COVID-19: Toronto opioid overdose deaths hit record high; Trudeau announces tough new rules for travellers

January 29, 2021

A photo of people wearing masks in Toronto on January 22, 2021

Top COVID-19 stories and news

Canada’s COVID-19 travel restrictions: What you need to know

UK variant to become dominant in Ontario in March: modelling

Paid sick leave is essential to stopping the pandemic

The updated list of Ontario lockdown restrictions

The full list of rules for Ontario’s stay-at-home order

Toronto reports 650 new COVID-19 cases, 20 deaths

6:53 pm Here are today’s COVID-19 numbers from Toronto Public Health:

There have been 650 new cases and 20 deaths in the city since yesterday. There are 473 people are in hospital.

Toronto’s seven-day moving average for new infections is 598 and the number of confirmed active cases in the city is 7,060.

To date, there have been 85,260 cases in Toronto, 75,825 of those have recovered and 2,375 people have died.

Today’s also count includes approximately 80 cases from a small backlog of records that are being cleared.

Ontario to begin mandatory testing for travellers on Monday

6 pm It’s not yet clear when Ottawa will begin mandatory COVID-19 testing for international travellers, so Ontario will begin testing on Monday as a “stopgap” measure.

Premier Doug Ford said on Friday that public health officials have identified five cases of the UK variant in travellers via the province’s voluntary testing program.

Travellers landing at Pearson International Airport in Toronto will start taking mandatory tests on February 1 at 12:01 am.

The stepped-up testing at Pearson is part of a six-point plan Ontario unveiled today to prevent greater spread of the UK variant.

Other measures include screening all positive test samples for variants within two-to-three days. Ten per cent of all positive samples will also undergo full genomic sequencing to identify emerging variants, Health Minister Christine Elliot said.

Additionally, all asymptomatic contacts of positive cases will be asked to repeat testing on or after day 10 of their quarantine. The entire household of all contacts and symptomatic individuals will be asked to stay home until the contact has a negative test.

The province is also expanding antigen rapid testing in essential workplaces, congregate living settings, schools and other high-risk settings.

Toronto opioid overdose deaths hit new high

2:20 pm Toronto Public Health (TPH) reported a record number of fatal calls to paramedics for suspected opioid overdose deaths last month.

On Friday, the city said Toronto Paramedic Services attended a total of 34 fatal calls in December 2020. And the city is already on track to surpass that number in January.

“This represents the worst loss of lives to the opioid crisis recorded in a single month since TPH began monitoring this data in 2017,” the city said in a statement. “In addition, between January 1 and 26, 2021, preliminary data indicates that there were 30 fatal calls to paramedics for suspected opioid overdoses.”

Public health officials said the COVID-19 pandemic has intensified the overdose crisis in Toronto. The city’s unregulated drug supply is also toxic, with tests showing “unexpected” and highly potent substances in drug samples.

Last year, fatal suspected opioid overdose calls to paramedics were 90 per cent higher than in 2019.

The city also said:

Paramedic Services’ data does not capture all deaths due to opioid poisoning,
Data from the Office of the Chief Coroner for Ontario shows, on average, double the number of opioid-related deaths than those attended by Toronto paramedics.
The Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario has confirmed 341 opioid toxicity deaths in Toronto from January 1 to September 30, 2020.
Preliminary data from the Office of the Chief Coroner for Ontario for all drug-related deaths, including opioids, shows there were 823 deaths in Toronto in 2020, which is 67 per cent higher than the 494 deaths reported in 2019.
The amount of 2020 data is likely to increase as more investigations are completed.

“The Board of Health continues to advocate for investments in safer supply programs to provide alternatives to the unregulated drug market, along with health and social supports,” the city said in a statement. “These actions are urgently needed to save lives and to improve the health and well-being of people who use drugs and the people who care for them.”

In response to the ongoing crisis, Toronto began offering overdose prevention services in city-run shelters.

Health Canada decision on AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine coming in days

1:23 pm Federal regulators say a decision on the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine will be made in the “coming days.”

In a statement on Friday, Health Canada said it has been working with the European Medicines Agency (EMA) – which has recommended granting a conditional marketing authorization – on reviewing scientific data for vaccine.

“This process makes it possible for trusted regulatory authorities outside of the European Union, such as Health Canada, to collaborate and share information throughout the scientific review,” the statement reads.

Health officials in the UK approved the two-shot vaccine for emergency use in that country on December 30.

If given a green light, it would be the third COVID vaccine to receive federal approval in Canada.

Canada has ordered 20 million doses of the vaccine, which is manufactured at Oxford University in the UK. The company submitted the vaccine to Canadian regulators on October 1.

Health Canada approved the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines in December.

COVID rules: Ontario issues 112 tickets to businesses

12:33 pm Ontario’s inspection blitz of big-box stores and other retailers has been continuing since the stay-at-home order took effect on January 14.

On Friday, the government provided an update on how that’s going. So far this month, inspectors have visited 1,147 businesses and issued 112 tickets.

“The most common reasons cited for non-compliance were failure to properly screen staff and patrons, improper social distancing and workplaces not having adequate COVID-19 workplace safety plans,” the province said in a statement.

Provincial and municipal officers plan to visit another 400 businesses in Toronto, Hamilton and Kitchener-Waterloo this weekend, and then head to Halton and Huron Perth next week.

Canada to cancel all flights to Caribbean and Mexico through April

11:45 am Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced several tough new measures to curb spread of COVID-19 variants through international travel.

