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4:13 p.m. Nova Scotia has reported four new COVID-19-related deaths, bringing the total number of deaths in the province to 212, reports The Canadian Press.
Officials say the most recent deaths involve a man in his 50s from the northern zone, a man in his 70s from the eastern zone and two men in their 80s from the northern and western zones, according to CP.
A total of 294 new lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 were reported.
There are now 45 people in hospital due to the disease, including 13 in ICU.
Officials estimate there are now 2,650 active cases of COVID-19 in Nova Scotia.
Nova Scotia will be moving to weekly reporting, and the next COVID-19 release and dashboard update will be sent out on Thursday.
3:50 p.m. Montreal public health officials were against the COVID-19 curfew that the province imposed last December, because little data existed on its effectiveness and out of concern for the most vulnerable, government documents reveal, reports The Canadian Press.
Internal documents released by the Health Department indicate Montreal officials expressed concern over limited scientific data to support a curfew as an effective means of reducing COVID-19 transmission. City officials also cited pandemic fatigue, impact on vulnerable groups such as domestic violence victims, and the worry that a curfew would encourage people to adopt riskier behaviours, according to CP.
The ethics review was prepared by the city’s health officials during the hard-hitting wave of the Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus, when the Health Department was considering what restrictions to impose to reduce transmission.
Radio-Canada initially received the ethics review by Montreal officials through an access to information request — but the entirety of its contents was redacted. Following outcry from the opposition and journalists, the Health Department released the full review late Thursday.
Legault imposed the curfew on Dec. 31, 2021, forbidding Quebecers from leaving their homes between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. He lifted the order two weeks later on Jan. 17. He had imposed a curfew earlier in 2021 for almost five months, between January and May. Quebec was the only province to prohibit its citizens from leaving their homes at night as a way to control COVID-19 transmission.
The documents also show that the province’s former public health director, Dr. Horacio Arruda, was looking for evidence to justify the December curfew only hours before it was announced.
Meanwhile, Quebec has reported 16 more deaths due to COVID-19 on Friday and a 51-patient drop in the number of people hospitalized with the disease. There were 1,313 people in hospital with COVID-19, after 88 people were admitted in the past 24 hours and 139 people were discharged. The number of people in intensive care rose by four, to 80.
Quebec announced earlier this week that it would lift most public health orders, including indoor capacity limits and the vaccine passport requirement, on March 12, which is two days earlier than previously announced.
Mask mandates in all public places except public transportation will be lifted by mid-April at the latest, the government said.
3:02 p.m. Canada’s chief public health officer says that, as long as Omicron remains the dominant variant of COVID-19 in Canada, the risk of another massive wave of infections is low, reports The Canadian Press.
Dr. Theresa Tam says the number of cases of Omicron in recent months, coupled with Canada’s high vaccination rates, created good community-level protection against COVID-19 for now, according to CP.
She warns that if another variant emerges that is significantly different from Omicron, and able to evade current vaccines, that could change.
But even in that scenario, she says better treatments and more availability of rapid tests make it unlikely that more disruptive measures such as school closures and gathering limits will be needed.
Tam says face masks should be kept on hand as the first line of defence against COVID-19 even if they are not mandatory.
2:59 p.m. Canada’s chief public health officer says that as long as Omicron remains the dominant variant of COVID-19 in Canada, the risk of another massive wave of infections is low.
Dr. Theresa Tam says the number of cases of Omicron in recent months, coupled with Canada’s high vaccination rates, created good community-level protection against COVID-19 for now.
She warns that if another variant emerges that is significantly different from Omicron, and able to evade current vaccines, that could change.
But even in that scenario, she says better treatments and more availability of rapid tests make it unlikely that more disruptive measures like school closures and gathering limits will be needed.
Tam says face masks should be kept on hand as the first line of defence against COVID-19 even if they are not mandatory.
Alberta and Saskatchewan lifted mask mandates this week, with Manitoba following mid-month, Ontario possibly by month’s end and Quebec by the middle of April.
2:55 p.m. Ege Kok had been searching for weeks for somewhere in her north Toronto neighbourhood where she could easily get a booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
She’d received her second dose last summer but found it tough to secure a third when the province made them available for all Ontarians in late December.
This week, while scouring the internet for pop-up clinics, she learned of a walk-in site opening at a local library branch just a 10-minute bus ride away from her home. By Thursday afternoon, both 31-year-old Kok and her mother were able to get their boosters in the library’s glass-walled conference room where half a dozen vaccine stations had been set up.
