Today’s coronavirus news: Ontario reports 678 cases of COVID-19, no deaths; TDSB requires staff to get vaccinated; Toronto, Peel, health units want provincial certificate - Toronto Star

The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Thursday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.

6:05 p.m. Albertans will be able to print off a card to show they have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, but province-wide rules requiring proof of vaccination to enter places such as restaurants or sports events remain off the table, reports The Canadian Press.

"Alberta will not be following other provinces in implementing a vaccine passport program," Justin Brattinga, spokesman for the Jobs, Economy and Innovation Ministry said Thursday in a statement, according to CP.

"If an Albertan has received their two doses, they should be confident that the risks of serious health effects are exceedingly small," he said.

Lisa Glover with Alberta Health said residents will soon be able to print off their vaccination card.

"We are working on this functionality right now, however, we do not (have) a timeline on when this feature will be ready," said Glover.

In the meantime, residents can use the paper confirmation they received when they got their shots, she said. Glover urged Albertans to review the vaccination rules of the places they plan to visit.

The recent increase in COVID-19 cases in the province and elsewhere across Canada has prompted some jurisdictions to take more active measures on vaccine passports.

Quebec is to launch its program next week. Confirmation is to be downloaded digitally.

As of Wednesday, only those 13 and up with the vaccine passport will be able to go to non-essential venues where COVID-19 transmission could be high. The spots will include festivals, performance halls, sports arenas, casinos, cinemas, fitness centres, bars and restaurants. There will be no restricted access to essential services, such as schools.

Starting Sept. 13, in British Columbia, people carrying a B.C. Vaccine Card will be allowed to enter high-transmission, non-essential venues. Proof of a single dose will be required initially and full vaccination will be needed by Oct. 24.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has dismissed bringing in vaccine passports. In July, he questioned whether they would meet personal privacy rules.

His government has been criticized of late for moving too quickly to declare the pandemic over and for lifting all but a handful of public health restrictions July 1.

Alberta now has a patchwork of mask and vaccine mandates. Rules vary among schools, universities, businesses and sports teams.

Alberta's case numbers have been shooting up, with 1,076 new cases were reported Wednesday, the highest since mid-May.

Active cases, hospitalizations and patients in ICU are at about one-third of what they were at the height of the last wave, when they threatened to swamp hospitals.

Even with smaller numbers, hospitals are dealing with staff fatigue and shortages, which have led to cancelled surgeries and bed closures.

Kenney has stressed voluntary vaccinations as the way out of the pandemic. Lottery and other prize draws have been created as incentives to Albertans to get their shots.

About 77 per cent of eligible Albertans (those over age 12) have received at least one dose, while 69 per cent are fully vaccinated.

David Shephard, health critic for the Opposition NDP, said Alberta needs a revised plan to deal with rising case numbers. He suggested Kenney is rejecting new measures to appease party faithful and caucus members in rural strongholds that oppose health restrictions.

"It appears that their plan is to do nothing," said Shepherd.

6 p.m. The Greater Toronto Hockey league is requiring game officials to be vaccinated.

5:14 p.m. Faced with the province's refusal to implement a COVID-19 proof-of-vaccination system, local public health units in Ontario are considering regional vaccine certificates, though they acknowledge the measure would be less effective, reports The Canadian Press.

Dr. Paul Roumeliotis, head of the Local Association of Public Health Agencies, said a provincial system would help control access to certain activities and settings based on vaccination status, according to CP.

If that doesn't happen, he said the group of local public health units has discussed the possibility of using regional vaccine certificates similar to those being implemented in other provinces.

"We had a conversation, and it was an exploratory conversation because we're still hoping that there will be a provincial approach," Roumeliotis said Thursday in an interview.

"If it's done in a regulation or a law or a provincial directive, it's just easier to do, rather than to have multiple health units issue orders and issue directives. Really, from the logistics point of view, it's just an easier way to do it."

