Today’s coronavirus news: Ontario reporting 1,342 people hospitalized with COVID-19, 356 in ICU

The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Thursday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.

12 p.m. Quebec is reporting 22 more deaths attributed to the coronavirus Thursday and 93 fewer COVID-19 patients.

The Health Department says there are 1,902 people in hospital with COVID-19, after 120 patients were admitted in the past 24 hours and 213 were discharged.

It says 124 people are in intensive care, a decline of five from the day before.

Health officials are reporting 2,055 new COVID-19 infections that were identified using PCR testing, which is limited to high-risk groups, and they say 9.8 per cent of tests analyzed Wednesday were positive.

10:35 a.m. Health Canada on Thursday approved the COVID-19 vaccine from Novavax.

Its protein-based vaccine against COVID-19 is the first of its kind in Canada. The regulator has approved its use in people over the age of 18.

The vaccine requires two doses given three weeks apart.

“The efficacy of the vaccine was established and the vaccine was well tolerated by participants,” says the decision on Health Canada’s website.

Read the full story from the Star’s Jacques Gallant

10:25 a.m. (updated) Ontario is reporting 1,342 people in hospital with COVID-19 and 356 patients in ICU.

That's down from 1,403 hospitalizations and 364 people in intensive care the previous day.

There are also 36 more COVID-19 deaths being reported today.

Ontario is reporting 2,327 new COVID-19 cases, though Public Health Ontario has said the true number is likely higher because of limits on access to PCR tests.

Capacity limits are lifting today in more Ontario settings as the province continues to roll back pandemic restrictions in light of improving COVID-19 indicators.

10:10 a.m. Vaccination requirements for restaurants, gyms and other public settings in Ontario may soon be lifting, but mandates for staff and even visitors in some hospitals will likely be in place much longer.

Premier Doug Ford declined last year to implement a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy for staff at hospitals - though only one hospital was opposed to it - but many put their own policies in place. The Canadian Press asked more than a dozen of those hospitals if they would be lifting their mandates as the province removes its vaccine certificate system next month, and all said no.

"We are not out of the pandemic yet," said Cambridge Memorial Hospital's president and CEO, Patrick Gaskin.

10 a.m. Police have warned that a crackdown is coming in downtown Ottawa as trucker-led convoy protesters continue to cause chaos in the city. This week, Ottawa police Chief Peter Sloly resigned in response to criticism of the police’s response to the protests.

Follow the Star’s live coverage.

8:10 a.m. Indonesia's confirmed coronavirus infections since the pandemic began crossed 5 million on Thursday, the highest in Southeast Asia, but the related deaths and bed occupancy fueled by the highly transmissible Omicron variant remained lower than in the previous outbreak.

Since Tuesday, daily COVID-19 cases have outpaced July's record that had overwhelmed hospitals on the main island of Java, hitting 63,956 on Thursday. The Health Ministry also reported 206 deaths compared to more than 2,000 a day at the peak of the surge last year. Data showed the bed occupancy rate at 33 per cent, and 25 per cent for intensive case units.

Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin has said that cases and deaths are expected to increase further but hospitals are unlikely to overflow again because Omicron generally causes less severe symptoms.

7:52 a.m. Ontario schools will receive an additional $35 million for reading supports and summer school for children who have struggled with learning loss during the pandemic, sources say.

On Thursday, Education Minister Stephen Lecce will announce the funding along with the annual grants for student needs — known as GSNs — for boards for the 2022-23 school year.

The pandemic-related supports include $25 million for reading assessment and intervention programs as well as a $10-million boost to summer learning, which is on top of the estimated $33.5 million already budgeted for the second year of the program. Another $1.4 million is being set aside to expand online math tutoring.

Read the full story from the Star’s Kristin Rushowy

6:04 a.m.: Countries must avoid tensions and co-operate to support a recovery from the pandemic as it lingers in many parts of the world, Indonesian President Joko Widodo told a gathering of top financial leaders of the world’s largest economies Thursday.

“The winter is coming,” Widodo said in welcoming finance ministers and heads of central banks of the Group of 20 industrial nations.