Starting Sunday, Ottawa and Canada’s major airlines have agreed to cancel all flights to “sun” destinations – the Caribbean and Mexico – through April 30. Airlines Sunwing, WestJet, Air Canada and Air Transat will work with people who are currently abroad to organize return flights.

As of next week, all international flights will only be able to land in Toronto, Calgary, Montreal and Vancouver.

In addition to pre-boarding tests, Canada will mandate PCR COVID testing at the airport for people returning to Canada. Travellers will then have to wait up to three days at an approved hotel for their test results at their own expense, which Trudeau said is expected to be more than $2,000.

Travellers must also pay for their own COVID-19 tests at the airport. The testing will be privately administered so as not to use up public testing resources, Trudeau said.

Travellers with negative test results will continue quarantining at home under “significantly increased surveillance” and enforcement.

People who test positive will then move to a “designated government facility” to make sure they are not carrying variants to finish their 14-day quarantine.

Canada will also require negative COVID tests for all non-essential travellers entering at land board with U.S.

Canada banned non-essential international travellers from entering the country last March. As of January 7, airline travellers must show proof of a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of their departure time.

Trudeau said today that fewer than two per cent of COVID cases are linked to Canadians coming back to the country from abroad.

However, the spread of highly transmissible new virus variants from the UK, South Africa and Brazil led the government to strengthen international travel restrictions, he added.

“We saw that one travel case resulted in many, many cases in and around Barrie,” Trudeau said. “One case of the variant that comes in could cause significant challenges. That’s why we need to take extra measures.”

PM Trudeau announces new travel measures:

—airlines will suspend sun destination service
—intl flights must land at YVR, YYC, YYZ, YUL
—soon: mandatory airport PCR tests for returning travellers, who must await results at hotels
—soon: U.S. land border test requirement#cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/BhemPiNbQi
— CPAC (@CPAC_TV) January 29, 2021

Ontario reports 1,837 new cases of COVID-19

11:15 am Ontario reported 1,837 new COVID-19 cases and 58 deaths on January 29.

The province saw 2,093 new cases on Thursday, 1,670 on Wednesday and 1,740 on Tuesday. The seven-day rolling average is at 2,011.

“Locally, there are 595 new cases in Toronto, 295 in Peel, and 170 in York Region,” health minister Christine Elliott said on Twitter.

Ontario completed 69,040 tests in the past 24 hours, marking a 2.7 per cent positivity rate.

An additional 10,215 doses of the vaccine were administered in the past day, bringing the province to a total of 327,455 doses being administered and 61,679 people fully vaccinated.

There are 20,357 active COVID-19 cases in the province as of January 29, and hospitalizations have dipped down to 1,291. That includes 360 patients in intensive care and 271 on ventilators.

Long-term care residents accounted for 32 of the deaths reported today, along with one person between the ages of 40 and 59.

As of yesterday, there have been 51 confirmed cases of the B117, the highly transmissible UK variant .

There have been 264,300 total COVID-19 cases in Ontario, including 237,871 resolved – up 2,900 from the day before. A total of 6,072 people have died.

Peel Region launches paid sick leave campaign

9:45 am Politicians and public health officials in Peel Region have launched a campaign to pressure the provincial and federal governments to enact paid sick leave legislation.

“Without paid sick leave, many people in Peel must make a very hard decision: go to work and risk spreading COVID-19, or stay home and face financial struggles,” reads a statement on Peel Region’s website.

“This pandemic has highlighted the fact that lack of access to paid sick days is a health hazard, particularly for low-income workers, contract and agency workers, those who cannot work remotely and health-care workers, many of whom are considered essential but do not have access to paid sick days.”

Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie and Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown co-authored an op-ed in the Toronto Star that notes between August and January, 1,993 COVID-19 positive people in Peel said they went to work after the onset of their symptoms.

“This is 25 per cent of a total 7,784 symptomatic cases that were studied over the period. A total of 80 people went into work after a positive test result,” they write.

Mayor John Tory and Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health Eileen de Villa and other municipal officials around the GTA have called on the province to enact paid sick leave legislation to help curb COVID-19 spread.

Premier Doug Ford has previously said he sees “no reason” to bring back paid sick days after his government scrapped them in 2019 as part of employment law reforms.

Read an explainer on the status of sick leave in Ontario here.

Trudeau to announce new travel restrictions today: reports

9:30 am Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to announce new international travel restrictions today, multiple media outlets are reporting.

Trudeau has previously warned Canadians to cancel winter travel plans in case Ottawa brought in new restrictions that would “significantly impede your ability to return to Canada at any given moment without warning.”

Quebec Premier François Legault has asked the federal government to require any travellers returning to Canada to quarantine in a hotel at their own expense. A similar measure is in place in Australia.

Non-essential international travellers have been banned from entering Canada since last March. Anyone entering Canada from overseas must self-quarantine for two weeks. As of January 7, airline travellers must show proof of a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of their departure time.

Pickering deputy mayor steps down after travelling abroad

9:30 am The deputy mayor of Pickering is the latest politician to step down after travelling overseas despite government advice to avoid non-essential travel during.

Kevin Ashe announced on Thursday night he travelled abroad in December to visit his son Alex’s ashes and “deal with our ongoing grief.” His son died by suicide, Ashe said.

“In making this decision, I believed it was a necessary one for the mental well-being of our family. But I am also aware of how this appears, recognizing that we have all been urged to stay home in an effort to contain COVID-19,” he said in a statement.

Ashe is still the regional councillor for Ward 1. Read his full statement below.

Read the Official Statement from Deputy Mayor, Kevin Ashe:https://t.co/GQmInF9dUV pic.twitter.com/WRHZ1N6DZu
— City of Pickering (@CityofPickering) January 28, 2021