COVID-19 live updates: Montreal could go back to 8 p.m. curfew if cases rise, Legault says

Article content

Updated throughout the day on Tuesday, April 6. Questions/comments: ariga@postmedia.com

Top updates

Article content

5:40 p.m.

Montreal could go back to 8 p.m. curfew if cases rise, Legault warns; gyms to close, high schools returning to hybrid teaching as Quebec expands vaccination campaign

Premier François Legault says variants are a growing threat, causing cases to soar in some regions.

Speaking at a press conference in Montreal, he said Montreal has not seen a dramatic increase in cases yet, but “it’s probably a question of days, or weeks” before that happens.

“Yes, for the moment we resisted a little more than elsewhere” but there’s a big chance that cases could spike in the Montreal area, he said.

“The situation is fragile and it could become critical very rapidly.”

Legault announced that in red zones, including Montreal, restrictions will be tightened.

Article content

Starting Monday, the province is reversing its decision to send Grade 9, 10 and 11 students back to classrooms full time.

Those students will go back to alternating between in-class and online learning. Extracurricular activities are cancelled.

As of Thursday, indoor sports will be further restricted, gyms will be closed and places of worship will be limited to a maximum of 25 people, he said.

The curfew will continue to run from 9:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. in red zones but the curfew could go back to 8 p.m. if cases rise.

In Montreal, the changes reverse a loosening of restrictions that began less than two weeks ago.

In red zones such as Montreal, gyms, theatres and spas reopened on Friday, March 26, the same day that places of worship could start welcoming 250 people, up from 10 in red zones.

Article content

On Monday, March 29, the province sent high school students in upper grades back to full-time in-classroom learning. Grade 9, 10 and 11 students had been alternating between in-class and online learning.

When some English school boards resisted the plan to reopen schools,Education Minister Jean-François Roberge ordered them to resume full-time teaching in classrooms whether they wanted to or not.

Health Minister Christian Dubé said Quebec has had to reduce the number of COVID-19 ICU beds because it doesn’t have enough staff in hospitals. That’s another reason to be extremely cautious, he added.

He said he understands that people are frustrated by the fact that some vaccination appointments are going unfilled.

Article content

Until now, the province has focused on vaccinating by age groups. By the weekend, all regions will be vaccinating people aged 60 and up, he said.

Next, the province will focus on people with chronic illnesses and then essential workers such as teachers, daycare workers and police officers, he said.

Dubé announced that as of Thursday, anybody 55 and older can be vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine at designated clinics. He said 350,000 AstraZeneca doses will be available. No appointments will be necessary. More details are to be announced Wednesday.

Concerns have been raised about AstraZeneca’s safety in younger people, but Dubé said public health officials say the benefits outweigh the risks in people 55 and older.

Article content

The province has about 742,000 vaccine doses in hand at the moment.

Dubé said by Thursday or Friday, he hopes to reach 70,000 or 75,000 doses administered per day.

Article content

4:05 p.m.

New website tells you which Quebec vaccine sites have appointments today

A new, unofficial website shows it is possible to book a vaccination appointment with only a few hours’ notice in Quebec.

Read our full story.

4 p.m.

Vaccination appointments available in pharmacies in Lanaudière, Laurentians, Laval and Montérégie

Article content

3:50 p.m.

Study of Astra vaccinations in children is paused, Oxford says

Vaccinations of children in a study of the Covid-19 shot developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford have been paused while the U.K.’s drug regulator investigates rare cases of blood clots in adults.

Read our full story.

2:35 p.m.

White House rules out federal vaccine passport

Article content

2:25 p.m.

Don’t travel between provinces, Tam says

Canada’s chief public health officer is advising Canadians to avoid interprovincial travel amid concerns COVID-19 vaccines might not be fully effective against new variants of the disease.

Dr. Theresa Tam says she is concerned about people travelling as tourists and gathering for leisure activities.

With new variants of concern now being identified in provinces such as British Columbia, Ontario and Alberta, there is concern Canadians could further spread these strains of the virus across the country.

Tam says some laboratory tests show the P1 variant, in particular, might elude a person’s immunity response.

This means people who have been vaccinated or who have contracted COVID-19 could still get sick or reinfected by the virus.

Article content

1:55 p.m.

Vaccinations: Here are the groups that qualify as high-risk patients and essential workers in Ontario

With Quebec expected to soon announce an expansion of its vaccination campaign, you might be wondering how other jurisdictions are classifying people with serious health conditions and essential workers.

Ontario today announced it is moving to Phase 2 of its vaccination campaign.