“The pandemic is far from over, and the global economy is struggling,” he said. “During this situation, no single country could recover alone. All countries are interconnected, no one is isolated.”

The G-20 financial gathering comes as many economies are treading a precarious path between raising costs of borrowing to cool inflation and helping to support recoveries from the pandemic.

Worries over potential conflict in Ukraine are an added unwelcome source of uncertainty, Widodo said, warning against antagonisms at this time.

6:04 a.m.: Japan announced Thursday it will ease its tough COVID-19 border controls by increasing the number of people allowed to enter each day and reduce quarantine requirements following criticism that its current policy is unscientific and xenophobic.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the daily entry cap will be raised to 5,000, including Japanese citizens and foreign residents, from the current 3,500 beginning March 1. The decision is good news for foreign scholars, exchange students and business travellers who have been unable to enter, but does not cover tourists.

He says quarantine requirements for entrants will be shortened to three days from the current seven, and those with proof of a negative COVID-19 test and a booster shot can skip self-isolation.

6:03 a.m.: The nation’s leading health officials said Wednesday that the U.S. is moving closer to the point that COVID-19 is no longer a “constant crisis” as more cities, businesses and sports venues began lifting pandemic restrictions around the country.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during a White House briefing that the government is contemplating a change to its mask guidance in the coming weeks. Noting recent declines in COVID-19 cases, hospital admissions and deaths, she acknowledged “people are so eager” for health officials to ease masking rules and other measures designed to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

“We all share the same goal – to get to a point where COVID-19 is no longer disrupting our daily lives, a time when it won’t be a constant crisis – rather something we can prevent, protect against, and treat,” Walensky said.

With the Omicron variant waning and Americans eager to move beyond the virus, government and business leaders have been out ahead of the CDC in ending virus measures in the last week, including ordering workers back to offices, eliminating mask mandates and no longer requiring proof of vaccine to get into restaurants, bars and sports and entertainment arenas.

6:03 a.m.: President Joe Biden is hoping to use his upcoming State of the Union address to nudge the pandemic into the nation’s rear-view mirror. But it could turn into yet another disruptive display of national tensions and frustration over trying to move past COVID-19.

Biden’s March 1 address to Congress will play out against what Vice President Kamala Harris has called a “malaise” over the persistence of COVID and growing public impatience to get back to normal after two years of pandemic restrictions. Even Democratic-run state and local governments are lifting restrictions as cases, hospitalizations and deaths decline.

However, the State of the Union setting — Capitol Hill — remains one of the most significantly disrupted workplaces in the country, something of a ground zero for culture wars over the lingering restrictions and security concerns from the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.

6:02 a.m.: The omicron wave that assaulted the United States this winter also bolstered its defences, leaving enough protection against the coronavirus that future spikes will likely require much less — if any — dramatic disruption to society.

Millions of individual Americans’ immune systems now recognize the virus and are primed to fight it off if they encounter omicron, or even another variant.

About half of eligible Americans have received booster shots, there have been nearly 80 million confirmed infections overall and many more infections have never been reported. One influential model uses those factors and others to estimate that 73% of Americans are, for now, immune to omicron, the dominant variant, and that could rise to 80% by mid-March.

This will prevent or shorten new illnesses in protected people and reduce the amount of virus circulating overall, likely tamping down new waves. Hospitals will get a break from overwhelmed ICUs, experts agree.

“We have changed,” said Ali Mokdad, a professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle. “We have been exposed to this virus and we know how to deal with it.”

The coronavirus — the current variant or future ones that are sure to pop up — remains a dangerous germ. It is still infecting more than 130,000 Americans and killing more than 2,000 every day. Tens of millions of people remain vulnerable.

And there will be future outbreaks. The notion of a “herd immunity” that could stop the virus has slipped away under the harsh reality of new variants, waning immunity, and the rejection of vaccines by some Americans.

6:02 a.m.: Facing an outbreak of COVID-19 among prisoners, Hong Kong is moving infected inmates to an isolation facility as the city struggles to snuff out a record number of cases by implementing China’s “zero tolerance” strategy.

The Correctional Services Department said Thursday that the Sha Tsui facility on Lantau Island was designated for quarantining infected prisoners, whose numbers are expected to grow.

