Coronavirus: What’s happening in Canada and around the world on Thursday

The coronavirus pandemic once again prevented the leaders from meeting in person, reflecting the poor epidemiological situation in the EU. The spread of more contagious variants of the virus has pushed hospitals in some countries to their limit, and combined with the lack of vaccines available in Europe, has led several EU members to impose strict lockdown measures over the Easter period.

Less than five per cent of the EU’s 450 million residents have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Speaking ahead of the video talks, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said problems with the delivery of coronavirus vaccines have underscored the need for the EU to redouble its efforts to produce doses within the bloc.

“We can see clearly that British facilities are producing for Great Britain. The United States isn’t exporting, and therefore we are dependent upon what can be produced in Europe,” she said.

To ensure a steadier vaccine supply, the bloc’s executive arm has proposed strengthening export controls for coronavirus shots. Even if the move is detrimental to non-EU nations, the European Commission’s goal is to force vaccine manufacturers, especially AstraZeneca, to deliver the doses agreed to in their contracts.

The commission also wants to make sure a principle of export reciprocity is enforced with countries that are producing vaccines or the raw materials needed for them.

EU Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis explicitly pointed at Britain earlier this week, saying that since the end of January “some 10 million doses have been exported from the EU to the U.K. and zero doses have been exported from the U.K. to the EU.”

The commission’s proposal has been divisive, according to various European diplomats who spoke before the summit. While some countries see it as an instrument of last resort that should not undermine the EU’s reputation as an open trading bloc, others said it is a crucial tool to guarantee doses and vaccine ingredients reach the bloc.

“Some countries refuse to export. So we need to introduce reciprocity criteria if we want to be able to keep our vaccination goal for the summer,” said one diplomat, referring to the EU’s aim of having 70 per cent of the adult population vaccinated by that season.

Controls could impact U.K.

Stricter control of exports could have an impact on Britain, whose speedy vaccination rollout after it formally withdrew from the EU has been eyed with envy by many European nations. The latest figures show that 45 per cent of British residents have had at least one vaccine shot, compared to less than 14 per cent for the EU.

The EU’s contract disputes with British-Swedish company AstraZeneca deepened the post-Brexit tensions. However, the EU and the U.K. pledged this week to increase co-operation and fight Europe’s third wave of infections together.

EU officials have said trade with the United States should not be affected by the mechanism. U.S. President Joe Biden has been invited to attend the virtual EU summit.

The leaders of EU member nations also need to settle an internal dispute after Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz criticized the distribution of vaccines, saying that some countries were receiving more than their fair share. Austria is leading a coalition of six countries asking for a correction mechanism.

Under the joint procurement set up by the European Commission, doses are allocated on a pro rata basis, but member states are free to place orders directly from the manufacturer of their choice.

A large majority of EU members think the system is working well and said Austria made a mistake to focus on AstraZeneca shots instead of diversifying its portfolio. To help the countries struggling the most, member nations are examining ways to make efficient use of the 10 million additional doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine that were made available for the bloc for the second quarter.

“But the correction won’t apply to all member states, only to those who really are in need of solidarity,” a diplomat said.

Further highlighting division within the EU on vaccinations, Denmark’s government announced Thursday it would continue its suspension of the AstraZeneca vaccine for three more weeks. Several European countries that had suspended using the vaccine over concerns it could cause blood clots have resumed administering it after the European Union’s drug regulator said it was safe.

A spokesperson for Canada’s international trade minister, Mary Ng, said earlier this week that Canada would work with the EU to ensure the country’s essential medical supply chains remained open.

“Our expected shipments of vaccines have been arriving in Canada,” Youmy Han said in a statement late Tuesday. 

-From The Associated Press and The Canadian Press, last updated at 9 a.m. ET

What’s happening across Canada

WATCH | Dr. Deena Hinshaw talks about increasing COVID-19 cases in Alberta and the risks of not following public health guidelines: 

Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, says fatigue, variants and people not following public health measures are the reasons for the recent rise in cases in Alberta. 2:37

As of early Thursday morning, Canada had reported 946,375 cases of COVID-19, with 37,099 cases considered active. A CBC News tally of deaths stood at 22,759.

