Worldwide stats provided by worldometers put the global COVID-19 number of reported cases today at 84,443,337. (Deaths: 1,836,588 and Recovered: 59,749,842)
I emphasize reported because there is a wide variance in testing and manner of reporting from country to country and place to place.
As of 6:00 a.m. ET on Saturday January 2, 2021:
Health Canada reported 572,982 confirmed cases of COVID-19, to date. 72,927 cases are active, there have been 15,472 deaths and 484,583 people have recovered.
The official Province of Ontario website is reporting 182,159 total confirmed cases and 4,530 total deaths. 20,558 are active. Currently, there are 1235 people are in hospital with 337 of those in ICU. 210 are on a ventilator. 156,012 cases have been resolved. Hospitalizations in Ontario are steadily rising and of note, the total capacity number for ICU beds is 350.
Quebec continues to have the highest reported cases in the country with 199,822. (21,612 are active)
The Region of Durham reported 7,325 confirmed cases of COVID-19 (619 active). The site reports 22 current outbreaks (Hospitals, LTCF's and Retirement Homes) with 59 outbreaks having been "concluded." Clarington rose to 524 cases. (56 are in isolation, 459 are resolved and 8 people have passed away. Hospitalized in Clarington currently: "1") School and Child Care Center outbreaks sit at "6", with 28 having been concluded.
In international news,
UK reactivates emergency COVID-19 hospitals, closes London primary schools. Britain reactivated emergency hospitals built at the start of the pandemic and shut primary schools in London on Friday to counter the rapid spread of a much more infectious variant of the coronavirus. The announcement comes just days after the Royal London Hospital told staff in an email it was now in “disaster medicine mode” and unable to provide high standard critical care. With the capital one of the areas worst-hit by the new variant, which is up to 70% more infectious, the government also decided to close all London primary schools, reversing a decision made just two days ago.
India approves AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine. India has approved the COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, paving the way for a huge immunisation campaign in the world’s second most populous country. Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters on Saturday the vaccine had been given the green light on Friday, confirming what sources close to the matter had told Reuters. It is the first COVID-19 vaccine to be approved for emergency use by India, which has the highest number of infections after the United States, and comes on the day the country is running a nationwide mock drill for vaccine delivery. Javadekar said at least three more vaccines were waiting to be approved - local company Bharat Biotch’s COVAXIN, Zydus Cadila’s ZyCoV-D and Russia’s Sputnik-V. “India is perhaps the only country where at least four vaccines are getting ready,” he said.
First known U.S. case of highly infectious coronavirus variant found in Colorado. Colorado has discovered a case of a highly infectious coronavirus variant first detected in the United Kingdom, Colorado Governor Jared Polis said on Tuesday, the first known case in the United States. “Today we discovered Colorado’s first case of the COVID-19 variant B.1.1.7, the same variant discovered in the UK,” Polis said on Twitter.
In national news,
How Canadians will know when it's their turn to get vaccinated. COVID-19 vaccine is currently in 1st phase of rollout to priority groups. With the recent announcement that Health Canada has approved Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine, the second being made available to the public, Canadians are likely wondering when it will be their turn to get inoculated. But with the country currently in the first phase of vaccine rollout, that's still unclear, with much depending on what they do and where they live. It's up to each individual province and territory to decide how the vaccine will be administered. But generally, they are following the recommendations put forward by the federal government's National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI). The advisory committee made these recommendations using experts in the fields of pediatrics, infectious diseases, immunology, pharmacy, nursing, epidemiology, pharmacoeconomics, social science and public health. Who is getting vaccinated first?
For the first phase of the vaccine rollout plan, NACI advised that initial doses should go to these four groups:
Residents and staff of long-term care homes.
Adults 70 and older, beginning with people 80 and older, then decreasing by five-year increments to 70 as supply becomes available.
Health-care workers, including all those who work in clinical settings, and personal support workers who come in direct contact with patients.
Adults in Indigenous communities, where infection can have disproportionate consequences.
Happy New Year, your Canada Pension Plan contribution just went up! Feds refuse to include COVID-19 adjustment as CPP premiums hiked. Employees and employers are not only paying a higher rate into the plan — as are self-employed members — but some workers will pay CPP premiums on a larger share of their income. As part of a deal inked four years ago between the provinces and federal government, annual increases are slowly raising the rate of premiums in an effort to eventually double CPP payments. That doubling of payments will still take decades to implement and will help younger workers as opposed to those in middle age or near retirement. As of Jan. 1, the contribution rates for employees and employers rose from 5.25% to 5.45%. Self-employed members of CPP saw an increase from 10.5% to 10.9%. Oh, and for those that have worked hard and increased their income you get a special treat; Another change is the maximum amount that CPP premiums are charged on. In 2020 CPP was charged on the first $58,700 of income. The maximum pensionable earnings was supposed to rise by $1,500 to $60,200 but instead has been increased to $61,600.
