Fragile Bird Posted February 15, 2021 Author Share Posted February 15, 2021 1 hour ago, kairparavel said: Snow Birds gonna be pissed. https://travel.gc.ca/travel-covid https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/news/2021/02/government-of-canada-expands-restrictions-to-international-travel-by-land-and-air.html I assume the week stagger is to allow said Snow Birds to arrange getting back now? Old news, Kair! Ontario started testing at airports immediately, once the feds announced it. I don't know if we had set up hotels or had to wait for the federal government to do it, I think the latter. We also reduced the number of airports allowing international flights to land, to 6, I think. It's great they now added testing at the border crossings. The timing isn't to let people in without tests, it's to get everything set up across the country, there are a lot of border crossings. Wikipedia lists 118, and a lot are pretty isolated. (eta: that's why there are no quarantine hotels at land borders, no infrastructure to do that at many crossings) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoodedCrow Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 My American neighbors tried to cross the border into Canada with hunting guns for protection, they said. They were asked where they were going to encounter wild animals, as they had provided an itenerary for populated areas, so they were told to give their guns to a ( named) bar in the States a short drive away so they could enter Canada. It cost them ten dollars. The problem was not rare. No hotels! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorral Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 For 'Bird upon seeing my first article about Canada and Covid and the US on a mainstream news source (not saying there aren't others, but despite the very many news sources I check every day, the first one I've seen -- but I don't watch tv, so maybe that's why?): https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/canada-snowbirds-coronavirus-florida-vaccine-restrictions/2021/02/12/d1f8b9f2-6572-11eb-bf81-c618c88ed605_story.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fragile Bird Posted February 15, 2021 Author Share Posted February 15, 2021 36 minutes ago, Zorral said: For 'Bird upon seeing my first article about Canada and Covid and the US on a mainstream news source (not saying there aren't others, but despite the very many news sources I check every day, the first one I've seen -- but I don't watch tv, so maybe that's why?): https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/canada-snowbirds-coronavirus-florida-vaccine-restrictions/2021/02/12/d1f8b9f2-6572-11eb-bf81-c618c88ed605_story.html Thanks! I subscribe to the NYT and the WaPo and they draw your attention to stuff about Canada. I see stories on CNN, CNBC and Public tv out of Buffalo. I laughed at that story, really. 11% of the population vaccinated, 2.38 M first doses administered, 1.1 M people fully vaccinated. All of Canada has received 1.43 M doses for the whole country, 975k first doses, 294k second doses, sharply lower than Florida because so many provinces have given first doses only to try to give some modicum of protection. ”Tens of thousands” of Canadians have received vaccines in Florida! Estimates are that less than 1% of the usual 3.5 M visits from Canadians have been made, so less than 35,000 people. Florida said 40,000 non-residents received vaccines, and I bet many came from neighboring states. I can’t imagine that every Canadian in Florida got vaccinated. CNBC did a report from areas usually full of Canadians (the long-term stay folks tend to hang out together) showing empty beaches, empty restaurants and bars, and shop owners bemoaning missing tourists. I have said before, if you are asking people to come down and spend money ($6 B, usually!) you should be vaccinating them. Toronto would do it, if we had vaccine, but we don’t. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorral Posted February 16, 2021 Share Posted February 16, 2021 Honestly, Bird, I think the situation in Canada really isn't different from here, in terms of who is getting vaccinated and when. Supply is far under what is demanded, fundamental, and every level of acquisition, organization, distribution, administration has been very poorly done because there is no unity of leadership and direction -- and here, additionally, the 'federal' government, meaning you know who and his enabling monsters, grifted, grafted, lied and were utterly incompetent, and beyond that, just didn't give a damn, and beyond that even, had an idea the more sick and dying, the better for them in the election. And ya the rich and famous find it so easy to get a vaccination, where the rest of us, even those like us, who aren't suffering like so many are, and who have access to health care, can't get it, other than by spending a week of one's life all day and night going repeatedly