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The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Friday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.
8:37 a.m. Statistics Canada says the economy lost 63,000 jobs in December, the first decline since April.
The unemployment rate was 8.6 per cent for the month, up 0.1 percentage points from 8.5 per cent in November.
8:19 a.m. Ontario hospitals have been told to ready themselves for patient transfers from outside their regions as COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to rise.
An Ontario Health memo to hospital CEOs Thursday says current projections show more than 500 critically ill COVID-19 patients in Ontario hospitals by Jan. 24.
It directs hospitals with unoccupied adult intensive care beds to reserve one-third of the space for transfers from hospitals exceeding capacity.
The memo says all hospitals should be ready to accept transfers when directed.
Hospitals are also asked to standardize their critical care admission criteria with the Ontario Critical Care COVID-19 Command Centre.
Medical facilities in areas with community transmission are told to continue non-COVID-19 in-person care "without delay," and prepare plans to defer non-urgent care if necessary.
The memo comes as hospitals in infectious hot spots have postponed surgeries and begun to transfer patients due to the strains of COVID-19.
Windsor Regional Hospital says more than 50 patients had been transferred to other hospitals as of Thursday amid a capacity crunch from record-high COVID-19 hospitalizations.
7:57 a.m. The European Union’s drug agency on Friday approved doctors drawing up to six doses from each vial of the coronavirus vaccine made by BioNTech-Pfizer, a move that could speed up the pace of vaccinations in the 27-nation bloc.
The European Medicines Agency said its human medicines committee recommended updating the product information for the vaccine to clarify that each vial contains six doses instead of the five that were advised when it originally greenlighted the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Dec. 21.
German Health Ministry spokesman Hanno Kautz told reporters in Berlin that the change would come into effect immediately, boosting available doses of the vaccine by 20%.
Many doctors across the EU have already been drawing six doses of the vaccine from each vial, a practice that is already permitted in the United States, Britain and elsewhere.
Pharmaceutical companies regularly put more vaccine than necessary into vials so minimum dosage can be ensured even if there is some spillage.
7:39 a.m. Britain has authorized a coronavirus vaccine developed by Moderna, the third to be licensed for use in the country.
The Department of Health said Friday that the vaccine meets the regulator’s “strict standards of safety, efficacy and quality.”
Britain has ordered 10 million doses of the vaccine, though it is not expected to be delivered to the U.K. until spring.
So far Britain has inoculated .,5 million people with two other vaccines.
“Vaccines are the key to releasing us all from the grip of this pandemic, and today’s news is yet another important step towards ending lockdown and returning to normal life,’’ Business Secretary Alok Sharma said.
Britain’s National Health Service said Thursday that next week it will start using a field hospital specially built at a huge exhibition centre in east London in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.
7:26 a.m. World Health Organization experts on Friday issued recommendations that the interval between administration of two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against the coronavirus can be extended to up to six weeks.
WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on immunization, known as SAGE, formally published its advice after a full review of that vaccine, which is the first to get emergency approval from the U.N. health agency to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. It said an interval of 21 to 28 days between the doses is recommended.
But the U.N. health agency also noted that “a number of countries face exceptional circumstances of vaccine supply constraints combined with a high disease burden,” and said some have been considering delaying the administration of a second dose as a way to broaden initial coverage.
The agency said this “pragmatic approach” could be considered as a response to “exceptional epidemiological circumstances.”
“WHO’s recommendation at present is that the interval between doses may be extended up to 42 days (6 weeks), on the basis of currently available clinical trial data,” it said, adding: “Should additional data become available on longer intervals between doses, revision of this recommendation will be considered.”
Hard-hit Britain, for example, has decided to delay for as much as 12 weeks — and data from that expansion could help contribute to possible revisions in the WHO recommendation, said WHO spokeswoman Dr. Margaret Harris.
7:22 a.m. Israel has postponed the next hearing in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial because of a tightened coronavirus lockdown that began Friday.
The Jerusalem District Court said the hearing scheduled for Wednesday would be postponed indefinitely because of the number of people required to attend in person.
Netanyahu has been indicted on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust connected to three long-running investigations. He has denied any wrongdoing and says he is the victim of a “witch hunt” by hostile media, law enforcement and judicial officials.
In recent months he has faced weekly protests calling on him to resign over the allegations and the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis.
6:24 a.m. Germany’s Health Ministry says European Union regulators have approved doctors drawing up to six doses from each vial of the coronavirus vaccine made by BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine.
The European Medicines Agency had last month said it was considering a request from the companies to allow more than the permitted five doses to be drawn per vial.
The agency confirmed Friday that its human medicines committee has recommended updating the product information for the vaccine to clarify that each vial contains 6 doses.
Health Ministry spokesman Hanno Kautz told reporters in Berlin on Friday that the change would come into effect immediately, boosting available doses of the vaccine by 20%.
Many doctors across the EU have already been drawing six doses of the vaccine from each vial, a practice that is already permitted in the United States, Britain and elsewhere.
Pharmaceutical companies regularly put more vaccine than necessary into vials so minimum dosage can be ensured even if there is some spillage.
6 a.m. Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven on Friday defended his visit to a mall to buy a Christmas present for his wife despite Swedish authorities repeatedly urging people to stay away from shopping centres to avoid spreading the coronavirus.
Lofven, who didn’t break any laws, was the latest Swedish official to have gone against the advice given to the public by himself and Sweden’s Public Health Agency. Earlier this week an official resigned following reports that he had gone on vacation to the Canary Islands over Christmas.
