A summary of the day's activities of Tuesday, October 6, follows. 

Federal Government Relief Measures

  • There were no federal government relief measures announced today.

Federal Government Briefings

  • The Hon. Dominic Leblanc, Minster of Intergovernmental Affairs
  • The Hon. Anita Anand, Minister of Public Services and Procurement
  • The Hon. Patty Hajdu, Minister of Health
  • Dr. Tam, Chief Public Health Officer of Canada
  • Dr. Njoo, Deputy Chief Public Health Officer of Canada

COVID-19 testing continues to dominate the news cycle amid the rapid surge of COVID-19 cases west of the Atlantic Provinces. It also dominated question period in the House of Commons this afternoon, forcing the government to defend its COVID-19 response plan and reaffirm its commitment to universal health care. 

Minister Anand and Minister Hajdu today announced that the Government of Canada had signed a new agreement with Abbott Rapid Diagnostics to purchase up to 20.5 million Panbio COVID-19 Antigen rapid tests.

The Panbio COVID-19 Antigen rapid test is the first antigen rapid test authorized by Health Canada. The Public Health Agency of Canada will now deploy the test to provinces and territories to support them in ramping up COVID-19 testing.

According to Minister Hajdu, the Panbio COVID-19 Antigen rapid test has two distinct advantages. The test is easy to perform with limited training. Results, which are available in about 20 minutes, can be analyzed on site.

Dr. Tam reported there are now 168,960 cases of COVID-19 in Canada, including 9,504 deaths. Over the past week, labs across Canada have tested an average of over 71,000 people daily, with 2.5% testing positive. The national daily case counts continue to increase, with an average of 1,951 new cases being reported daily during the most recent seven days. At the same time, the number of individuals with COVID-19 requiring hospital care is increasing. Over the past week, there have been an average of 613 COVID-19 cases in hospital on any given day and 16 deaths reported daily.

Dr. Tam concluded her comments by saying, "By limiting our number of close contacts we can all help to slow the spread of COVID-19 and help essential services, businesses and educational facilities remain open."

Several questions dealing with yesterday's media reports that private clinics were allowing people to bypass the virus testing line for a fee were directed at Minister Hajdu. She confirmed Health Canada officials were investigating the matter. The Minister also said, "the government strongly protects the principles of universality and accessibility of the Canada Health Act" and has the authority to impose "sanctions under Health Care Transfers (HCT)."

Regarding the reliability of antigen tests, Dr. Njoo explained that antigen tests are not as sensitive as "the gold standard real time PCR test, especially when you are dealing with sick people and you need to get the diagnosis right." He did acknowledge that antigen tests are a good complement to PCR tests and do have a role to play in the context of an overall testing strategy. Antigen tests are of value when used on a regular basis such as in workplace settings or used in an outbreak because a presumptive positive result helps to target the follow-up clinical intervention. Dr. Njoo said PHAC would soon publish guidelines on Panbio's COVID-19 Antigen rapid test.

Minister Hajdu agreed with Dr. Njoo assessment on the value of the antigen tests in the context of an overall testing strategy. She believes that antigen tests will remove pressure on the core testing system in the long term.

Statement of Ontario Premier Doug Ford

In a news conference at Queen's Park, Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Deputy Premier and Minister of Health Minister Christine Elliott provide an update on their government's response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. They are joined by Ontario's Associate Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Barbara Yaffe and the President and CEO of Ontario Health Matthew Anderson.

Premier Ford announced that Ontario had reached a very important milestone. It completed over four million COVID-19 tests since the beginning of the pandemic.

Premier Ford also said the province had reduced its testing backlog by 40% since last week. He reported that 77 pharmacies across the province were now collecting COVID-19 samples. Premier Ford also said the province was well on its way to building the capacity to process 50,000 daily tests by mid-October and 68,000 daily tests by mid-November. 

During the question and answer session with journalists, Deputy Premier Elliott denied that swabs received by Ontario Health were used by private clinics. She reiterated the government's commitment increase testing capacity in the province's public health system. "I would rather focus our attention on the public capability in making sure that we can provide tests to the people of Ontario that need them," pointed out Deputy Premier Elliott.

According to an online article posted this morning by Phil Tsekoura of CTV News Toronto, a spokesperson at the Ministry of Health has confirmed the Ontario government is sending some COVID-19 tests to the United States for processing amid a backlog at the province's medical laboratories. "Testing is a key pillar in Ontario's fight against COVID-19. As Ontarians expect, all options are on the table to quickly identify cases and contain the spread," the spokesperson said.

Statement of Quebec Premier François Legault and Ministers

In lieu of Quebec Premier François Legault, Minister of Health and Social Services Christian Dubé provided an update on the province's response to COVID-19.

Quebec broke another record today, reporting 1,364 new cases — the highest single-day total ever reported in the province. It was the fifth consecutive day with more than 1,000 cases recorded.

More than 200 of those new cases were in Quebec City, while the Montérégie had 223 and Montreal 442.

Following a sharp increase of 50 deaths in the past week and 400 hospitalizations, Minister Dubé called on all Quebecers to stay home, regardless of the alert level in their region.

"Today's numbers and tomorrow's numbers are the results of the last 10 days," Minister Dubé said. He urged Quebecers to "start making a difference today". 

Minster Dubé said that, contrary to the first wave which was concentrated in Montreal, the entire province is feeling the impact this time and more regions could be elevated to "red zones" — the maximum alert level — later this week.

Minister Dubé also said the first wave was linked to long-term care homes while the second wave was driven by community transmission, which makes it very difficult to pinpoint the source of the infection. He defended the government's preparedness for the second wave, blaming instead the increase in cases on people not taking public health regulations seriously. 

Yesterday, the province introduced further restrictions in red zones, including banning organized sports and leisure activities as well as tightening COVID-19 restrictions in high schools, CEGEPs and universities.

Elsewhere in Canada

Alberta

Yesterday, Alberta's Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw provided a COVID-19 case update for the weekend. Over the weekend (from Friday to Sunday), there were 578 new cases and 8 deaths. Dr. Hinshaw expressed particular concern over the surging number of COVID-19 cases in the city of Edmonton.

The governments of Alberta and Canada are supporting new lodge units with more services and supports for Edson seniors. The governments contributed $18.4 million for the project, which created about 193 jobs as part of Alberta's Recovery Plan.

Alberta is seeing record-breaking solid wood prices at $1,288 per thousand board feet for wester spruce-pine-fir, despite the COVID-19 crisis initially reducing demand for pulp and paper products this year. Prices for lumber, oriented strand board and plywood have also seen a profound recovery from April lows. This highlights the importance of Alberta's forest industry to Alberta's Recovery Plan.

British Columbia

Yesterday, British Columbia's Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Deputy Minister of Health Stephen Brown provided a COVID-19 case update for the weekend. From October 2 to 5, there were 358 new cases with four additional deaths. At the beginning of the week, 66 individuals were hospitalized, 16 of whom were in intensive care. There are 1,353 active cases of COVID-19 in the province and 3,010 people under active public health monitoring because of known exposures.

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