Coronavirus: What's happening in Canada and around the world on Tuesday
CBC News National Town Hall on Canada's vaccine rollout begins at 8 p.m. ET
The latest:
- More vaccine challenges, as Johnson & Johnson warns Canada of production problems.
- World economy bouncing back faster than expected, OECD says.
- A year after Canada's 1st COVID-19 fatality, health officials reflect on pandemic death toll.
- Ontario reports 1,185 new cases, 6 more deaths.
- Alberta set to expand vaccine eligibility.
- Canadians shouldn't shop around for vaccines with higher efficacy rates, experts say.
- New outbreak in B.C. care home where residents and staff were already vaccinated.
- INTERACTIVE | Where is the pandemic getting better or worse?
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada has been warned of manufacturing problems plaguing the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccine.
Health Canada authorized the viral vector vaccine developed by J&J's subsidiary, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, last week, saying it had been found to be safe and effective.
Canada pre-ordered 10 million doses of the vaccine, which is the first and only one in Canada's vaccine plan that requires only one dose.
But Trudeau says Canada still doesn't have a date for when it should receive the first deliveries.
He says several conversations with the company indicate they are facing some production delays.
The revelation follows reports in several European countries that they expect smaller deliveries of the J&J vaccine in April, and announcements by the company that deliveries to the United States this month will be smaller than hoped.
WATCH | Trudeau addresses Johnson & Johnson's production problems:
What else is happening across Canada
As of 6:15 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Canada had reported 893,523 cases of COVID-19, with 30,179 cases considered active. A CBC News tally of deaths stood at 22,304.
In Atlantic Canada, Nova Scotia reported five new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday. The number of active cases in the province stood at 26, with one COVID-19 patient in intensive care.
Dr. Robert Strang, the province's chief medical officer of health, said at a briefing that the province is ready to "scale up our vaccine program and to get this vaccine into arms quickly."
In Prince Edward Island, health officials had no new cases to report on Tuesday. But Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Heather Morrison said she is still concerned about the province's COVID-19 situation. P.E.I., which has not recorded a single death or hospitalization attributed to the novel coronavirus, has 28 active cases — the most the island has seen since the pandemic began.
In both Newfoundland and Labrador and New Brunswick, health officials reported one new case on Tuesday. Health officials in New Brunswick also reported one additional death, bringing the death toll in the province to 29.
WATCH | What's behind Canada's confusion about AstraZeneca's vaccine?
Ontario reported 1,185 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday and six additional deaths. According to updated figures, COVID-19 hospitalizations stood at 689, with 290 people in intensive care units across the province.
Health officials in Quebec on Tuesday reported 650 new cases of COVID-19 and 12 additional deaths. A provincial dashboard put the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations at 576, with 110 people in intensive care.
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Across the North, there were no new cases reported in Yukon, the Northwest Territories or Nunavut on Tuesday. Nunavut Premier Joe Savikataaq said in a tweet that there remained "23 active cases in the territory, all in Arviat."
All the same, chief public health officer Dr. Michael Patterson says restrictions in community will start to be lifted as of Wednesday. Businesses, workplaces and daycares can reopen, while schools can reopen part-time.
Patterson says the decision to lift restrictions was made because there is no evidence of COVID-19 circulating uncontrolled in the community.
In the Prairie provinces, Manitoba reported 66 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday and one additional death. Health officials say 13 of those new cases have been identified as variants of concern.
In Saskatchewan, health officials reported 113 new cases of COVID-19 and one additional death on Tuesday. The province is relaxing some restrictions, allowing indoor home gatherings of up to 10 people, and increasing capacity for worship services.
An epidemiologist in the province is warning against lifting restrictions too quickly, pointing out the province still has the highest per capita seven-day average of daily new cases.
Alberta reported 255 new cases of COVID-19 and six additional deaths Tuesday as it prepared to expand vaccine eligibility to more people.
In British Columbia, health officials reported 550 new cases of COVID-19 and two additional deaths Tuesday, and faced questions about what happened to the vaccine booking system in the Vancouver area, where only a few hundred people were able to make appointments, as thousands registered in other regions.
-From CBC News and The Canadian Press, last updated at 5:30 p.m. ET
Join us as experts answer some of your vaccine questions on a special CBC News National Town Hall Tuesday, March 9. We'll discuss the differences between vaccines, how vaccine passports work and where you might be in the queue. The special starts at 8 p.m. ET on CBC Gem and CBC News Network, and 10 p.m. local time (10:30 p.m. NST) on CBC Television.
