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

In a letter sent to Dr. David Williams, the province’s chief medical officer of health, the three regional heads say the current measures will not do enough to reduce the rate of transmission of COVID-19 infections.

“Stricter lockdowns have been shown to be effective in other countries to control transmission while vaccine campaigns progressed to achieve sufficient population coverage to suppress transmission,” the joint letter says.

Peel Public Health has also ordered all schools to be closed.

Dr. Lawrence Loh, medical officer of health for the region, which includes Brampton, Mississauga and Caledon, said he is ordering schools to close starting Tuesday.

The schools will move to online learning only and will remain closed until April 18.

Loh said the closure will allow students and staff at least two weeks out of schools to break any chains of transmission and protect them from exposure.

Toronto Public Health is not ordering its schools closed at this time. 

Ontario on Monday reported figures covering two days, for a total of 5,979 new cases of COVID-19 and 22 additional deaths.

According to figures released Monday, hospitalizations in Ontario stood at 942, with 494 people in “ICU due to COVID-related critical illness.” Of those in ICU, 469 were still testing positive for COVID-19, the update said.

Some health experts in the province are urging a change in vaccination priorities, from older Canadians to essential workers. 

In Toronto, Mayor John Tory said the city is working on a plan to vaccinate high-risk people at their places of work.

Meanwhile, new COVID-19 restrictions will go into effect in Quebec on Monday evening as the province tries to deal with rising COVID-19 case numbers involving more contagious variants.

The provincial government said the curfew will move from 9:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. ET Monday evening in the regional municipalities of Beauce-Sartigan, Bellechasse, Les Etchemins, Nouvelle-Beauce and Robert-Cliche.

Non-essential businesses will be required to close starting Monday evening, as will restaurant dining rooms. Schools will also have to close for in-person learning. The measures will be in place until at least April 12, the province said.

The Quebec government imposed the same restrictions on three other cities last week, including Quebec City and Gatineau.

Quebec reported 1,252 new cases of COVID-19 and four additional deaths on Monday. According to a provincial dashboard, hospitalizations stood at 503, with 123 in intensive care.

The expanded restrictions in parts of Quebec come as several provinces face mounting COVID-19 case numbers and increasing hospitalizations, prompting concern about the strain on health-care systems.

-From The Canadian Press and CBC News, last updated at 1:40 p.m. ET

What else is happening across Canada

As of 5 p.m. ET on Monday, Canada had reported 1,012,429 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 59,820 considered active. A CBC News tally of deaths stood at 23,095.

In Atlantic Canada, Nova Scotia reported three new cases of COVID-19 on Monday.

In New Brunswick, health officials reported 10 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday.  Fourteen patients are hospitalized with the disease, including eight in intensive care, the province said.

The update came a day after health officials said a hospital in northwestern New Brunswick is nearing its capacity for acute care patients, according to a statement released by the Vitalité Health Network over the weekend. 

“The evolution of the variant and its atypical behaviours are creating problems that exceed the pessimistic projections that had been made for that region,” the statement from the organization’s president and CEO, Dr. France Desrosiers, said. “The Edmundston Regional Hospital will soon reach its maximum capacity in terms of patients requiring acute care.”

Desrosiers, who praised the efforts of front-line workers and health-care staff, noted that the transfer of patients to other facilities “is imminent.”

Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador have not yet reported updated figures on Monday.

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

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In the Prairie provinces, Manitoba reported 135 new cases on Monday, covering the past two days, with an additional two deaths. 

In Saskatchewan, health officials reported 219 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday and one additional death. The province is set to unveil its budget on Tuesday, warning the province is in a “tough spot” due to pandemic spending and the economic crisis. 

In Alberta, there were 887 new cases and four new deaths reported Monday. The opposition NDP is calling for tighter measures to be brought in, including closing gyms and indoor dining. 

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British Columbia is moving to Phase 3 of its vaccination process. Beginning at 8 a.m. local time Tuesday, people born in 1950 or earlier (71 and older), Indigenous peoples 18 and older and those considered high risk may register online for a vaccine.  

The province will provide updated case numbers later on Monday. 

