Coronavirus: What’s happening in Canada and around the world on Monday

The update on Monday came after people in Toronto and Peel Region woke up to new rules after the province announced a lockdown period for those regions set to last at least 28 days. Non-essential stores in those regions will be closed to shoppers, and restaurants can only offer takeout and delivery.

Hospitalizations increased to 507 while the number of people in ICU increased to 156, according to a provincial dashboard.

Quebec on Monday reported 1,164 cases of COVID-19 and 13 deaths, including three reported to have occurred in the last 24 hours. Hospitalizations stood at 634, with 98 in intensive care, according to the province.

In Atlantic Canada, which has so far been spared the worst of the global pandemic, two premiers told residents of their provinces that travel guidelines are changing.

Newfoundland and Labrador‘s premier said that a decision to temporarily pull out of the Atlantic bubble is meant to stave off a second wave and try to protect the upcoming holiday season.

As of Wednesday, people arriving in the province from other “bubble” provinces will have to self-isolate for two weeks.

Prince Edward Island also moved on Monday to suspend non-essential travel to and from the island for a two-week period. Premier Dennis King described the move as “an extra layer of caution.”

The provinces joined the Atlantic bubble in July, which allowed residents of the four Atlantic provinces to travel freely between the provinces without self-isolating.

Newfoundland reported two new cases on Monday for a total caseload of 321. P.E.I. added one new case, bringing the total number of cases reported in the island province to 69.

Nova Scotia reported 11 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, the highest single day case number since May. New Brunswick reported six new cases on Sunday, after hitting a single-day record of 23 cases a day earlier.

WATCH | P.E.I. pulls out of Atlantic bubble over COVID-19 worries:

Prince Edward Island Premier Dennis King said the province is temporarily suspending its participation in the Atlantic bubble after coronavirus cases began rising within the region.  1:18

What’s happening across Canada

As of 11:25 a.m. ET on Monday, Canada’s COVID-19 case count stood at 333,263, with 54,959 of those considered active cases. A CBC News tally of deaths based on provincial reports, regional health information and CBC’s reporting stood at 11,487.

Nunavut reported four new cases of COVID-19 on Monday after adding dozens of new cases of the novel coronavirus over the weekend. The territory, which is in the midst of a so-called circuit-breaker lockdown, has now seen a total of 134 cases.

Health officials in Alberta reported 1,584 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, with 319 hospitalizations, and 60 in intensive care. 

Saskatchewan, meanwhile, reported 236 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday after hitting a record high on Saturday. 

Premier Scott Moe, who has been facing pressure from some to step up restrictions, said Saturday that public health officials will “have more to say early next week.”

Health officials in that province on Sunday listed 99 people as hospitalized, with 19 in intensive care. 

In Manitoba, where health officials recently imposed strict measures to try to get a handle on rising case numbers, hospitalizations hit 288 on Sunday, with 52 in intensive care.

In an interview with CBC’s Rosemary Barton, Premier Brian Pallister defended his government’s response to COVID-19, which has been surging in Manitoba.

Pallister said the province has been focused on getting people to reduce their contacts, saying “that’s the key to getting in front of COVID and turning the curve.”

WATCH | Manitoba’s premier takes questions over his government’s handling of COVID-19:

Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister insists his province’s restrictions are the most stringent in the country. 8:00

The Northwest Territories, meanwhile, had no new cases over the weekend. 

In Yukon, health officials reported three more cases of COVID-19 over the weekend, saying two of the cases were linked to previously identified cases and one was linked to out-of-province travel.

Health officials in British Columbia don’t release updated COVID-19 figures over the weekend. The province reported 516 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, bringing the number of active cases to 7,122.

What’s happening around the world

From The Associated Press and Reuters, last updated at 10 a.m. ET

As of early Monday morning, there were more than 58.7 million COVID-19 cases worldwide, with more than 37.5 million of those cases considered recovered or resolved, according to a case tracking tool maintained by Johns Hopkins University.

AstraZeneca says that late-stage trials showed its COVID-19 vaccine was up to 90 per cent effective, giving public health officials hope they may soon have access to a vaccine that is easier to distribute than some of its rivals.

The results reported Monday are based on an interim analysis of trials in the U.K. and Brazil of a vaccine developed by Oxford University and manufactured by AstraZeneca.

AstraZeneca is the third major drug company to report late stage results for its potential COVID-19 vaccine as public health officials around the world anxiously wait for vaccines that will end the pandemic that has killed almost 1.4 million people.

Unlike the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, the Oxford-AstraZeneca candidate doesn’t have to be stored at ultra-cold temperatures, making it easier to distribute, especially in developing countries. All three vaccines must be approved by regulators before they can be widely distributed.

In the Americas, Dr. Anthony Fauci said he’s worried that crowding at airports due to Thanksgiving travel could lead to a perilous situation as COVID-19 cases surge.

The U.S. infectious disease expert told Face the Nation on Sunday that the “people at airports” despite federal guidance to avoid travel “are going to get us into even more trouble than we’re in right now.”

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration said it screened 1.047 million passengers on Sunday, the highest number since mid-March.

The number of U.S. air travellers is still about 60 per cent lower than the same date last year, but Sunday was the second time in three days that the number of passengers screened topped one million.

Health officials in Washington state said the number of people who were hospitalized to receive treatment for the coronavirus has reached a record high.

In Nevada, meanwhile, Gov. Steve Sisolak announced plans to tighten restrictions on casinos, restaurants and private gatherings such as Thanksgiving dinner in an effort to contain the spread of the virus.

In Europe, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez says a national COVID-19 vaccination plan will be launched in January.

Sanchez said the vaccine will be administered at 13,000 locations across Spain and “a very substantial part of the population” can be vaccinated in the first half of next year. Further details are expected on Tuesday.

Hungary’s foreign minister on Monday said the country is moving forward with testing on a Russian coronavirus vaccine after being the first in Europe to receive samples of the drug last week. Russia’s vaccine candidate, known as Sputnik V, has not completed advanced clinical trials and has not yet been assessed by the European Medicines Agency, the European Union’s medicines regulator. The vaccine has already been administered in Russia to health-care workers and other high-risk groups.

In the Asia-Pacific region, Pakistan will again close all educational institutions as of Thursday because of a steady and increasingly drastic increase in coronavirus cases.

Schools were opened in September as Pakistan appeared to have achieved a sustained flattening of the curve.

Daily cases had dropped to less than 300 a day, but few people wear masks and physical distancing is mostly non-existent in the country of 220 million.

Pakistan recorded 2,756 new cases in the last 24 hours, one of the sharpest spikes since the outbreak began in March. The country has 376,929 confirmed cases, and 7,696 people have died from the virus.

Indonesia’s confirmed coronavirus cases have surpassed half a million as the government of the world’s fourth most populous nation scrambles to procure vaccines to help it win the fight against the pandemic.

In the Middle East, the Palestinian Authority in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has announced a partial two-week lockdown to clamp down on the coronavirus’s spread as new cases have rapidly increased.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said Monday that the West Bank will be under a full lockdown over the weekends, and a curfew will be imposed from 7 p.m. until 6 a.m. on weekdays. All non-essential businesses will be closed during the periods of lockdown.

South Africa remained the hardest-hit country in Africa, with more than 767,000 cases of COVID-19 and nearly 21,000 deaths.