Roumeliotis, who is also the medical officer of health for the Eastern Ontario Health Unit, noted that a growing number of institutions are already asking for proof of vaccination in order to attend, even without a province-wide mandate.

A standardized certificate from the province would help facilitate those policies, he said.

A spokeswoman for the health minister pointed to the receipts people can download or print after receiving their COVID-19 shots as an option should proof of vaccination be required.

Roumeliotis and others have argued, however, that those receipts can be forged and are difficult to read.

Peel Region's top doctor said, this week, that the COVID-19 hot spot is looking at options for a local proof-of-vaccination system if the province doesn't develop one.

Dr. Lawrence Loh said Thursday that the idea, and discussions with other health units about it, is in early stages and likely won't involve a new physical certificate or digital record.

"We're looking at ... ways to use existing proofs of vaccination," he said, adding that it's the health unit's preference that the province develop the technology.

The mayor of Mississauga, a large urban centre in Peel Region, said she doesn't consider regional vaccine certificates to be a practical solution.

"I believe a standardized, provincewide proof-of-vaccination program is more effective than a patchwork of programs and apps developed by regional public health officials and local businesses," Bonnie Crombie told a news conference.

Toronto Public Health has also expressed support for a provincial system.

Ontario's chamber of commerce released guidance this week for private businesses seeking to develop proof-of-vaccination protocols, saying it did so "in the absence of government guidance."

British Columbia and Quebec have said they will require proof of vaccination to enter certain settings, but Ontario has not indicated it will implement a similar system.

Premier Doug Ford has rejected the idea of a domestic "vaccine passport," saying he doesn't want a "split society."

The province's COVID-19 science advisers have said that vaccine certificates would allow high-risk settings to reopen sooner with greater capacity and help plan to reintroduce public health measures as cases rise.

Ontario reported 678 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, with 537 of the infected people not vaccinated or with unknown vaccination status.

2:47 p.m. The United Kingdom is moving Canada to its "green" list for travel beginning next Monday, reports The Canadian Press.

That means Canadians travelling to the U.K. will not have to quarantine upon arrival, even if they have not been fully vaccinated, according to CP.

The British Department for Transport says they will still need to take COVID-19 tests within three days before leaving for the U.K. and another one two days after arriving.

The change will take effect Aug. 30 at 4 a.m.

1:56 p.m. Even though a vaccine mandate for health workers could lead to cancelled surgeries and other service disruptions, the health order is necessary to protect workers and patients, Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé said Thursday, The Canadian Press reports.

Some workers may choose to quit their jobs instead of being vaccinated, but the ones who stay will be protected from the novel coronavirus and likely won't need to take sick leave, Dubé told a legislature committee in Quebec City, according to CP.

Dubé and other members of the government took part in the first of two days of hearings on their decision to force healthcare workers in the public and private sector to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

Workers will have until Oct. 15 to get two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine or risk being reassigned or suspended without pay, he said.

About 30,000 workers in the public health-care system are not vaccinated, Dubé said, adding that the number in the private health system is likely even higher. And while some may choose to quit, which could lead to service disruptions, the alternative is worse, he said.

"In an environment where resources are extremely stretched, we cannot allow more staff to be withdrawn for reasons that could have been avoided through proper vaccination," Dubé told the committee.

"Our objective with this measure is to protect our most vulnerable, but also to maintain our hospital capacity and maintain our level of care, notably by reducing absenteeism."

At the peak of the pandemic, 12,000 healthcare workers were absent due to medical reasons, Dubé said, adding that around 2,000 workers are currently on medical or preventive leave.

Mandatory vaccination would also protect vulnerable patients, the health minister added.

The hearings will also discuss whether the vaccine mandate should be extended to other workers such as teachers.

Quebec's public health institute says more than 91 per cent of healthcare workers at public facilities and at private facilities that have contracts with the government have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and more than 86 per cent are considered adequately vaccinated.

