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CBC News – Coronavirus Brief
 
 

Good evening, here is the latest on the coronavirus outbreak for Thursday, March 28.
Go to cbc.ca/news for complete coverage.

Eight more weeks of CERB to cost $17.9 billion, budget officer says.

COVID-19 vaccine a matter of 'when not if,' but must be produced safely, Fauci says.

Case of Manitoban with COVID-19 who failed to isolate after travel raises enforcement questions.

How COVID-19 has changed Canada's economy for the worse — but also for the better; tennis star Novak Djokovic tests positive for COVID-19 after participating in tournament.

Read more: Find the COVID-19 benefits and programs relevant to you.

As of yesterday afternoon, cars are welcome on Stanley Park's roads in Vancouver, but traffic will be restricted to one lane with the other demarcated for cyclists.

As of Monday afternoon, cars are welcome on Stanley Park's roads in Vancouver, but traffic will be restricted to one lane with the other demarcated for cyclists. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

 

How one of Toronto's COVID-19 hot spots is struggling through the pandemic

 

The community of Thorncliffe Park in Toronto has the highest rate of COVID-19 infection compared to all the adjacent neighbourhoods, yet it has managed to avert a far worse outcome, according to statistics from the City of Toronto. Thorncliffe Park is considered particularly at risk during the pandemic because of the housing and employment situation of the people who live in the East York neighbourhood of the city.

"It became quite clear to me that COVID-19 disproportionately impacts people with health inequities — things such as housing, income and racialization," said Dr. Jeff Powis, the medical director of infection control at nearby Michael Garron Hospital who's spoken to residents who've tested positive. Many of the people who live in Thorncliffe Park work in the health-care sector, the service industry or gig economy. Approximately 90 per cent of the population lives in rental apartment buildings, according to the 2016 census, many of which are social housing units. The community is growing at twice the rate of the city's average, owing in part to a high level of immigration. The rate of poverty is 45 per cent — more than double all of Toronto's, writes CBC's Vik Adhopia. It's common for the neighbourhood that one family works as an essential worker, and "when they returned home, they returned to an environment where there are many people living in a closed space ... and then there was transmission within the household," Powis said.

So far, 137 people have tested positive for the coronavirus in Thorncliffe Park, which is a rate of 649 per 100,000 people. By comparison, a similar community, Flemingdon Park next door, has 520 cases per 100,000, while the more affluent adjacent neighbourhood of Leaside has just 137 cases per 100,000. In response, Michael Garron Hospital earlier this month opened a testing site right in the neighbourhood in partnership with Health Access Thorncliffe Park and East Toronto Family Practice Network. "If we can effectively detect, appropriately isolate, we can get a better sense of the actual numbers in this community and ensure that there isn't a large outbreak that impacts the community severely," said Dr. Nandini Sathi, a family physician who works at the assessment facility, which operates out of the back of a shopping centre. Sathi said talking to people who've sought out tests has revealed hardships that underpin poorer health outcomes, such as "food insecurity or underemployment."

Darcy MacCallum, a community worker in Thorncliffe Park, said there were high job losses in the neighbourhood when mass layoffs happened because of COVID-19 closures. "There was a significant loss of income that hit the community that was already struggling with poverty," said MacCallum, director of family and wellness at The Neighborhood Organization, a social welfare group that operates in Toronto's low-income areas. Working with local volunteers, the organization quickly created a food bank with home delivery service to prevent family members from going hungry during shutdown measures. The temporary program operates out of a warehouse space near the testing centre and serves 700 households in Thorncliffe Park. "About 45 per cent of those are seniors," MacCallum said. "The rest are family units and they vary in size from four to 11."

Thorncliffe Park had long been considered a "gateway" community for newly arrived immigrants, but the rising cost of housing in the Greater Toronto Area has left some with no option but to remain in crowded apartments, MacCallum said. According to the 2016 census, about 42 per cent of people in the neighbourhood live in "unsuitable housing," compared to 12 per cent for all of Toronto. A strong sense of community exists in Thorncliffe Park, Adhopia writes, and some residents are coming up with their own ways of supporting their neighbours. Shaklo Sharipova — who left an ophthalmology career in Tajikistan to seek better care in Canada for her son Ayub, who has autism, more than a decade ago — is offering support to women after seeing people in her community struggle financially and emotionally through the pandemic. "I know of two families [in which] the woman experienced domestic violence and they moved to a shelter," she said. "That's why I was posting in our social media group, 'Please, people, if you're struggling at home please, let us know.' "

 

Click below to watch more from The National

 
Fuelled by rising cases of COVID-19 in India, Brazil and Russia, the WHO says the pandemic is getting worse. Health authorities in global hubs like Delhi are scrambling to cope with a surge of infections, but the

Fuelled by rising cases of COVID-19 in India, Brazil and Russia, the WHO says the pandemic is getting worse. Health authorities in global hubs like Delhi are scrambling to cope with a surge of infections, but the "politicization" of the virus could stand in their way of preventing further spread. Watch the full video here.