The province announced that as early as today, people with the following highest-risk health conditions will be eligible for COVID-19 vaccination in Ontario:

Article content

“Patients with the specific health conditions listed above, as well as their essential caregiver will be identified for vaccination due to an increased risk of serious illness and death from COVID-19, regardless of age,” the province said.

Other groups that will become eligible to receive vaccines as part of Phase Two include:

Last month, the province defined which workers will qualify.

First group of workers unable to work remotely (730,000 people):

Article content

Remaining workers unable to work remotely (1.4 million people):

• High-risk and critical retail workers (grocery and pharmacies).
• Remaining manufacturing workers.
• Social workers (including youth justice).
• Courts and justice system workers (including probation and parole).
• Lower-risk retail workers (wholesalers, general goods).
• Transportation, warehousing and distribution.
• Energy, telecom (data and voice), water and wastewater management.
• Financial services.
• Waste management.
• Mining, oil and gas workers.

1:45 p.m.

With 742,000 vaccine doses on hand, Quebec to target essential workers and chronically ill

Quebec administered almost 40,000 vaccine doses yesterday, compared to 22,494 the previous day.

Article content

The province has so far received 2.3 million vaccine doses and has administered 1.6 million of them, leaving it with just under 750,000 doses on hand.

The province says it received 207,090 Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses yesterday.

In addition, 135,100 Moderna doses and 339,600 AstraZeneca doses, which arrived in recent days, are “in transit within the network,” the health department said.

Via Twitter this morning, Health Minister Christian Dubé said the province will “soon” open vaccinations to Quebecers who are essential workers or who have chronic illnesses.

Dubé was apparently responding to criticism about the pace of vaccinations in the province.

He said Quebec is “adjusting its (vaccination) operations. This is normal when changing priority groups.”

Article content

He noted that the province recently rerouted 34,000 vaccine doses from Montreal to the regions. Another 20,000 doses are on the way to regions with high case counts, Dubé said.

“We will open to the chronically ill and to essential workers soon,” the minister added.

In Montreal, vaccinations are currently open to people who are 60 and older.

Dubé and Premier François Legault are scheduled to hold a 5 p.m. press conference today. I’ll have live coverage and a live video feed here.

12:05 p.m.

Clear link between AstraZeneca vaccine and rare blood clots in brain, European official says

From the Reuters news agency:

There is a link between AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine and very rare blood clots in the brain but the possible causes are still unknown, a senior official for the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said in an interview published on Tuesday.

Article content

However, the EMA later said in a statement that its review of the vaccine was ongoing and it expected to announce its findings on Wednesday or Thursday. An AstraZeneca spokesman declined to comment on the matter.

“In my opinion, we can now say it, it is clear that there is an association (of the brain blood clots) with the vaccine. However, we still do not know what causes this reaction,” Marco Cavaleri, chair of the vaccine evaulation team at the EMA, told Italian daily Il Messagero.

Cavaleri provided no evidence to support his comment.

The EMA has repeatedly said the benefits of the AstraZeneca shot outweigh the risks as it investigates 44 reports of an extremely rare brain clotting ailment known as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) out of 9.2 million people in the European Economic Area who have received the vaccine.

Article content

The World Health Organization has also backed the vaccine.

AstraZeneca has said previously its studies have found no higher risk of clots because of its vaccine.

Noon

Quebec City has the highest rate of variant cases

11:30 a.m.

Trudeau provides update

Article content

11:15 a.m.

Updated charts: Quebec cases, deaths

11:15 a.m.

Update on variants in Quebec

11:05 a.m.

Quebec reports 1,168 cases, 4 deaths as hospitalizations rise

Quebec has recorded  1,168 new cases of COVID-19, the provincial government announced this morning.

Montreal reported 300 cases, the lowest one-day case count since March 28.

In addition, four new deaths were reported, including one over the previous 24 hours.

The other deaths occurred between March 30 and April 4.

Some other key statistics from Quebec’s latest COVID-19 update, published this morning:

Article content

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Quebec has reported 318,532 cases and 10,701 deaths linked to COVID-19. A total of 297,384 people who have contracted the disease have since recovered.

10:55 a.m.

Canadians are importing pandemic misinformation from the U.S., McGill study suggests

Many Canadians who use social media are embracing and then disseminating “conspiracy theories, poorly sourced medical advice and information trivializing COVID-19,” most of which is coming from U.S.-based sources, McGill University researchers say in a new study published in Frontiers in Political Science.

“We show that the majority of misinformation circulating on Twitter that is shared by Canadian accounts is retweeted from U.S.-based accounts,” the researchers say. “Moreover, exposure to U.S.-based media outlets is associated with COVID-19 misperceptions and increased exposure to U.S.-based information on Twitter is associated with an increased likelihood to post misinformation.”

