Regional Chair Jim Bradley delivers State of the Region address
Today, Regional Chair Jim Bradley delivered his annual State of the Region speech, and was joined by a panel that included Acting Medical Officer of Health Dr. Mustafa Hirji, Deloitte Senior Economist Alicia Macdonald, Niagara Region Economic Development Director George Spezza, and Metrolinx President & CEO Phil Verster for a discussion moderated by Brock University Community Relations Manager and GNCC Women in Niagara Chair Julie Rorison.
Click here to watch the speech and panel discussion.
Non-essential border crossing restrictions extended
Today, the Honourable Bill Blair, Minister of Public Safety, tweeted that non-essential travel restrictions with the United States have been extended until May 21st, 2021. No additional information was available at the time of writing. The U.S. State Department updated its travel guidance for Canada, now listed as “Level 4: Do Not Travel.”
Nominations open for Regional Chair’s Niagara Impact Awards
Reading recommendations
Toronto, Peel to close businesses with 5 or more COVID-19 cases linked to the workplace
CBC News
Toronto and Peel Region are issuing orders to force businesses with five or more cases of COVID-19 in the last two weeks to close.
Peel’s top doctor said closures will last 10 days if it is found that those infected “could have reasonably acquired their infection at work” or if “no obvious source” for transmission is identified outside of the workplace.
“Workplaces that remain open continue to be a major driver of COVID-19 cases in Peel, as they have been throughout the course of our emergency response,” Dr. Lawrence Loh, medical officer of health for Peel Region, said in a news release Tuesday morning.
All employees impacted by a closure will need to self-isolate and cannot work anywhere else during that period.
The order will be issued through Section 22 of Ontario’s Health Protection and Promotion Act, which grants local medical officers certain authority when faced with public health crises.
Bank of Canada set to dial back bond buying
Erik Hertzberg, Bloomberg News
The Bank of Canada is poised to pare back its asset purchases amid a stronger-than-expected economic recovery, taking one of the biggest steps yet by a developed country to reduce emergency levels of monetary stimulus.
Governor Tiff Macklem is expected to cut the central bank’s weekly government bond purchases on Wednesday to $3 billion, from the current pace of $4 billion. Officials may also give clues to whether they expect to bring forward their timeline for interest rate hikes, with current guidance pointing to no move before 2023.
The policy decision, due at 10 a.m. in Ottawa, is a pivotal one for the central bank. Its quantitative easing program is too large given the size of Canada’s bond market. Just on technical grounds, it needs to be pared back as the government’s financing requirements drop.
Niagara COVID status tracker (April 4 – April 10)
Niagara’s most up-to-date COVID statistics, measured against the targets for the various stages of the Ontario COVID-19 Response Framework, are presented below. This does not predict government policy, but is offered to give you an idea of where Niagara is situated and how likely a relaxation (or further restrictions) may be. These data are the most recent published by Niagara Region. The Grey-Lockdown level does not have its own metrics, but is triggered when the COVID-specific measurements in a Red-Control region have continued to deteriorate.
▲: Metric has increased since last published measurement
▼: Metric has decreased since last published measurement
| December 18 | December 25 | January 1 | January 8 | January 15 | January 22 | January 29 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reproductive number | 1.4 | 1.8 | 1.4 | 1.1 | 1.0 | 0.7 | 0.9 |
| New cases per 100,000 | 101.2 | 267.3 | 469.8 | 575.8 | 507.1 | 295.5 | 250.6 |
| New cases per day (not including outbreaks) | 60.7 | 178.7 | 311.7 | 376.9 | 325.4 | 182.7 | 145.7 |
| Percent of hospital beds occupied | 97% | 95.2% | 98.2% | 103.2% | 104.5% | 103.6% | 106% |
| Percent of intensive care beds occupied | 78.8% | 77.3% | 87.9% | 87.9% | 90.9% | 89.4% | 93.9% |
| Percentage of positive tests | 6.1% | 15.6% | 28.1% | 28.6% | 26.6% | 21.2% | 16.2% |
Definitions:
- Weekly Incidence Rate: the number of new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people per week
- Percent Positivity: the number of positive COVID-19 tests as a percentage of all COVID-19 tests performed
- Rt: the reproductive rate, or the number of people infected by each case of the virus
Niagara COVID vaccination tracker (April 20)
Niagara’s most up-to-date vaccination numbers are presented below, along with comparison data from Ontario, Canada, and G7 countries.
Total doses administered in Niagara: 138,514
Total doses administered in Niagara since yesterday: 3,342
| Percentage of population with one dose | Percentage of population fully vaccinated | |
|---|---|---|
| Niagara | 82.7% | 78.2% |
| Ontario | 84.6% | 79.1% |
| Canada | 84.7% | 78.6% |
| United States | 75% | 64% |
| United Kingdom | 78% | 72% |
| Germany | 76% | 74% |
| France | 80% | 77% |
| Italy | 83% | 76% |
| Japan | 80% | 79% |
| World | 63% | 53% |
Data are drawn from Niagara Region, the Government of Ontario, and Oxford University’s Our World in Data project.
