Canadian COVID-19 News

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by desodave

It doesn't look hopeful for those of you wanting to come to BC to cruise our coast this summer. There were 4,000 new cases over the long weekend with the effects of too much weekend travel still to come.
...
ICU cases are the highest they've been with overall hospitalizations just below the Jan 6th peak - funny about that date. Only good part of it is that deaths have been reduced from previous peaks as LT care residents have been vaccinated. Small community vaccinations are progressing - for all residents - so that might positively affect the likelihood of summer cruising.

... And Ontario is looking down the barrel of another stay-at-home order, also due to a recent spike.

But it's still 3 months to July; if vaccination turnout stays high and the case numbers plummet again, it could still be a good summer.

[pcmm]

Originally Posted by Lake-Effect

... And Ontario is looking down the barrel of another stay-at-home order, also due to a recent spike.

But it's still 3 months to July; if vaccination turnout stays high and the case numbers plummet again, it could still be a good summer.

Hopefully vaccination ramps up and the case numbers go down. My club was scheduled to launch at the end of April... My guess is with the coming announcement that will get pushed at minimum to end of May/June like last year. Some members elected not to launch. I wonder if we'll even be allowed onsite during this round of lockdowns

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by pcmm

Hopefully vaccination ramps up and the case numbers go down. My club was scheduled to launch at the end of April... My guess is with the coming announcement that will get pushed at minimum to end of May/June like last year. Some members elected not to launch. I wonder if we'll even be allowed onsite during this round of lockdowns

Yeah. I'm sure this is all being contemplated at Ontario Sailing, who provided some good leadership and advocacy for boaters last year. I'm also thinking of snatching our boat today (it's on a trailer) and parking her closer to the house so I can at least work on her in April.

[Macblaze]

Originally Posted by desodave

It doesn't look hopeful for those of you wanting to come to BC to cruise our coast this summer. There were 4,000 new cases over the long weekend with the effects of too much weekend travel still to come. Of particular concern is the presence of the variants, especially the Brazilian P1 in the Lower Mainland(plus Whistler).
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...il-6-1.5977174
ICU cases are the highest they've been with overall hospitalizations just below the Jan 6th peak - funny about that date. Only good part of it is that deaths have been reduced from previous peaks as LT care residents have been vaccinated. Small community vaccinations are progressing - for all residents - so that might positively affect the likelihood of summer cruising.

Ya. Sigh. My "Maybe May" decision tree just got chopped down, chipped and thrown in a fire pit. I guess I should look for some work for May instead...

Given Alberta's chicken-ass responses to this whole thing I my guess is we will be joining Ontario's total lockdown just about the time I was hoping things would get better.

[sv_pelagia]

Here in BC, we're still planning to leave late May for Northern Vancouver island and North of Cape Caution... for approx 3 months.

Haida Gwaii still "closed", but hopefully/perhaps that will change by June/July [emoji1696]

[Macblaze]

Originally Posted by sv_pelagia

Here in BC, we're still planning to leave late May for Northern Vancouver island and North of Cape Caution... for approx 3 months.

Interesting theoretical question: What happens if BC imposes a total 4 week Stay At Home order as you are meandering up Johnstone Strait? I would think by the time you rounded Cape Caution you'd be fine just carrying on, but before that a case could be made for you returning home... legally speaking I mean because of course the sensible thing to do is to keep going and drop anchor in Pruth Bay to hunker down with the biologists and the beaches

[sv_pelagia]

Originally Posted by Macblaze

Interesting theoretical question: What happens if BC imposes a total 4 week Stay At Home order as you are meandering up Johnstone Strait? I would think by the time you rounded Cape Caution you'd be fine just carrying on, but before that a case could be made for you returning home... legally speaking I mean because of course the sensible thing to do is to keep going and drop anchor in Pruth Bay to hunker down with the biologists and the beaches

BC has never had a "stay at home" order during COVID-19 (although some 1st Nation communities have). Even the "only essential travel" currently in place is not a health "order" (i.e., not enforceable).

