Coronavirus: What’s happening in Canada and around the world Wednesday

The variant was detected in a patient in the Mauricie–Centre-du-Québec region, between Montreal and Quebec City, according to public health.  

B1617 is known for transmitting easily and causing more severe symptoms. The Quebec patient had received a first vaccine dose in January but became infected a couple of months later, according to Dr. Gaston De Serres of Quebec’s public health institute (INSPQ).

The health authority says the patient has recovered and is doing well. 

Quebec on Wednesday reported 1,217 new cases of COVID-19 and six additional deaths. Hospitalizations stood at 716, with 178 people in ICU.

What else is happening in Canada

WATCH | Ontario government criticized for ‘inconsistent policies’:

As two Ontario regions take action into their own hands to close workplaces with COVID-19 outbreaks, the province’s advisors publicly criticized Premier Doug Ford’s government for its ‘inconsistent policies’ during the crisis. 2:00

As of 8 p.m. ET, Canada had reported 1,147,469 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 89,167 considered active. A CBC News tally of deaths stood at 23,763. 

Ontario on Wednesday reported 4,212 new cases of COVID-19 and 32 additional deaths. Hospitalizations stood at 2,335, according to provincial data, with 790 people in ICUs due to COVID-related illness.

The Ontario government, meanwhile, has said a paid sick-leave program for essential workers was under consideration. The possible shift comes after repeated calls by public health experts to do more to protect essential workers.

Meanwhile, Premier Doug Ford is in isolation after a staff member tested positive for the virus. Ford has since tested negative.

WATCH | N.L. premier reassures residents:

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey has thanked medical staff from the province who plan to help Ontario during its pandemic crisis and tried to assure his citizens that the departure of staff would not have an impact at home. 1:05

In Atlantic Canada, Newfoundland and Labrador was the first province to report updated figures Wednesday,  announcing one additional case. The province is working with Ontario to send medical personnel to help in the hard-hit province, which is raising concerns from N.L.’s nurses’ union about nursing shortages at home. 

New Brunswick reported seven new cases and one additional death Wednesday. Health officials there are asking people to be patient as the 65+ phase of its vaccination plan rolls out. 

“These appointments can fill up quite quickly,” Health Minister Dorothy Shephard said Tuesday in announcing the new eligibility. “We know that the phones start ringing from the time we announce it at this press conference.”

Nova Scotia reported 25 new cases Wednesday, the highest number in five months. The news came the same day the International Ice Hockey Federation and Hockey Canada announced the women’s world championship, scheduled for May 6-16 in Halifax and Truro, would be cancelled. 

WATCH | Who’s eligible for vaccination in Manitoba?:

COVID-19 vaccines are now available to people age 50 and over, and First Nations people age 30 and over in Manitoba. Dr. Joss Reimer of the Manitoba Vaccine Task Force also emphasized the safety of the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine, saying the benefits far outweigh the risks. 4:30

Across the North, Nunavut on Wednesday reported one new case of COVID-19. Premier Joe Savikataaq said in a tweet there are still 33 active cases in the territory.

In the Prairie provinces, the Manitoba government is expanding its COVID-19 vaccine program to prioritize first responders, teachers and other front-line workers. Front-line police officers and firefighters of all ages are now eligible. The province reported 164 new cases Wednesday, along with one additional death. 

Health officials in Saskatchewan, meanwhile, reported 231 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday and four additional deaths. The province continues to expand eligibility for vaccination, but says opening it up to everyone over 18 by mid-May remains “a very ambitious target.” 

A mass vaccination clinic planned at a meat-packing plant in southern Alberta had to be postponed due to a delay in a shipment of the Moderna vaccine. Nearly half the 2,200 workers at Cargill’s facility in High River, south of Calgary, contracted the coronavirus and two employees died during an outbreak there last spring. 

The province reported 1,699 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday. Due to technical issues, it did not report whether there were any new deaths. Variants of concern now account for 59 per cent of active cases in the province, according to Dr. Deena Hinshaw, chief medical officer of health. 

In British Columbia, health officials reported 862 new cases of COVID-19 and seven additional deaths on Wednesday. A total of 483 people are in hospital, with 164 in intensive care.

