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The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Friday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.
3:30 p.m. Two British Columbia women who say doctors advised them against getting COVID-19 vaccines have filed a constitutional challenge of the province’s vaccine passport, reports The Canadian Press.
A petition filed in B.C. Supreme Court says 39-year-old Sarah Webb, who lives in Alberta and B.C., developed an adverse reaction from her first dose of a vaccine in May and ended up in the emergency department of a Calgary hospital six days later, according to CP.
The court document says Webb’s symptoms included fatigue, heart arrhythmias, severe pain and a rash on her arm.
It says she received antibiotics, but developed further complications the next day, and went to another hospital, where a doctor told her she should not get a second vaccine shot.
The petition filed against the attorney general and the Ministry of Health says Leigh Anne Eliason of Maple Ridge, B.C., was told by her doctor that she should not get a COVID-19 vaccine because of the risk of side effects due to her medical history.
Neither the Attorney General’s Ministry, nor the Health Ministry, could immediately provide a response to the court challenge.
The petition says both women’s physicians have written exemption letters citing their physical disabilities.
However, the petition says each of the doctors raised concerns that neither the government nor any provincial medical associations had provided guidelines on how to write such a letter or what information should be included.
B.C. residents without proof of vaccination are prohibited from certain activities like dining in restaurants, entering movie theatres and gyms. That deprives the petitioners of their charter rights, the petition says.
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry has said anyone who chooses not to be vaccinated has options including ordering takeout from restaurants and watching movies and sports at home because her order is aimed at reducing transmission of the virus from anyone who may be infected.
3:05 p.m. Yukon Premier Sandy Silver says the COVID-19 vaccine will be mandatory for a wide range of workers in the territory starting Nov. 30.
Silver says all government employees and front-line health-care workers, along with employees of partner groups that receive funding from the territory, will be required to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Proof of vaccination will also be required to attend bars, restaurants, theatres, gyms and sports facilities, among others.
He says public workers have a duty to lead by example.
Silver says the territory is now targeting a vaccination rate of 90 per cent of eligible people, which he added was a milestone no other Canadian jurisdiction had hit.
Acting chief medical officer of health Dr. Catherine Elliott told a news conference that the new health orders are needed to slow the spread of the virus.
More coming.
2:30 p.m. Should Ontario make COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory for all hospital workers?
Premier Doug Ford asked that question of hospital bosses and health care experts in a letter sent Friday, citing trade-offs between potential outbreaks and shortages of staff because some workers will quit or be fired over refusals to get the jab.
“This is a very complex issue with real risks on either side,” he told a news conference Friday, again urging all health workers to get vaccinated.
While several Ontario hospital systems — including University Health Network in Toronto and Windsor Regional Hospital — have made vaccinations mandatory, others have not taken that step.
Read the full story here: Doug Ford asks hospitals whether COVID-19 vaccinations should be mandatory for their workers
2 p.m. (updated) The TTC has confirmed it will suspend and ultimately fire employees who don’t comply with the agency’s mandatory vaccine policy, setting the stage for possible labour shortages and cuts to transit service next month.
In a press release Friday, the TTC announced it had revised its policy on employee COVID-19 vaccinations, pushing the deadline by which workers must be fully immunized from Oct. 30 to Nov. 20.
But the agency also clarified that any employees who are not vaccinated or have not shared their status by the cutoff date will be placed on unpaid leave until they get their shots. Those who remain unvaccinated or haven’t confirmed their status by Dec. 31 will be terminated.
Read the full story from the Star’s Ben Spurr
1:20 p.m. A First Nation in northern Manitoba is experiencing its first outbreak of COVID-19 as the province deals with the fourth wave of the pandemic.
Norway House Cree Nation, located about 800 kilometres north of Winnipeg, has had a recent surge in cases, which it says originated from outside the community in early September.
Chief Larson Anderson says that as of Tuesday there were 84 active cases and 87 recovered cases in the community.
Anderson says one member died after contacting the virus.
He adds that most of the cases are of people who are fully vaccinated, as well as children and adults aged 20 to 29 and 40 to 49.
The community has shut down its school to prevent further spread of the virus.
1 p.m. Public sector workers in Newfoundland and Labrador have until Dec. 17 to get fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or face the possibility of being placed on leave without pay.
The province announced its mandatory vaccination policy today, which includes employer-approved medical exemptions.
The policy will apply to all provincial government employees and to workers who serve vulnerable populations, including health-care workers, teachers, child-care providers, and employees of businesses where the government’s vaccine passport is required.
Officials say the vaccine mandate will also apply to any vendors, suppliers or contractors who regularly work with government employees.
They say workers who fail to show proof of vaccination by Dec. 17 will be considered as “not adhering to the policy” and face being suspended and placed on leave without pay.
Premier Andrew Furey says the decision to mandate vaccinations was not made lightly, and he describes the policy as “another tool” to help the public feel safe.