Living here in Whistler, I've actually been in favour of some local travel restrictions. But Bonnie Henry and the Provincial Government do not seem in any way inclined to make it official. (Nevertheless, the recent order closing the Whistler-Blackcomb ski area -- not Whistler itself -- was unprecedented and has had the effect of significantly reducing travel here. Only ski area in BC to have such an order.)

I did write that we are "planning" to leave in May. Of course, as with everything the past year, "covid-19 willing"....

Last Summer, we certainly felt safer on the boat than on land in populated areas.


FYI: Hakai and its beaches are very closed, though anchoring in Pruth is no problem.

[Macblaze]

Originally Posted by sv_pelagia

FYI: Hakai and its beaches are very closed, though anchoring in Pruth is no problem.

Good.

[deblen]

Eek variant. https://globalnews.ca/news/7742782/e...japan-vaccine/

[deblen]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/coron...wave-1.5978394

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by deblen

https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/coron...wave-1.5978394

Yeah, read that.

Hopefully the numbers will start to decline again as the new restrictions bite in, but... maaaan. Our club is now off-limits and launch is pushed back a month. We now can't do any prep work - to our boats or to the club - in April.

I'll be watching the US carefully, to see how they fare with the variants, since they have a larger percentage of citizens vaccinated.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Lake-Effect

Yeah, read that.

Hopefully the numbers will start to decline again as the new restrictions bite in, but... maaaan. Our club is now off-limits and launch is pushed back a month. We now can't do any prep work - to our boats or to the club - in April.

I'll be watching the US carefully, to see how they fare with the variants, since they have a larger percentage of citizens vaccinated.

This is interesting LE because:

marinas, boating clubs and other organizations that maintain docking facilities (with conditions)

are specifically exempt from being locked down. Wouldn't that include yacht clubs?

https://www.ontario.ca/page/enhancin...down#section-4

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

This is interesting LE because:
are specifically exempt from being locked down. Wouldn't that include yacht clubs? marinas, boating clubs and other organizations that maintain docking facilities (with conditions)

... hey! well-spotted! I was only going by what our club had emailed to members, but yeah that sure looks like wiggle-room. I've been keeping an eye on Ontario Sailing, because throughout the pandemic they've been liaising with the province and providing guidance to clubs and marinas, but they haven't yet posted any new response to today's stay-at-home order.

Time for some emailing...


[edit - most of those rules are from Apr 3, and the SAT order might override them. Not giving up hope yet...]

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Lake-Effect

... hey! well-spotted! I was only going by what our club had emailed to members, but yeah that sure looks like wiggle-room. I've been keeping an eye on Ontario Sailing, because throughout the pandemic they've been liaising with the province and providing guidance to clubs and marinas, but they haven't yet posted any new response to today's stay-at-home order.

Time for some emailing...

Keep us posted (as I know you would). It doesn't help me, but I'd sure love to see my fellow Ontarians out on the water. With proper public health precautions, boating can be at least as safe as other essential activities like going to the LCBO .

[danstanford]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

For me, the key line is: "The country lacks the capacity to manufacture its own vaccines." This is the central problem with our lacklustre vaccination response.

Canada used to be a world leader in vaccine development and production. But our Prime Minister of the day (Brian Mulroney) allowed our world-leading facilities to first be privatized, and then sold off to foreign companies which promptly moved all capacity out of our country.

We're now scrambling to rebuild this capacity, but we are the only large developed nation without our own vaccine facilities. THIS is why Canada has been slow off the mark (compared to our peer countries ... not compared to most of the world).

Mike, as a journalist you have been at the bleeding edge of the news so I trust your perspective, but my impression was that it was a change in the patent protection for drug makers that prompted the exodus. That along with price protection (protecting perceived price gouging) has led to the exodus of drug companies.