to every site and trying, or by sheer luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fragile Bird Posted February 18, 2021 Author Share Posted February 18, 2021 Update Jan 10We 11Th 12Fr 13Sa 14Su 15Mo 16Tu 17We BC 469 449 445 452 431 348 302 427 AB 339 351 314 305 284 251 263 277 SK 180 114 195 244 161 143 136 124 MB 57 90 81 100 80 71 96 76 ON 1072 945 1076 1300 931 964 904 847 PQ 989 1121 984 1049 910 728 669 800 Atl-4 67 104 55 44 17 2 13 50 North 2 7 1 5 3 8 5 5 Total 3178 3181 3151 3499 2864 2515 2388 2606 I'm just getting caught up now, because of the holiday Monday, several provinces didn't report. I had a blank for Monday in Manitoba, and finally nailed down a number. Newfoundland found another 44 cases today. Ontario seems to be steadily dropping, although tomorrow's number could be higher since more people seem to come out to be tested on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. However, with the snow storm hitting us so hard it might not follow the regular pattern. Today's number includes 292 cases in Toronto, which shows you how Covid has spread around the province. Until recently more than half the cases would be here in the city. And we are supposed to get more snow over the next two days. Alberta is having more problems in meat packing plants, 7 have had outbreaks. CTV has added a variant tracker. B.1.1.7 is the most common one, but the South African variant, B.1.351, has been popping up. One Mississauga condo tower has 5 cases, and none of the people know each other and none of them travelled. It could be one of them spread it to the others by being with them at some point in the elevator or some other common space. So far this week we have received 271,635 vaccine doses, which I assume is all Pfizer vaccine, it looks like we are due to receive 168,000 Moderna doses next week. We are supposed to receive 403,650, let's see if it all comes in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fragile Bird Posted February 19, 2021 Author Share Posted February 19, 2021 Major-General Deny Fortin, who leads Canada's Covid-19 logistics team, said today that we have received the promised 403,650 Pfizer doses this week. They haven't showed up on CTV's vaccine tracker yet, perhaps tomorrow. In other news, the Federal government has announced it's rolling back many of those mandatory minimum sentencing laws the Harper government introduced. Took them long enough. The laws have clogged up the courts and crowded the prisons. They were aimed at indigenous people and PoC, doubling their numbers in prisons in recent years. Quote The bill would make changes to both the Criminal Code and the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. If passed, it would repeal more than a dozen mandatory minimum penalties on the books — including penalties for all drug offences in the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, certain offences involving the use or possession of firearms and one tobacco-related offence. Mandatory minimum penalties would remain in place for serious offences, including murder, child sexual abuse, firearm trafficking, importing and exporting restricted or prohibited firearms and firearm offences linked to organized crime, according to government documents prepared before a technical briefing on the new bill. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/justice-reform-drug-treatment-criminal-code-1.5917710 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maarsen Posted February 19, 2021 Share Posted February 19, 2021 9 hours ago, Fragile Bird said: Major-General Deny Fortin, who leads Canada's Covid-19 logistics team, said today that we have received the promised 403,650 Pfizer doses this week. They haven't showed up on CTV's vaccine tracker yet, perhaps tomorrow. In other news, the Federal government has announced it's rolling back many of those mandatory minimum sentencing laws the Harper government introduced. Took them long enough. The laws have clogged up the courts and crowded the prisons. They were aimed at indigenous people and PoC, doubling their numbers in prisons in recent years. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/justice-reform-drug-treatment-criminal-code-1.5917710 Every time I turn around I get this notice of another of Harper's laws being revoked, not just by the SC, but by the new regime because of all the problems they caused. I am so glad to see Harper's political legacy swirling down the drain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paxter Posted February 19, 2021 Share Posted February 19, 2021 Just bobbing up to criticize Ford (now becoming a regular hobby). Why would you send the wrong signal and start lifting restrictions at precisely the time when you were close to crushing the curve completely? Lessons not learned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fragile Bird Posted February 22, 2021 Author Share Posted February 22, 2021 Update Jan 12Fr 13Sa 