12:45 p.m. A New Mexico judge has denied a request by dozens of scientists and others at Los Alamos National Laboratory who sought to block a vaccine mandate.
Workers risk being fired if they don’t comply with the lab’s Friday afternoon deadline.
The case comes as New Mexico extends its mask mandate for indoor spaces.
While the vaccination rate among adults in New Mexico hovers around 71.5%, the rate among lab employees is much higher. Still, 114 workers sued, saying the mandate violates their constitutional rights and that lab management has created a hostile work environment.
Attorneys for the lab argued that being vaccinated is a condition of working there.
12:20 p.m. A New Brunswick pastor is in court Friday after public health officials accused his congregation of breaking masking rules and other COVID-19 health orders.
The Crown alleges Philip James Hutchings and His Tabernacle Family Church in Saint John, N.B., signed a consent order on Oct. 8 requiring congregants to follow health orders such as masking.
But prosecutors claim Hutchings held a service two days later during which health officials observed people entering and leaving the church building without masks, and they say security agents barred officials from entering.
Prosecutors also allege Hutchings held a service that flouted health orders at a secret location and that he used social media to promote non-compliance with COVID-19 rules.
12:10 p.m. Andre Berg-Bradshaw’s 11th birthday was a lonely affair, spent at home with family as the province battled the pandemic’s deadly second wave.
Now, a year later — and with a growing number of Ontario residents fully vaccinated — Andre’s mother Jen Berg is determined to make sure he’ll celebrate his 12th birthday surrounded by friends.
But she’s also taking precautions, aware that many in her son’s age group are not yet vaccinated, and opting to shift the party from an indoor play centre to a public park to minimize risks.
Read the full story from the Star’s Olivia Bowden
11:37 a.m. In his Friday presser, Premier Doug Ford confirms a “cautious” exit from Step 3 of re-opening is coming soon. The next stages of the pandemic plan are expected next week.
Ford says the new plan will “stand the test of time” and says any new restrictions will be localized and tailored if they’re ever needed.
On asking hospitals if vaccinations should be mandatory for all health care workers, Ford says he is balancing “risks” of potential worker shortages vs. outbreaks.
Ford is asked to explain why the government didn’t lift restrictions on restaurants. “My heart breaks for the small businesses,” Ford says.
11:30 a.m. Did you get your vaccine in Ontario? If you’ve been fully vaccinated, you’ll be eligible to download the province’s new enhanced vaccine certificate in QR code form this weekend.
The rollout will happen over three days, and will be available for download by everyone who has been vaccinated starting Oct. 18 at 6 a.m.
Here’s what you need to know from the Star’s Ivy Mak
10:21 a.m. Ontario is reporting 496 new cases of COVID-19; 334 cases are in individuals who are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status and 162 are in fully vaccinated individuals, according to a tweet from Health Minister Christine Elliott.
In Ontario, 22,177,830 vaccine doses have been administered. 87.3 per cent of Ontarians 12+ have one dose and nearly 82.8 per cent have two doses.
9:45 a.m. A White House official says the U.S. will announce Friday that it will reopen its land borders to vaccinated non-essential visitors on Nov. 8.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a policy not yet made public, says travellers will need to show proof of vaccination to Customs and Border Protection officials upon request.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is currently working on the operational details, such as what will constitute acceptable proof and which “very limited” exceptions might be allowed.
Vaccines approved by both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the World Health Organization will be accepted for international air travel, and officials expect the same will be the case at land borders.
What’s still not clear is whether people who received doses of two different vaccines, a condition that impacts roughly four million Canadians, will be considered to be fully vaccinated.
New York congressman Brian Higgins has written to the CDC to urge the agency to promptly clarify its stance on mixed-dose vaccines.
8 a.m. Should patients waiting for an organ transplant be required to get a COVID-19 vaccine to be considered for the life-saving procedure?
That question is being debated at Ontario transplant centres, now facing the tricky ethical dilemma of whether to limit donor organs to only those who have been fully vaccinated against the virus.
The University Health Network, which runs the largest organ transplant centre in Canada, has decided patients must be fully vaccinated before being put on a wait list for a solid organ transplant, including a heart, lungs or liver. Hospital leaders say the policy — the first to be implemented in Canada — is needed to protect vulnerable patients and ensure the donated organ goes to those with the best chance of survival.
Read the full story from the Star’s Megan Ogilvie
7:45 a.m. For the first year of the pandemic, Jasper De Man rarely left his Leslieville neighbourhood. As a director for a Toronto cybersecurity company, he was no stranger to working remotely. But as businesses across the country abruptly shifted to remote work, many became prey to cyberattacks, and he was busier than ever.
His days were packed with back-to-back calls and video meetings, and his wife was working from home alongside him. Yet life started to get lonely.
“I went into lockdown thinking ‘Oh, I know how to do this,’ ” said De Man, who works for ISA Cybersecurity. “But there’s a difference between hybrid work and 100-per-cent working from home.”
De Man was one of more than five million Canadians who began working mostly from home at the pandemic’s onset, relishing in a break from the daily commute, morning rush and stiff office attire.