Meanwhile, Quebec reported 603 new cases of COVID-19 Thursday and one more death attributed to the novel coronavirus. The Health Department said the number of hospitalizations linked to the pandemic rose by nine, to 119, and 36 people were in intensive care, a rise of three.

1:48 p.m. Ontario's largest school board will require its staff to get vaccinated against COVID-19, going a step further than the province's current plan for education workers, reports The Canadian Press.

Trustees for the Toronto District School Board supported the measure unanimously at a Wednesday-night meeting, according to CP.

"Trustees voted to have TDSB staff develop a procedure which would require all TDSB staff, trustees, and visitors to disclose and provide proof of vaccination status and to be fully vaccinated to help protect the health and safety of both staff and students," a statement from the board reads.

There will be exemptions for those who are legally entitled to accommodations.

The TDSB policy is still under development but the board said that, for now, those who don't get their shots will have to attend an education session on the benefits of vaccination.

It wasn't immediately clear what further consequences would arise for those who refused to get vaccinated and didn't have a valid exemption.

It was also still up for debate whether the TDSB policy will include regular testing, a cornerstone of the province's plan for unvaccinated education workers.

The government has said educators who choose not to be vaccinated, or who can't get the shots for other reasons, will have to be tested weekly for COVID-19.

The TDSB said its policy, which it aims to have up and running by the time classes resume on Sept. 9, will include deadlines for unvaccinated people to disclose whether they've received their first and second doses.

"The data is clear: being fully vaccinated significantly reduces the risks of the most serious outcomes of COVID-19," TDSB chair Alexander Brown said in the statement.

"This is an important step to ensure we are making our schools and workplaces as safe as possible for staff and students, particularly younger students who are not eligible to receive the vaccine."

At this point, a COVID-19 vaccine has only been approved for children who are 12 and over and those who are turning 12 later this year.

The TDSB trustees also voted to send a letter to the local public health agency and the province, urging officials to add the COVID-19 vaccine to the list of compulsory shots for all eligible students.

Dr. Kieran Moore, chief medical officer of health for Ontario, has said the province was reviewing possibilities for a student immunization policy, looking at the Immunization of School Pupils Act, which allows exemptions to vaccination for medical or religious reasons.

Eighty-two per cent of Ontario residents aged 12 and older have one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 75 per cent have received both doses.

12:14 p.m. Ontario's 34 regional medical officers have joined the push for a provincial vaccine certificate system that Premier Doug Ford's government is resisting as the fourth wave of COVID-19 gains momentum.

They're also seeking a "provincial approach to mandating vaccines" because of the recent flurry of different announcements from businesses, universities, hospitals and other institutions implementing their own vaccination requirements, said Dr. Paul Roumeliotis, medical officer of the Eastern Ontario Health Unit and president of the Association of Local Public Health Agencies.

The group, known as ALPHA, sent a letter to Ontario's chief medical officer Dr. Kieran Moore on its concerns, Roumeliotis said in an email Thursday relayed to the Star by media relations staff at his health unit.

A provincial approach to vaccine mandates is preferable to avoid a patchwork of standards, but health units are looking pooling resources to develop "regional approaches in the absence of a provincial direction," he added.

Read the full story from the Star's Rob Ferguson David Rider and Francine Kopun

12:07 p.m. Ontario is reporting another 678 COVID-19 cases and no new deaths, according to its latest report released Thursday morning.

Ontario has administered 38,932 vaccine doses since its last daily update, with 20,605,405 vaccines given in total as of 8 p.m. the previous night.

According to the Star's vaccine tracker, 10,760,746 people in Ontario have received at least one shot. That works out to approximately 82.6 per cent of the eligible population 12 years and older, and the equivalent of 72.4 per cent of the total population, including those not yet eligible for the vaccine.

