Coronavirus news today: Ontario reports 1,581 cases of COVID-19; The United States reports a new daily high of 184,514 cases; Toronto enforces “red zone” restrictions today

The last one coronavirus news from Canada and around the world on Saturday. This file will be updated later in the day. Web links to longer stories, if available.

11:30: The number of people who tested positive for the coronavirus has risen to a new daily high in the United States.

Johns Hopkins University data indicates that the number of confirmed cases reached 184,514 on Friday, as the number of infected people continues to grow.

Johns Hopkins data shows that the seven-day moving average for virus-related deaths reported daily in the United States has increased in the past two weeks from about 828 on October 30 to 1,047 on Friday, an increase of about 26%.

The seven-day mobile positivity rate has also increased in the past two weeks from 6.4 to 9.6, an increase of about 50%, although the number of tests performed has grown.

10:20: According to Health Minister Christine Elliott, Ontario reports 1,581 cases of COVID-19. Locally, there are 497 new cases in Peel, 456 in Toronto, 130 in the York region and 77 in Ottawa.

There are 1,003 more solved cases and over 44,800 completed tests.

Details to come.

9:35 am: Need a summary of this week’s important vaccine news?

From the spotlight, Pfizer’s promising results highlighted the looming issue of distribution, to the local candidate trying to start testing volunteers coast-to-coast, and the question of how many doses are too much for Canadians – here’s what you need to know .

Read the latest Road to a Vaccine roundup from Star’s Alex Boyd here.

9 am: Since late October, school-related cases of COVID-19 have been on the rise. In that time frame, 10 schools were affected by COVID-19 cases which resulted in 11 individuals self-isolating.

The provincial database that records school-related COVID-19 cases lists nine of the cases as “confirmed student cases” and the other two are identified as “confirmed personnel cases”.

The provincial database indicates that five of the schools are located in St Catharines, two in Niagara Falls, two in Welland and one in Port Colborne.

The public council is responsible for four of the cases involving four different schools and the Catholic council is responsible for the remaining seven cases involving six different schools.

The jump in school-related cases comes at a time when the province is facing a rise. Over the past 14 days, the case count in Ontario has increased by an average of 3.895%.

8 in the morning: Trudeau’s federal government made a big promise in the September speech to the throne: the creation of a national strategy for childcare, a response to the fact that women have been more affected than men by job loss due to of COVID-19.

Advocates have called for an affordable system that dates back to 1970, when the Royal Commission on the Status of Women recommended a national childcare policy. More than 20 years later, a federal task force recommended the same. In 2004, Paul Martin’s liberals pledged $ 1 billion a year to build a national childcare system. However, Canada has yet to see the creation of a national childcare program.

But this time around, supporters believe it could actually happen, encouraged by the government’s promise of not just one-time funding, but sustained funding for the future. In the speech, the government promised to “leverage previous investments, learn from the model that already exists in Quebec and work with all provinces and territories to ensure that high-quality care is accessible to all.”

Read Rosa Saba’s full story here.

7:50 am: More than 3.8 million rapid tests for COVID-19 are now in the hands of provincial health authorities, but many jurisdictions are still evaluating how the devices could help fight the pandemic.

Health Canada has approved more than three dozen different tests for COVID-19, but only six of these are “point-of-care” versions more commonly referred to as rapid tests.

Since September 29, Canada has announced plans to purchase nearly 38 million rapid tests from five different manufacturers and began sending the first shipments to the provinces late last month.

However, most jurisdictions still don’t know if they can fully trust the results or figure out how best to use them. In almost all cases, rapid test results are still being verified by also testing a patient with the lab-based version.

7:45 am: Lebanese police on Saturday patrolled the streets of the capital Beirut, ordering the closure of shops as the country began a two-week lockdown to limit the spread of the coronavirus that has killed dozens of people in recent days in the small Mediterranean country.

The blockade comes as Lebanon is going through the worst economic and financial crisis in decades, leading to criticism of the closure by entrepreneurs who cannot afford the loss of revenue. Over the past year, the local currency has lost 80% of its value and tens of thousands have lost their jobs out of a population of around 5 million which has one of the highest debt ratios in the world.

Lebanon has recorded 102,607 cases and 796 deaths since the first case was reported in late February. On Friday, Lebanon recorded 21 deaths over a 24-hour span, making it one of the highest daily death rates for the country.

7:00 am: There were those who wondered what exactly Toronto Mayor John Tory was doing at Premier Doug Ford’s press conference on Tuesday afternoon.

