Ontario health units report lowest percentage increase in cases; Ford extends lower hydro rates period; LCBO to expand hours as booze prices cut - Toronto Star

The latest novel coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Wednesday (this file will be updated throughout the day). Web links to longer stories if available.

11:15 a.m.: Ontario’s regional health units are reporting their lowest 24-hour period of COVID-19 case growth by percentage, according to the Star’s latest count.

As of 11 a.m. Wednesday, Ontario’s regional health units are reporting a total of 19,615 confirmed or probable cases of COVID-19, including 1,488 deaths.

With just 319 new cases reported provincewide since the same time Tuesday morning, the province’s overall case count rose by just 1.7 per cent — the lowest such increase the Star has counted and a rate that’s down sharply from mid-March.

In the second half of that month, the province saw an average daily growth of 20 per cent, a rate that doubled Ontario’s case count about every four days. In the first half of April, that rate slowed to an average of 9.5 per cent daily growth, and the second half of the month averaged about four per cent, or a doubling time of around two-and-a-half weeks.

A 1.7 per cent daily increase would double the province’s case count about every 40 days.

Still: Ontario’s public health units continue to report large numbers of new deaths, with 49 more reported since 11 a.m. Tuesday; as new cases have been falling in recent weeks, the trend in the daily count of new deaths has continued to go up.

Because many health units publish tallies before reporting to Public Health Ontario, the Star’s count is more current than the data the province puts out each morning.

Earlier Wednesday, the province said 1,032 patients are now hospitalized with COVID-19, including 219 in intensive care, of whom 174 are on a ventilator — numbers that fluctuated up and down in recent weeks. The province also says more than 13,000 patients who have tested positive for the coronavirus have now recovered from the disease — about two-thirds of the total infected.

The province says its data is accurate to 4 p.m. the previous day. The province also cautions its latest count of total deaths — 1,429 — may be incomplete or out of date due to delays in the reporting system, saying that in the event of a discrepancy, “data reported by (the health units) should be considered the most up to date.”

The Star’s count, includes some patients reported as “probable” COVID-19 cases, meaning they have symptoms and contacts or travel history that indicate they very likely have the disease, but have not yet received a positive lab test.

11:10 a.m.: The country’s chief public health officer says to date, more than 970,000 people have been tested for COVID-19 in Canada.

Dr. Theresa Tam says about six per cent of those tests were positive.

The number of tests being carried out in Canada are of increased importance as provinces begin to slowly reopen their economies in tandem with increased COVID-19 surveillance.

10:43 a.m.: The Canadian Pharmacists Association says ongoing drug shortages mean pharmacies are receiving short shipments from manufacturers, leaving them to try to adjust on the fly.

The association first warned of the possibility of looming shortages in early March, when supply chains were disrupted by COVID-19 in China.

While Canada has seen a spike in shortages since then, it hasn’t developed into the emergency situation some health officials had feared.

Barry Power with the association says manufacturers and wholesalers have told them the rationing measures pharmacies are taking are helping to reduce demand.

Many pharmacies have instituted a 30-day limit on the quantity of drugs they dispense at once — which has an impact on some patients who have to pay more frequent dispensing fees.

Power says the association is working with Health Canada to decide when those restrictions should be lifted.

10:40 a.m.: Ontario is reporting that 12,961 tests were done Tuesday. The province had said it would be doing 16,000 tests a day by now. On Tuesday, Premier Doug Ford was blaming half of Ontario’s regional medical officers of health for low testing rates.

10:16 a.m.: One day after saying that the COVID-19 task force would be winding down, President Donald Trump said Wednesday that it would continue indefinitely, but focus more on rebooting the economy.

Trump tweeted that the panel’s focus would be on “SAFETY & OPENING UP OUR COUNTRY AGAIN.”

Trump’s reversal comes as deaths and infections rates outside of New York, the epicenter of the coronavirus, are rising even as states move to lift their lockdowns.

9:15 a.m.: LCBO will be extending hours starting May 14. Some 360 outlets, which had been in reduced hours during the pandemic, will be open 10 a.m. until 9 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Sundays.

9 a.m.: City of Toronto staff will be today enhance protections for the fox family that has taken up residence under the Woodbine Beach boardwalk.

While being shown images of people standing close together to photograph the animals, Tory on Wednesday told CP24 the makeshift barriers around their den will be improved and physical distancing ticketing considered.

The city tried a “common-sense laissez-faire approach” to keep people at a distance from the foxes. But crowds persist which isn’t good for the animals or the potential spread of COVID-19 between onlookers, the mayor said.

“The whole idea is not to have crowd scenes, whether it’s for foxes or cherry blossoms or anything else, so that we won’t be spreading the virus,” Tory said, adding High Park will re-open very soon once the blossoms pass their peak.

Tory also told CP24 that the city’s property tax deferral to help people hurt by the COVID-19 shutdown won’t be extended past June, and he expects the city and province to soon say if the Toronto Raptors can start practising with “a couple of athletes and a couple of trainers” at a time.

8:20 a.m.: Ontario is extending a period of lower hydro rates as well as its emergency orders.

The orders, which were set to expire today, include the closure of non-essential businesses, the prohibition of public gatherings of more than five people, and the closure of outdoor amenities such as playgrounds.

They have now been extended for another two weeks, to May 19.

Ontario’s overall declaration of a state of emergency was extended last month to May 12.

The government also says that it will extend lower electricity rates for residential consumers, farms and small businesses to May 31.

An initial order from March for off-peak rates to be charged all day had been set to expire this week.

8:15 a.m.: Premier Doug Ford’s government is further liberalizing Ontario’s liquor laws as a prescription for helping an ailing restaurant sector stricken by the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario has lowered the minimum price that restaurants and bars are allowed to sell gin, rum, tequila, vodka, and whiskey.

7:30 a.m. Having already turned Scotiabank Arena into a giant kitchen, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment is adding BMO Field to the cooking mix.

With the help of sponsor BMO, the lakefront stadium is being repurposed to add more kitchen muscle to help produce meals for Toronto’s front-line health-care workers and the city’s most vulnerable during the global pandemic.

Adding BMO Field’s primary kitchen is expected to increase the number of daily meals to up to 13,000 from the initial goal of 10,000. The program total to date should hit the 100,000-meal milestone this week.

The program is taking advantage of the nine kitchens at Scotiabank Arena.

MLSE culinary director Chris Zielinski has some 25 chefs at work along with 75 support staff assembling the meals at the two venues. “It’s an army,” he said.

5:33 a.m.: The Disneyland theme park in Shanghai will reopen May 11. Visits will be limited initially and must be booked in advance, and the company said it will increase cleaning and require social distancing in lines for the various attractions.

With warmer weather and new virus cases and deaths falling to near-zero, China has been reopening tourist sites such as the Great Wall and the Forbidden City palace complex in Beijing.

5:27 a.m.: Health officials are rushing to contain the spread of the coronavirus in India’s southern city of Chennai, where a large cluster has been identified among people at one of the country’s largest markets for fruit, vegetables and flowers.

The busy Koyambedu market, with 500 shops spread over 250 acres, is central to the food supply chain in Tamil Nadu and neighbouring states. It had remained open through India’s nationwide lockdown, and hundreds of traders visited regularly until the market was shut on Monday after the viral cluster was detected.

Some 7,000 people connected to the market were being traced and quarantined, J. Radhakrishnan, the nodal officer for COVID-19 in Chennai told The Associated Press late Tuesday.

5:15 a.m.: The coronavirus has delayed Indonesian regional elections being decided by more than 100 million voters.

President Joko Widodo signed a regulation that would move the elections from September to December or later depending on the pandemic situation, the State Secretariat website said. The vote would elect 9 governors, 37 mayors and 224 district chiefs across the archipelago.

5:10 a.m.: A senior government scientist is alleging that the Trump administration failed to prepare for the onslaught of the coronavirus in spite of his repeated warnings earlier this year.

Dr. Rick Bright, former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, also alleges in his whistleblower complaint that he was reassigned to a lesser role because he resisted political pressure to allow widespread use of hydroxychloroquine.

U.S. President Donald Trump has pushed the malaria drug as a treatment for COVID-19, but the Food and Drug Administration now warns doctors against prescribing it except in hospitals and research studies.

4 a.m.: The Trudeau government is expected to face a grilling today from opposition parties over its handling of the COVID-19 crisis.

A small number of MPs are to convene for a once-a-week, in-person sitting of the House of Commons and they are expected to zero in on the perceived deficiencies of the billions of dollars in emergency aid programs the federal government has implemented to cushion the economic impact of the pandemic.

Among the criticisms, the outraged reaction of Canadian farmers to the $252 million in support announced Tuesday for the agri-food sector — far less than the $2.6 billion deemed necessary by the Canadian Federation of Agriculture.

1 a.m.: New York City’s subway system went silent in the early morning hours of Wednesday, as part of a plan for the normally round-the-clock system to shut down for train cleaning.

The trains, which had been running on a reduced schedule since late March, are now going to be stopped from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. each day.

Fewer trains would be running in the overnight hours anyway, but the shutdown allows for daily cleaning’s and for city workers to move homeless people who have been more visible in subway cars during the coronavirus.

Tuesday 8:45 p.m.: At least 10 taxi and limo drivers working out of Pearson International Airport have died since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, including three more since Friday, the drivers’ union says.

Those drivers include Karam Singh Punian, who died Monday, and Akashdip Grewal, who died Friday, said Rajinder Aujla, president of the Airport Taxi Association, which represents about 700 drivers operating about 350 vehicles licenced to pick up passengers at Pearson.

Full story by the Star’s Kevin McGran here.

Tuesday 6:20 p.m.: Mount Pleasant Cemetery Group is looking at opening its cemeteries on the day before and the day after Mother’s Day to allow people to pay their respects to loved ones who have passed away, Mayor John Tory said, speaking at the daily city hall press conference.

Tory said the decision was discussed with the cemetery’s provincial regulator and the city’s medical officer of health, following on the heels of discussions with Coun. Josh Matlow.

He said families will have to abide by social distancing rules and avoid mingling with others at the cemetery, and respect current provincial regulations limiting the size of groups to a maximum of five people.

Read more of Tuesday’s coverage here.

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2020-05-06 15:33:45Z
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