The province says 9,844,659 people have completed their vaccinations, which means they've had both doses. That works out to approximately 75.5 per cent of the eligible population 12 years and older, and the equivalent of 66.2 per cent of the total population, including those not yet eligible for the vaccine.

Read the full story from the Star's Urbi Khan

10:55 a.m. As the court system prepares to ramp up the number of jury trials in the fall, potential jurors in Ontario will not be required to be fully vaccinated, according to the Ministry of the Attorney General.

Jury trials — which can't be held virtually via Zoom — were suspended in March 2020, resumed last summer in fits and starts in some parts of the province, and were suspended again in February 2021. They have been gradually resuming this summer — 33 criminal jury trials and 11 civil jury trials were completed over June and July — and are expected to increase in number this fall, though not to full capacity while the province remains in Stage 3 of the re-opening plan.

"All decisions are subject to ongoing changes in circumstances as well as provincial and regional public health protocols," said a spokesperson for the Superior Court of Justice.

Read the full story from the Star's Alyshah Hasham

10:41 a.m. Quebec's Crown prosecutor's office says the owners of a Montreal-area long-term-care home where dozens died during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic will not face criminal charges.

The office said today in a statement that after an "exhaustive" investigation the evidence does not meet the high bar for criminal charges in the case of the Herron long-term care home.

Forty-seven people died at the Montreal-area facility in the spring of 2020, and a report commissioned by the provincial government accused the owners of "organizational negligence" that resulted in a failure to meet residents' needs.

The Crown says the decision not to lay charges does not minimize the "tragic events" that took place at the home, nor does it rule out that civil or ethical violations could have been committed.

It says it cannot explain its decision to the families of the victims until the completion of a coroner's inquest into the deaths.

Lawyers for the residents and their families announced in March they had agreed on a $5.5-million settlement with the facility's owners.

10:20 a.m. Ontario is reporting 678 new cases of COVID-19; 537 cases are in individuals who are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status and 141 are in fully vaccinated individuals. In Ontario, 20,605,405 vaccine doses have been administered. 82.5 per cent of Ontarians 12+ have one dose and 75.5 per cent have two doses.

9:45 a.m. Mississauga is mandating vaccination for city employees and volunteers but, unlike Toronto, is offering those who don't provide proof of vaccination before the deadline the option of taking a COVID-19 test to prove they aren't infected, tweets the Star's David Rider.

9:05 a.m. The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose for the first time in five weeks even though the economy and job market have been recovering briskly from the coronavirus pandemic.

Jobless claims edged up by 4,000 to 353,000 from 349,000 a week earlier, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The four-week average of claims, which smooths out week-to-week volatility, fell by 11,500 to 366,500 — a pandemic low.

The weekly count has fallen more or less steadily since topping 900,000 in early January as the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines has helped the economy — encouraging businesses to reopen or expand hours and luring consumers out of their homes to restaurants, bars and shops.

But a resurgence of cases linked to the highly contagious delta variant has clouded the economic outlook. And claims already remain high by historic standards: Before the pandemic tore through the economy in March 2020, the weekly pace amounted to around 220,000 a week.

8:23 a.m. Ontario's decreasing reproduction number for COVID-19 is a good sign, but it doesn't guarantee that we'll be out of the fourth wave any time soon, an expert tells the Star.

The province's reproduction number has been decreasing steadily since it hit a peak of 1.44 on Aug. 12. The province's latest reproduction number, measured weekly, is from Aug. 11-17 and sits at 1.25.

The R metric in epidemiology measures the spread of infection in a population. In theory, it allows disease modellers to work out the extent of the spread of infection, but not the speed at which the infection grows.

Read the full story from the Star's Celina Gallardo and Jenna Moon

8:08 a.m. Keith Baybayon is looking forward to going back to class this fall. But it's the commute he's not so keen on.