Read the full story from the Star’s Christine Dobby
7:27 a.m. (updated) Ontario residents were able to begin downloading their enhanced proof-of-vaccination certificates with a secure QR code on Friday.
Only people born from January to April were able to download the new vaccine receipt on the first day.
Those with birthdays from May to August can download the app on Saturday and people born from September to December can do so Sunday.
As of Monday, everyone can access the portal.
“To ensure a smooth user experience, the province is initially making the enhanced vaccine certificate with scannable QR code available for download in cohorts based on an individual’s birth month over a period of three days,” according to the Ministry of Health.
Read the full story from the Star’s Robert Benzie and Rob Ferguson
7:20 a.m. COVID-19 tests in France are no longer free for unvaccinated adults unless they are prescribed by a doctor.
While tests remain free for vaccinated adults and all children under 18, adults who have not gotten their shots will have to pay 22 to 45 euros to get tested as of Friday.
The government introduced the change as a complement to the COVID-19 passes that have been required in France since the summer. To get a pass, people need to show proof of vaccination, a recent negative test or recent recovery from the virus.
The passes are required to visit tourist sites, for hospital visits and on domestic train trips and flights. The pass requirement, announced in July, helped boost France’s vaccination rate.
Over 49 million people, or about 74 per cent of the population, are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus in France. Everyone age 12 and older are eligible for shots.
5:54 a.m.: Airport security agents may soon be screening more than your luggage.
The federal government is mulling handing responsibility for verifying passengers’ vaccination status to airport officers, rather than airlines — which hope to skip the headache.
Canadian carriers received three consultation papers from Transport Canada this week asking for feedback on putting an agency in charge of the proof of-vaccine validation process, according to three sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA), the Crown corporation that oversees passenger and baggage screening at airports, would take on the additional role in barely two weeks if the plan goes ahead following industry feedback.
5:53 a.m.: Premier Doug Ford is set to reveal details this morning about Ontario’s vaccine certificate QR code and app.
The government has said the technology would become available Oct. 22.
The app itself is now available for download, but a spokeswoman for Ford says it is for businesses and organizations to scan people’s QR codes.
She says those codes will be provided by the province.
Under Ontario’s vaccine certificate program, only those who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 — or have a valid medical exemption from a doctor — can access certain settings, such as theatres, nightclubs and restaurant dining rooms.
As it stands, residents must show their vaccine receipt and photo ID to enter those facilities, but the province plans to replace that system with the black-and-white barcodes and an app-based scanner.
5:52 a.m.: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused millions of people to lose their jobs and private health insurance, particularly LGBTQ adults, who reported at higher rates than non-LGBTQ adults that they lost their jobs during the crisis. Consequently, enrolment surged in ACA plans and Medicaid, the state-federal health program for low-income people. Yet many of those plans don’t fully cover gender-affirming care, partly because of conservative policies and lack of scientific research on how crucial this care is for transgender patients.
According to a survey by Out2Enroll, a national initiative to connect LGBTQ people with ACA coverage, 46% of the 1,386 silver marketplace plans polled cover all or some medically necessary treatment for gender dysphoria. However, 7% have trans-specific exclusions, 14% have some exclusions, and 33% don’t specify.
“It’s this whack-a-mole situation where plans for the most part do not have blanket exclusions, but where people are still having difficulty getting specific procedures, medications, etcetera, covered,” said Kellan Baker, executive director of the Whitman-Walker Institute, a non-profit that focuses on LGBTQ research, policy and education.
Twenty-three states and Washington, D.C., include gender-affirming care in their Medicaid plans. But 10 states exclude such coverage entirely. In 2019, an estimated 152,000 transgender adults were enrolled in Medicaid, a number that has likely grown during the pandemic.
Yet even in states such as California that require their Medicaid programs to cover gender-affirming care, patients still struggle to get injectable estrogen, said Dr. Amy Weimer, an internist who founded the UCLA Gender Health Program. While California Medicaid, or Medi-Cal, covers Depo-Estradiol, doctors must request treatment authorizations to prove their patients need the drug. Weiner said those are rarely approved.
Friday 5:44 a.m.: British health officials said Friday that an estimated 43,000 people may have been wrongly told they don’t have the coronavirus because of problems at a private laboratory.
The U.K. Health Security Agency said a lab in Wolverhampton, central England, has been suspended from processing test swabs after reports of false negatives. The faulty results were among tests processed at the Immensa Health Clinic Lab between early September and this week.
The issue was uncovered after some people who were positive for COVID-19 when they took rapid tests went on to show up as negative on more accurate PCR tests.
“Around 400,000 samples have been processed through the lab, the vast majority of which will have been negative results, but an estimated 43,000 people may have been given incorrect negative PCR test results,” mostly in southwest England, the health agency said.
The agency called the problem “an isolated incident attributed to one laboratory” and said the people affected would be contacted and advised to get another test.
Read Thursday’s coronavirus news.
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