IN BRIEF

 
 

Eight more weeks of CERB to cost $17.9 billion, budget officer says

 

The parliamentary budget officer estimates in a new report that it will cost the federal government $17.9 billion to provide eight extra weeks of payments through the Canada emergency response benefit (CERB). The report this morning from budget officer Yves Giroux says that would bring the total cost of the benefit program for people who've lost all or nearly all their work to the COVID-19 pandemic to $71.3 billion. The CERB, now budgeted at $60 billion, has paid out $43.51 billion to 8.41 million people as of June 4 as demand surged past federal expectations.

With the first cohort of CERB applicants set to hit the 16-week limit on the payments early next month, the Liberals have promised to increase the limit to 24 weeks to provide help through the summer for those who need it. Giroux's report said the additional cost to the program depends heavily on the outlook for the economy and jobs, as well as the course of the pandemic. The report said further uncertainty over the final cost of the program rests on the actual takeup of the separate federal wage-subsidy program, which the Liberals plan to retool. Meanwhile, a report this morning from a group of experts convened by the C.D. Howe Institute urged the Liberals to take the extra time bought by extending the CERB to retool the program itself and put in a program to help recipients retrain for other or better jobs.

Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough and Tiff Macklem, the governor of the Bank of Canada, separately on Monday warned that not everyone will have a job to go back to as restrictions ease and businesses reopen. Some companies may not survive the recession the pandemic has caused, Macklem said. It's why the C.D. Howe paper also called for an update to the employment insurance system to handle a possible surge in applicants come September, and for clearer language around a newly imposed requirement on CERB recipients to look or take work when it is "reasonable to do so." When the Liberals unveiled the wage subsidy and CERB, it was the subsidy program that carried the heftier price tag of over $70 billion, but fewer companies than envisioned have used the subsidy. The Liberals' latest estimated cost of the total package of pandemic-related aid was about $153.7 billion, but Giroux's running tally now estimates the cost at $169.2 billion.

Read more about the CERB
 
 

COVID-19 vaccine a matter of 'when not if,' but must be produced safely, Fauci says

 

The U.S. government's top infectious disease expert told a House committee on Tuesday he believes "it will be when and not if" there will be a COVID-19 vaccine and that he remains "cautiously optimistic" that some will be ready at the end of the year. Dr. Anthony Fauci, who heads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, returned to Capitol Hill at a fraught moment in the country's pandemic response, with coronavirus cases rising in about half the states and political polarization competing for attention with public health recommendations.

There is still no vaccine for COVID-19, and there are no treatments specifically developed for the disease, although the antiviral drug remdesivir has been shown to help some patients, as well as a steroid called dexamethasone, and plasma from patients who have recovered. While Fauci expressed confidence with respect to vaccine development, both he and Food and Drug Administration chief Dr. Stephen Hahn said the U.S. needed to be careful to establish the safety and effectiveness of any potential coronavirus vaccine before rushing into production and distribution. Fauci said he'd be "very disappointed if we jumped to a conclusion before we know a vaccine was truly safe and effective." Since Fauci's last appearance at a high-profile hearing more than a month ago, the U.S. has been emerging from weeks of stay-at-home orders and business shutdowns.

But it's being done in an uneven way, with some states far less cautious than others. A trio of states with Republican governors who are bullish on reopening — Arizona, Florida and Texas — are among those seeing worrisome increases in cases. "The next couple of weeks are going to be critical in our ability to address those surgings that we're seeing in Florida, in Texas, Arizona and other states," said Fauci. U.S. President Donald Trump said at his weekend rally in Tulsa that he had asked administration officials to slow down testing because too many positive cases are turning up. White House officials later tried to walk back Trump's comment on testing, suggesting it wasn't meant to be taken literally. The chair of the House's energy and commerce committee, Democrat Frank Pallone of New Jersey, said during Tuesday's hearing that Trump's testing comment at the rally "was an extremely reckless action, and unfortunately it continues the president's pattern of ignoring the advice of his own public health experts."

Read more about what's happening in the U.S.

 
 

Case of Manitoban with COVID-19 who failed to isolate after travel raises enforcement questions

 

A person who travelled out of Manitoba, came into contact with a known case of COVID-19 and did not self-isolate for two weeks upon returning could face a fine for disobeying public health orders. Last Friday evening, the province released information about two new cases of COVID-19: a man and woman both in their 50s from the Southern health region. One of them had also visited JT's Store and Diner on Penner Drive in Blumenort, Man., around 6 p.m. on June 10 while experiencing symptoms.

