again. On average, over 1,460 people a day were treated in hospital for COVID-19 over the last 7 days, including over 450 in intensive care units (ICUs). An average of 20 deaths are occurring daily.?
New modelling shows that cases are surging in Canada, with increases largely driven by the Delta variant. The extent of this resurgence may be greater if the Omicron variant overtakes the Delta variant as the driver of new infections. If transmission rates increase by fifteen percent, or if Omicron becomes the driver of new cases under current conditions, new daily cases nationally could increase to over 10,000 by January. Regional forecasts show that resurgence is expected in Ontario and Quebec, with resurgence likely in other jurisdictions if Omicron overtakes Delta.
Although the Omicron variant appears to have a higher rate of transmissibility than the Delta variant, the risk of hospitalization and severe illness appears low for fully vaccinated individuals. There are 87 confirmed cases of the Omicron variant across seven Canadian jurisdictions. Cases with no known link to travel have been identified, showing that community spread may be occurring. Maintaining public health measures to reduce spread will be essential to the pandemic response over the winter.
Dr. Tam noted that Canadians should keep gatherings small this Holiday season. Layers of protection should be used if people plan to gather.
COVID-19 Data Trends:
In the past twenty-four hours, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) reported 4,268 new COVID-19 cases and an additional 25 deaths in Canada, bringing the cumulative total of cases to 1,823,009 and a total of 29,876 deaths. There are currently 31,395 active COVID-19 cases in Canada.
Vaccination Data Trends:
This week’s vaccination data update indicates that 89.63 per cent of people aged 12 years or older have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine. The cumulative per cent of people who have received at lease one dose is 80.13 per cent (30,654,127). The cumulative per cent of people fully vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine in Canada is currently 76.08 per cent (29,094,804), with 86.72 per cent of eligible Canadians 12 and older fully vaccinated (29,035,636).?17.49 per cent of children aged 5-11 have at least one dose (505,531), with 0.60 per cent of children aged 5-11 fully vaccinated (17,160).
Ontario
Minister of Health Christine Elliott, alongside Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health, provided an update on the COVID-19 situation and announced stronger measures concerning Ontario’s proof of vaccination program.
Minister Elliott announced that Ontario will not proceed with its plan to end the vaccine certificate program in mid-January. Effective January 4, 2022, vaccine certificates must include a QR code. Ontarians can save their certificates on mobile phones or print paper copies. Businesses are required to accept both digital and paper copies of vaccine certificates.
Dr. Moore announced that Ontarians aged 12-17 participating in organized sports at recreational facilities will have to present proof of vaccination starting on December 20, 2021. Rapid testing capacity is increasing for congregate settings and schools. Voluntary rapid testing will be available to asymptomatic individuals free of charge in public settings where the “holiday blitz” testing initiative is taking place, such as shopping malls and transit hubs.
Ontarians aged 50 and over will be eligible for booster doses starting Monday, December 13. Beginning on January 4, 2022, all Ontarians aged 18 and older will be eligible for boosters.
The province reported 1,453 new cases today. There are 309 Ontarians being treated for COVID-19 in general hospital wards, with 151 individuals in the ICU, of which 90 patients are on a ventilator.?
To date, 24,225,882 doses have been administered in Ontario. Currently, 90.2 per cent of the population aged 12 or older has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 87.5 per cent have received both vaccine doses. In terms of the total eligible population aged 5 or older, 85.3 per cent have received one dose and 80.8 per cent have received both doses.
领英推荐
Quebec
Quebec officials held no COVID-19 briefing today.
Over the past 24 hours, Quebec reported 2,013 new cases, including 6 deaths. 256 people are in hospital being treated for COVID-19, including 62 people in intensive care. This represents a net increase of 1 patient in hospital and a net increase of 2 patients in intensive care since the last governmental update yesterday.
?As of today, 13,898,636 vaccines have been administered in Quebec.
Alberta
Yesterday, Alberta Health Services provided an update on COVID-19 statistics in the province. There are 4,094 active COVID-19 cases. The provincial positivity rate is 3.8 percent. Currently, 368 individuals are being treated for COVID-19 in hospital, 70 of whom are in intensive care. To date, 7,072,355 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in the province. This means that 89.1% of eligible people 12 years and older (77.5% of total population) have now received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 84.6% of people 12 years and older (72% total population) are fully vaccinated.
British Columbia
Yesterday, CTV News reported that a new report released by the Canadian Institute for Health Information found that British Columbia preformed 4,200 fewer surgeries per month during the COVID-19 pandemic than during pre-pandemic conditions. The report found that April 2020 was particularly affected by the pandemic which saw a 69 percent decrease in the number of surgeries performed. Kathleen Morris, vice-president of research and analysis for the Canadian Institute for Health Information stated "There are still many unknowns about the effects of COVID-19 on our health systems and on the health of our population — such as what happened to those who didn’t seek hospital care or to those whose surgeries or diagnostic tests were delayed."
British Columbia’s Health Services provided updates on COVID-19 statistics in the province. The most recent data shows that there were 341 new cases and 9 new COVID-19 related deaths in the past 24 hours. 220 individuals are in hospital and 73 individuals are in intensive care. There are 2,915 active cases of COVID-19 in the province.
To date, a cumulative 8,889,167 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in the province, 4,281,608 of which are second doses. 85.9% of eligible people 5 years and older have now received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 82.1% have received their second dose.
?*****
?Glad to discuss further.?
?Authors: