COVID-19 Live Updates: News on coronavirus in Calgary for March 31

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With news on COVID-19 happening rapidly, we’ve created this page to bring you our latest stories and information on the outbreak in and around Calgary.

What’s happening now

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My COVID Story: How have you been impacted by coronavirus?

Postmedia is looking to speak with people who may have been impacted by COVID-19 here in Alberta.  Have you undergone a travel-related quarantine? Have you received your vaccine, and if so did you feel any side effects? Have you changed your life for the better because of the pandemic? Send us an email at reply@calgaryherald.com to tell us your experience, or send us a message via this form.

Read our ongoing coverage of personal stories arising from the pandemic.

‘This is a wake-up call’: With variants rising, Kenney urges caution heading into Easter weekend

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney will join chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw at her Thursday presser amid a continued rise in COVID-19 cases and variants ahead of the Easter long weekend.

During a Wednesday news conference, Kenney said recent numbers are a cause for concern. Tuesday saw a record 332 newly detected variant cases.

“Unfortunately, the new variant is driving cases up in a younger population and this variant can have a much more severe health impact on younger people,” he said.

“This is a wake-up call for all Albertans. We can see the end of this thing…. I would plead to Albertans to please be very careful and follow the public-health guideline and the restrictions in place.”

Recent spread is likely linked to growing complacency around following rules, Kenney said.

He asked Albertans to stay at home and not to socialize outside their household over the spring holidays.

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Kenny added that Alberta will not impose a widespread lockdown.

More to come …

Pharmacies in and around Calgary offering COVID-19 vaccine

This map shows 53 pharmacies in Calgary, Chestermere and Airdrie offering the COVID-19 vaccine. More locations will be added in the coming days, according to the provincial government. Appointments are still required and can be booked by contacting the participating pharmacies. Details on eligibility and booking can be found here.

‘Very, very concerned’: Ford expected to impose new restrictions in Ontario on Thursday

Ontario will announce measures on Thursday aimed at fighting the pandemic’s third wave, the government said, as the number of COVID-19 patients in the province’s intensive care units hit a new high.

Premier Doug Ford told residents on Wednesday to “stay tuned” and urged them to refrain from gathering over the Easter weekend.

“You’ll hear an announcement tomorrow,” he said, without providing further details. “I’m very, very concerned to see the cases go up.”

Ontario reported 2,333 new cases of COVID-19 Wednesday and 15 more deaths linked to the virus.

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Pfizer vaccine safe, effective on adolescents in trial, companies say

Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE said on Wednesday their COVID-19 vaccine was safe and effective and produced robust antibody responses in 12- to 15-year olds, paving the way for them to seek approval in the United States and Europe in weeks.

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The read-out, which puts the pair ahead of other western vaccine developers in the quest to also protect children, will likely allow for the use of the vaccine in that group before the next school year, Albert Bourla, Pfizer’s chief executive, said in a statement.

Pfizer’s vaccine is already authorized for use in people starting at age 16. The new study offers the first evidence of how the vaccine will also work in school-age adolescents.

In the trial of 2,260 adolescents aged 12 to 15, there were 18 cases of COVID-19 in the group that got a placebo shot and none in the group that got the vaccine, resulting in 100 per cent efficacy in preventing COVID-19, the companies said in a statement.

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Ontario threatened with lawsuit over four-month delay for COVID booster shot

Two Ontario seniors are threatening to take Canada’s pandemic authorities to court over the country’s unprecedented decision to prescribe four-month gaps between doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

The pair provided written consent for their first dose in early March, when official Ontario guidelines said that the vaccine comprised “2 doses given 21 days apart.”

“If you are receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, you should return for your second dose in 21 days,” read an official Vaccine Information Sheet accompanying the official consent form.

Only days later, however, the pair’s 21-day booster appointments were suddenly cancelled following a March 8 directive from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization that instead mandated a four-month gap between doses.

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The latest on COVID-19 from around Canada

Newfoundland and Labrador is reporting one new case of COVID-19 today. The province has three active cases.

Nova Scotia is reporting two new cases of COVID-19 related to travel outside Atlantic Canada. Health officials are also saying that a previously reported case involves the U.K. variant of the virus.

New Brunswick health officials are reporting 12 new cases of COVID-19 today. Eleven of the cases are in the Edmundston region, where circuit-breaker restrictions were imposed last week, and they are contacts of previously confirmed cases.

Ontario is reporting 2,333 new cases of COVID-19 and 15 more deaths linked to the virus. Ontario’s premier says new public health measures might be announced tomorrow. Doug Ford says residents shouldn’t gather over the Easter weekend as the third wave of infections sends more people to Ontario hospitals.

Manitoba health officials say there has been one death and 70 new cases of COVID-19 today. Screening has also identified 17 additional cases that are variants of concern.

Canada’s top public health doctor says she expects the “crisis phase of the pandemic” will be over before the fall. Dr. Theresa Tam says the next few weeks may be the most challenging yet, as the third resurgence of cases driven by unrelenting variants of concern means there is even less “room for errors” in our public health measures. By June, Tam says, every adult Canadian who wants a vaccine will get at least one dose. And by the fall, she says, they will get their second.

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— The Canadian Press

AHS writes up two gyms for skimping on pandemic precautions

Alberta Health Services issued work orders to two gyms in the Calgary zone for not requiring its members to wear face masks.

Gold’s Gym in Douglasdale and Anytime Fitness located at 2202 100 Horse Creek Rd. in Cochrane were both visited by AHS inspectors.

At Gold’s Gym, unmasked patrons were seen working out within three metres of each other. They wee also moving about the facility without wearing masks, and workout equipment was not set up to support three-metre distancing.

At Anytime Fitness, patrons were seen doing low-intensity workouts without face masks.

Although neither gym was ordered closed, the owners were served a written notice to change their practices and ordered to submit written plans on how they would operate within the bounds of current COVID-19 restrictions.

AHS also issued a warning to the Calgary Hockey Development Centre on 25th Street N.E. An inspector reported that a group of adults were “participating in high-intensity group physical activity”, without masks or physical distancing.

The facility has been ordered to follow public health protocols, including the wearing of masks and proper distancing.

About 26,000 travellers arriving in Canada were exempt from mandatory quarantine hotel

Almost one quarter of all air travellers arriving in Canada since the federal government’s requirement of an expensive three-day stay in a quarantine hotel were exempt from the controversial rules.

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In the month since the order for mandatory stays in specified hotels has been in place, police agencies have issued 100 tickets to arriving travellers for refusing to go to a quarantine hotel, as of March 22, which is the most recent data released to National Post by the Public Health Agency of Canada.

That number of tickets for hotel violations represents more than one quarter of all Quarantine Act tickets issued by police to cross-border travellers over the entire year of isolation orders during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, signalling significant opposition to them.

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Vaccine vacation: Europeans use loophole to get their shots — and some time in the sun

It could go like clockwork.

Say a person in Switzerland doesn’t want to wait their turn in the slow-to-roll-out vaccination program and are going stir-crazy under limited freedoms during the pandemic.

With enough discretionary income, problem solved (as long as they have some free time).

Vaccination trips have mainly been offered to the wealthy for five- or six-figure sums for a three-week trip to a Gulf state, AboutTravel.com notes, but now a Norwegian travel agency is offering a cheaper option, to Istanbul — via Moscow — with vaccination as its main intent.

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Trudeau urges Canadians to take first vaccine they’re offered, says ‘the science is evolving’

Just as 1.5 million doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Canada Tuesday new guidelines will restrict the number of people who can take it, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged Canadians to trust the science and accept the first vaccine they are offered.

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Public health officers across the country suspended the use of the Astrazeneca vaccine in people under the age of 55 over concerns the vaccine might cause rare, but serious and potentially fatal blood clots. Canada has already received 500,000 doses of the vaccine and a further 1.5 million were on route from the United States on Tuesday.

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Tuesday

Alberta reports record 332 variant cases as vaccine rollout expands to Phase 2B

Vaccination bookings for those with severe underlying conditions started at pharmacies in three Alberta cities on Tuesday, as the province reported a record 332 new variant cases.

About 30 per cent of Alberta’s nearly 8,000 active cases of COVID-19 are variant cases, which are overwhelmingly the B.1.1.7 strain that was first identified in the United Kingdom. With the additional 332 cases, the province has detected a total of 3,624 cases of the B.1.1.7 strain since it spread to Alberta in December.

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Tuesday

COVID-19 long-haulers and disease’s impact on organs studied by University of Alberta researchers

COVID-19 long-haulers are the subject of a new study at the University of Alberta looking at how the disease impacts the body’s vital organs, possibly offering insight for future treatment.

Cardiologist and professor Dr. Ian Paterson is leading a team of researchers using MRIs to look at COVID-19’s long-term impacts on the heart, brain, lungs, liver, kidney and other muscles. The team is recruiting more than 200 people across the province for the Multi-organ Imaging with Serial Testing (MOIST) study, including patients newly diagnosed with COVID-19 and those who have had the disease within the last three to six months, with recovery.

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Read more.

Tuesday

AHS warns of ‘small risk’ of COVID-19 exposure at immunization site

Alberta Health Services is asking people who went to the South Calgary Health Centre for COVID-19 immunization on March 23 and March 25 to get tested for COVID-19 due to a healthcare worker who since tested positive for the virus.

AHS said Tuesday in a news release the healthcare worker was on site from 8 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. on March 23 and 8 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. on March 25 and that AHS is reaching out to 49 people who attended the site for appointments to book tests.

“Risk of exposure is believed to be low due to the continuous and correct use of PPE at the site, as well as the strict COVID-19 safety protocols in place,” AHS said in the release.

Tuesday

576 new cases, four deaths

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Tuesday

Canadians looked to the skies, saw more UFOs during pandemic: Survey

A new survey suggests Canadians spotted more UFOs last year during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chris Rutkowski with Ufology Research in Winnipeg says sightings of unidentified flying objects across the country increased by 46% in 2020.

He says the total of 1,243 sightings is one of the highest recorded in a single year.

Read more.