-From CBC News and The Canadian Press, last updated at 6:45  p.m. ET

What’s happening around the world

U.S. President Joe Biden says the United States plans to help Canada procure more COVID-19 vaccines.

Biden says he spoke with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Wednesday and that the White House is looking at what to do with vaccines not currently in use in the U.S.

That’s likely a reference to the AstraZeneca-Oxford shot approved by Health Canada, but not by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The U.S. has already provided Canada with about 1.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, and gave 2.5 million doses to Mexico.

The president described Trudeau as someone working hard to help his country deal with the pandemic.

As of early Wednesday afternoon, more than 143.2 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide, according to a tracking tool maintained by Johns Hopkins University. The reported global death toll stood at more than three million.

At least 22 patients died on Wednesday at a hospital in western India after a disruption to their oxygen supply caused by a leaking tank, the health minister said, as a nationwide surge in coronavirus cases soaks up supplies of the gas.

“Patients who were on ventilators at the hospital in Nashik have died,” said Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope in televised remarks about the incident in one of India’s hardest-hit areas. “The leakage was spotted at the tank supplying oxygen to these patients. The interrupted supply could be linked to the deaths of the patients in the hospital.”

The world’s second most populous nation reported 295,041 new infections on Wednesday — the biggest daily rise reported in any country — stretching hospitals to breaking point, officials said.

Hospitals have been warning that supplies of medical oxygen used for COVID-19 patients are running low as cases pour in.

Max Healthcare, a large private sector health-care provider in Delhi and its suburbs, said in a statement that most of the hospitals in the network “are working on dangerously low levels of oxygen supply.”

Television showed images of people with empty oxygen cylinders crowding refilling facilities in the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, as they scrambled to save stricken relatives in hospital.

Health experts said India had let its guard down when the virus seemed to be under control during the winter, allowing big gatherings such as weddings and festivals.

India now faces a coronavirus “storm” overwhelming its health system, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a national address overnight, adding that authorities were working to deliver oxygen with “speed and sensitivity.”

Modi is himself facing criticism for addressing packed political rallies for local elections and allowing a religious festival to go ahead in which millions take a ritual bath in the river Ganges, considered sacred by Hindus.

India has so far administered nearly 130 million doses of vaccine, the most in the world after the U.S. and China but still small relative to its population.

In the Asia-Pacific region, Japan’s government is preparing to announce a third state of emergency in Tokyo and the area around Osaka following requests from local leaders who say current measures are failing to curb a rapid rise in infections.

In Europe, German lawmakers have approved a proposal by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government to mandate restrictions in areas where the coronavirus is spreading too quickly. The legislation to apply an “emergency brake” consistently in areas with high infection rates is intended to end the patchwork of measures across 16 states in the highly decentralized country. 

In Italy, the government is opening cinemas, theatres and concert halls to limited numbers of spectators in regions with the lowest level of contagion starting next Monday. Limits were set with a maximum 500 people indoors and 1,000 outdoors.

This is the first national loosening of restrictions since a surge last fall and the arrival of quick-spreading variants.

In the Americas, the White House is trying to overcome diminishing demand for COVID-19 shots by offering businesses a tax incentive to give employees paid leave to get vaccinated. The move comes as the U.S. is set to meet Biden’s goal of administering 200 million vaccine doses in his first 100 days in office.

With more than half of adults at least partially vaccinated and roughly 28 million doses being delivered each week, a lack of demand has become the biggest constraining factor to vaccinations in much of the country.

In the Middle East, Syria’s last rebel-held enclave has received its first batch of COVID-19 vaccines, with a refrigerated truck offloading over 50,000 United Nations-secured jabs in the overcrowded province.

The delivery Wednesday arrived hours before a bigger shipment was expected in the capital of Damascus for inoculations in government-controlled areas. The vaccines come as the war-torn country experiences a new surge in infections, overwhelming hospitals reeling from conflict and deteriorating health-care services.

In Africa, South Africa remained the hardest-hit country, with more than 1.5 million reported cases of COVID-19 and a death toll approaching 54,000. 

-From The Associated Press, Reuters and CBC News, last updated at 5:20 p.m. ET