COVID-19: Provincial & Federal Briefings - Dec. 6, 2021
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A summary of developments for Monday, December 6, 2021 follows.
?Federal Government
Merck Canada announced today that it has signed an agreement to produce its COVID-19 antiviral drug in its facility in Whitby, Ontario, pending Health Canada approval for the treatment. The agreement would see Merck produce its drug in Canada for distribution domestically, in the United Kingdom, the European Union, Asia Pacific and Latin America. This development from Merck follows an announcement from Minister of Public Services and Procurement Filomena Tassi last week that Canada had secured a contract with Merck for 500,000 courses of its antiviral treatment, and an option for another 500,000 courses following Health Canada approval.?
?US Travel Restrictions
Effective today, all airline passengers entering the United States must provide a negative COVID-19 viral test taken within one calendar day of travel, regardless of their citizenship or vaccination status. Travelers may alternatively provide documentation from a healthcare provider showing that they have recovered from COVID-19 in the 90 days preceding travel. This updated measure to address the spread of the Omicron variant is in addition to the requirement for all non-immigrant, non-US citizen air travelers to show proof of vaccination before boarding a plane to the United States.
Land border restrictions for travel to the United States remain in place through January 21, 2022, pending further extension. Fully vaccinated travelers entering the United States at land ports of entry do not currently require a negative COVID-19 test, but may be asked to show proof of vaccination.
Travelers should be aware that to enter Canada by land border they must take a molecular COVID-19 test within 72 hours of planned entry to Canada, unless Canadians are travelling to the United States and returning within 72 hours. This policy in unchanged in light of new measures implemented to address the Omicron variant.
Based on the Government’s ArriveCAN guidance, all travellers must use the ArriveCAN app within 72 hours of travel to submit: contact information and travel details; vaccination information and pre-entry testing results; and a quarantine plan. If Canadians fail to submit their information using ArriveCAN they will not be denied boarding or entry, but they will be ineligible for the fully vaccinated traveller exemption. Therefore, those travellers could face further questioning and enforcement action, meaning that they could be required to go into two weeks of isolation because they do not qualify for the vaccinated traveller exemption.
Exemption to Travel Restrictions for Canadians in Southern Africa
Canada’s current travel restrictions in response to the Omicron variant ban entry for travelers from the following ten countries in southern Africa:
The Government of Canada has implemented a temporary exemption to this measure to allow Canadians and permanent Canadian residents currently in southern Africa to return to Canada. Travelers within the exemption must receive a negative PCR test within 48 hours of departure, or proof of a positive COVID-19 test that is at least 14 days old. Canadians must depart from either Cape Town or Johannesburg by December 13 on a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt, Germany, where they can board a direct flight to Canada offered by either Lufthansa or Air Canada without undergoing a third-country PCR test. The alleviation of the third-country testing requirement is expected to assist Canadian travelers in overcoming logistical challenges posed by current rules.
Based on the Government’s ArriveCAN guidance, all travellers must use the ArriveCAN app within 72 hours of travel to submit: contact information and travel details; vaccination information and pre-entry testing results; and a quarantine plan. If Canadians fail to submit their information using ArriveCAN they will not be denied boarding or entry, but they will be ineligible for the fully vaccinated traveller exemption. Therefore, those travellers could face further questioning and enforcement action, meaning that they could be required to go into two weeks of isolation because they do not qualify for the vaccinated traveller exemption.
COVID-19 Data Trends:
In the past twenty-four hours, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) reported 3,497 new COVID-19 cases and an additional 20 deaths in Canada, bringing the cumulative total of cases to 1,802,359 and a total of 29,757 deaths. There are currently 27,321 active COVID-19 cases in Canada.
Ontario
During today’s Question Period in the legislature, Health Minister Christine Elliott stated that Ontario’s vaccine passport system might be here longer than expected. In light of the Omicron COVID-19 variant, Minister Elliott stated that “we are going to need to take a look” at the current plans to remove the vaccine passport system as early as January 2022. The Minister anticipated “that we will need it for at least the next several months… and maybe longer than that.” Minister Elliott added that the government currently does not have the pertinent information to make such decisions, as information on the Omicron variant is still evolving.
The province reported 887 new cases today. There are 137 Ontarians being treated for COVID-19 in general hospital wards, with 168 individuals in the ICU, of which 101 patients are on a ventilator.
To date, 24,015,833 doses have been administered in Ontario. Currently, 90.1 per cent of the eligible population aged 12 or older has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 87.3 per cent have received both vaccine doses. In terms of the total eligible population aged 5 or older, 84.8 per cent have received one dose and 80.6 per cent have received both doses.
Quebec
While Quebec officials did not provide a COVID-19 update today, the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ) published a press release to announce that there does not appear to be community transmission of the Omicron variant at this time in Québec. For the moment, only one case of the Omicron variant has been confirmed in the province in a Quebec traveler returning home from Nigeria.?
Over the past 24 hours, Quebec reported 1,189 new cases, including 2 deaths. There are 226 people in hospital being treated for COVID-19, including 62 people in intensive care. This represents a net increase of 7 patients in hospital and a net increase of 3 patients in intensive care since the last governmental update yesterday.
As of today, 13,776,224 vaccines have been administered in Quebec.
Alberta
Over the weekend (December 3-6), Alberta Health Services reported 4,619 active COVID-19 cases. The provincial positivity rate is 4.3 percent. Currently, 395 individuals are being treated for COVID-19 in hospital, 78 of whom are in intensive care. To date, 6,949,321 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in the province. This means that 88.9% of eligible people 12 years and older (76.7% of total population) have now received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 84.2% of people 12 years and older (71.7% total population) are fully vaccinated.
British Columbia
In a bulletin released on Friday, the government of British Columbia announced that the province’s economic growth is expected to outpace the economic growth for the rest of Canada. The bulletin stated that “despite the pandemic, the province’s economy will grow by 5.3% in 2021 and 4.2% in 2022, which is above the respective national GDP estimates of 4.9% and 4.1%.” Additional, British Columbia had a smaller economic decline in 2020 than other provinces and than what was initially projected.
Selina Robinson, Minister of Finance, stated that “Momentum from our strong recovery and increasing vaccination rates over the last few months has helped put B.C. on a good path for future economic growth. There are more challenges ahead, but forecasts signal the work we have done so far has put us on the right track and provided us with a solid foundation to continue responding to the pandemic and recent flooding and support a strong recovery for British Columbians.”
British Columbia’s Health Services provided updates on COVID-19 statistics in the province. The most recent data shows that there were 405 new cases and no new COVID-19 related deaths in the past 24 hours. 276 individuals are in hospital and 95 individuals are in intensive care. There are 3,071 active cases of COVID-19 in the province.
To date, a cumulative 8,761,618 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in the province, 4,240,459 of which are second doses. 85.1% of eligible people 5 years and older have now received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 81.8% have received their second dose.
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?Glad to discuss further.?
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