The Canadian Press
TORONTO — All schools in Canada’s most populous province will be shut down and move to online learning because of a record number of coronavirus infections fueled by more contagious virus variants. Ontario Premier Doug Ford says his government is moving schools to online-only after the April break this week. Schools in Canada’s largest city of Toronto were already shut since last Wednesday. Now it will be province-wide. Ontario is now seeing more than 4,000 new infections a day in recent days and record intensive care numbers. March break was previously moved this week in April. ___ THE VIRUS OUTBREAK: VACCINES: More than 120.8 million people, or 36.4% of the U.S. population, have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some 74 million people, or 22% of the population, have completed their vaccination. CASES: The seven-day rolling average for daily new cases in the U.S. rose over the past two weeks from 63,236 on March 28 to 70,040 on Sunday, according to Johns Hopkins University. DEATHS: The seven-day rolling average for daily new deaths in the U.S. did not increase over the past two weeks from 975 on March 28 to 969 on Sunday, according to Johns Hopkins University. — Muslims are navigating coronavirus regulations for their second Ramadan in the shadow of the pandemic — China's top disease control official said current vaccines offer low protection, mixing them is among strategies being considered to boost effectiveness — Follow AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine ___ HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING: BUCHAREST — Authorities in Romania's capital say three COVID-19 patients died at a mobile intensive care unit after ventilators failed. Five more patients from the same mobile ICU in Bucharest's Victor Babes hospital were transferred to other hospitals to receive care. “Unfortunately the number of severe COVID-19 cases are rising, there is an acute need for ICU beds,” Bogdan Tanase, head of Romania’s Doctors’ Alliance, told The Associated Press on Monday, adding: “The situation is severe like in a war…sometimes that means chaos and lack of resources." An investigation has been opened as to why the ventilators failed. In recent days, Romania has recorded its highest number of COVID-19 patients in ICUs since the pandemic began, which has put the Eastern European country’s strapped healthcare system under serious pressure. ___ MOSCOW — Russia has restricted flights to Turkey citing a surge in coronavirus infections. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova announced Monday that most flights between Russia and Turkey will be suspended from April 15 until June 1, but a limited number of flights will be performed. The decision will deal a blow to Turkey’s tourist industry that relies heavily on Russian visitors. Russian tourist agencies, which have sold package tours to Turkey, are also poised to sustain heavy losses. Golikova said the government will offer them financial support. The Russian government also has ordered to suspend flights to Tanzania for the same period. ___ ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s foreign minister says the country will receive 15 million COVID-19 vaccine doses through the UN-backed COVAX program. Shah Mahmood Qureshi made the announcement Monday after meeting with his German counterpart Heiko Maas. Qureshi, who is on a two-day visit to Germany, said in a post on Twitter that the doses are expected to be delivered to Pakistan by May. Pakistan is currently seeing a third wave coronavirus surge, reporting 58 single-day deaths from coronavirus in the past 24 hours. The Islamic nation previously hoped to receive vaccines under the COVAX facility in April, and has largely relied on donated and imported Chinese vaccines. ___ ROME — Police in Rome blocked hundreds of angry owners of shuttered establishments, such as restaurants and gyms, from reaching a square outside the Italian Parliament as frustration builds in business sectors over weeks of current pandemic lockdown measures. The protesters took to the streets on Monday to demand that the government lift a decree that bans restaurants, cafes and bars from offering table or counter service through April. The owners say government promises of compensation for some of their lost revenues aren’t enough to feed their families and keep paying idle workers on payrolls. Operators of gyms, cinemas, museums, theatres and concert halls are complaining they have not been given a firm date when they can open their doors to the public. Premier Mario Draghi says unless the COVID-19 situation quickly improves and vaccination pace picks up, restrictions on dining at eateries will remain at least through this month. ___ LONDON — An update to the U.K.’s official COVID-19 contact tracing mobile app has been halted because it apparently breached privacy rules laid down by Apple and Google. The update was set to add new features to support the U.K.’s latest easing of lockdown restrictions on Monday. The app, which runs on software jointly developed by Apple and Google, lets people record their visits to places like restaurants and bars by scanning codes. The updated version would ask users who test positive to upload a list of venues where they’ve checked in to help with tracing others with whom they might have come into contact. But the BBC reports that would violate privacy-focused rules that ban the apps from using location data, so Google and Apple blocked the update. Apple did not respond immediately to a request for comment and Google referred inquiries to the Department of Health. ___ WASHINGTON – A top Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official says surging vaccines to Michigan would not help the hard-hit state control the latest COVID-19 wave that has strained its hospitals and is raising concerns nationwide, because vaccines take two to six weeks to confer protection. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told reporters during a White House coronavirus briefing Monday that the answer in a crisis situation such as Michigan is facing is to go back to virus control basics and order lockdowns. “I think if we tried to vaccinate our way out of what is happening in Michigan, we would be disappointed that it took so long for the vaccine to work, to actually have an impact," Walensky said. Walensky explained that at the same time, diverting vaccines away from other states where the situation isn’t as dire right now could unwittingly seed the ground for future outbreaks elsewhere. Michigan’s Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has called for the federal government to surge vaccines to her state, but the White House said last week Michigan had not ordered its full allotment of available vaccines. Whitmer has shied away from ordering lock downs. ___ NEW YORK — New government reports further highlight the differences in how severely the coronavirus has hit different racial and ethnic groups. One study released Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that Hispanic Americans, Native Americans and Alaska Natives visited hospital emergency departments at a rate 1.7 times higher than white Americans did. That study was based on hospital data from 13 states in the last three months of 2020. A more national report looked at hospitalizations from March through December of last year. It found that in every region of the country, the proportion of patients hospitalized with COVID-10 was highest for Hispanic Americans. It found the disparity eased a bit — but never ended — in the second half of the year. The researchers said that the narrowing gap does not stem from any reduced risk for Hispanic people or those in other racial or ethnic groups. They wrote that it was more likely due to increasing hospitalizations of white patients during the surge in cases late in the year. