COVID-19: Provincial & Federal Briefings - July 18 - 22, 2022
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A summary of developments from Monday, July 18 to Friday, July 22, 2022 follows.
Federal Government
As expected, the Government of Canada announced on Tuesday that it was re-stablishing mandatory random COVID-19 testing offsite of airports for fully vaccinated international travellers arriving in Toronto (Pearson), Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver.
Travellers selected will receive an email within 15 minutes of going through customs. This email will be sent to the same email address they used for ArriveCAN and will provide details on where and when to get tested. If the test is positive the traveller must go into isolation for a period of 10 days.
Tests must be taken in person at select testing provider locations and select pharmacies, or by virtual self-swab appointments.
Travellers who do not meet the requirements of fully vaccinated (or don’t complete their ArriveCAN submission) must continue to test on arrival and day 8 of their mandatory 14-day quarantine.
For more details on international air travel, please visit: https://travel.gc.ca/travel-covid/travel-restrictions/covid-vaccinated-travellers-entering-canada
COVID-19 Data ????
As of 9:00 am this morning, the Public Health Agency of Canada (“Agency”) released its weekly COVID-19 epidemiological update. The Agency reported 31,390?new COVID-19 cases, and 186 new deaths in Canada, bringing the cumulative total of cases to 4,023,104 and a total of 42,447 deaths.???????
Ontario
On Wednesday, the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care issued a news release announcing that COVID-19 vaccine bookings will open on Thursday, July 28 for children aged six months to under five years.?In the press release, the Ministry also announced that COVID-19 paid sick days are extended to March 31, 2023.
On Thursday, the COVID-19 Advisory Science Table for Ontario released its weekly COVID-19 update.
There are 1,508 people with COVID-19 in hospitals, including in critical care.?That is up from 494 at the same time last week.
On July 21, the estimated number of daily COVID-19 cases was 1,881, representing an increase of 285 cases in the last week. Another 9 Ontarians with COVID-19 died in the last seven days.???
Currently, 90.6% of Ontarians, aged 5 or older have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 87.4% have received both doses. In addition, 62.3% of people aged 18 or older are vaccinated with three doses.??This represents a 0.1% increase in vaccination rates since last week, particularly for people aged 18 or older with three doses.
Quebec
On July 21, Dr. Luc Boileau, the province’s National Director of Public Health, held a press conference to provide a COVID-19 update. He was accompanied by Dr. Nicholas Brousseau, public health specialist at Quebec’s National Institute of Public Health.
Dr. Boileau said that the province is nearing a plateau in COVID hospitalizations and is ready to vaccinate children under five years old, following Health Canada’s approval of the use of the Moderna Spikevax COVID-19 vaccine in children six months to five years of age.
Dr. Boileau reminded the public that the virus is contagious for up to 10 days after infection. While he reiterated that there are currently no plans to reinstate any public health restrictions, Dr. Boileau urged all Quebecers to remain vigilant and get a booster shot if it has been more than five or six months since their last vaccine.
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Santé Québec reported 15,340 new cases with 92 virus-related deaths in the last 7 days. There was a net weekly increase of 201 hospitalizations, bringing the total number of people being treated in hospital with the virus to 2,088. There was also a net increase of 12 patients in intensive care in the last 7 days, bringing the total to 54.
More than 20.3 million vaccine doses have been administered to Quebecers residing in and outside the province. The Santé Québec COVID-19 dashboard shows that 91% of the total eligible people aged 5 years and older have received their first vaccine dose and 56% have received their third dose, while 17% of the total eligible people have received their fourth vaccine dose.
Alberta
The province released updated COVID-19 statistics this week. As of July 18, 2022, on a 7-day average, 559 people were hospitalized, of which 23 were in intensive care. There were 307 new cases reported this week, making the positivity rate for testing on a 7-day average 22.41%. There have been 8,942,981 doses of COVID-19 vaccines administered in Alberta in total. 90.6% of the population 12 years of age and older are vaccinated with 1 dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 87.2% of the population 12 years of age and up are vaccinated with 2 doses.
A Global News article reported that effective July 20, 2022, the province will be adding new graphs that will show the number of people hospitalized because of indirect and/or direct COVID-19 related causes. Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, says this change in data reporting is meant to show the specific severity of COVID-19 over time.
A different Global News article reported on July 14, 2022, that the Provincial Court of Alberta released documents last Wednesday that explain how the government decided when to begin removing Alberta’s COVID-19 restrictions in February. The article explains that the documents indicate that reopening (instead of health) has been a key driving concern of the province’s pandemic policy, shown by the government’s apparent overriding of Dr. Hinshaw’s recommendations over time
British Columbia
The province released updated COVID-19 statistics this week on their COVID-19 Dashboard. As of July 21, 2022, on a 7-day average, there are 406 people hospitalized with COVID-19, of which 30 are in critical care. There were 1,004 new cases this week and 21 new deaths. 11,194 new tests were completed this week, making the average testing rate 1,599 per 100,000.
According to Canada’s COVID-19 Tracker, 12,118,797 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in British Columbia so far. 86.724% of all people in British Columbia have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 84.058% of all people in British Columbia have received at least two doses. Only 53.373% of all people in the province are fully vaccinated with a third dose.
Global News reported on July 20, 2022, that a new poll released by the Angus Reid Institute found that 55% of people in British Columbia would be in favour of requiring masks in public indoor spaces again. The poll also suggests that British Columbians are the most likely to support a return to a vaccine passport with 30 per cent of those polled supporting the measure, higher than the 25-per cent national average.
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