New cases of COVID-19 infections across Canada are trending upward, public health authorities reported on Wednesday in a worrisome development that comes amid new concerns over vaccine supplies.

Thousands of new cases on average and 31 deaths were being reported daily, the Public Health Agency of Canada said in a statement. The bottom line, the agency said, was that people still face a serious risk of contracting the disease.

“Amid increasing case counts, shifting severity trends, and a rising proportion of cases involving variants of concern in heavily impacted areas of Canada, we need to remain vigilant,” a statement from the agency said.

“Maintaining public health measures and individual precautions is crucial to reducing infection rates and avoiding further spread of new variants.”

In Atlantic Canada, health officials reported 18 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday — 12 in New Brunswick, five in Nova Scotia and one in Prince Edward Island. There were no new cases reported in Newfoundland and Labrador, where the province’s top doctor announced an easing of restrictions.

“This time around, we will all need to do things a little differently. I think it’s safe to say we were all startled by this outbreak and how rapidly it escalated and we don’t want to be taken by surprise again,” Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Janice Fitzgerald said Wednesday.

Fitzgerald said case counts, including those involving variants of the coronavirus, have been rising in other parts of Canada.

“We will almost certainly see another variant case in the province,” she said. For that reason, wearing a mask will still be as important as ever, officials stressed.

Nova Scotia‘s government is set to release its budget on Thursday, a first for new Premier Iain Rankin.

Quebec is also set to release a budget on Thursday, its first since the outbreak of a global pandemic that has claimed the lives of more than 10,620 people in the province. 

The budget will come a day after health officials reported 783 new cases of COVID-19 and eight additional deaths. Hospitalizations in the province stood at 508, with 118 COVID-19 patients listed as being in the province’s intensive care units.

The provincial government in Ontario unveiled its budget on Wednesday, offering a spending plan aimed at helping the province recover from the COVID-19 outbreak.

It contains $6.7 billion for pandemic-related measures, including $1 billion for the vaccine effort, and an additional $2.3 billion for testing and contact tracing this year. The plan projects a deficit of $33.1 billion for the year, with the province saying it will take until 2029 to balance the books.

Ontario on Wednesday reported 1,571 new cases of COVID-19 and 10 additional deaths. According to provincial data, hospitalizations stood at 893, with 333 COVID-19 patients listed as being in intensive care. Data from Critical Care Services Ontario showed an even higher figure for ICU cases with 383.

In Manitoba, health officials reported 81 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday and no additional deaths. The province has temporarily halted its expansion of eligibility for vaccinations. Instead, the age will stay at 65 and up (and 45 and up for Indigenous people) for the time being as health teams deal with existing appointments and the province waits for more supply. 

Saskatchewan, meanwhile, said the province will now extend its inoculation program to anyone over age 65. In addition, people aged 50 and older in the Far North can book shots, as can priority health-care workers, the Saskatchewan Health Authority said.

In Alberta, health officials reported 692 new cases and two additional deaths on Wednesday. Dr. Deena Hinshaw, chief medical officer of health, cautioned that the province may need to ramp up restrictions in the face of rising cases of variants of concern.

“What we know is that in other places where variant strains have become dominant … additional restrictions have been required,” Hinshaw said Wednesday. Hospitalizations stood at 285, with 53 COVID-19 patients reported to be in intensive care unit beds.

British Columbia reported 716 new cases of COVID-19 and three additional deaths on Wednesday. Hospitalizations stood at 303, health officials said, with 85 in intensive care units.

Across the North, there were no new cases reported in Yukon, the Northwest Territories or Nunavut.