The library clinic is part of the City of Toronto’s new “Vax and Read” campaign that launched this week as part of a hyper-local strategy to target areas with low vaccine uptake. Twelve public libraries will host walk-in vaccine clinics on various days until March 16.
2:45 p.m. Newfoundland and Labrador health authorities say 16 people are hospitalized with the disease, one more than reported during the last update on Wednesday.
Of those, the number of people in intensive care remains unchanged at six.
The province reported 497 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday and 450 today for a total of 947 new infections since Wednesday.
2:22 p.m. This time, it feels different.
Although Toronto concert venues — and clubs especially — were allowed 100 per cent capacity for six weeks in late 2021 before the Omicron surge hit, the lifting of restrictions feels like it’s more final than in other incarnations.
Shaun Bowring, owner of Toronto clubs The Garrison (capacity 350) and The Baby G (capacity 150), agreed.
“It seems in general that public health guidance and governments are at the point where they’re saying, ‘OK, we’re living with this and we’re hopefully headed into an endemic.’ That seems to be something that’s happening globally, not just locally or provincially.”
Whether this is a move by the Ontario government that’s borne out of COVID fatigue, public interest, mental health or a combination of all those factors, Bowring, who is happy that his clubs are back at full capacity, wishes they would have been given a little more notice.
Read more here.
12:56 p.m. Four athletes set to compete at the Tim Hortons Brier have yet to make the trip to Lethbridge, Alta., after testing positive for COVID-19 on their pre-departure PCR tests, Curling Canada said Friday in a statement.
Each competitor plays on a different team, the federation said, without identifying any of the athletes. The players remain in isolation in their respective hometowns.
Round-robin play was scheduled to begin Friday night at the Enmax Centre. Competition continues through March 13.
12:21 p.m. U.S. businesses stepped up their hiring last month as the Omicron faded and more Americans ventured out to spend at restaurants, shops, and hotels despite surging inflation.
Employers added 678,000 jobs in February, the largest monthly total since July, the Labor Department reported Friday. The unemployment rate dropped to 3.8%, from 4% in January, extending a sharp decline in joblessness to its lowest level since before the pandemic erupted two years ago.
Friday’s hiring figures were collected before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has sent oil prices jumping and has heightened risks and uncertainties for economies in Europe and the rest of the world.
Yet the February hiring data suggest that two years after COVID-19 sparked a nationwide shutdown and 22 million job losses, the disease is losing its grip on America’s economy. More people are taking jobs or searching for work — a trend that, if it endures, will help ease the labor shortages that have bedeviled employers for the past year.
12:04 p.m. New York City will lift mandates next week requiring masks in public schools and proof of vaccination to dine in restaurants or enter entertainment, sports and cultural venues, Mayor Eric Adams announced Friday.
Standing in Times Square, Adams said that while the COVID-19 pandemic isn’t over, he was confident that it is now safe to send children to school unmasked.
“We want to see the faces of our children. We want to see their smiles,” the mayor said, adding that parents could continue to send their kids to school with face coverings if they wished.
The mayor, a Democrat, last weekend said he would lift the mandates if infections and hospitalizations continued a downward trend. He stressed that the mandates could be re-imposed if a new variant emerges that, like Omicron, poses a special danger.
11:52 a.m. Quebec is reporting 16 more deaths due to COVID-19 and a 51-patient drop in the number of people hospitalized with the disease.
There are 1,313 people in hospital with COVID-19, after 88 people were admitted in the past 24 hours and 139 people were discharged.
The number of people in intensive care rose by four, to 80.
Health officials are reporting another 1,354 COVID-19 infections detected through PCR testing, which is restricted to certain groups.
11:30 a.m. Canada’s Laurent Dubreuil has tested positive for COVID-19 at the world speedskating championships, sinking his chance at claiming the men’s sprint title.
Speed Skating Canada released a statement from Dubreuil confirming the positive test shortly before Friday’s races were set to begin.
Dubreuil sat first in the men’s overall sprint standings following Thursday’s races after winning the first 500-metre sprint and finishing third in the first 1,000-metre race.
Sprint champions are decided after two races over 500 metres and two over 1,000. The final sprint races were all scheduled to take place Friday.
10:17 a.m. (updated) Ontario is reporting 262 people in ICU due to COVID-19 and 821 in hospital overall testing positive for COVID-19, according to its latest report released Friday morning.
