Coronavirus: What's happening in Canada and around the world on Dec. 7
Alberta tops 20,000 active COVID-19 cases, B.C. extends COVID-19 household restrictions
The latest:
- Here's what the provinces are doing ahead of a COVID-19 vaccine arrival.
- B.C. extends ban on social gatherings, reports 2,020 new COVID-19 cases over 3 days.
- Alberta tops 20,000 active COVID-19 cases, reports 16 more deaths.
- Quebec to start vaccinating residents of long-term care homes against COVID-19 next week, says health minister.
- Trudeau says 249,000 vaccine doses to arrive in Canada by the end of the year.
- Ontario reports record-high 1,925 COVID-19 cases.
- Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine could ship to Canada within 24 hours of approval, exec says.
- Have a coronavirus question or news tip for CBC News? Email us at [email protected]
Alberta and British Columbia continued to report grim COVID-19 numbers on Monday, a sobering reminder that the pandemic is far from over even as the federal government announced the imminent arrival of several hundred thousand doses of the Pfizer vaccine in Canada.
Alberta reached 20,067 active cases of COVID-19 — the highest in the country — as it reported 1,735 new cases and 16 more deaths on Monday.
A total of 609 people were being treated in hospitals for the illness, including 108 in ICU beds, both provincial highs.
The province will have to bring in additional restrictions if it hopes to slow the spread of COVID-19, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the chief medical officer of health, said at a news conference.
While recent public health orders have helped, "it's currently looking like the measures that were put in place two weeks ago are unlikely to be sufficient to bend the curve downward, which is of course what we have to do if we are going to protect our acute-care system," Hinshaw said.
Hinshaw said her team will make recommendations to Premier Jason Kenney and his cabinet in coming days.
Meanwhile, British Columbia reported 2,020 new cases over the past three days — the province doesn't publicly report COVID-19 figures on weekends — and 35 more deaths.
The province has 9,380 active cases, with a total of 349 people in hospital with COVID-19, 77 of whom are in intensive care.
Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said the restrictions put in place earlier this month are starting to work, but B.C. can't afford a rebound of cases and a resulting surge in hospitalizations.
To that end, Henry extended the ban on social gatherings for another month. Residents will continue to only be able to socialize with people in their household until Jan. 8 at midnight, and all events and gatherings are also banned until that time, with the exception of drive-thru and drop-off events.
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that up to 249,000 doses of the two-dose Pfizer vaccine will be available in Canada before the end of the year.
The vaccine has not yet been approved by Health Canada, but top officials at the agency have said that could change as early as this week.
What's happening across Canada
As of 7:30 p.m. ET on Monday, Canada's COVID-19 case count stood at 423,057, with 71,539 of those cases considered active. A CBC News tally of deaths based on provincial reports, regional health information and CBC's reporting stood at 12,777.
In Atlantic Canada, Prince Edward Island announced four additional cases of COVID-19 on Monday. Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Heather Morrison said the new cases are a woman in her 20s, two men in their 20s and a man in his 30s.
None of the people who tested positive in the new cases had recently travelled outside the province and all were "close contacts" of cases announced over the weekend, Morrison said.
"At this point, the source of the outbreak is not known and it is still under investigation," she said.
The province had 14 active cases, Morrison said, as she explained why the province wants more testing among 20-29 year-olds.
WATCH | P.E.I. officials focus on COVID testing for those ages 20 to 29:
P.E.I. is in a two-week "circuit breaker" COVID-19 lockdown. Islanders are being urged to stay at home as much as possible and a wide range of businesses and services will either be closed or operating with restrictions.
The province is offering financial assistance to Islanders whose income will suffer because of the new public health measures.
Public health officials in New Brunswick, meanwhile, reported two new cases of COVID-19 on Monday. Of the 536 cases reported in New Brunswick to date, 81 of them are considered active, according to a provincial tracking tool.
A spokesperson for the province's public safety department said up to 1,950 doses of vaccine should arrive around Dec. 14 as part of the first of two shipments that could happen this month.
Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey said Monday that the changes his province made to the so-called Atlantic travel bubble will remain in place for the next month.
"This means the 14-day self-isolation requirement for people entering the province from the neighbouring Atlantic provinces will continue throughout the holiday season," he said, noting there is an option to apply for earlier testing.
Newfoundland had no new cases of COVID-19 to report on Monday, the province's top doctor said, leaving the total number of cases in the province at 351.
Furey also announced that the province is set to receive 1,950 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine next week, with more to come.
Nova Scotia reported eight new COVID-19 cases on Monday. There are now 90 known active cases in the province, though no one is in hospital with the virus.
WATCH | Ontario long-term care homes seeing rise in deaths, outbreaks:
Ontario reported a new single-day high of 1,925 cases on Monday — the second day in a row it has recorded more than 1,900 COVID-19 cases — as well as 26 additional deaths.
Hospitalizations on Monday rose to 725, with 213 people in intensive care units, according to provincial data.
Ontario is expected to receive 2.4 million doses of vaccines in the first three months of 2021, according to Health Minister Christine Elliott. Of those, 1.6 million would be from Pfizer, while another 800,00 doses would be the Moderna vaccine, which, like Pfizer, requires two shots and has yet to be approved.
Three more regions in Ontario are facing tougher public health restrictions as of Monday, but none are joining Toronto or Peel Region at the highest grey, or "lockdown," level.
To the east, health officials in Quebec on Monday reported 1,577 new cases of COVID-19 and 22 additional deaths.
Quebec, which has seen more COVID-19 cases and deaths than any other province, also reported 818 hospitalizations, with 105 people in intensive care.
Officials revealed details of the province's vaccination strategy on Monday, with Health Minister Christian Dubé saying vaccinations for residents of long-term care homes are expected to begin next week.
Between 22,000 and 28,000 Quebecers will be immunized against COVID-19 by Jan. 4, as the province receives more doses, Dubé said.
Residents of long-term care homes and health-care workers are set to be the first to be vaccinated in the province, while people living in private seniors' residences and those in isolated communities, including Indigenous communities, will be next. Those four groups represent about 547,000 people living in Quebec.
WATCH | Early days of PPE contracts were 'the wild west':
Manitoba reported 325 new cases of COVID-19 and 12 additional deaths on Monday, taking the provincial death toll to 407.
The five-day test positivity rate stands at 13.7 per cent provincewide. There are 310 people in hospital with COVID-19, with 39 of those in intensive care.
More than 4,000 cases previously listed as active were confirmed to be recovered, after the province worked to catch up with a weeks-long data backlog that didn't track all recovered cases, said Chief Provincial Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin.
At the same time, Roussin reiterated that the current number of cases is too high and is endangering the health-care system.
Meanwhile, health officials in Saskatchewan reported 274 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday and one additional death.
There are 143 people hospitalized due to COVID-19 — a new record for Saskatchewan — with 26 in intensive care.
In what it called a "proactive intervention," public schools in Regina will move to remote learning starting next week until Jan. 11, the school board announced in a letter Monday.
WATCH | Pfizer vaccine 'impractical' for remote areas, says top Nunavut health official:
Across the North, Nunavut reported three new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, all of them in Arviat. Located along the west coast of Hudson Bay, Arviat has been the worst hit by the pandemic since the territory recorded its first case in November.
Meanwhile, health officials in Yukon reported three new cases on Monday, while the Northwest Territories reported no new cases.
What's happening around the world
From The Associated Press and Reuters, last updated at 7:30 p.m. ET
As of 7:30 p.m. ET on Monday, there were more than 67.5 million cases of COVID-19 around the world, with more than 43.4 million of those considered recovered or resolved, according to a tracking tool maintained by Johns Hopkins University. The global death toll stood at more than 1.5 million.
In the Asia-Pacific region, South Korean President Moon Jae-in called on Monday for expanded coronavirus testing and more thorough tracing as the country struggles to control its latest and largest wave of infections.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency reported 615 new coronavirus cases as of midnight Sunday, capping a month of triple-digit daily increases that have led to 8,311 confirmed patients in quarantine, the most ever.