-From CBC News and The Canadian Press, last updated at 4:15 p.m. ET

What’s happening around the world

As of late Monday afternoon, more than 131.5 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide, according to a tracking tool maintained by Johns Hopkins University. The global death toll stood at more than 2.8 million.

In the Americas, starting Monday, any adult in Florida is eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. In addition, the state announced that teens aged 16 and 17 can also get the vaccine with parental permission.

Johnson & Johnson is taking over “full responsibility” for a subcontractor’s Baltimore facility that produces the drug substance for its single-dose COVID-19 vaccine after an embarrassing mix-up. The company said it’s adding leaders in operations and quality control to the Emergent BioSolutions plant to supervise the work of its vaccine line.

It comes after enough drug substance for about 15 million doses was contaminated by human error at the plant. The issue was flagged last week to federal regulators, who have yet to approve any doses from the Baltimore plant.

J&J has delivered about 20 million doses from another plant to the U.S. government and says it expects to deliver about 80 million more by the end of May.

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In the Asia-Pacific region, the Philippine government extended a lockdown by another week on Monday after an alarming spike in coronavirus infections continued to surge and started to overwhelm many hospitals in the capital and outlying regions.

President Rodrigo Duterte placed Metropolitan Manila and four outlying provinces, a region of more than 25 million people, under lockdown last week as daily infections breached 10,000. Roman Catholic leaders shifted Holy Week and Easter events online after all public gatherings, including in places of worship, were temporarily banned.

Bangladesh began enforcing a week-long nationwide lockdown on Monday, shutting shopping malls and transportation as authorities try to stop a surge in coronavirus infections and deaths.

The decision came after health authorities said that they were facing overwhelming pressure in intensive care units in recent weeks because of severe infections. This is the second time the South Asian nation has enforced a virus lockdown after the first last March.

India has reported its biggest single-day spike in confirmed coronavirus cases since the pandemic began, and officials in the hard-hit state home to Mumbai are returning to the closure of some businesses and places of worship in a bid to slow the spread.

The Health Ministry on Monday reported 103,558 new COVID-19 infections in the last 24 hours, topping the previous peak of 97,894 daily cases recorded in late September. Fatalities rose by 478, raising the country’s death toll to 165,101.

India now has a seven-day rolling average of more than 73,000 cases per day, and infections in the country are being reported faster than anywhere else in the world.

In the Middle East, Iran’s capital is once again facing the highest level of restrictions imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus as the country struggles with a new surge in daily deaths. State media said the measure on Monday is the third time Tehran has faced a so-called code red since the pandemic began. A code red involves a ban on any travel by personal cars to and from cities and limits working hours of many businesses and offices to prevent the spread of the virus.

About 50 cities and towns are in code red, with only 23 in code blue, or “safe” status, out of the country’s total of more than 800 cities and towns. The rest are in orange and yellow status, which involve fewer restrictions.

The report comes as Iran’s daily death toll again reached three digits, after months of being under 100. On Sunday, 161 deaths were reported, bringing the registered death toll in Iran to more than 63,000, the highest in the Middle East. Iran has reported some 1.9 million confirmed cases of the virus

Also on Monday, Iran said it received the first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines from the Netherlands through the global COVAX initiative. 

In Africa, South Africa’s health minister said Sunday that the number of confirmed cases in the country — the hardest-hit on the continent — stood at more than 1.5 million, with nearly 53,000 recorded deaths.

In Europe, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday his government was hopeful that non-essential international travel would restart on May 17, but he did not want to underestimate the growing number of COVID-19 cases elsewhere. He said a task force would report later this week to set out what might be a “reasonable” plan.

France’s health minister warned Monday that the number of COVID-19 patients in the country’s intensive care units could reach levels seen during the first crisis a year ago. France’s hospitals have already surpassed the number of coronavirus ICU patients seen during the second surge in November, and Olivier Veran said on TF1 television that “it’s possible we could approach” the ICU saturation levels of April 2020.

Portugal on Sunday extended until April 15 restrictions on travel via land and sea to Spain that had been due to end this weekend.

Bank of Italy Governor Ignazio Visco told the Financial Times newspaper that the biggest threat to a global economic recovery is the irregular pace at which countries are vaccinating their populations against COVID-19.

-From The Associated Press, Reuters and CBC News, last updated at 12:40 p.m. ET

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