14Su 15Mo 16Tu 17We 18Th 19Fr BC 445 452 431 348 302 427 617 508 AB 314 305 284 251 263 277 415 325 SK 195 244 161 143 136 124 146 146 MB 81 100 80 71 96 76 139 92 ON 1076 1300 931 964 904 847 1038 1150 PQ 984 1049 910 728 669 800 900 800 Atl-4 55 44 17 2 13 50 55 68 North 1 5 3 8 5 5 6 2 Total 3151 3499 2864 2515 2388 2606 3316 3091 As predicted, the numbers went up on Thursday and Friday. Newfoundland keeps finding more cases. Nova Scotia is testing people coming off the ferry from Newfoundland. Ontario has reduced restrictions everywhere except Toronto and the GTA, North Bay and the Parry Sound area. The western provinces are loosening restrictions as well. I see we are going to get the most vaccine so far next week, because we're getting both Pfizer and Moderna deliveries, although it will be a reduced Moderna amount. Gen. Hillier in a press conference said Ontario is getting only 45,000 doses instead of the 90,000 originally scheduled. 475,000 will be coming from Pfizer and 168,000 from Moderna, for a total of 643,000. Let's see if the provinces can actually handle the larger shipment. Quebec still hasn't done any second shots, but maybe their numbers are coming down so well because they've vaccinated so many people Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paxter Posted February 22, 2021 Share Posted February 22, 2021 Nothing wrong with delaying the second shot in my books. The protection and reduced transmission you get from a large number of single shots probably outweighs the benefits of a little more protection for half the number of people. Good improvisation given our supply woes. ETA: Oh and I don’t expect ON to improve much more now in terms of hospitalizations. Any benefit from the vaccine will be wiped out by additional mobility and changes in behaviour outside of Toronto and Peel. Nice one Ford! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fragile Bird Posted February 23, 2021 Author Share Posted February 23, 2021 Update Feb 15Mo 16Tu 17We 18Th 19Fr 20Sa 21Su 22Mo BC 348 302 427 617 508 504 475 449 AB 251 263 277 415 325 380 328 273 SK 143 136 124 146 146 193 182 177 MB 71 96 76 139 92 95 58 97 ON 964 904 847 1038 1150 1228 1087 1058 PQ 728 669 800 900 800 769 666 805 Atl-4 2 13 50 55 68 45 29 16 North 8 5 5 6 2 6 1 12 Total 2515 2388 2606 3316 3091 3220 2826 2887 The higher numbers continued over the weekend in Ontario, driven by more testing toward the end of the week. Four days of 1000+ cases. Months ago the number would have been largely in Toronto, but now Toronto is only a third of the cases. Another third are in the GTA and the rest are all over the province. Today's number is below 1,000 again, 975, but per the usual pattern, we only processed 25,979 tests. Our R-number in Toronto is well below 1 at .81 and our 7-day average positivity is 4.8%. I thought numbers across the country must be much better now but I see the most recent positivity number in Alberta was 7.8% while Ontario's was 4.2%. Nunavut is still dealing with their outbreak, while Newfoundland's is slowing down. There have been 390 cases of B.1.1.7 in Ontario and 9 cases of the SA variant, B.1.351, and 1 case of the P variant, which I assume is the Brazil one. However, there are 16,495 swabs awaiting full genomic sequencing. I was interested to read about the process. From the information about variants on the Ontario page: Quote The laboratory detection of a variant of concern is a two-step process. Samples that test positive for SARS-CoV-2 and have a cycle threshold (Ct) value ≤ 35 can be tested for the N501Y mutation. If positive for the N501Y mutation these samples then undergo whole genome sequencing (WGS) to confirm the presence of a designated VOC. The table below refers to step one of this process. Ontario says 16,000 people got shots yesterday. Considering we will get roughly 257,000 doses this week, we need to more than double that rate to 36,000 a day. Not only that, but maintain that rate because Canada will get another delivery of +400k doses again, so about 160k for Ontario. I expect Saskatchewan will do the best job, followed by Alberta and BC, and the Maritime provinces will be slowest off the mark. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fragile Bird Posted February 25, 2021 Author Share Posted February 25, 2021 Update Feb 17We 18Th 19Fr 20Sa 21Su 22Mo 23Tu 24We BC 427 617 508 504 475 449 559 456 AB 277 415 325 380 328 273 267 430 SK 124 146 146 193 182 177 122 56 MB 76 139 92 95 58 97 76 45 ON 847 1038 1150 1228 1087 1058 975 1054 PQ 800 900 800 769 666 805 739 806 Atl-4 50 55 68 45 29 16 18 15 North 5 6 2 6 1 12 0 0 Total 2606 3316 3091 3220 2826 2887 2760 2862 Trying to update more often here. As I had mentioned, that Tuesday number in Ontario was based on less than 26k tests. To quote Trump, if we test more there are more cases, amirite? So test numbers and cases have gone up. Today's number in Ontario is actually 1,138, but that was off nearly