- Coronavirus tracker: Follow the pace of COVID-19 cases, vaccinations in Canada.
- Manitoba sees some light at the end of its brutal 3rd wave, but hospital admission numbers still a concern.
- Improving ventilation in schools entails a number of ad hoc and longer-lasting initiatives.
- Japanese fans to be allowed at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, with capacity limits and other restrictions.
- Read more: Toronto plans a mass vaccination day at the home of the Maple Leafs and Raptors; Find out, according to available data, how the pandemic has affected smoking and vaping rates.
Some international travel restrictions for those who are fully vaccinated to ease in 2 weeks
Fully vaccinated Canadians and permanent residents will be able to enter Canada without undergoing quarantine starting the night of July 5, the federal government announced Monday.
The news comes as many provinces have hit key vaccination targets, with more than 75 per cent of eligible Canadians having received at least one dose and over 20 per cent having received two.
Canadians and permanent residents who are fully vaccinated won't be able to simply walk through customs, however. According to officials at a government briefing for journalists, those entering will need to show documents proving they received doses of vaccines approved in Canada at least 14 days before entering the country.
If approved, those accepted travellers will not have to quarantine. Those arriving by air will also not be forced to stay at a government-authorized hotel and non-vaccinated children or dependent adults travelling with them will also be exempt from the hotel stay.
"Although the future is looking brighter than it has for a long time, with COVID-19 cases on a downward trend and vaccination efforts going well across the country, we can't let our guard down," said Public Safety Minister Bill Blair, who said the government's recommendation is still for Canadians to avoid non-essential travel.
There are no changes to border restrictions for travellers who are not fully vaccinated. Those who land by air will still have to stay in hotel quarantine for up to three days pending a negative test on arrival, quarantine at home for the remainder of the 14-day period and take a test on day eight of their self-isolation period.
That detail was not well received by Maryscott Greenwood, CEO of the Canadian American Business Council.
"What's the difference between fully vaccinated Canadians and fully vaccinated Americans," asked Greenwood.
"It's frustrating, not only to Americans but to Canadian businesses that we work with on a daily basis," she said. "We need to get back into a place where we're able to do business in a safe way and Canada is, for reasons that are really puzzling to us, quite reluctant."
Another potentially contentious point is that children who aren't vaccinated must quarantine for two weeks at home upon their return from travel. Kids under 12 aren't eligible for vaccination, and masking and rapid tests that are widely available could have allowed for frequent monitoring of COVID-19 status without resorting to quarantine.
From The National
![](https://thumbnails.cbc.ca/maven_legacy/thumbnails/9/594/mpx-simpson-us-reopening.jpg?crop=1.777xh:h;*,*&downsize=510px:*%20510w")
IN BRIEF
Manitoba's daily COVID-19 cases sink to lowest mark in over 2 months
Manitoba public health officials announced 74 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, the lowest daily caseload since April 6, when there were 62 cases.
There are 246 Manitobans still hospitalized with COVID-19 in Manitoba and neighbouring provinces, including 73 in intensive care units. Of those, 58 are in Manitoba ICUs, while 14 are in Ontario and one is in Alberta. The province also noted 10 virus-related deaths since Saturday.
"We know that, despite these declining cases over the past week, we still expect hospitalization and ICU numbers to remain high for the coming weeks," said Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba's chief public health officer.
Roussin and Premier Brian Pallister announced June 10 that if at least 70 per cent of all Manitobans age 12 and older have received their first vaccine dose and 25 per cent have received their second dose by Canada Day, most businesses, services and facilities will be allowed to open at 25 per cent capacity or greater levels.
On Monday, the proportion of eligible Manitobans age 12 and up with at least one dose hit 71.2 per cent. The proportion fully vaccinated with two doses was 25.4 per cent.
Roussin hinted that updated guidance could come on Wednesday, though some doctors in the province lobbied last week for the province to open cautiously, given concerns over the evidence available so far that the delta coronavirus variant can drive case numbers upward even where there is significant one-dose coverage (see chart on Britain below).
Many are eager to get their second doses as soon as possible, with the announcement late last week that Pfizer would have to stagger some of the shipments of its vaccine made with BioNTech toward the second half of July.
By Monday morning, hundreds of people were in a lineup that began Sunday evening for a limited numbers of shots available at a pharmacy in Osborne Village in Winnipeg.