-From The Canadian Press and CBC News, last updated at 9:20 a.m. ET

What’s happening around the world

WATCH | New trial looks into mixing COVID-19 vaccines:

A new trial is looking into the possibility of getting different types of COVID-19 vaccines for each dose and what it could mean for the fight against COVID-19. 2:03

As of early Thursday morning, more than 124.3 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported around the world, according to a tracking site operated by Johns Hopkins University. The global death toll stood at more than 2.7 million.

In Africa, the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control says he is concerned by reports that the Serum Institute of India is suspending major exports of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in order to meet rising domestic demand.

Africa CDC director John Nkengasong said Thursday that he “truly feels helpless that this situation is going to significantly impact our ability to fight this virus.”

He said that “without ramping access to vaccines we will be challenged, continue to be challenged. Lives will be lost.”

The fight against COVID-19 has to be “a collective battle,” Nkengasong went on, noting that he remained hopeful “that the power of humanity will prevail.”

The BBC and Reuters have reported that the Serum Institute of India is temporarily suspending vaccine exports to meet local demand amid a rise in confirmed virus infections in India. The Indian vaccine manufacturer is the source of the AstraZeneca shots being shipped to Africa under the COVAX initiative working to ensure access for low- and middle-income countries. At least 28 of Africa’s 54 countries had received over 16 million doses via COVAX as of Thursday.

Nkengasong said: “There is absolutely no need, absolutely no need for us as humanity to go into a vaccine war to fight this pandemic. We will all be losers.”

In the Americas, the U.S. has surpassed 30 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University. Coronavirus cases nationwide reached 30,001,245 on Wednesday, nearly three months after the country hit 20 million. COVID-19-related deaths now total more than 545,000.

The new milestone comes as public health experts show cautious optimism three months into the U.S. vaccination rollout. It is believed that 70 per cent of Americans 65 and older have received at least one dose of the vaccine and COVID-19 deaths are below 1,000 a day on average for the first time since November.

The federal government is dramatically ramping up vaccine production and several states have already expanded vaccination eligibility to people age 16 and up.

Brazil, meanwhile, has reached 300,000 confirmed COVID-19 deaths and become the second nation to top that figure. 

Wednesday’s coronavirus figures from the Brazilian health ministry added another 2,009 deaths to the country’s tally, which local media say is an undercount.

On Tuesday, Brazil hit a single-day record of 3,251 COVID-19 deaths and authorities fear that April could be as grim as March in the country’s overwhelmed hospitals. Brazil added 100,000 deaths to its tally in only 75 days, a spike health experts have blamed on a lack of political co-ordination, new variants that spread more easily and a disregard for health protocols in many parts of the country.

In Europe, Poland reported a record daily number of new coronavirus cases for the second day in a row as the prime minister prepared to give details of harsher restrictions for the Easter period.

Hungary’s hospitals are under “extraordinary” pressure from rising coronavirus infections, its surgeon general said, as the country became a hot spot in the third wave of a pandemic that has hit Central Europe especially hard.

In the Asia-Pacific region, Sri Lanka has decided to purchase seven million doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine. The government said it will pay $69.65 million US for the shots.

Sri Lanka aims to inoculate 14 million people out of the population of 22 million. So far, over 850,000 people have received their shots using the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Sri Lanka has received 1.2 million AstraZeneca doses out of at least 10 million it plans to purchase for $52.5 million. It has also approved China’s Sinopharm shots. Of the 1.2 million doses, Sri Lanka got 500,000 as a donation from India and bought another 500,000. The other 264,000 came through the COVAX facility.

In the Middle East, clerks at the largest cemetery in Jordan barely have a moment to themselves as people rush to pay for graves to bury relatives amid a record surge of deaths from COVID-19.

The cemetery on the outskirts of the capital saw at least 50 burials on Tuesday, a day after the health ministry announced 109 COVID-19 deaths, the kingdom’s highest daily tally. The surge in the last two months, blamed on the fast spread of the B117 variant first identified in Britain, has put Jordan’s infections and deaths above most of its neighbours and reverses months of success in containing the outbreak.

-From The Associated Press and Reuters, last updated at 9 a.m. ET