Nova Scotia has asked the court to lift an injunction it obtained last month against illegal gatherings as COVID-19 cases continued to decline in the province and right across Atlantic Canada on Friday.
Premier Iain Rankin’s office said in a statement a motion was filed earlier this week with the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia to lift the injunction obtained by the province on May 14.
The case will be heard on Tuesday.
Rankin cautioned it doesn’t mean the province should let down its guard against the virus.
“We are still in a state of emergency and we must continue to respect the public health measures,” he said. “Thanks to the hard work of Nova Scotians, we are now in a much better place with the virus.”
A total of 14 new cases of novel coronavirus were reported across the four Atlantic provinces on Friday, with the majority in Nova Scotia.
The province identified 11 cases, including nine in the Halifax area and two in the eastern health zone, which includes Cape Breton, and has 93 active cases.
Nova Scotia’s injunction was aimed at preventing illegal gatherings in defiance of public health orders introduced to slow the spread of COVID-19.
The court order was primarily aimed at two anti-mask protests including one planned for Citadel Hill in Halifax on May 15 by a group called “Freedom Nova Scotia.” However, its reach extended to similar groups and also banned the promotion of similar gatherings on social media.
But it was criticized as being too broad, with the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) arguing the injunction banned all protests in the province, including socially distanced demonstrations.
In a statement, the CCLA agreed that the injunction should be lifted, but said it was “never necessary or justified at law.” It intends to have the original injunction order reconsidered at a June 30 hearing.
“The fact that the government obtained this injunction to enforce a public health order on an ex parte basis, and that it impacted the Charter-protected rights of all Nova Scotians, still raises serious legal and constitutional issues,” the CCLA said.
Vaccine deliveries enough to fully vaccinate all eligible Canadians by end of July
People line up to get their COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination centre on June 10, 2021 in Montreal.Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s promise of a two-dose fall is looking a lot more like it will become a two-dose August.
Trudeau says Canada is on track now to have 68 million doses delivered by the end of July, which is more than enough to fully vaccinate all 33.2 million Canadians over the age of 12.
Previously Canada expected enough to fully vaccinate 75 per cent of all eligible people before August, but Moderna has now scheduled another 11 million doses to be delivered in late June and early July.
Three in four eligible Canadians now have their first dose, and just under one in five are now fully vaccinated.
Canada’s chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam says there are some signs uptake in first doses is slowing now and efforts are starting to shift from mass vaccination clinics to more targeted operations for people who have struggled to access a vaccine or are hesitant to get one.
She reiterated that Canadians who get one or two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine are very well protected against COVID-19, despite new guidance from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization Thursday that all Canadians should only get mRNA vaccines from now on.
Quebec hopes incentives will encourage COVID-19 vaccinations amid lower rate among 18-to-39 age group
With demand for first doses of COVID-19 vaccine lagging among the 18-to-39 age group, Quebec health officials are hoping incentives such as free hotdogs and the promise of prizes will encourage younger adults to get the shot.
While close to 80 per cent of eligible Quebecers have been vaccinated with at least one dose, some younger adult age groups are still slightly below the 75 per cent target.
On Thursday, government data showed that only about 4,100 first doses were given in the previous 24 hours to people between the ages of 18 and 39, who are being overtaken by the 12-to-17-year-old cohort.
In recent weeks, the province has been working to market the vaccine to younger adults through advertising and social media posts as well as walk-in clinics with extended hours, but it appears to be upping its efforts.
On Wednesday, the province announced that it would set up a clinic to vaccinate hockey fans gathering outside the Bell Centre for the next Montreal Canadiens playoff games and would even offer a free hotdog to those who get the shot.
At the same time, the Canadiens released a video of 20-year-old rookie Cole Caufield, who wears the number 22 and promised to give away 22 pairs of game tickets and 22 hockey jerseys to fans who show proof of vaccination.
Speaking outside the Bell Centre, Health Minister Christian Dubé said the initiatives are designed to reach the roughly 150,000 adults under the age of 40 who have yet to sign up for a shot.
“We’ll come to them,” said the health minister, who donned a Caufield jersey for the occasion.
Ontario reports 345 new cases of COVID-19, one death, over 210,000 vaccinations
Ontario is reporting 345 new cases of COVID-19 today and one death linked to the virus.
Health Minister Christine Elliott says there are 85 new cases in Waterloo, 50 in Toronto, and 50 in Peel Region.
She says there were also 29 new cases in Hamilton and 22 in York Region.
The Ministry of Health says 378 people are in hospital with the novel coronavirus – 352 in intensive care and 221 on a ventilator.
Today’s data is based on more than 26,600 tests completed.
Ontario says that 210,638 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine were administered since Thursday’s report, for a total of more than 12.1 million doses.
Restrictions at U.S. border will remain until end of July, Blair says
Travel restrictions at the Canada-U.S. border will remain in place for at least another month.
Public Safety Minister Bill Blair says the American and Canadian governments are extending restrictions on non-essential international travel until July 21.
He adds in a tweet that the government will provide details on Monday about plans to let fully vaccinated Canadians and permanent residents enter the country.
The measures at the border have been in place since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.