In Ontario,
(And yet AGAIN from the "Don't do what Donny Don't does" file) Rod's St. Barts ruse had more planning than D-Day. Inevitably, the cover up is almost always worse than the crime. Former Ontario Finance Minister Rod Phillips gambled on a bogus, feel-good Christmas hearthside narrative and lost. Audacious. Brazen. Bold. Blindly entitled. The most disturbing thing about Phillips’ St. Barts vacation is the level of planning that went into the cover up. The level of detail in the deception from Phillips clearly shows that he, and those around him, wanted this well hidden from the public. Phillips didn’t just head to the Caribbean and stay silent, he was active on social media, even interacting with constituents in ways that were meant to make them believe he was in Ajax. It’s one thing for Phillips to make people believe he lives in Ajax while actually living in Toronto’s ritzy Rosedale neighbourhood, it’s quite another to fake which country you are actually in.
Ajax MPP Phillips resigns as finance minister. Pickering-Uxbridge MPP Peter Bethlenfalvy will be taking on the role. In the wake of his controversial vacation trip to St. Barts over Christmas, Rod Phillips has resigned as the provincial finance minister. Phillips tendered his resignation following the uproar over his trip to the Caribbean island despite the Ontario government urging people not to travel unless it was essential, due to the pandemic. Pickering-Uxbridge MPP Peter Bethlenfalvy will be taking on the role of finance minister while keeping his position as president of the treasury board.
Group calls for military intervention in Ontario long-term care homes. A non-profit that represents health-care professionals and patients called Friday for military intervention to help control outbreaks of COVID-19 in Ontario's long-term care homes. Redeploying the Canadian Armed Forces to the hard-hit facilities is not the Ontario Health Coalition's first choice, the group's executive director said, but short-term options are scarce. “The issue is that we're in such an emergency,” Natalie Mehra said. “There are so many homes with outbreaks that are growing extremely quickly, the death counts are mounting, and the hospitals are overstretched now.” Mehra said hospitals are treating a worrying number of patients, and some are experiencing outbreaks of their own. As of Thursday -- the most recently available data -- the province was reporting 1,235 people in hospital with COVID-19, including 337 in ICU. The same day, the province said there were 187 long-term care homes experiencing active outbreaks of COVID-19. North York General Hospital, which has taken over management at Tendercare Living Centre in Toronto, said 52 residents have died due to an outbreak at the home.
In local news,
On December 31, 2020, 140 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed in Durham. Another death was also reported bringing the death toll in the region to 239. Of those who have died 202 were residents at long-term care and retirement homes. To date 7,325 cases have been reported in Durham with 6,387 of those cases now listed as resolved. There are currently 699 active cases in the region. Of the active cases 662 people are isolating at home and 37 are in the hospital. Twelve of the people in hospital are in the ICU. It’s important to note that the regional data for 35 confirmed cases is still under investigation. Not all of the cases under investigation are new as of Thursday. Some of the cases that were added to regional totals are actually from previous days.
Durham's COVID-19 puppies in unique situation. Puppies born in early pandemic days will be one year old soon. The dogs born in the early days of COVID-19 aren’t so little anymore. Since training facilities were closed in the beginning of the pandemic, puppies may not have received the proper training they needed, and could end up with behavioural issues. But it’s still too early to tell if this will be a trend. Experts agree puppies being adopted during COVID-19 may be missing out on one thing: proper social skills. The Animal Guardian Society (TAGS), a Durham-based pet rescue, also provides dog training classes — it’s mandatory to take them when adopting a dog from the organization. The training facility shut its doors for a short time in the spring when the province was in lockdown, but classes have since resumed outdoors.
Musing,
“You’re off to great places, today is your day. Your mountain is waiting, so get on your way.” (Dr. Seuss)
Is everyone else as angry at Rod Phillips as I am? Or, have people just become disullisioned and given up?
Lock down guidelines are being largely disregarded by the residents of Ontario and the daily increase in case numbers refelect this. Is it confusion, leadership, lock down fatigue or a combination of these and other factors? I watched the news on New Years Eve which showed crowds at Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto, many with small children in tow!
Have you ever....re-gifted?
Did you know....the origin of Boxing Day? It began as an ecclesiastical celebration that stems from the appointment of Stephen by the Apostles as one of seven deacons to attend to the distribution of alms to the poorer members of the Church.
On this day in history, in 1971, Football fans crushed in stadium stampede.
66 football (soccer) fans are killed in a stampede at a stadium in Glasgow, Scotland, as they attempt to leave a game after a late goal by the home team. Initial reports suggested that the disaster was caused by fans returning to their seats after hearing of the last goal, but in fact it was simply the crush of spectators all leaving at the same time on the same stairway that led to tragedy. This was not the first time that disaster had struck the stadium.
13 coal miners are trapped in Sago Mine disaster; 12 die.
An explosion rocks the Sago Mine in Sago, West Virginia on January 2, 2006. 13 coal miners were trapped, and all but one eventually died. The tragedy, exacerbated by false reports that 12 of the miners had been rescued, brought scrutiny upon the media, the company that owned the mine and the administration of then-president George W. Bush.
Today is - NATIONAL BUFFET DAY, NATIONAL CREAM PUFF DAY, NATIONAL PERSONAL TRAINER AWARENESS DAY and NATIONAL SCIENCE FICTION DAY
The Bank of Canada unclaimed balances portal can be found here.
supportontariomade.ca
Here is how to clean your non-medical mask.
To book a COVID-19 test in Durham Region, click here.
Lakeridge Health Mental Health Clinic 905-440-7534 or toll free at 1-833-392-7363 (Monday-Friday 9am-4pm)
Live coronavirus map of Canada: Tracking every case of COVID-19 in the country.
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