the maximum amount of tests. We can do 70k tests a day, and we did 66,351 in the last 24 hours, the day before saw almost 55k done. Our positivity rate in Ontario is about 2%. There was a big jump in Alberta cases, but I can't see an on-line story giving a reason for it. Did results from meat packing plants come in? BC seems to be in the same place Ontario is at the moment, both hitting levels they can't seem to get below. Nunavut is still concerned about Arviat, where most of their cases are. People are working hard on following all the guidelines, but the virus is lurking in the community. I've been looking at various provincial websites and one trend is apparent - more and more cases of B.1.1.7 are being reported. Ontario has found another 54 up to 449. Newfoundland believes most of their new cases are the UK variant, but so far they are reporting only 19 because the genomic sequencing of the cases is in process. I saw in a press conference that the 645k doses expected this week have arrived, but it's not showing up in the tracker I use yet. Ontario administered about 19k doses yesterday, if we don't pick up speed we're going to get overwhelmed. Alberta, Quebec and Nova Scotia have their websites up and running but ours won't come on line for another couple of weeks. The federal government is again re-affirming that by the end of June we will have received 23 M doses, enough for 11.5 M full vaccinations. By my math that means about 38% of the population fully vaccinated, since there are about 30 M adults in the country. And of course, we will likely have received J&J and Novavax doses by then as well. Another thing to bear in mind is that a lot of people are saying the US will have enough vaccine to vaccinate everyone by May, so those companies will then be able to finally ship doses here. We may have all the vaccine we need by June. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fragile Bird Posted February 26, 2021 Author Share Posted February 26, 2021 I am astonished to see we have approved the AZ vaccine without seeing the results of the Phase 3 trial in the US. Eta: we actually approved the brand-name AZ vaccine and the Covishield vaccine being produced under the COVAX program. We ordered 20 M doses of the AZ vaccine, which is supposed to come from their US plants. God knows when that will happen. We are supposed to receive 1.9 M doses from COVAX, 500,000 to be supplied from Korea in the next few weeks and the balance from India every couple of weeks until May. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paxter Posted February 27, 2021 Share Posted February 27, 2021 Some great news on the effectiveness of a single shot of the vaccine amongst the most vulnerable: Quote Most nursing-home residents in Canada have received at least one shot of the two-dose vaccines. Provincial statistics show infection, serious illness and deaths have plummeted since. In Alberta, cases in long-term care have dropped 92 per cent since Christmas. British Columbia had 16 cases in long-term care last week, down from 485 weekly cases in early December. In Ontario, active long-term care cases among residents fell from 1,650 to 105 in the past month. Manitoba and Quebec experienced similar drops. Only 105 cases in ON care homes! That’s brilliant. One of the scourges of Covid in Canada has almost been tamed. Provided no curve balls from rising variants... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fragile Bird Posted February 27, 2021 Author Share Posted February 27, 2021 4 minutes ago, Paxter said: Some great news on the effectiveness of a single shot of the vaccine amongst the most vulnerable: Only 105 cases in ON care homes! That’s brilliant. One of the scourges of Covid in Canada has almost been tamed. Not only that, but today was the first day, I think, that none of the deaths were from a LTC facility. All vulnerable LTC residents have received both vaccines. That is, residents who need care. Residents who are independent are just starting to get vaccinated. Most LTC homes have several levels of care, from essentially no care required all the way up to 24 hr a day care needed. In Ontario, I mean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord of Oop North Posted February 27, 2021 Share Posted February 27, 2021 We have the start of an outbreak at our shop. About 20 people in isolation now, which has crippled our manufacturing. A whole bunch of other employees basically walked out. Our entire shipping&receiving is gone and we had trucks arriving with no one, total disaster. Apparently they are deploying rapid test kits from the government on Monday. On site I had a positive worker return today after his isolation period, which caused a near mutiny because they had all previously made some sort of blood pact that they would get tested prior to returning. This might not even be the worst Friday I've had in the last year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fragile