Article content

The study is titled Infodemic Pathways: Evaluating the Role That Traditional and Social Media Play in Cross-National Information Transfer.

10:30 a.m.

Meanwhile, south of the border

From the Bloomberg news agency:

President Joe Biden will announce Tuesday that he wants all American adults to be eligible for a coronavirus vaccine by April 19, a White House official said, citing a target date all but two states are already set to meet.

Biden will also announce that 150 million doses of vaccine were administered within his first 75 days in office, keeping pace with his accelerated goal of getting 200 million shots into arms by his 100th day in office.

By April 19, every state but Oregon and Hawaii are scheduled to have opened up vaccines to every adult. Those two states are currently set to meet that target May 1, Biden’s previous goal for every U.S. adult to become eligible.

Article content

Almost half of U.S. states had opened vaccination to everyone 16 and older by the end of last week. That will rise to 36 by the end of this week. CNN reported that Biden is expected to credit governors’ effort to meet his earlier deadline for the updated goal.

Biden’s administration has been racing to put shots in arms before infection rates spike again, as fresh variants of the virus that are more easily transmitted — and possibly more harmful once caught — spread throughout the U.S.

One variant, known as B.1.1.7 and originally found in the U.K., is now the dominant variant in regions holding two-thirds of the U.S. population.

The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned of “impending doom” as cases have begun to rise again, fueled in part by states lifting some or all of their restrictions.

Article content

10:20 a.m.

New Zealand’s quarantine-free travel bubble with Australia could be ‘a world first’

A quarantine-free travel arrangement between New Zealand and Australia could be “a world first,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Tuesday, with reports suggesting borders between both nations may open as soon as the end of the week.

Australia and New Zealand have managed the COVID-19 crisis more successfully than most other developed nations after closing their international borders to non-citizens and permanent residents very early during the pandemic.

Read our full story.

9:25 a.m.

5,000 shots went unused during Easter weekend, Quebec vaccination chief says

The head of Quebec’s vaccination campaign admitted Tuesday morning that 5,000 COVID-19 vaccination appointments in Montreal went unfilled over the course of the Easter weekend.

Article content

Read our full story.

9:20 a.m.

Quebec’s decision to lift restrictions strays from science, public health experts say

Thirteen months into the pandemic, Quebec has found itself in the midst of a third wave — and public health experts are wondering why the government isn’t doing more to stop the spread of the virus.

Read our full story, by Katelyn Thomas.

9:20 a.m.

Dubé urges health authorities to close places violating COVID-19 measures

Citing the need to quickly intervene given the new coronavirus variants, Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé is urging regional public health authorities to not hesitate to close down places that aren’t following public health measures.

Read our full story.

9:20 a.m.

What a California gas leak can teach us about air purifiers in schools

In 2015, the largest natural gas leak in the history of the United States forced a group of California schools to install air filters in classrooms within an eight-kilometre radius of the source of the contamination.

Article content

A few years after the leak was plugged, a researcher at New York University reviewed the pupils’ math and English test scores and came to the conclusion that the air filters were not only cost-effective but led to “substantial improvements in student achievement.”

Read our full story, by Aaron Derfel.

9:20 a.m.

Outbreak at Quebec City gym now linked to 171 cases

A COVID-19 outbreak at a Quebec City gym has now been linked to 171 cases, the region’s health authority said on Monday.

Read our full story.

9:20 a.m.

Quebec’s private daycares want staff to be vaccinated as a priority

Private daycare associations are calling on the Quebec government to prioritize COVID-19 vaccinations for their staff and warning parents there may be service disruptions if not.

Article content

Read our full story.

9:15 a.m.

Everything you need to know about getting COVID-19 vaccinations in Quebec

Local health authorities have set up mass vaccination sites across Montreal.

You can book appointments via the Clic Santé website or by phone at 1-877-644-4545.

Here are the nuts and bolts of getting vaccinated, by Katherine Wilton. Her guide includes the age groups targeted, how to book appointments, and addresses of vaccination centres.

Wondering if the vaccines are safe? Once vaccinated, can you disregard public health measures? Is vaccination mandatory? Read our FAQ, by Jason Magder.

Article content

9:15 a.m.

Here’s where Montrealers can get tested today

Montrealers can be screened at test centres across the island.

You can check screening clinic wait times here.

8:45 a.m.

The situation across Canada

Here’s the rate of case growth per 100,000 people over the past seven days, via the federal government’s latest epidemiology update:

8:30 a.m.

Sign up for our free nightly coronavirus newsletter

Stay informed with our daily email newsletter focused on local coronavirus coverage and other essential news, delivered directly to your email inbox by 7 p.m. on weekdays.

You can sign up here.

ariga@postmedia.com

Read my previous live blogs here.