COVID-19 vaccines could come to Hamilton as early as next week, official says

Paul Johnson, the director of the city's emergency operations centre, says if the provincial roll out of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine goes smoothly, health-care workers in Hamilton may get their shots as early as next week.

The news came during a city council meeting on Wednesday morning.

"There will be small numbers to begin with ... if all things go well with the pilot sites in Toronto and Ottawa, it could be next week," he said.

Some of Canada's first doses of the vaccine arrived in Hamilton Sunday evening — but they didn't stay long, moving to Toronto and Ottawa for the first phase of the province's three-phase vaccine roll out strategy.

Dr. Elizabeth Richardson, the city's medical officer of health, said Hamilton Public Health Services (HPHS) hasn't provided daily updates about the vaccine because of the "very dynamic" situation, which is being handled by the province and federal government.

"We have a great group of people from across public health, the hospitals, primary care who are all working together with long-term care homes and retirement homes to get as ready as we can," she said.

The vaccine will reach health-care workers first and be available at hospitals because the vaccine needs to be stored at -70 C.

Hamilton is expected to be one of the first Ontario cities to get the vaccine because of how many COVID-19 cases it is facing.

City to ask Ontario to prevent stores in lockdown from selling non-essential items

Hours later — in an effort to level the playing field for small  businesses — city council passed a motion to ask the province to prevent retail giants and big box stores from selling non-essential items if the city enters lockdown.

The current rules close down small businesses that don't sell essential items, but continue to allow department stores like Walmart, Loblaw, Metro and others to sell non-essentials along with essential items.

City council also voted to ask for clear guidelines around outdoor dining. 

Public health to limit details on Hamilton COVID-19 deaths

Starting Thursday, HPHS will no longer share daily updates on specific information on deaths of people who had COVID-19 because it says the rise in cases has increased its workload.

That would include the patient's age, sex and the name of their congregate setting.

"This new way of reporting deaths is in alignment with neighbouring municipalities, and provides a consistent approach to reporting," read the statement from spokesperson Jacqueline Durlov.

As an alternative, public health will include a graph with the deaths per age group and the cumulative number of deaths on its website.

"As always, the goal of Public Health Services' public-facing reporting is to provide people with information to help them navigate the pandemic and the personal risk associated with COVID-19 while out in the local community, while maintaining a reasonable workload, timely data reporting and privacy for the residents of Hamilton," read Durlov's email.

City to freeze recreation program fees

City council unanimously passed a motion to freeze 2021 recreation program user fees at this year's levels.

It would cost the city an estimated $289,000, but the motion calls on using funding from the provincial and federal government to cover the cost.

Ward 6 Coun. Tom Jackson, who proposed the motion, said he wanted to spare families an additional burden.

Active COVID-19 cases dropping in Hamilton

Hamilton reported 37 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday and 752 active cases — a drop-off from the recent surge in positive tests.

In other good news, the weekly rate of new cases per 100,000 people also fell from 114.8 to 104.5.

There have been 4,405 cases since March and 3,487 cases are resolved.

But two more people who had COVID-19 have died. A man in his early 90s staying at Grace Villa and a man in his late 80s staying at Juravinski Hospital and Cancer Centre died.

The COVID-19 outbreak at Grace Villa is the city's largest and is linked to the most deaths. There are 177 cases there (118 residents, 59 staff).

The Juravinski Hospital and Cancer Centre has five outbreaks that have infected 65 people (30 residents, 33 staff, two visitors).

Five more staff and one more resident at Shalom Village Nursing Home are also testing positive as a result of the outbreak. There have been 78 cases since Dec. 9 (43 residents, 34 staff, one visitor).

There are also three new outbreaks — a staff member at Cathmar Manor tested positive for the virus, an employee at Parkview Nursing Centre is infected and two students at Frank Panabaker North School have COVID-19.

3rd Franco's No Frills worker has COVID-19

A third employee at Franco's No Frills at 640 Queenston Rd. tested positive for the virus.

"We have been working with the local public health team and have taken a number of steps to minimize risk, including increased sanitization protocols and enforcing social distancing practices in the store. The store also arranged for additional cleaning," Loblaw wrote in a statement to CBC News.

"Team members who worked closely with these individuals are now at home in self-isolation, monitoring for any symptoms."

The last day each employee worked was Dec. 5, Dec. 6 and Dec. 9.

No outbreak has been reported.

Millennium Trail Manor has 2nd outbreak in Niagara 

Millennium Trail Manor, a long-term care home in Niagara Falls, is facing its second COVID-19 outbreak.

Niagara Health, which is temporarily overseeing the home, stated the outbreak at the Stamford Unit has spread to the Chippawa Unit.

There are 11 active cases on the two units, according to Niagara Health.

"A total of six residents and five staff have tested positive for the virus. The extension of the outbreak to the Chippawa Unit follows confirmation today of two residents testing positive," the hospital network said.

Derek McNally, executive vice president of clinical services, said staff are working hard to stop the virus from spreading.

"Outbreak safety measures are in place, which include twice daily screening of all residents and staff, enhanced cleaning, dedicated staffing and full personal protective equipment," he said in a release.

In-person visiting restrictions remain in place at Millennium Trail Manor and essential caregivers are the only visitors allowed inside.

The Ministry of Long-Term Care issued an order for Niagara Health to oversee the facility on Oct. 27 for 90 days after a month-long outbreak. Public health declared the outbreak over on Nov. 28. 

Niagara saw 51 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, bringing the total to 2,723 since the start of the pandemic. That's 113 cases in two days.

There were also three more deaths, bringing the total to 92. There are 416 active cases and 19 outbreaks, and 2,181 cases have been resolved.

6 staff at Brantford Walmart have COVID-19

Six employees at the Walmart Supercentre on King George Road have COVID-19, the company says, but Brant County Public Health Unit says only two cases are linked to the outbreak.

"We're keeping the associates in our thoughts and wish them a speedy recovery. Out of an abundance of caution, associates identified as being in close prolonged contact have been directed to self-isolate. We are in contact with local public health," Walmart spokesperson Felicia Fefer said.

The employees last worked on Nov. 9, Nov. 11, Nov. 19, Nov. 30, Dec. 4 and Dec. 6, respectively.

Walmart says the store continues to do wellness checks for staff at the start of each shift, limiting the number of customers in the building and taking on other measures to stop the spread of the virus.

Brant and Brantford have reported eight new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total to 681.

There are 95 active cases and 581 that are resolved.

Five people who were infected have died. One person remains in hospital.

Haldimand-Norfolk

There are 11 new known COVID-19 cases in Haldimand and Norfolk counties.

There have been 748 confirmed cases since March, including 58 that are active and 652 that are recovered.

Thirty-three people with COVID-19 have died.