On Monday, Chief Provincial Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin confirmed that the couple had travelled to Alberta and to the U.S. While in Alberta, they came in contact with a known positive case of COVID-19. One of the two didn't self-isolate when the couple returned to Manitoba. "It's a very, very unfortunate circumstance when we have people that travel out of the area and are getting exposed and then come home and don't take the precautions that are dictated basically by the law and don't self-isolate," said Bob Brandt, the deputy reeve of the rural municipality of Hanover, which includes Blumenort, about 50 kilometres southeast of Winnipeg. "It's a little disconcerting, and I'm hoping that there aren't any more cases like that."

Under Manitoba's Public Health Act, people who disobey public health orders can be fined and even face jail time. "It appears that the self-isolation orders were not followed, so certainly there could be penalties imposed," said Roussin. However, he said the government is taking an educational stance when it comes to the public health orders. Enforcing public health orders during a pandemic isn't one-size-fits-all, according to Kerry Bowman, a professor of bioethics in the faculty of medicine at the University of Toronto. "I think in a pandemic we have to be a little more flexible, because there's a lot of times where these things turn out to be misunderstandings or something and it could be in this case," Bowman said. However, he said, in some cases, people refuse to listen to reason. "There's a small percentage of people that really don't care what their behaviour is like for other people, and society has a right to be protected from that kind of behaviour, and it should be dealt with."

Read more about the situation

 
Stay informed with the latest COVID-19 data from Canada and around the world.

THE SCIENCE

 
 

Will my hot flash set off a temperature check? 

 

CBC News readers, viewers and listeners have sent in countless questions about the COVID-19 pandemic, including this one. If you have a question of your own, reach out at covid@cbc.ca.

As for the issue at hand: Experts say this isn't something people need to worry about. "Usually people who are a little sweaty from walking through an airport or people who are having hot flashes don't actually mount a true fever," said Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist with University Health Network in Toronto.

This means if you're experiencing some sort of perspiration or hot flashes, a temperature check shouldn't suggest you have a fever — unless you actually do. Typically, a fever or high temperature is a sign that your body is fighting off some type of bacterial or viral infection. That said, many people with COVID-19 infections will not have a fever and may even be asymptomatic. 

Bogoch said the use of temperature checks is for "optics," since their usefulness in detecting COVID-19 is "actually pretty poor." "For [temperature checks] to work, you have to have a fever at the right place, at the right time, detected with the right instrument," he said. "They may catch a case now and again. But it's really not the most effective way of detecting COVID-19."

AND FINALLY...

 
 

Veterans touched by gift of face masks from South Korea, 70 years after start of Korean War

 
Jake McDonald, who served in the Korean War as a 17-year-old, holds up a package of masks sent to him by the Republic of Korea as a token of appreciation from the country.

Jake McDonald, who served in the Korean War as a 17-year-old, holds up a package of masks sent to him by the Republic of Korea as a token of appreciation from the country. (Dave Laughlin/CBC)

 

Canadian veterans and their families said they were surprised and touched by a gesture from South Korea marking the 70th anniversary of the start of the Korean War this week. "What a beautiful privilege it was to read this letter and think that people still thought about us," said Jake McDonald, who was 17 when he served as a communications signaller with the Canadian Army.

On June 15, a box arrived at the now-86-year-old's home in Halifax containing 30 medical face masks and a letter from the Republic of Korea, which is commonly known as South Korea. "We are especially concerned about the well-being of you who dedicated your youth to protecting the Republic of Korea," the letter said in part. "In this regard, we have prepared a token of appreciation. This can never match the warm hands you extended to us, but we hope this will help you overcome the current crisis." McDonald was pleased to receive the masks, as he'd been having difficulty buying any at local stores, but he was just as pleased to read the letter. 

Ambassador Yun Je Lee, the consul general of the Republic of Korea in Montreal, said the gift of masks was chosen because of the level of frailty of Korean War veterans, many of whom are in their 90s. "This gift is just a small gesture, a token of our appreciation. Because we know how difficult it is to obtain this personal protective gear in Canada at this moment," Lee said. South Korea has restrictions in place surrounding the export of medical face masks, but Lee said the country made an exception for the gift of one million face masks that were shipped to Korean War veterans around the world. Of those, 35,000 ended up in Canada.

Read the full story about the gifts

 
 

Send us your questions

 

Still looking for more information on the outbreak? Read more about COVID-19's impact on life in Canada, or reach out to us at covid@cbc.ca.

If you have symptoms of the illness caused by the coronavirus, here's what to do in your part of the country.

For full coverage of how your province or territory is responding to COVID-19, visit your local CBC News site.

 

Click below to watch CBC News Network live

 
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(With files from CBC News, The Canadian Press, The Associated Press and Reuters)

 

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