Of the people hospitalized, 44 per cent were admitted for COVID-19 and 56 per cent were admitted for other reasons but have since tested positive. For the ICU numbers, 80 per cent were admitted for COVID-19 and 20 per cent were admitted for other reasons but have since tested positive.
Given new provincial regulations around testing that took effect Dec. 31, 2021, case counts — reported at 2,085 on Friday, down eight per cent from the previous day — are also not considered an accurate assessment of how widespread COVID-19 is right now; 28 virus-related new deaths were reported in the latest numbers.
Read more from the Star’s Erin LeBlanc.
9:13 a.m. (updated) The City of Toronto has announced that major events will proceed immediately — meaning Pride, the Toronto International Film Festival and other in-person celebrations will be permitted for the first time in two years.
Mayor John Tory made the announcement at the TIFF Bell Lightbox on Friday morning, signalling the next phase of re-opening in the city almost 24 months since the provincial government first declared an emergency over COVID-19.
Read more from the Star’s Jennifer Pagliaro.
8:28 a.m. (updated): Premier Doug Ford is losing another key member of his cabinet as Health Minister Christine Elliott — also his deputy premier — says she won’t run in the June 2 provincial election.
Elliott confirmed her pending retirement in a statement Friday morning, following news reports Thursday night.
“After considerable reflection and discussion with my family, it is with deep gratitude for my 16 years in public life that I recently shared with Premier Ford I will not be seeking re-election in the upcoming provincial contest in June,” she wrote.
“Between now and this spring, Premier Ford has asked me to continue to support our government as minister of health and I have agreed without hesitation.”
Read more from the Star’s Rob Ferguson.
7:50 a.m. Toronto Mayor John Tory is set to make an announcement about Toronto’s festivals and in-person events at 9 a.m. on Friday.
7:35 a.m. March 1 marked a big day in Ontario, with proof of vaccination no longer required for workplaces, and capacity limits for indoor public settings being lifted.
With restrictions slowly being lifted, many workers are wondering what masking policies they will face as they slowly return to in-person work at the office.
The government of Ontario requires that people wear masks in the workplace if they are unable to stay at least two metres apart. In a common space, boardroom meeting, lunch room, people can be unmasked only if they’re a safe distance from one another.
Read the full story from the Star’s Clarrie Feinstein
7:10 a.m. Toronto high school student Evan Woo is “done” with wearing masks in class.
Not only does he miss seeing his friends’ faces — and would love to know what some teachers look like beneath the nose — but he says masks are a “barrier” to learning because voices are muffled.
“Sometimes it’s hard to hear someone speaking two desks down from where I’m sitting,” said the Grade 12 student at Earl Haig Second, ary School.
Read the full story from the Stars’s Isabel Teotonio
5:45 a.m.: Long-standing inequities in education, housing and employment in Nova Scotia’s Black communities have been amplified by COVID-19, according to community leaders who are trying to collect better race-based data on the pandemic.
Those same issues have left African Nova Scotians vulnerable to misinformation about the disease, said David Haase, with the Health Association of African Nova Scotians, or HAAC.
“When COVID came along, we recognized that there was misinformation, mainly on social media, that the community was seeing and absorbing,” Haase said during a recent interview. “Things like, ‘Black people are not as easily infected,’ which is the opposite to the reality, we realized.”
The last two years have been particularly difficult for the province’s Black community, many of whom are descendants of American Loyalists who arrived in Nova Scotia in the 1780s, as a result of the American Revolution.
John Ariyo, director of equality and engagement with the province, said in an interview last week, “COVID has actually uncovered … some of the inequalities in our communities when it comes to Black residents.”
Friday 5:42 a.m.: The markets are crowded again. Traffic is jamming the roads. Migrant workers have returned to the cities. And young people are back at schools and universities — many of them for the first time in years.
It isn’t quite how things were before the COVID-19 pandemic — mask mandates still exist in some places — but with infections steadily declining, life in South Asia is returning to a sense of normalcy.
The mental scars from last year’s delta-driven surge persist — especially in India, where health systems collapsed and millions likely died — but across the region high vaccination rates and hope that the highly contagious Omicron variant has helped bolster immunity are giving people reasons to be optimistic.
While experts agree that opening up was the right move amid falling case numbers, they caution that optimism should be tempered with lessons from the past two years.
Read Thursday’s coronavirus news.
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