Reporting error causes caseload under-reporting in Niagara
Niagara Region Public Health has confirmed that a technical issue caused an interruption in lab reporting to multiple regions in Ontario, including Niagara, causing case counts to be under-reported for April 25 and 26. The numbers for those days have been amended and are now accurate, and can be viewed at https://niagararegion.ca/health/covid-19/statistics/statistics.aspx.
Parliamentary Assistants Stan Cho and Sam Oosterhoff to speak to Budget 2021
At a GNCC event to be held tomorrow, Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Finance Stan Cho and Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Education Sam Oosterhoff will speak on the 2021 provincial budget and take questions. Attendance for this virtual event is free. Registration and links can be found here.
COVID-19 vaccination booking now available to individuals 45 and over in hot spots
As of 8:00 a.m. today, all individuals who are 45 and over in 2021, living in one of the 114 high-risk neighbourhoods, will be eligible to book a COVID-19 vaccine appointment at a mass immunization clinic through the provincial online booking system and call centre or directly through public health units that use their own booking system. Adults aged 40 and over in 2021 are eligible for vaccination at participating pharmacies.
Niagara Health Chief of Staff shares vaccine advice for pregnant individuals
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Federal government insists Ontario must make provincial businesses pay for sick leave
Samantha Beattie, CBC News
Ottawa is rejecting Ontario’s offer to top up the federal paid sick leave program to $1,000 a week for provincial residents instead of creating its own.
In an April 22 letter to federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland obtained by CBC News, Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy said the province is prepared to immediately double the Canada recovery sickness benefit for every Ontario resident, instead of launching its own paid sick day initiative or making businesses provide paid sick days to employees.
“We believe that this is the simplest and fastest way to increase program uptake and makes this program more effective for those people who are sick, don’t have employer paid sick leave, and need this program the most,” Bethlenfalvy wrote.
The federal government said its wage subsidy program is already in place to help employers pay workers who are on sick leave. And the Canada recovery sickness benefit is designed to support workers who don’t have a regular employer, or as a stop gap until their province mandates paid sick days, Freeland spokesperson Katherine Cuplinskas said in a statement to CBC News.
“When Ontario is ready to mandate sick leave in provincially regulated businesses, as we have done for federally regulated businesses, we will be there to help,” Cuplinskas said.
How to close the gaps in financing women-led businesses: Report
Bianca Bharti, Financial Post
Women in entrepreneurship, as they scale up, face numerous barriers in the business world, which stem from unconscious bias and a lack of industry diversity initiatives that result in barriers to economic growth overall. The Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship, on Tuesday, released a toolkit with some practical recommendations aimed at helping financial backers better tackle the gaps in financing high-growth businesses.
Niagara COVID status tracker (April 11 – April 17)
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.
The Province of Ontario is currently under a stay-at-home order. The COVID-19 Response Framework does not apply during this order. Click here to review the restrictions currently in place.
▲: Metric has increased since last published measurement
▼: Metric has decreased since last published measurement
— : Metric has not changed 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 27)
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: 167,581
Total doses administered in Niagara since yesterday: 4,052
| 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.
