Coronavirus: What's happening in Canada and around the world Friday
CBC News | Posted: August 27, 2021 12:20 PM | Last Updated: August 28, 2021
Canada's most-populous province to announce vaccine passport next week
The latest:
- Ontario to institute vaccine passport system, sources say.
- U.S. intelligence agencies remain divided on COVID-19 origins after review.
- U.S. Open spectators required to show proof of vaccination for entry.
- Does delta cause more severe COVID-19? Here's what we know — and don't.
- Moderna's vaccine approved for 12- to 17-year-olds in Canada.
- What do we know about breakthrough COVID-19 cases? Experts break down the science.
- Canadian private long-term care providers announce vaccine mandate for staff.
- Frosh week to go hybrid at several Ontario universities as cases climb.
- INTERACTIVE | Where is the coronavirus pandemic getting better or worse?
- Have a coronavirus question or news tip for CBC News? Email: COVID@cbc.ca
Ontario will announce a form of proof-of-vaccine certification — commonly known as a "vaccine passport" — for the province, sources tell CBC News.
The plan is expected to be revealed early next week. Sources with knowledge of the plan spoke on condition of confidentiality because they weren't authorized to speak publicly.
The implementation of the COVID-19 vaccine passport will be discussed in a cabinet meeting scheduled for Tuesday. Sources say while some cabinet members are opposed to a vaccine passport, the program will go ahead.
The possibility of the implementation of the vaccine passport was first reported by Global News.
-From CBC News, last updated at 4:40 p.m. ET
What's happening across Canada
LISTEN | 4th wave for whom?
- British Columbia reports 867 new cases.
- Alberta reports 1,168 new cases.
- Saskatchewan reports 258 new cases.
- Manitoba reports 31 new cases.
- Ontario reports 781 new cases.
- Quebec reports 612 new cases.
- Newfoundland and Labrador reports 7 new cases.
- New Brunswick reports 16 new cases.
- Nova Scotia reports 9 new cases.
- Prince Edward Island reports 5 new cases.
- Up to 30 per cent of non-urgent surgeries in Edmonton to be delayed in COVID-19 response.
- Pandemic delays leave refugee applicants in Canada in legal limbo.
What's happening around the world
As of Friday evening, more than 215.1 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University's COVID-19 case tracker. The reported global death toll stood at more than 4.4 million.
In the Americas, Argentine prosecutors have charged President Alberto Fernandez with allegedly breaking a mandatory quarantine, local media reported, when he and his partner hosted a birthday party last year with friends.
In the United States, intelligence agencies remain divided on the origins of the coronavirus but believe China's leaders did not know about the virus before the start of the pandemic, according to results released Friday of a review ordered by U.S. President Joe Biden.
Meanwhile, the country has more than 100,000 coronavirus patients in hospital — the highest level in eight months, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as a resurgence of COVID-19 spurred by the highly contagious delta variant strains the nation's health-care system.
The U.S. state of Arizona surpassed one million COVID-19 cases Friday, becoming the 13th state to reach that milestone.
In Africa, South Africa will this weekend receive 2.2 million Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses donated by the U.S. to add to the 5.6 million doses it received from that country in July. The new doses come as the country continues to battle an extended resurgence of COVID-19 infections and is racing to vaccinate 67 per cent of its 60 million people by February.
The U.K. has donated additional 592,880 doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine to Nigeria, the British High Commission in Abuja has said, raising the total number of vaccine doses it has shared with Africa's most populous country in August to 1,292,640. The doses will be a boost for the West African nation where some hundreds of thousands who received the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine are still awaiting their second shot.
Sudan received on Friday a shipment of 218,400 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine as a donation from France, according to UNICEF.
In the Asia-Pacific region, a contaminant found in a batch of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccines delivered to Japan is believed to be a metallic particle, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported, citing sources at the health ministry.
India administered more than 10 million vaccine doses on Friday, a national record that Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed as a "momentous feat" for the country ahead of fears of another surge in infections.
New Zealand's government has extended a strict nationwide lockdown through Tuesday as it tries to quash its first outbreak of the coronavirus in six months. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Friday the government expects to keep Auckland, where most of the cases have been found, in full lockdown for at least two more weeks.
In Australia, the country's second-most populous state, Victoria, reported 64 new locally acquired COVID-19 cases in the 24-hour period to Friday evening, health officials said on Saturday. Australia, still largely unvaccinated, has been battling a surge of cases involving the highly-infectious delta variant. More than half of all Australians have been in weeks-long lockdowns as officials in Sydney and Melbourne, the country's largest cities, and the capital Canberra struggle to quell the outbreak.
In the Middle East, Iran on Thursday reported 36,758 new cases of COVID-19 and 694 additional deaths.
In Europe, the Danish government will no longer consider COVID-19 as "a socially critical disease in Denmark," citing the large number of vaccinations in the Scandinavian country.
The European Union on Friday moved to reinstate COVID-19 travel restrictions like quarantine and testing requirements for unvaccinated citizens of the U.S. and five other countries, two diplomats told Reuters. EU countries started a procedure to remove the U.S. from a list of countries whose citizens can travel to the 27-nation bloc without additional COVID-19 restrictions. The non-binding list currently has 23 countries on it, including Japan, Qatar and Ukraine.
Also Friday, Italian Premier Mario Draghi said the uneven global economic recovery and the "grossly unequal" access to COVID-19 vaccines, especially in Africa, are making it harder to end the pandemic.
Draghi on Friday remotely addressed a meeting of the G-20 Compact with Africa — an initiative begun in 2017 to promote private investment, particularly in infrastructure, in Africa.
Draghi noted that close to 60 per cent of the population of high-income countries have received at least one dose of the vaccine, while in low-income nations, only 1.4 per cent have.
-From The Associated Press, Reuters and CBC News, last updated at 8:45 p.m. ET