COVID-19 Live Updates: News on coronavirus in Calgary for May 18

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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 had an upcoming surgery postponed? Do you have a family member in the ICU, or have you recovered after spending time in the ICU? 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.

Hinshaw to deliver update at 3:30 p.m.

Alberta Chief Medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw will deliver an update today at her usual time of 3:30 p.m.

Watch for the livestream of the press conference on this page.

‘Absolutely beautiful’: Albertans line up at U.S. border for COVID-19 vaccinations

Linda Neilson had waited a long time to get her second COVID-19 vaccination and thanks to the generosity of the Blackfeet Tribe in Montana her wait ended at the Canada-United States border on Tuesday.

Neilson, who is from nearby Cardston, Alta., was in one of hundreds of vehicles lined up at the Carway crossing in southern Alberta.

The Blackfeet Tribe, based 150 kilometres south of Lethbridge, Alta., had an abundance of vaccine and decided last month to share it with Canada rather than let it go to waste. Initially it was just open to First Nations, but the tribe soon decided to offer it to everybody.

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Trudeau to announce $200 million toward new vaccine plant in Mississauga

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will announce a nearly $200 million investment Tuesday in a facility designed to manufacture mRNA vaccines in Mississauga.

The money from the federal government’s Strategic Innovation Fund will go to Resilience Biotechnologies Inc, a government source confirmed to the National Post. In total the new facility will cost $400 million to build.

mRNA vaccines are a relatively new technology and are the underlying science behind vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer, which have shown to be highly effective against COVID-19. Canada had very little domestic vaccine manufacturing at the start of the pandemic and because the technology is novel, mRNA vaccines in particular are made in only a small handful of facilities around the world.

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Trudeau says he knew weeks ago that general overseeing vaccine campaign was under investigation

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he learned weeks ago that the military officer overseeing Canada’s vaccination campaign was under investigation, which he described on Tuesday as “not an ideal situation.”

The comments represented the first from Trudeau since the Department of National Defence announced late Friday that Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin was being replaced because of an unspecified military investigation.

A source who was granted anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly told The Canadian Press that the investigation relates to an allegation of sexual misconduct.

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Where COVID-19 rates are highest in Canada and Alberta

Kenney spent a good part of Monday’s press conference addressing rising COVID-19 numbers in rural Alberta, and data released by Alberta Health Services confirms this. Numbers in the north region, which includes the RM of Wood Buffalo and Fort McMurray, are especially concerning. The first chart shows that area has the highest COVID-19 rate per 100,000 in Canada. The second chart breaks down the hardest-hit regions in Alberta, which are dominated by rural areas.

Canada hits grim milestone of 25,000 COVID-19 deaths 14 months into pandemic

Canada’s COVID-19 death toll has reached 25,000.

Ontario is reporting 17 new fatalities related to the virus today, taking the national total to 25,000.

The grim milestone means six in every 10,000 Canadians died of COVID-19 since March 9, 2020, when the country’s first COVID-19 death was reported.

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Spanish study finds AstraZeneca vaccine followed by Pfizer dose is safe and effective

A Spanish study on mixing COVID-19 vaccines has found that giving a dose of Pfizer’s drug to people who already received a first shot of AstraZeneca vaccine is highly safe and effective, preliminary results showed on Tuesday.

The Combivacs study, run by Spain’s state-backed Carlos III Health Institute, found the presence of IgG antibodies in the bloodstream was between 30 and 40 times higher in people who got the follow-up Pfizer shot than in a control group who only received one AstraZeneca dose.

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Meanwhile, the presence of neutralizing antibodies rose sevenfold after a Pfizer dose, significantly more than the doubling effect observed after a second AstraZeneca shot.

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A quicker path to normal: U.K. reopens at 30% vaccinated while Canada waits for 75%

Across the United Kingdom, where 30 per cent of the population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, people are free to begin “cuddling cautiously,” pubs are reopening and millions are socializing again as the country further exits a grim four-month lockdown.

In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said the fully vaccinated, roughly 37 per cent of Americans as of Monday, may, with some exceptions, safely drop their masks, stop distancing and gather inside with people with whom they do not live. Fans are distancing at baseball stadiums, Broadway is set for a September reopening and county fairs across New York State are set to resume this summer.

Canadians, meanwhile, have been told they can look forward to a similar taste of pre-COVID life, though not until 75 per cent of those eligible for vaccines have achieved full vaccination status, meaning two weeks after the final vaccine dose. As of Monday, that figure stood at less than four per cent.

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Monday

Alberta ICUs treating historical record-high number of patients due to COVID-19

Health-care workers in Alberta’s intensive care units are treating the highest number of ICU patients the province has seen with more than 240 people currently in ICUs, including 181 with COVID-19, the head of Alberta Health Services said Monday.