The 16-year-old is heading into his senior year at Marshall McLuhan Catholic Secondary School in midtown Toronto. After the pandemic limited in-person attendance last year, this fall the plan is for students like him to be in school every day, which will hopefully mean Baybayon's final year is a more normal one.

But to get to class Baybayon, like thousands of other Toronto students, will have to rely on the TTC. He will need to take two bus routes to get to school — the 52 Lawrence West and 61 Avenue Road — and the thought of being on crowded transit vehicles for more than an hour each day makes him more nervous than the prospect of sitting in a class full of students.

Read the full story from the Star's Ben Spurr

7:55 a.m. "Unvaccinated COVID patients do not deserve ICU beds."

"I have no empathy left for the willfully unvaccinated. Let them die."

In the no-holds barred world of Twitter, comments like these, where the vaccinated say the unvaccinated deserve what they get, are becoming increasingly common. But even in the minds of people on the street, these sentiments are swirling in collective thoughts as the fourth wave of infections intensifies and vaccination rates plateau.

According to a recent Angus Reid poll most vaccinated Canadians are indifferent to the unvaccinated getting sick with the virus, with 83 per cent saying they have no sympathy for those who choose not to get the COVID-19 vaccine and then fall ill. Anecdotally, patience is even wearing thin among health-care professionals.

Read the full story from the Star's Nadine Yousif

7:40 a.m. Hong Kong said Thursday that domestic workers from Indonesia and the Philippines will be allowed to fly into the city starting Aug. 30, a move expected to ease a shortage of helpers in the city.

Hong Kong has approximately 370,000 domestic workers from Indonesia and the Philippines. Flights have been banned from both countries because they were considered high-risk for the coronavirus; under current arrangements, only fully-vaccinated Hong Kong residents from high-risk countries are allowed to enter the city.

Under the new arrangements, domestic helpers from Indonesia and Philippines must be fully vaccinated and have a working visa before they are allowed into Hong Kong. They must also quarantine for 21 days at a specific hotel, with the costs to be borne by their employers.

Authorities conceded that the number of arrivals will also be restricted.

Hong Kong, with its entry restrictions and social distancing measures, has kept its reported COVID-19 cases to about 12,000, with just 212 deaths.

Indonesia has so far reported over 4 million cases and the Philippines nearly 1.9 million.

7:04 a.m. (updated) Ontario's largest school board will require its staff to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

Trustees for the Toronto District School Board voted unanimously in favour of the measure at a Wednesday-night meeting.

TDSB staff will develop a procedure that will require all workers, trustees and visitors "to disclose and provide proof of vaccination status and to be fully vaccinated to help protect the health and safety of both staff and students."

Those who don't get their shots will have to attend an education session on the benefits of vaccination.

There will be exemptions for those who are legally entitled to accommodations.

The board says it's still up for debate whether the policy will include regular testing — a cornerstone of the province's plan for unvaccinated education workers.

The TDSB says the policy — which it plans to have up and running by the time classes resume on Sept. 9 — will also include deadlines for unvaccinated people to disclose whether they've received their first and second doses.

The trustees also voted to send a letter to the local public health agency and the province, urging officials to add the COVID-19 vaccine to the list of compulsory shots for all eligible students.

5:44 a.m.: Plans to turn the Broadway hit "Come From Away" into a big-screen movie musical have been indefinitely placed on hold because COVID-19 delivered an unexpected blow to the project, say the Canadian writers of the musical.

David Hein and Irene Sankoff were well into the script stages of their film adaptation.

"We were supposed to go into production out in Newfoundland and then all the borders closed," Sankoff said in a webcam interview from Seattle.

"I think it cost a lot more than anyone wanted to, just because of COVID, so we're in a holding pattern for that at the moment."

The Tony-winning "Come From Away" is inspired by the real-life story of residents in Gander, N.L., who hosted thousands of unexpected plane passengers forced to land in the small town after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The writers says they remain hopeful their script will be turned into a movie when the time is right.