Seven prisoners had tested positive for COVID-19, while the number of confirmed cases in the southern Chinese financial hub of about 7.5 million people hit 4,285, double the daily average reported earlier in the week.

Health care facilities in Hong Kong are beginning to overflow, and the city’s Caritas Medical Center was forced to treat patients in beds outside the hospital. Others were waiting in tents to be admitted.

People who test positive are required to quarantine either in hospitals if they have serious symptoms or in government-run facilities for light or asymptomatic cases.

6 a.m.: Israel’s prime minister says the country’s coronavirus vaccination “green pass” system will be suspended as new daily cases of COVID-19 continue to decline.

Naftali Bennett said Thursday after meeting with health officials that Israel’s omicron wave “has been broken” and that additional reductions in coronavirus restrictions were forthcoming.

The Green Pass, Israel’s digital vaccination passport, limited entry to indoor venues and large gatherings to people who had recovered from coronavirus or received at least three doses of the vaccine.

Although new infections remain high, Israel’s health ministry has reported a steady decline in serious cases of COVID-19 since the peak of the country’s omicron wave earlier in February.

Israel raced out of the gate last year to vaccinate most of its adult population after striking a deal with Pfizer to trade medical data in exchange for a steady supply of doses. Around 48% of Israel’s 9.4 million people have received three doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine since the country began rolling out immunizations in late 2020. Over 72% of the country has received at least one dose.

At least 9,710 people in Israel have died from coronavirus since the start of the pandemic two years ago.

6 a.m.: Unvaccinated truckers bringing COVID-19 vaccines and medical devices into Canada to combat the pandemic are exempt from testing and quarantine requirements at the border, a government order says.

The exemption is due to the “urgent public health necessity” of the supplies they are transporting, Health Canada states.

The government has given exemptions from testing and quarantine rules for certain people crossing the border into Canada to help tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.

They include unvaccinated and vaccinated people invited by the health minister to help with the COVID-19 “response.”

5:54 a.m.: The symbolism attached to national flags often revolves around patriotism, but experts say the Maple Leaf’s prominent appearance at COVID-19 mandate protests comes at a moment of reflection for Canada.

Canadians might not be known as fervent flag wavers like their U.S. neighbours, but the Maple Leaf’s display at protests on Parliament Hill and at border crossings has given some people pause, said Carmen Celestini, a post-doctoral fellow with the Disinformation Project at Simon Fraser University’s school of communication in Burnaby, B.C.

Read the full story from The Canadian Press.

5:53 a.m.: Ottawa’s interim police chief says officers will clear the streets of people who oppose the government and COVID-19 restrictions in the next few days, warning they are ready to use methods people are not used to seeing in the capital.

Steve Bell made the promise to Ottawa city council at a virtual meeting yesterday after taking on the interim role following the abrupt resignation Tuesday of former chief Peter Sloly.

Police have handed out notices to protesters encamped outside Parliament Hill that warn the Emergencies Act gives them the power to seize vehicles that are part of the nearly three-week-long demonstration and ban people from travelling within a certain area.

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino tabled motions last evening in the House of Commons on the specific powers in the act, and the invoking of the act itself.

The motion is to be debated today, while the Senate must also pass separate motions on the specific powers in the act.

The Conservatives and Bloc Québécois say they will not support the motion, but NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh signalled his party will hold up the minority Liberals, calling the situation a crisis.

5:50 a.m.: Capacity limits are lifting in more Ontario settings as the province continues to roll back pandemic restrictions in light of improving COVID-19 indicators.

Starting today, restaurants, gyms and cinemas that must screen patrons for vaccination against COVID-19 have no limits on capacity.

Other indoor spaces that are using the proof-of-vaccination system are also no longer subject to capacity limits, while sports arenas and theatres can open to half capacity.

Social gatherings and public events can include up to 50 people indoors, and settings deemed higher risk like nightclubs and sex clubs can open to 25 per cent capacity.

Outdoor social gatherings can have up to 100 people and organized events have no limit on the number of people if they are held outdoors.

Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario’s chief medical health officer, is to take questions on the pandemic later this afternoon.