Bird Posted February 28, 2021 Author Share Posted February 28, 2021 Update Feb 19Fr 20Sa 21Su 22Mo 23Tu 24We 25Th 26Fr BC 508 504 475 449 559 456 395 589 AB 325 380 328 273 267 430 399 356 SK 146 193 182 177 122 56 211 153 MB 92 95 58 97 76 45 70 64 ON 1150 1228 1087 1058 975 1054 1138 1258 PQ 800 769 666 805 739 806 858 815 Atl-4 68 45 29 16 18 15 22 16 North 2 6 1 12 0 0 4 1 Total 3091 3220 2826 2887 2760 2862 3097 3252 Everybody's numbers creeped up during the week. PEI found a few cases in Summerside and asked all young people to be tested, and have found 6 cases one day and 6 the next. Once again B.1.1.7 is suspected. I gather the cases in Alberta were associated with a meat packing plant. Ontario has seen outbreaks in Thunder Bay and the Parry Sound area, and both of them are going under further restrictions starting Monday. This is why Ontario is struggling to get numbers down, cases are popping up in communities away from the GTA, Ottawa and Windsor. It took the whole week for CTV to finally post the vaccine dose numbers on their tracking site, even though they apparently arrived on Monday. I assume we will receive another 400,000 or more Pfizer doses on Monday again. I have been watching the Ontario website to see how many vaccines they've been giving each day, and the highest I've seen so far has been about 25,000. Yesterday was only 19,000. We need to do 35,000 or so just to go through what we received this week. With more coming in we'll soon fall behind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fragile Bird Posted March 2, 2021 Author Share Posted March 2, 2021 Well, nice to see Biden confirm today that there will be no vaccine doses for either Canada or Mexico until all Americans are vaccinated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fragile Bird Posted March 3, 2021 Author Share Posted March 3, 2021 Update Feb 22Mo 23Tu 24We 25Th 26Fr 27Sa 28Su 1Mo BC 449 559 456 395 589 532 508 438 AB 273 267 430 399 356 415 301 291 SK 177 122 56 211 153 162 141 154 MB 97 76 45 70 64 90 50 35 ON 1058 975 1054 1138 1258 1185 1062 1023 PQ 805 739 806 858 815 858 732 613 Atl-4 16 18 15 22 16 16 15 4 North 12 0 0 4 1 0 1 1 Total 2887 2760 2862 3097 3252 3258 2810 2559 The story over the weekend seems to be the fall in new cases across the country except for Ontario, and to some extent, BC. As I said before, BC seems to have hit a threshold it's finding hard to get under, and Ontario is seeing more cases outside the usual places. Today's number was under 1,000 again, but once again it was on a relatively low number of tests, just under 31k. All the news today is about vaccines. First of all, BC is going to go the route Quebec took and only administer first doses for the next four months. Quebec itself said it was doing 3 months, 90 days. There are no second doses administered in Quebec so far, but presumably we'll start seeing them very soon. Apparently this subject has been under discussion in the meetings the provinces hold over the phone (every day, every couple of days, I don't know how often they meet) with the federal government. BC has come under some criticism for jumping the gun in it's announcement. The decision is apparently based on the results seen in Quebec, and other provinces may start to do the same. The other news is about vaccine doses. We will receive about 945,000 this week, 445,000 from Pfizer and 500,000 from AZ. I have been tracking the daily doses administered in Ontario, and as I said before, we need to do 35,000 a day just to go through what we've received so far, but the most we've done is about 24,000. Of course, we may be reserving for second doses. The 500,000 come from India and, I think, Korea. The rest of our 2 M Covax AZ doses will come from India. The problem is, 300,000 of the doses expire at the start of April. That sounds like all 300,000 need to be administered with second shots coming from later deliveries, unless we completely move to first shots only for now. Don't forget, we have 20 M AZ coming from the US as well. Between April and the end of June we'll receive 23 M doses from Pfizer and Moderna. So far everyone has been counting this as 12.5 M people being vaccinated, but if we switch to first doses only, that means 23 M people being vaccinated. Back in December I wondered if this is what we should be doing, but then thought maybe we needed to do the two doses in the recommended time. I guess I am going back to the idea of one dose with a three month wait again. Oh...and the two million doses of Pfizer and Moderna we will receive this month as well. Since we only have 30 M people older than 18 in this country that would mean we'd be in pretty damn good shape. https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/nearly-945k-vaccine-doses-arriving-this-week-including-first-from-astrazeneca-anand-1.5330307 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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