ontario Ontario imposes stay-at-home order as COVID-19 cases surge but stops short of instituting paid sick days Ontario has declared its third provincewide state of emergency as the number of COVID-19 cases surge, issuing a stay-at-home order effective 12:01 a.m. Thursday. The province is also expanding vaccine eligibility for more people over the age of 18 in regions hardest hit by the virus, starting with Toronto and Peel Region. Premier Doug Ford said mobile teams are being organized to offer vaccines to those 18 and over in high-risk congregate settings, residential buildings, faith-based locations and locations occupied by large employers in hot-spot neighbourhoods. Education workers in high-risk neighbourhoods will be allowed to book vaccinations starting next week, he said.

bc More young people landing in ICU with COVID-19, B.C. health officials say, as 1,068 new cases confirmed 328 people are now in hospital, including 96 who are in intensive care Another 1,068 new cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in B.C. and three more people have died of the disease, health officials announced Tuesday, as they warned that younger patients are now landing in intensive care. Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said the number of patients in hospital with the novel coronavirus has risen to 328, including 96 who are in critical care. Of those in hospital, 63 have confirmed infections with faster-spreading variants of concern, Henry said. The province has confirmed another 207 cases of these variants of concern, all but one of which are in the Vancouver Coastal Health region. To date, the province has seen 3,766 cases of these variants, including 266 cases that are still active. Henry said much of the growing transmission that B.C. has seen in recent weeks can be linked to younger patients, who are increasingly ending up in intensive care. Often, that might mean younger people living in shared housing at a ski hill, working in restaurants or retail, and then gathering socially, passing the virus from one setting to the next. "Unnecessary travel and social gatherings are fuelling the fire for the variants of concern," Henry said.