There wasn’t much news to share: some details on tax breaks, including property tax breaks, for small businesses.

“It was already something we knew about – it was just a new funding announcement,” said James Rilett, a spokesperson for Restaurants Canada.

Importantly, the press conference gave Ford and Tory – who have both worked in business and who both frequently refer to this fact – an opportunity to give the impression that they are supporting and supporting the city’s independent businesses. and with several million dollars.

Read the full story of Star journalists Francine Kopun and Jennifer Pagliaro.

6:00 in the morning: On Friday the province took hasty steps to try to avoid the grim scenarios predicted by the new COVID-19 model, including a daily case count in Ontario that could reach 6,500 by mid-December.

But when it comes to ICU capacity, the province’s latest measures are already too late to avoid a troubling milestone, experts say: 150 COVID patients in ICU, a threshold that would require the cancellation of elective surgeries and other life-saving procedures. .

“Even in our best-case scenario, we will cross the 150 patient threshold,” said Dr. Michael Warner, ICU medical director at Michael Garron Hospital. “By definition, this will lead to limitations in accessing intensive care for non-COVID-related care and this has real consequences for people in terms of treatment missed, further illness and potentially death.”

Read Jennifer Yang’s full story here.

6 in the morning: With COVID-19 cases on the rise across much of the country, the pressure is once again on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to use the Emergencies Act to take full control of pandemic management, writes Chantal Hébert.

But is the option really the silver bullet that some of its supporters believe it is? Here are three reasons why the idea of ​​the federal government prevailing over the provinces to impose a unified made in Ottawa approach to the pandemic remains little more than a bad good idea.

Read Chantal Hébert’s column here.

6 in the morning: Statistics from the Turkish Ministry of Health show 93 people died in one day of COVID-19 due to a wave of infections, bringing the daily death toll to numbers last seen in April.

In the figures released last Friday, the Ministry of Health also reported 3,045 new confirmed cases among people with symptoms. Turkey has been criticized for only releasing the number of symptomatic cases in its figures since late July, and the total number of confirmed infections is unclear.

The figures also show an increasing trend in the number of critically ill patients. The total death toll reached 11,326.

4:14: The Mayor of Brampton warns that the City will be sending tickets to people throwing parties during this weekend’s Diwali celebrations in Peel.

The call for Peel residents to stick to their immediate families and forgo large religious and family gatherings for Diwali comes as the region rivals Toronto for the dubious title of the highest daily COVID-19 case count in Ontario .

“Peel police and law enforcement will make sure there are no large rallies,” Mayor Patrick Brown said Friday afternoon. “They (law enforcement) do it every weekend, but there is public health nervousness (Peel) for this weekend.”

Dr Lawrence Loh, Peel’s health officer, says that while there are no public health issues with Diwali, per se, there are large gatherings, which Diwali celebrations can involve. Brampton accounted for more than half of the region’s 440 new COVID-19 cases reported on Friday.

Read Jason Miller’s full story here.

4 in the morning: The latest numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Canada at 4:00 am EST on November 14, 2020:

There are 287,228 confirmed cases in Canada.

_ Quebec: 121,195 confirmed (including 6,586 deaths, 102,569 resolved)

_ Ontario: 91,180 confirmed (including 3,312 deaths, 76,238 resolved)

_ Alberta: 37,312 confirmed (including 398 deaths, 28,321 resolved)

_ British Columbia: 20,895 confirmed (including 290 deaths, 14,901 resolved)

_ Manitoba: 10,216 confirmed (including 137 deaths, 3,772 resolved)

_ Saskatchewan: 4,513 confirmed (including 29 deaths, 3,057 resolved)

_ Nova Scotia: 1,136 confirmed (including 65 deaths, 1,052 resolved)

_ New Brunswick: 358 confirmed (including 6 deaths, 338 resolved)

_ Newfoundland and Labrador: 299 confirmed (including 4 deaths, 289 resolved)

_ Prince Edward Island: 68 confirmed (of which 64 resolved)

_ Yukon: 24 confirmed (of which 1 death, 22 resolved)

_ Northwest Territories: 15 confirmed (10 of which resolved)

_ Repatriated Canadians: 13 confirmed (of which 13 resolved)

_ Nunavut: 4 confirmed

_ Total: 287,228 (0 presumed, 287,228 confirmed including 10,828 deaths, 230,646 resolved)

Previously: Ontario is lowering the thresholds for imposing stricter COVID-19 measures under its color-coded framework in light of what Premier Doug Ford calls new “alarming” projections.

Read the Friday developments file here.