COVID-19 live updates: Quebec reports 1,041 new cases, 13 more deaths

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This post will be updated throughout the day on Friday, April 30.

Questions/comments: rbruemmer@postmedia.com

Top updates

4:30 p.m.

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3:30 p.m.

U.S. to restrict travel from India

The Biden administration said on Friday that it would begin restricting travel to the United States from India, where a devastating coronavirus outbreak is claiming over 3,000 lives each day.

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3:20 p.m.

Single dose of Pfizer may not protect against variants: study

From Reuters:

A single dose of Pfizer‘s coronavirus vaccine may not generate a sufficient immune response to protect against dominant new variants, except in people who have already been infected with COVID-19, according to a UK study published on Friday.

The Imperial College-led study, which looked at immune responses among healthcare workers in Britain after their first dose of the Pfizer shot, found that those who had previously had mild or asymptomatic infection had enhanced protection against more infectious mutated variants that emerged in Britain and South Africa.

But the immune response after a first dose of the shot was weaker in people who had not previously been infected, potentially leaving them at risk from such variants, researchers leading the work said.

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“This study highlights the importance of getting second doses of the vaccine rolled out to protect the population,” said Rosemary Boyton, a professor of immunology and respiratory medicine at Imperial who co-led the study.

“People who have had their first dose of vaccine and who have not previously been infected with SARS-CoV-2 are not fully protected against the circulating ‘variants of concern’.”

1:45 p.m.

Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines now coming from the U.S.

As of next week, Canada will be getting all of its Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines from the United States and not the European Union, provisions minister Anita Anand announced Friday.

The doses will come from Kalamazoo, Mich., and no longer from Puurs, Belgium, Presse Canadienne reports.

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Three months ago, reconstruction at the Belgium plant caused a slowdown in deliveries to Canada.

Starting next week Canada will be receiving 2 million doses a week from Pfizer-BioNTech. That will rise to 2.4 million doses a week in June.

1:35 p.m.

Vaccinations at Big O Saturday reshuffled to avoid lockdown protest

As we reported earlier, vaccination appointments taken for Saturday at the Olympic Stadium have been reshuffled because of a planned protest against public health measures at the site.

Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé confirmed the news in an interview on TVA Friday morning, saying the decision was taken to avoid any possible confrontations.

“I find it unfortunate, because what we need is to vaccinate people,” Dubé said. “People are allowed to have their opinions but I think they could have left people getting vaccinated alone.”

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The local health authority that oversees the site, the CIUSSS de l’Est-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, said it moved all appointments to the morning in order to avoid the protest, which is planned for noon.

During a news conference Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said freedom of speech and the right to protest are important, but “it must be done safely.”

“The irony here is that by gathering, people are putting each other at risk, spreading further cases of COVID-19, and extending the time in which we will have to be faced with restrictions and public health measures,” Trudeau said.

See the full story by Jesse Feith.

12:30 p.m.

Federal government speaking to Ontario about suspending arrivals of international students: Trudeau

At his pandemic news conference, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government would be speaking to officials in Ontario about their demands that international students be denied entry.

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During a ministers’ meeting Thursday night, “Premier Ford asked that we suspend arrivals of international students,” Trudeau said. “Because at this time Ontario is the only province requesting this, we are happy to work more narrowly with them. We will be reaching out to their officials today to formalize that request.”

Trudeau noted that anyone crossing a land border to come into Canada must first be tested in the U.S., then again in Canada, and then quarantine for two weeks, and be tested again on the eighth day of their return.

Trudeau also expressed concern about the fact officials in Montreal were shifting vaccinations from the Olympic Stadium on Saturday due to a protest against COVID-19 regulations occurring there. He said it was disappointing protesters were taking their demonstration there.

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At his press conference Friday, Ford reiterated his theme that the rise in COVID-19 cases in his province was largely due to variants of the disease that arrived via travellers to the province.

He said if it was up to him, and not the federal government, he would close Toronto’s Pearson Airport to all flights.

“Not enough is being done to keep variants out of Canada. It didn’t swim here, I’ll tell you that,” Ford said, a comment he has made repeatedly.

It is those variants that “fuelled our devastating third wave,” and it got in because of “our weak border measures,” he said.

He warned of a fourth wave that would be fuelled by a “vaccine resistant” variant.