The positive rate for the latest batch of tests was about 4.2 per cent, compared to the year's average of 1.2 per cent, according to the KDCA.
Moon ordered the government to mobilize every available resource to track infections, and to expand testing by deploying the military and more people from the public service, presidential Blue House spokesperson Chung Man-ho told a briefing.
In Europe, the Spanish government is pleading with people to voluntarily observe physical distancing rules and other measures over the Christmas holiday, with the health minister saying "we can't put a police officer in every house."
Health Minister Salvador Illa said Monday that measures announced last week to prevent the spread of COVID-19 over the seasonal holiday are "very drastic."
A curfew will be in place between 1:30 a.m.-6 a.m. on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Eve, and family gatherings will be limited to 10 people.
"You don't play with COVID. Let's be careful," Illa told a news conference in Madrid.
Spain has reported over 46,000 coronavirus-related deaths in the pandemic.
Greece's government, meanwhile, said it will maintain core lockdown measures through the Christmas holidays, acknowledging that restrictions that have been in place for a month have not reduced COVID-19 infections to the extent it had hoped for.
Chancellor Angela Merkel's chief of staff Helge Braun said he expects coronavirus vaccinations to start in Germany "in the very first days" of the new year. The trained doctor said he will tell medical authorities that he's prepared to help vaccinate people himself.
Braun told the Bild newspaper late Sunday "that won't work at every hour of the day or night as chief of staff, but at the weekend I'm prepared to join in." He said he and Merkel will get vaccinated "when it's our turn."
European Union authorities are expected to make a decision by Dec. 29 on approving the first vaccine for use. Germany is getting special vaccination centres ready. The news comes as Britain gears up to start coronavirus vaccinations on Tuesday.
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It's winter. It's cold. How do I deal with a mask that freezes?
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Moscow opens dozens of COVID-19 vaccination centres, prioritizes high-risk groups
Infection figures in Germany have more or less stabilized at a high level since a partial shutdown started on Nov. 2 but haven't decreased. On Monday, the national disease control centre reported 12,332 new cases over the past 24 hours, compared with 11,168 a week ago, and 147 new deaths.
In the Americas, Rudy Giuliani has tested positive for COVID-19, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday, prompting the Arizona state legislature to close for a week after Giuliani visited to try to persuade lawmakers to help reverse Trump's election defeat.
The U.S. has seen more than 14.7 million cases of COVID-19 and more than 282,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.
In the nation's most populous state, California is shutting down bars, hair salons and barbershops, and allowing restaurants to remain open only for takeout and delivery service in Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley. The San Francisco Bay Area will also go into lockdown starting at 10 p.m. on Sunday night, under a different set of orders.
While individual states are rushing in often seemingly different directions, the nation as a whole is the grim leader in global infections and deaths. The United States is now reporting nearly 190,000 new infections on average each day and accounts for one in every 20 deaths reported worldwide each day.
South Africa remained the hardest-hit nation in Africa, with more than 814,000 cases of COVID-19 and 22,000 deaths.
John Nkengasong, head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, recently expressed concern about the potential impacts of holiday travel on health-care systems across the continent.
"During the holiday season, there will be a tendency for large movement from capital cities to villages, remote areas, for people to connect with families," he told a news conference from Ethiopia. "That might drive the pandemic."
In the Middle East, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office has announced plans for a nighttime curfew during the upcoming Hanukkah holiday as the number of daily confirmed cases has sharply climbed in recent days.
The curfew is set to go into effect on Wednesday, on the eve of Hanukkah. The office said commercial activities will be banned and intercity travel will be limited. An announcement Monday night said the measure, approved by the advisory coronavirus cabinet, still requires approval from the cabinet.
Also Monday, President Reuven Rivlin said the first doses of coronavirus vaccines are expected to arrive in the country in the coming days.
With files from The Associated Press, The Canadian Press and Reuters