Toronto-area school boards work to improve ventilation in school buildings
CBC Toronto asked every Greater Toronto Area school board where things stand when it comes to improving the ventilation in their buildings as the pandemic is certain to encroach on another academic year. What was revealed is that different boards are taking different approaches, and almost every board is still working on improvements, a scenario probably consistent with the challenges boards face across Canada.
When it comes to monitoring, for example, the Halton Catholic District School Board has installed devices to check air quality at 25 schools, while others like the Toronto District School Board say they do testing when an issue arises.
Classrooms without HVAC systems are the ones parents should be most concerned about, says Dr. David Fisman, an epidemiologist with the University of Toronto's Dalla Lana School of Public Health.
"You do have some fraction of our schools that don't have any mechanical ventilation at all — poorly ventilated spaces," he said. "If we don't improve ventilation, we're not taking advantage of the ability to get infectious material out of the air that people are going to breathe in."
David Elfstrom, an Ontario engineer who has been tracking this issue since last August, says Toronto's school boards have been good at using government funding to bolster ventilation, but he says there's still work to be done when it comes to identifying the worst spaces in schools and closing them down.
"It shouldn't be luck for students to end up in a new portable with a dedicated ventilation system versus an old classroom without any mechanical ventilation," he said in an email. "That's not equitable."
The challenges are great, with a number of initiatives on the go across the GTA. The Peel District School Board has upgraded its air filters and purchased 1,140 of what it calls "stand-alone ventilation/filtration units" to use in select classrooms and portables, while the Toronto District School Board says some 170 ventilation projects are on tap for this summer, with many being carried out in aging buildings.
Find out more on how school boards are spending money to improve ventilation
Tokyo Olympics organizers to allow limited numbers of Japanese fans at venues
Organizers of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics answered a long-awaited question on Monday, announcing a 50 per cent capacity or 10,000-fan limit for locals at Summer Games venues beginning July 23.
The decision to allow local fans was announced after online discussions between local organizers, the International Olympic Committee, the International Paralympic Committee, the Japanese government and the government of metropolitan Tokyo. A decision on the Paralympics comes on July 16.
The capacity limit will be the same for indoor and outdoor venues. The maximum upper limit means that Tokyo's Olympic Stadium will feature a fraction of its nearly 70,000 capacity.
Officials say local fans will be under strict rules. They will not be allowed to cheer, they must wear masks, and they're being encouraged to not congregate before and after events.
"We would like people to go directly home from the venue without stopping by anywhere," said Tokyo Olympics CEO Toshiro Muto.
He said 3.64 million tickets were already in the hands of Japanese residents. He indicated that was about 900,000 more than the seats likely to be available. That will mean a lottery to see who can attend. Organizers say they are prepared to quickly change course on the plan if there's a spike in cases.
Organizers have said they are determined to hold the Games, as billions of dollars in broadcast rights and ticket sales are at stake. Still, much of the fanfare that surrounds them — people from around the world rubbing elbows, a celebratory atmosphere in the host city and the showcasing of the host country's culture — will be off the table or far more muted this year.
Organizers announced weeks ago that foreign visitors, aside from Olympic contingents and a limited numbers of journalists, would not be allowed to attend in person.
Read more CBC coverage of the Tokyo Games
Stay informed with the latest COVID-19 data.
AND FINALLY...
'Ahoy, mateys!' from Skiff Lake, New Brunswick
It's hard to be swashbuckling in a pandemic, but Bob Winslow of New Brunswick has employed a great deal of hard work and resourcefulness into living the pirate dream.
Last year, Winslow inherited a 13-foot fibreglass boat that belonged to a close friend who died.
As the summer went on, he slowly collected scrap material — including a water bed with its wooden frame, discarded cabinets and laminate flooring that came out of a school gymnasium.
"Another neighbour gave me sewer pipe … and I took it and I made the cannons out of it," he says.
With the addition of a nine-horsepower outboard motor, some fresh paint and artistic touches, the boat was about 180 pounds heavier, and the whole thing cost about $100. Not including months of labour, of course.
Winslow has set sail on Skiff Lake in his pirate ship, dubbed the Menacing Mariner. He says the only addition he plans to make is to install water guns on the boat, to give the cannons some actual firepower.
"We've had water fights with a few families around the lake in the past, and so I drove the boat over … and I said, 'If you want to have a water fight now, you better be ready.' "
Winslow accomplished his feat of ingenuity despite suffering from arthritis that has left him with replacement joints in both shoulders, carpal tunnel syndrome in his wrists and pain in his hips and back.
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The latest on the coronavirus outbreak for June 21 - CBC.ca
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