To date, the vaccines available in Canada have been shown to be very effective at controlling the main variant prevalent in Canada, the B.1.1.7 that originated in the UK.

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Many health experts say it was Ontario’s move to relax restrictions during the second wave and hesitancy to put in place restrictions as the third wave threatened that are to blame for the high COVID-19 case counts and death rates it is now facing, which are among the worst in Canada.

11:10 a.m.

Quebec reports 1,041 new cases, 13 more deaths

Quebec’s health ministry reported 1,041 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours. The total number of people infected is 349,773.

At the same time, it recorded 13 more deaths, three of which occurred in the last 24 hours. In total, 10,926 people have died of COVID-19 in Quebec.

There are now 592 patients in hospital with COVID-19, a drop of 31 compared to the previous day. Of those, 164 are in intensive care, a drop of one.

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There were 43,675 tests taken on Wednesday.

In the last 24 hours, 63,145 doses were administered.

Montreal recorded 297 new cases of COVID-19.

More details to come

10:57 a.m.

Vaccinations at Olympic Stadium moved due to protest planned for Saturday

Vaccinations at Olympic Stadium have been moved due to a protest planned for Saturday outside the building, Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé told TVA News Friday morning.

The protest is against health restrictions put in place by the government to curb the spread of COVID-19.

See the full story by Jesse Feith here.

10:55 a.m.

ER staff outbreak at St. Mary’s Hospital rises by three to 18

The number of emergency-room staff infected in the COVID-19 outbreak at St. Mary’s Hospital has increased by three to 18 as morale has plummeted among workers who say the health authority has done little to address their concerns.

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Although the outbreak was not found to have spread beyond staff, anxious patients who were examined in the ER earlier this week have contacted St. Mary’s since Wednesday and have been advised to get tested if they have any symptoms, a source told the Montreal Gazette. The outbreak occurred after the ER staff had received their first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in January.

Read the story by Aaron Derfel.

10:50 a.m.

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10:45 a.m.

Quebec teens won’t be vaccinated before end of school year: Dubé

Quebec teens age 12-17 won’t be vaccinated before end of school year, Health Minister Christian Dubé told Radio-Canada Friday morning, saying it was “mathematically impossible.”

He said they will be vaccinated before the start of the next school year.

Before Quebec can open vaccinations to this group, which numbers 516,500, pharmaceutical companies will have to complete their clinical trials on those age groups, he said.

On Friday, Pfizer-BioNTech put in a request with the European Medicines Agency to have its drug approved for 12-15 year olds. It has already put in a request in the U.S. The company said it expects to start giving doses to that age group by June.

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10:35 a.m.

One in six Canadians acquired a dog or cat during pandemic, survey says

Slightly more than half (56 per cent) purchased them to have company. Nearly a third of respondents said they had been feeling alone, and having a pet helped ease the solitude.

More than half said they acquired animals that had been abandoned.

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10:25 a.m.

Very small numbers of people admitted to hospital after one dose: UK study

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10:20 a.m.

Five years after devastating wildfire, Fort McMurray faces new crisis in COVID-19

Almost five years after a massive wildfire forced the evacuation of Fort McMurray, Alta., the northeastern Alberta oilsands hub is in another state of emergency.

A fire so ferocious it earned the nickname “the beast” spread into the city on May 3, 2016, causing nearly 90,000 people to flee the flames. Residents were out of their homes for at least a month and thousands of buildings were destroyed.

Now, the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, which includes the city of Fort McMurray, is dealing with a surge in COVID-19 cases that has strained the local hospital.

Mayor Don Scott said challenges remain five years later, as insurance claims remain unresolved and the mental health toll lingers.

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Read the full story.

10:15 a.m.

How to jump the queue by getting your COVID shot in the U.S.

Canada has made great strides in its vaccination regime in recent weeks. Nevertheless, we’re still way behind the United States.

At 37 per cent coverage, the United States is now one of the most vaccinated countries on earth. And, unlike Canada, the U.S. does not mandate a four-month gap between its vaccine doses, meaning Americans are fully immunized 3.5 months sooner than their Canadian counterparts.

It’s remarkably easy for non-residents to get a COVID shot in the U.S.