The pressure to relax the restrictions has been building from businesses on both sides of the border, and increasingly from American lawmakers as vaccination rates climb in Canada.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has previously said that it would take 75 per cent of Canadians getting vaccinated before restrictions can be lifted.
COVID-19 numbers still too high for Manitoba’s reopening plan, some doctors say
Some Manitoba doctors are urging the provincial government to back off its plan to reopen the economy July 1 until COVID-19 numbers drop much further.
A group of 11 physicians has written to the Progressive Conservative government to say the province is not taking into account the Delta variant, one of the variants first identified in India.
Dr. Dan Roberts, who specializes in critical care, says it is “completely irrational” to ease restrictions with the province’s current daily case counts and test positivity rate.
The government is proposing to raise capacity limits in stores and at public gatherings and possibly open some indoor facilities that have been closed, if vaccine targets are met by July 1.
The doctors say the health-care system remains under serious strain and some intensive care patients are still being treated in other provinces because of a shortage of beds.
The doctors are also asking the province to boost safety measures in schools, including improving ventilation, before the next school year starts in September.
Virus cases continue decline in Atlantic region, as total of 14 new cases reported
A trend of declining COVID-19 case counts is continuing across Atlantic Canada with health officials reporting only 14 new cases today between the four provinces.
Nova Scotia has most of them, reporting 11 new cases – nine identified in the Halifax area and two in the eastern health zone which includes Cape Breton.
The province has 93 known active cases.
New Brunswick is reporting three new cases in the Fredericton area and has 54 active cases.
Newfoundland and Labrador reported no new cases today and currently has 22 active cases.
Prince Edward Island currently has no active cases and hasn’t reported a new case of novel coronavirus since June 3.
British Columbia records 109 new COVID-19 cases, one new death
More than 75 per cent of eligible adults in British Columbia have received a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as the province reported 109 new cases of the virus.
The province also reported 1,389 active cases of COVID-19 on Friday, along with one additional death.
Health Minister Adrian Dix and provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry say 76.7 per cent of eligible adults have received a vaccine, and the province has administered 4.29 million doses.
Of those, 823,371 are second doses.
Dix and Henry say 128 individuals were hospitalized on Friday for treatment of COVID-19, 48 of whom were in intensive care.
Public health agency reports spike in confirmed cases of Delta variant in Canada
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases attributed to the highly contagious Delta variant jumped 66 per cent in Canada this week.
Canada’s chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam said as of Friday there are just over 2,000 confirmed cases of the variant.
Just three days ago, the Public Health Agency told The Canadian Press there were 1,187 confirmed cases.
“The Delta variant is now in all provinces and at least one of our territories,” Tam said at the House of Commons health committee.
“Of course, as with all coronavirus cases, we may not know every single case that has occurred in Canada, hence my warning of precaution and the need to get two doses of vaccine into as many people as possible.”
The variant was first identified in India but has now become the dominant strain in the United Kingdom where it is spreading rapidly, mostly among unvaccinated people.
It is believed to be at least 1.5 times as contagious as the Alpha variant first identified in the U.K. Alpha is, for now, the dominant variant in Canada, with more than 216,000 cases confirmed.
Public Health England reported Friday the number of confirmed Delta cases in the U.K. had grown 80 per cent in the last week, to almost 76,000. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had to delay plans to fully lift all public health restrictions next week, with plans to keep the final limitations in place at least another month.
Tam says the variant is a concern because one dose of vaccine isn’t as effective against it and it underscores the need for Canada to keep picking up the pace on second doses.
Two doses of the vaccines Canada is using are believed to offer very good protection against Delta, and even one dose has been found to be good at preventing serious illness.
All provinces are warning against the existence of Delta. At least a dozen cases of it were confirmed this month in the northern Ontario region served by the Porcupine Health Unit, which is the only region in the province that didn’t start to lift lockdown restrictions June 11. The variant has not been confirmed as part of an outbreak in the Kashechewan First Nation in that region.
Delta was involved in an outbreak at a Calgary hospital, and is also worrying health officials in Waterloo, Ont., which is suddenly the province’s COVID-19 hot spot.
Data on the variant in Canada, however, is limited and it hasn’t yet been added to the Health Canada website reporting variant cases. Only Alpha, Beta (the B. 1.351 variant identified in South Africa, and Gamma (the P. 1 variant first identified in Brazil), are listed on Canada’s website.
That site also hasn’t adjusted the names to use the Greek alphabet now preferred by the World Health Organization. A spokeswoman for Health Canada told The Canadian Press in early June that Delta would be added to it in “the coming weeks.”
When asked again this week, the same answer was provided.
Dr. Howard Njoo, the deputy chief public health officer, said data gathering on the variant hasn’t been easy and there is a lag in reporting.
“There are obviously some issues we need to work on,” he said, noting there “are probably more cases” than we have seen reported.
He said, however, the data provinces and territories do have suggest most of the Delta cases are being found in people who aren’t vaccinated.
Editor’s note: The Canadian Press erroneously reported June 18 that the Delta variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 was believed to be the driver of a major outbreak in Kashechewan First Nation in northern Ontario. In fact, while at least a dozen cases of it have been confirmed in the northern Ontario region served by the Porcupine Health Unit, the Delta variant has not been confirmed as part of the outbreak in Kashechewan.
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