Ontario deploys checkpoints and shuts down construction in Virus Battle

Photographer: Galit Rodan / Bloomberg

In a Hail Mary effort to control a third wave of Covid-19, Ontario revealed its strictest measures to date to restrict the movement of people, setting up checkpoints with neighboring Quebec and Manitoba for the first time in the pandemic.

Prime Minister Doug Ford’s government said it will extend an urgent stay-at-home order from four weeks to six weeks. The province is forcing non-essential construction sites to close and shut down recreational facilities such as golf courses, playgrounds and soccer fields. Essential stores such as supermarkets and pharmacies will have to operate at 25% of the usual capacity.

“Friends, we are losing the battle between the variants and vaccines,” Ford said at a news conference Friday afternoon. “The reality is that there are very few options left.” Schools, restaurants, personal care and many shopkeepers were already closed.

What is really needed are more vaccines. If the county could triple the daily number of vaccinations to about 300,000 a day, that would greatly increase the chances of getting the virus under control, health officials said Friday, Ford reiterated. “Until we have more vaccines, we need tougher measures.”

Fortunes change

New Covid-19 cases in Canada are rapidly increasing and overtaking the US

Source: Bloomberg

The province is short of new steps and begs residents to take restrictions seriously.

Ontario reported 4,812 new cases in 24 hours, more than half of Canada’s total and a record for the region where nearly 40% of residents live. This week Canada overtook the US for the first time in the number of new Covid-19 cases per capita.

“Perhaps the biggest problem we’re facing right now is that we’re just too tired to notice,” said Adalsteinn Brown, a physician who co-chairs the Ontario Covid-19 Science Advisory Table, in a newsletter earlier Friday. The daily cases will exceed 15,000 per day in June without greater efforts to slow the spread, the advisory group said.

Ontario needs to be “laser-focused” on vaccinating people in the most affected areas and ensuring vital workplaces are safe, Brown said. Even with increased vigilance, the county’s intensive care units will have more than 1,000 virus patients in the coming weeks, based on current cases, he said.

About 22% of Canadians have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, compared to 38% in the US and 49% in the UK, according to the Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker. Securing adequate supplies has been an ongoing problem. This week, some vaccination clinics in Toronto had to close their doors because they were out of doses.

Moderna cuts

On Friday, Moderna Inc. Justin Trudeau’s vaccine tsar has announced that Canada will receive barely half of the Covid-19 shots expected in late April, due to a slower-than-expected start to the planned production increases. Deliveries to the UK and other countries were also cut.

Procurement Minister Anita Anand said Friday’s shipments this month will now contain 650,000 doses instead of the planned 1.2 million doses. The manufacturer also warned that a whopping 2 million of the 12.3 million recordings scheduled for the end of June will instead be delivered by the end of September.

However, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also announced an agreement to buy 8 million more Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech SE doses. Four million are expected to arrive in May, with two million each expected in June and July.

‘State of crisis’

The Canadian Medical Association called for urgent action to address the “crisis unfolding in several provinces.” Health care resources, including vaccines, should be moved across provincial and territorial boundaries to areas where the system is overwhelmed, the association said.