“We landed in the USA Friday night, and Saturday morning we were fully vaccinated against COVID-19,” reads a recent blog post by Montreal’s Andrew D’Amour, co-founder of the travel website Flytrippers. In early April, D’Amour booked a vaccination appointment at a Tom Thumb grocery store in Dallas, caught a flight the next day to Texas, and will eventually re-enter Canada by road to avoid mandatory hotel quarantine.

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Read here to see how Canadians are slipping over the border to capitalize on American COVID shots.

10:10 a.m.

Ontario golf course charged with defying shutdown order, faces $10M fine

A Tillsonburg golf course was charged under the Reopening Ontario Act, police announced late Thursday night, after the course opened last weekend in defiance of provincial pandemic restrictions.

The Bridges at Tillsonburg, which opened Saturday to a sold-out week of golf, was charged under the Reopening Ontario Act with failing to comply under section 10 (1)(c) – the section of the act that applies to corporations.

An OPP spokesperson said Thursday night the amount of the fine will be determined in court. Fines, if convicted, can reach up to $10 million for corporations.

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Police declined to say whether any golf course patrons had been charged Thursday night.

Read the full story here.

10 a.m.

Grim milestone in Ontario, new restrictions in Alberta

From the Canadian Press:

Ontario marked a grim COVID-19 milestone Thursday as its virus-related death toll passed 8,000 and Alberta brought in tighter public-health measures to try to get rapidly rising infection rates in hot spots under control.

The measures target six cities, including Calgary, Edmonton and Fort McMurray.

Junior and senior high school students will have to learn from home and indoor fitness and sports are banned. Kenney said curfews will be considered if case numbers go higher.

“Ultimately, Albertans have to step up to the plate in the next few weeks,” Kenney said.

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There were 2,048 new cases in the province and 632 people were in hospital, 151 of them in intensive care.

Kenney had said earlier this week that current restrictions would suffice if more people followed them. On Thursday, he said the new measures were “a hard but necessary step.”

In Ontario, where there were 41 new virus-related deaths to bring the provincial total to 8,029, Health Minister Christine Elliott said the way out of the pandemic is vaccinations.

“The light at the end of the tunnel grows brighter every day,” she said as the province reported another 3,871 infections.

See the full story here.

9:55 a.m.

Non-vaccinated Canadians will likely face considerable stigma: poll

Non-vaccinated Canadians will likely face considerable stigma, a new poll suggests. The survey, conducted this week by Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies and published today, found:

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9:30 a.m.

Vaccination registration opens for Quebecers 50 and up

As promised by the government on Thursday, vaccination registrations were open Friday morning at spots around the island for Quebecers 50 years old and older.

At a few spots checked on the Clic Santé website in Montreal’s west end, bookings were full till next Friday, but available after that.

To book an appointment, go to Clic Santé.

Quebec announced yesterday it will gradually open COVID-19 vaccination registration to the rest of the adult population starting today. All adults will be eligible to book an appointment within the next two weeks.

The last phase of Quebec’s vaccination campaign, detailed on Thursday, will start with registration opening for people in their 50s before quickly moving through age groups until mid-May.

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See the full story by Jesse Feith

9:30 a.m.

Quebec bars and restaurants want to reopen to vaccinated clientele

Two organizations representing licensed restaurants and bars in Quebec are calling upon the Legault government to allow them to serve clients who have received at least one dose of a vaccine against COVID-19.

In a letter sent to the premier’s office, the Corporation des propriétaires de bars, brasseries et tavernes du Québec (CPBBTQ) and the Union des tenanciers de bars du Québec (UTBQ) argue that such a measure would bring much-needed oxygen to businesses.

The heads of the two groups, Renaud Poulin and Peter Sergakis, note that the move would also encourage Quebecers hesitant over being inoculated to reconsider their decision.

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See the full story.

9:20 a.m.

COVID’s third wave is younger and sicker. Here’s everything we know about why

Canada’s COVID face is changing — for reasons that still aren’t entirely clear.

COVID wards are filling with young and middle-aged adults. At one Toronto hospital’s ICU, nearly as many under-50s died from COVID-19 in the first 48 days of the third wave as in the entire September-to-February wave. At another, harrowing numbers of pregnant women are landing in intensive care. By mid-April, half of those in Mount Sinai Hospital’s ICU were pregnant or had recently given birth.

See the full story by Sharon Kirkey.

9:15 a.m.

Here’s where Montrealers can get tested today

Montrealers can be screened at test centres across the island.

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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.

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