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Monday that racial gaps continue, including in disproportionately lower numbers of Black and Hispanic Americans being vaccinated against the virus compared to white people. ___ HONG KONG — Hong Kong’s leader says fully-vaccinated residents could soon be allowed to form “vaccination bubbles” that would allow socializing in larger groups during the pandemic, as part of incentives to encourage more people to get inoculated. So far, only about 8% of the population has been inoculated since Hong Kong began its vaccination program in late February. But the city’s chief executive Carrie Lam said in a news conference Monday that it would soon establish a travel bubble with Singapore as cases have continued to decline since a November 2020 surge. Plans are also in place to allow a limited number of travellers from mainland China to enter Hong Kong without quarantine from mid-May as the mainland has achieved “zero infection.” A ban on flights from Britain will also be lifted in May, although travellers will still be required to be quarantined for 21 days at designated hotels. Quarantine restrictions for fully-vaccinated travellers from low-risk and medium-risk countries such as Singapore, New Zealand and Australia could also be reduced. ___ BRUSSELS — The one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccines have started to be delivered to the European Union on Monday, the first of 55 million doses which are expected to be provided to the bloc before the end of June. EU Commission spokesman Stefan De Keersmaecker said the Johnson & Johnson deliveries “are indeed on track as agreed.” About 105 million vaccine doses were delivered in the first quarter, a bitter disappointment since Anglo-Swedish company AstraZeneca fell about 90 million doses short of an initial commitment of 120 million. The other doses were delivered by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna with 65 million and 10 million doses respectively. In the second quarter the EU is counting on 200 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, 35 million of Moderna, 70 million from AstraZeneca and 55 million from Johnson & Johnson. ___ LISBON, Portugal — The European Union’s crime agency says the COVID-19 pandemic has opened up new sources of revenue for organized crime, from online fraud to fake vaccines and illegal digital content. Europol says “criminals were quick to adapt … in order to exploit the fear and anxieties of Europeans and to capitalize on the scarcity of some vital goods during the pandemic.” The agency says the pandemic acted as a “catalyst” for new online fraud schemes and the sale of counterfeit medical equipment such as face masks, while unlawful sanitary waste treatment and disposal has become a focus of police investigations. Europol’s Serious and Organized Crime Threat Assessment, published every four years and launched in Lisbon, Portugal on Monday, noted one setback for criminals, however: there have been generally fewer house burglaries because many people are working from home. ___ SEOUL, South Korea — Health officials in South Korea say Maryland-based Novavax has agreed to a licensing arrangement that will allow a South Korean biotech firm to produce its coronavirus vaccines for later this year. Kwon Deok-cheol, South Korea’s health minister, said Monday that SK Bioscience plans to produce 20 million Novavax shots through September, all of which will be used locally. Production could start as early as June. Food and Drug Safety Minister Kim Gang-lip, who joined Kwon in a news conference, said Novavax’s vaccines are currently being reviewed by regulators in Europe and Britain, but didn’t speculate on when the shots would be approved in major countries. While South Korea hopes to get 150 million doses of coronavirus vaccines this year through bilateral deals with pharmaceutical companies and the WHO-backed COVAX program, it has got just over 3 million doses so far. A little over 1.15 million people have received their first doses as of Monday. ___ MADRID — A Spanish pharmaceutical company says it’s setting up a new production line that would produce millions of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine doses on European Union soil later this year. Rovi’s existing facility in southern Spain’s Granada will receive an undisclosed investment to produce the active ingredient of Moderna’s jab, the company announced Monday in a press release. The expected output will be up to 100 million vaccine doses per year starting in the third quarter of 2021, Rovi said, adding that the production will be destined to markets outside the United States. The facility will be the first of its kind in the EU, adding to the production facilities that the Swiss biotech company Lonza has been operating there. Rovi had until now operated production lines to fill vials with Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, but the active component had to be imported into the country. ___ LONDON — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has urged people to “behave responsibly” as shops, gyms, hairdressers, restaurant patios and beer gardens reopen after months of lockdown. Monday sees the easing of restrictions that have been in place in England since early January to suppress a surge in coronavirus infections linked to a more transmissible new variant of the virus. Many people were planning outdoor meals and drinks, despite unseasonably cold weather that brought snow to London and many other areas. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — are following their own, broadly similar plans to ease lockdown. ___ GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The Gaza Strip has recorded the highest daily deaths since the coronavirus broke out in the Palestinian enclave. The Health Ministry reported Monday that 17 Palestinians have died from COVID-19, bringing the death toll to 694. Gaza is under an Israeli-Egyptian blockade and its Hamas rulers had managed to keep it relatively free of the virus by imposing obligatory quarantine on the few dozens returnees who cross in via Israel or Egypt. But in August, the virus escaped the walls of the isolation centres and spread rapidly. After a significant decrease of infections in February, Hamas removed all precautionary measures and cases resurged. The vaccination rollout is limited. The territory of 2 million people has received vaccines for only 40,000 people, including a shipment via the global COVAX program. The Associated Press
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