Worldwide stats provided by Worldometers put the global COVID-19 number of reported cases today at 95,560,520. (Deaths: 2,041,355 and Recovered: 68,276,590)
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 Monday January 18, 2021:
Health Canada reported 708,619 confirmed cases of COVID-19, to date. 75,281 cases are active, there have been 18,014 deaths and 615,324 people have recovered.
The official Province of Ontario website is reporting 237,786 total confirmed cases and 5,409 total deaths. 28,893 are active. Currently, there are 1,570 people are in hospital with 395 of those cases currently in ICU. 203,484 cases have been resolved. The government has previously said that once the number of COVID-19 patients in the ICU exceeds 300, it becomes nearly impossible for health-care workers to provide care not related to the disease. Ontario has now surpassed Quebec in active cases. (Ontario hospitalizations are dropping, because more people are dying. Just look at the numbers, it's right there.)
Quebec continues to have the highest reported cases in the country with 242,714. (20,651 are active)
The Region of Durham reported 9,696 confirmed cases of COVID-19 (983 active). Clarington rose to 698 cases, of which 72 are active. Hospitalized in Clarington currently: "3", total deceased: "9"
In international news,
(Hmmmm.....) From Reuters, China's economy picks up speed in fourth quarter, ends 2020 in solid shape after COVID-19 shock. China’s economy picked up speed in the fourth quarter, with growth beating expectations as it ended a rough coronavirus-striken 2020 in remarkably good shape and remained poised to expand further this year even as the global pandemic rages unabated. Gross domestic product grew 2.3% in 2020, official data showed on Monday, making China the only major economy in the world to avoid a contraction last year as many nations struggled to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. And China is expected to continue to power ahead of its peers this year, with GDP set to expand at the fastest pace in a decade at 8.4%, according to a Reuters poll. The world’s second-largest economy has surprised many with the speed of its recovery from the coronavirus jolt, especially as policymakers have also had to navigate tense U.S.-China relations on trade and other fronts. (Gee, it's almost like China knew COVID-19 was going to happen and prepared for it? Naaahhhh....)
In national news,
Cases are spiking in New Brunswick. Quebec and Ontario both reported a drop in the number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 today, even as over 100 people lost their lives to the disease in the two provinces and New Brunswick reported a new single-day high for new infections. New Brunswick announced new restrictions are on the way for one regional hot spot and could be imposed elsewhere after the province reported a new one-day high of 36 new cases. The province’s top doctor announced that the Edmundston Region, home to the majority of the most recent infections, will be moving to the red-alert level of New Brunswick’s pandemic response plan as of Monday morning.
Nova Scotia embraced rapid testing for COVID-19 months ago. Why have other provinces been so slow?. Dr. Lisa Barrett said there has long been a problem with health officials being overly cautious about whether promoting too much testing will encourage risky behaviour. On Nov. 21 in downtown Halifax, N.S., health officials opened a pop-up rapid testing clinic where almost anyone in the community who wanted a 15-minute test for COVID-19 could get one. Volunteers, often with no medical background, were trained to run the tests on the Abbott Panbio antigen devices, which had been approved by Health Canada in early October. It was not meant to be a perfect, mass testing campaign. Positive cases are rare, and the antigen tests are known to miss some. Participants were warned a negative result meant they could still be positive a day or two later. But it was a proactive, innovative effort to find the virus where it might be circulating undetected, and to get community buy-in for staying vigilant. The pop-up clinics have continued ever since, moving around the province, and in the first month tested about one per cent of Nova Scotia’s population. Last weekend, officials started training people in Halifax’s bar and restaurant industry to run rapid tests.
In Ontario,
(250 shots per day? Really, just....250??) The first COVID-19 vaccination site not hosted in an Ontario hospital or long-term care home opens today in Toronto’s Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Until now COVID-19 vaccines have only been administered at 19 hospital sites across Ontario but the city has agreed to open a clinic inside the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in order to help develop a blueprint for how shots could be administered in non-medical settings as soon as this spring. With an aim of administering at least 250 shots per day, Toronto Fire Chief Matthew Pegg said last week the facility would be “scale-able” and capable of increasing output with little notice. Ontario Premier Doug Ford (right) and Toronto Mayor John Tory (centre) are seen at a temporary COVID-19 vaccination site set up inside Metro Toronto Convention Centre on Jan. 17, 2020. The site will run for at least six weeks and will inform how to host vaccination drives in larger settings.
(But, don't leave your house. "Just, stay at home.") Passengers with COVID continue to fly into Pearson. How can planes carrying passengers with COVID-19 continue to fly into Canada? A negative COVID test has been required by Transport Canada since Jan. 7 for anyone boarding a Canada-bound flight, and yet, within 10 days, at least 82 international flights have landed here with COVID-positive passengers since that date. This includes the two Air Transat flights from Haiti that landed in Montreal last week, carrying enough passengers potentially infected with COVID to ensure everyone on the jets was affected. There’s a wrinkle: COVID-19 testing isn’t really available yet to the general public in Haiti so no COVID test will be required to fly here until Jan. 21. So much for flight TS663 en route from Port-au-Prince to Montreal Jan. 17.
In small town news,
Yesterday, Ontario reports 3,422 new COVID-19 cases, including 12 in greater Kawarthas region.
7 new cases in Hastings Prince Edward and 5 in Peterborough, with 2 new outbreaks at congregate living homes in Lakefield and Millbrook.
Musing,
One year ago today, we were in Mexico - Puerto Vallarta. On this date in 2022 (???) we hope to be back in Puerto Vallarta.
“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.” (MARTIN LUTHER KING JR)
Did you "just stay home" over the weekend?
Did you know....it is Martin Luther King Jr. day in the U.S.A.? Here in Canada Viola Irene Desmond (July 6, 1914 – February 7, 1965) was a Canadian civil rights activist and businesswoman of Black Nova Scotian descent. In 1946 she challenged racial segregation at a cinema in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia by refusing to leave a whites-only area of the Roseland Theatre.
Have you ever....eaten "Peking Duck"?
The Bruins are going to retire Willie O'Rees number. It's long overdue and more than worthy.
On this day in history, NHL is integrated.
On January 18, 1958, hockey player Willie O’Ree of the Boston Bruins takes to the ice for a game against the Montreal Canadiens, becoming the first Black to play in the National Hockey League (NHL). Born in 1935 in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, O’Ree was the son of a civil engineer, in one of Fredericton’s only two Black families. He began skating at the age of three, and joined a nearby hockey league when he was only five. During five years playing with his older brother on teams in Fredericton, O’Ree became known as one of the best players in New Brunswick. After one season with the Quebec Frontenacs of the Quebec Junior Hockey League, he joined the Kitchener Canucks of the Ontario Hockey Association Junior “A” Hockey League, setting a career-high mark of 30 goals during the 1955-56 season. That year, a puck struck O’Ree in the right eye during a game, robbing him of 95 percent of the vision in that eye.
Today is - NATIONAL WINNIE THE POOH DAY – MARTIN LUTHER KING JR DAY – NATIONAL PEKING DUCK DAY – NATIONAL THESAURUS DAY – NATIONAL MICHIGAN DAY
The Bank of Canada unclaimed balances portal can be found here.
COVID-19 vaccination approximate dates 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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