Sweden hasn’t gone into lockdowns or closed businesses, but is relying instead on citizens’ sense of civic duty to control infections.
“I fully understand if people think it’s weird,” Lofven said in an interview with Swedish broadcaster SVT.
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He said he is following the government’s advice and has significantly reduced his visits to shops and restaurants. When he has gone, he said, he has made sure he is able to abide by social distancing.
5:12 a.m. New research suggests that Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine can protect against a mutation found in two highly contagious variants of the coronavirus that erupted in Britain and South Africa.
Those variants are causing global concern. They both share a common mutation called N501Y, a slight alteration on one spot of the spike protein that coats the virus. That change is believed to be the reason they can spread so easily.
Most of the vaccines being rolled out around the world train the body to recognize that spike protein and fight it. Pfizer teamed with researchers from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston for laboratory tests to see if the mutation affected its vaccine’s ability to do so.
They used blood samples from 20 people who received the vaccine, made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, during a large study of the shots. Antibodies from those vaccine recipients successfully fended off the virus in lab dishes, according to the study posted late Thursday on an online site for researchers.
The study is preliminary and has not yet been reviewed by experts, a key step for medical research.
5:08 a.m. Australia is almost halving the number of passengers allowed to arrive by plane in a bid to prevent the spread of a highly contagious variant of the coronavirus first identified in Britain.
A cleaner at a Brisbane quarantine hotel diagnosed with COVID-19 on Wednesday is the first person infected with the variant found in the Australian community. Other cases have been detected among travellers while in hotel quarantine, where there is little risk of community spread.
The authorities in Brisbane are also locking the city down for three days beginning Friday.
The Queensland state government says masks will also be compulsory for the first time in Brisbane and the surrounding municipalities of Logan, Ipswich, Moreton Bay and Redlands.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Friday that state leaders have agreed that international arrivals to New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia state airports will be halved until Feb. 15. Arrivals at Victoria were already relatively low and will remain unchanged.
5:05 a.m. Facing a massive surge in coronavirus cases, California has been issuing waivers allowing hospitals to temporarily bypass the nation’s only strict nurse-to-patient ratios.
Nurses say that being forced to take on more patients is pushing them to the brink of burnout and affecting patient care.
At least 250 of about 400 hospitals in California have been granted 60-day waivers. They allow ICU nurses to care for three instead of two people and emergency room nurses to oversee six patients instead of three.
Nurses in other states have demanded law-mandated ratios like those in California but so far have failed to get them.
5:02 a.m. A city in northern China is offering rewards of 500 yuan ($77) for anyone who reports on a resident who has not taken a recent coronavirus test.
The offer from the government of Nangong comes as millions in the city and its surrounding province of Hebei are being tested as part of efforts to control China’s most serious recent outbreak of COVID-19.
The offering of cash or other rewards for information on political or social nonconformists has a long history in China, but the pandemic is putting a new face on the practice. Those found non-compliant will be forced to undergo testing and a two-week quarantine at their own expense.
China has largely controlled local transmission through the use of measures considered by some to be extreme and highly intrusive, including lockdowns of entire cities and close electronic monitoring of bans on travelling to and from parts of the country.
4:58 a.m. Japan began its first day under a coronavirus state of emergency Friday with much of life going on as usual, including morning commuter trains shuttling crowds of mask-wearing people at bustling stations.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga reiterated his request for restaurants to shorten business hours and for people to work from home.
“We take this very seriously. By all means, I would like to overcome this difficult situation with the co-operation of the people,” Suga told reporters.
The emergency runs through Feb. 7. The declaration is asking restaurants and bars to close by 8 p.m. while drinks won’t be served after 7 p.m.
It applies to Tokyo and the three surrounding prefectures of Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa.
Nationwide, confirmed COVID-19 cases have reached some 260,000, with more than 7,500 new cases reported Friday.
Friday 4:54 a.m. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Friday banned Iran from importing of American Pfizer-BioNTech and Britain’s AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines, a reflection of mistrust toward the West.
In a televised speech, he said the import of American and British vaccines were “forbidden,” referring to the surging death tolls from the virus in both countries.
”I really do not trust,” them, Khamenei said of those nations. “Sometimes they want to test ,” their vaccines on other countries, adding, “I am not optimistic (about) France,” either.
However, Khamenei okayed the import of vaccines from other “safe” places, and remains supportive of Iran’s efforts toward producing a vaccine. The county began testing its vaccines on humans December. The product is expected to hit the local market in spring.
Hardliners in Iran have longed opposed the U.S-made vaccines. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard in December rejected the use of foreign-made vaccines altogether. Gen. Mohammad Reza Naghdi said the Guard “does not recommend the injection of any foreign vaccine” candidates based on genetic material known as messenger RNA, which carries the instructions for cells to make proteins.
Authorities said then that U.S.-based benefactors plan to deploy scores of thousands of Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus to Iran.
Thursday 9:20 p.m.: Sen. Vern White, a former Conservative who now sits with the Canadian Senators Group, admitted to the CBC that he went to Finland to visit his wife’s parents.
And five other senators have not responded to repeated questions from The Canadian Press about whether they’ve left the country since Dec. 1.
The vast majority — 86 of the current roster of 93 senators — say they have stayed home, as recommended by public health authorities. Indeed, most said they haven’t travelled anywhere since the pandemic began sweeping Canada last March.
Click here to read more COVID-19 coverage from Thursday.
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2021-01-08 13:15:37Z
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