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Canada pauses AstraZeneca shots for people under 55
3:45 pm Federal officials are now recommending that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine not be used in adults under 55 years of age.
The National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) said on Monday that it is pausing use of that vaccine due to reports of blood clots reported in Europe primarily in women under the age of 55.
“Although cases in men have also been reported and have mostly occurred between four and 16 days after receipt of vaccine,” NACI said, adding it is undertaking further investigation.
Caroline Quach-Thanh, chair of NACI told reporters during a press briefing that overall the vaccine is effective in preventing complications and death in older populations based on UK studies.
Howard Njoo, Canada’s deputy chief public health officer, added that the blood clots are “rare” and that AstraZeneca is considered safe overall. He added the government is taking a “prudent” approach by issuing new guidelines.
New cases remain above 2,000 for fifth straight day
11:30 am Ontario reported 2,094 new cases of COVID-19 on March 29, but under 40,000 tests were completed in the past day.
The rolling seven-day average continues to rise, reaching 2,094 on Monday. The province detected 2,448 cases on Sunday, 2,453 on Saturday and 2,169 on Friday.
With just 39,370 tests completed in the past 24 hours, the province is reporting a positivity rate of 5.3 per cent.
The province administered only 50,453 doses in the past day, surpassing the two million mark province-wide and bringing the total number of people fully vaccinated to 311,248.
Ontario is lowering the minimum age for vaccine eligibility to 70 in 10 more regions, including Peel, Hamilton, York and Ottawa. People in those regions who are 70 and up can now book via the provincial system to receive doses at mass immunization sites.
Toronto began booking appointments for people aged 70 and up on Saturday in order to fill 30,000 available slots. York had already started booking vaccinations for 70 and up using its own regional system.
Active cases have increased from 18,405 on Sunday to 18,965 today. There are currently 841 hospitalizations and 382 patients in intensive care, including 236 patients on ventilators – up 19 from the day before.
Toronto reported another 618 new infections today, followed by Peel with 368, York with 277 and Ottawa with 132.
An additional 10 people have died, including one person between the ages of 40 and 59.
The confirmed case count of the B117 variant rose by 124 case in the past day, and the P1 variant by 15 cases.
To date, there have been 345,234 total COVID-19 cases and 7,337 deaths.
New COVID-19 cases in Ontario on March 29
The following regions reported five or more new COVID-19 cases:
Toronto = 618
Peel = 368
York Region = 277
Ottawa = 132
Durham Region = 104
Halton Region = 74
Middlesex-London = 69
City of Hamilton = 61
Simcoe Muskoka District = 58
Region of Waterloo = 52
Windsor-Essex County = 38
Eastern Ontario = 37
Niagara Region = 33
Lambton = 23
Leeds, Grenville & Lanark District = 18
Sudbury & Districts = 17
Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph = 16
Southwestern = 15
Brant County = 13
Chatham-Kent = 11
Haldimand-Norfolk = 11
Grey Bruce = 8
Thunder Bay District = 7
Hastings Prince Edward = 7
Peterborough = 7
Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington = 6
Renfrew County and District = 5