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Overall ICU capacity across the province would be above 140 per cent capacity if AHS had not shifted resources to open an additional 106 ICU beds in Alberta hospitals to meet the pandemic’s demands, Dr. Verna Yiu, the president and CEO of AHS, explained. This surge in patients would have exceeded the pre-pandemic capacity of 170 ICU beds.

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“That is easily the most ICU patients that we’ve ever seen in our health-care system, and definitely higher than what we’ve seen in waves one and two,” said Yiu during a press conference with the premier.

“We also now have the highest number of patients on ventilators, at 222, of which more than half are COVID-19 patients.”

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Monday

NDP proposes replacing federal COVID-19 benefit with made-in-Alberta 10-day paid sick leave

Alberta’s NDP Opposition has drafted a hypothetical bill that would give all Albertans 10 paid sick days to isolate due to COVID-19.

Instead of tabling a private members’ bill to debate it in the legislature, the NDP is calling for the government to introduce legislation they have written, which would make changes to the employment standards code. A letter outlining the proposal has been sent to Labour and Immigration Minister Jason Copping.

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Monday

AHS slaps closure order on Fairview Baptist Church following pastor’s arrest

A day after its pastor was arrested for repeatedly breaching COVID-19 measures, Fairview Baptist Church was ordered closed by Alberta Health Services.

The church and its flock had been openly defying restrictions that most recently limit attendees to 15 at a service.

That’s drawn the rancour of some of the neighbours of the church at 230 78 Ave. S.E. who have complained about the lack of enforcement.

“Alberta Health Services’ Environmental Public Health has proceeded with further enforcement action at the Fairview Baptist Church in response to ongoing non-compliance with provincial public health orders from Alberta’s chief medical officer of health (CMOH),” AHS said in a statement Monday.

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“As a result of this ongoing non-compliance, AHS has now issued a closure order.”

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Monday

Mayoral candidate, pastor granted release pending contempt hearing for breaching public health orders

Mayoral candidate Kevin J. Johnston was granted his release Monday after he was arrested Saturday for breaching a court order that required him to comply with COVID-19 public health restrictions.

But Johnston complained the condition of his release that he comply with masking requirements, along with other orders issued by chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw, might be difficult for him to follow pending a June 16 contempt of court hearing.

“I’m already feeling the anxiety,” Johnston told a virtual court hearing, as he sat, masked, in the prisoner’s box in a Calgary Court of Queen’s Bench courtroom where the judge and lawyers appeared on video link.

“I simply cannot wear a mask for that period of time. I’m already feeling the anxiety of this right now and I’m sweating. I’m bothered by having to have this on, I could not possibly wear a mask for that entire amount of time.”

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Monday

721 new cases, five deaths

The latest COVID-19 numbers for Alberta:

• 721 new cases on 7,002 tests
• 678 in hospital; 181 in ICUs
• Five additional deaths; 2,148 total
• 21,288 active cases; 196,246 recovered
• Provincewide R-value of 0.84 from May 10-16; 0.82 in the Calgary zone

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Monday

Five people mistakenly given saline water diluent instead of Pfizer vaccine in Lethbridge

Ten people who received the Pfizer vaccine at the Lethbridge Exhibition at the end of April are being contacted by Alberta Health Services after it was determined five of them were unknowingly given saline instead of a dose of COVID-19 vaccine.

AHS discovered that five of 10 individuals who were immunized in the same window of time on April 29 were mistakenly given only the saline water diluent and not the actual vaccine. All ten individuals, however, are being contacted directly by AHS and will be offered another immunization appointment, AHS said in a release Monday.

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Monday

‘Messing around is going to cost lives’: AstraZeneca developer slams Canada’s approach to the vaccine

A Canadian researcher who oversaw the development of the AstraZeneca vaccine says the country’s vaccine strategy has been to act “on hearsay and not a lot of facts,” after several provinces have paused giving out first doses of the vaccine.

Speaking on CTV News’ Question Period, Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University Sir John Bell criticized Canada’s approach to the AstraZeneca vaccine, saying that the COVID-19 immunization effort is a “race against time.”

“At my last look you guys are 3.6 per cent vaccinated with two doses, so just wait for the (B.1.617 variant) to rip through the Canadian population, and then the problems you’ve had with these very rare (blood) clotting events will look pretty insignificant,” said Bell.

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Monday

Kenney raises concerns about ICU admissions, spread in rural areas

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Premier Jason Kenney, chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw and Dr. Verna Yiu, president and chief executive officer of Alberta Health Services are giving an update on the COVID-19 situation in Alberta. Watch the live feed above.

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Monday

Federal government begins discussions on reopening U.S.-Canada border

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has begun preliminary internal discussions about reopening the border with the U.S., even as Canada remains well behind its neighbour in vaccinations.

Senior officials have begun to formally talk about options for how to proceed, three people familiar with the matter said, speaking on the condition they not be identified.

One question under consideration is whether to employ a two-track system in which quarantine and testing requirements would be relaxed for vaccinated travellers.

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Also:Biden to announce U.S. will send 20 million vaccines abroad by the end of June