5:44 a.m.: The international scientists sent to China by the World Health Organization to look for the origins of the coronavirus say the search has "stalled" and warn the window for getting to the bottom of the mystery is closing fast.

In a commentary published Wednesday in the journal Nature, the experts say the origins investigation is at "a critical juncture" requiring urgent collaboration. They noted among other things that Chinese officials are still reluctant to share some raw data, citing concerns over patient confidentiality.

Increasing numbers of American scientists have called for two Chinese labs to be investigated, a request China has dismissed as "scapegoating."

Meanwhile, a U.S. intelligence review ordered up by President Joe Biden proved inconclusive about the virus's origin, including whether it jumped from an animal to a human or escaped from a Chinese lab, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

Earlier this year, the WHO sent a team of experts to Wuhan, where the first human COVID-19 cases were detected in December 2019, to probe what might have triggered the pandemic now blamed for nearly 4.5 million deaths worldwide, with more than 10,000 people a day succumbing despite more than five billion doses of vaccine administered.

In their analysis, published in March, the WHO team concluded the virus probably jumped to humans from animals, and they described the possibility of a laboratory leak as "extremely unlikely."

But the WHO experts said their report was intended only as a first step and added, "The window of opportunity for conducting this crucial inquiry is closing fast: any delay will render some of the studies biologically impossible."

5:43 a.m.: A man upset over state-ordered coronavirus restrictions has been sentenced to just over six years in prison for planning to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Ty Garbin apologized and was sentenced Wednesday. He admitted his role in the alleged scheme weeks after being arrested last fall.

He is among six men charged in federal court but the only one who has pleaded guilty.

Garbin says they trained at his property near Luther, Michigan, constructing a "shoot house" to resemble Whitmer's vacation home and "assaulting it with firearms."

The government noted Garbin's "exceptional" co-operation and asked the judge to give him credit for helping investigators reinforce their case against his co-defendants. He's likely to testify at any trial.

The 25-year-old aviation mechanic told U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker: "I cannot even begin to imagine the amount of stress and fear her family felt because of my actions. And for that I am truly sorry."

The judge said the "constitution is designed to ensure that we work out our fundamental and different views peacefully, not at the point of a gun, not with some other blunt force threat or a kidnapping conspiracy."

Prosecutors recommended a nine-year prison term. But Jonker went shorter, at 6 1/4 years, saying he was convinced that Garbin was an "excellent prospect" to stay out of trouble when released from prison.

Thursday 5:39 a.m.: Steven Lachance, a Montreal-based digital security analyst and entrepreneur, says he was worried when the Quebec government announced it would impose a vaccine passport system across the province to reduce COVID-19 transmission.

But after he took a look at the smartphone applications that became available for download Wednesday, he said Quebec's system should be the model for other provinces. Lachance and another tech expert interviewed by The Canadian Press say the applications do what they claim to do and are not capable of secretly gathering user data.

"I was very skeptical when I first heard of the government's intentions around this kind of technology — it could have gone wrong in so many ways," Lachance said in an interview.

Instead, Lachance said he was pleasantly surprised to see the government adopt an international standard that he described as "unquestionably much better than anything (the government) could have come up with internally."

That standard, known as the SMART Health Card, is also being used for vaccine passports in New York state, Louisiana and California. The technology is based around a quick response code containing a person's name, date of birth and information about the vaccinations they have received.

Starting Sept. 1, Quebec residents will need to show proof of vaccination to visit businesses the provincial government deems non-essential, such as bars, clubs and restaurants. That proof is in the form of a quick response code — or QR code — distributed to vaccinated residents by the Health Department.

On Wednesday, Quebec released the applications that will be used to power its vaccine passport system on Apple devices: VaxiCode Verif for businesses and VaxiCode for patrons. Android versions are expected to be released later in the week. Quebec residents are encouraged to download VaxiCode and upload their QR code into it.

Read Wednesday's coronavirus news.

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