What's happening around the world
WATCH | U.S. guidance a glimpse into life after COVID-19 vaccines:
As of late afternoon on Tuesday, more than 117.4 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide, with more than 66.4 million of those cases listed as recovered by Johns Hopkins University, which maintains a case-tracking tool. The global death toll stood at more than 2.6 million.
A senior World Health Organization official said that so-called "vaccine passports" for COVID-19 should not be used for international travel because of numerous concerns, including ethical considerations that coronavirus vaccines are not easily available globally.
At a press briefing on Monday, WHO emergencies chief Dr. Michael Ryan said there are "real practical and ethical considerations" for countries considering using vaccine certification as a condition for travel, noting that the UN health agency advises against it for now.
"Vaccination is just not available enough around the world and is not available certainly on an equitable basis," Ryan said. WHO has previously noted that it's still unknown how long immunity lasts from the numerous licensed COVID-19 vaccines and that data is still being collected.
Ryan also noted the strategy might be unfair to people who cannot be vaccinated for certain reasons and that requiring vaccine passports might allow "inequity and unfairness [to] be further branded into the system."
In the Asia-Pacific region, Indonesia has received about 1.1 million ready-to-use doses of vaccine produced by AstraZeneca under the global vaccine-sharing COVAX facility.
India's federal government denied any shortage of vaccine doses in a big northwestern state and said it was sending supplies around the country based on demand and consumption patterns.
Singapore has launched a travel "bubble" business hotel that allows executives to do face-to-face meetings without a risk of exposure to the coronavirus, in one of the world's first such facilities.The hotel has meeting rooms fitted with airtight glass panels to reduce the risk of transmission and even has a special compartment with an ultraviolet light to sanitize documents so they can be shared between participants.
In the Americas, Brazil registered 1,972 new COVID-19 deaths in a single day on Tuesday, a record, according to the country's health ministry.
The country had 70,764 new cases of coronavirus, reaching a total of 11.12 million infections. Brazil has registered 168,370 coronavirus deaths.
Thousands of Paraguayans gathered around Congress in Asuncion on Monday, marking the fourth day of protests amid calls to impeach President Mario Abdo over the government's handling of the health crisis.
The U.S. House of Representatives will take up President Joe Biden's administration's $1.9 trillion US COVID-19 relief bill on Wednesday, officials said on Tuesday, with the chamber's expected approval enabling the Democratic president to sign the legislation into law later this week.
South Africa remained the hardest-hit country in Africa, with more than 1.5 million reported cases of COVID-19 and more than 50,800 deaths.
In Europe, the first Czech COVID-19 patient to be sent outside of the country was transported to Poland on Tuesday from a region that had declared its intensive care units (ICUs) were full. As Czech ICUs reach their limits, the nurses are so busy that they have no time to eat, drink, or go to the toilet. The Czech Republic activated a plan to move dozens of its patients to hospitals in Germany, Poland and Switzerland. The government has also ordered medical and other students and personnel at outpatient clinics to help out at hospitals.
Russia's Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19 could be produced in Europe for the first time after a commercial deal to produce it in Italy was signed by the Moscow-based RDIF sovereign wealth fund and Swiss-based pharmaceutical company Adienne.
Hungary set records Tuesday for the number of COVID-19 patients being treated in Hungarian hospitals and the number of new daily virus deaths amid a powerful surge in cases.
Nearly 350 people in Hungary were hospitalized with the virus in the last 24 hours, bringing the number of hospitalizations on Tuesday to 8,270, breaking the previous record of 8,045 set on Dec. 8. The number of patients on ventilators also set a new record with 833. Health-care experts say that could within days reach the threshold of 1,000, the maximum number of critical patients the country's health system can handle.
A new round of lockdown measures went into effect in Hungary on Monday requiring most shops to close for two weeks. Kindergartens and primary schools have also been closed until April 7.
The number of people treated in French intensive care units for COVID-19 reached 3,849 on Monday, while total hospitalizations for the disease increased for the second day running, to 25,195.
In the Middle East, Jordan is planning to extend a curfew and close some businesses, after it posted a near record one-day tally of cases, driven by a more contagious variant.
Iran's total reported cases was surpassed 1.7 million on Tuesday. The country has recorded more than 60,800 deaths.
-From The Associated Press and Reuters, last updated at 5:25 p.m. ET
With files from Reuters, The Associated Press and CBC News
