TORONTO – The hospitalizations decrease almost every day, the positivity rate as well but there is a number that never goes down, in the daily Covid-19 data: that of deaths. Today in Ontario, 41 were registered and, even if the Ministry of Health is keen to emphasize that most of these are “earlier” deaths, the data cannot fail to worry and in any case raises the tragic death toll in the province, from the beginning of the pandemic, to 12,347. 

The number of patients in Ontario‘s hospitals, we said, falls: today the hospitalized were 1,066 against 1,106 on Wednesday. The number of people in intensive care has also dropped, from 319 to 302.

On the contagion front, today the province recorded 2,404 new cases of Covid-19 out of 21,449 tests – which, we remind, are reserved only for the “at risk” categories -: the positivity rate is 9.7%. In the Greater Toronto Area, 306 new cases were reported in Toronto, 195 in the Peel region, 107 in the Durham region, 104 in the York region and 73 in the Halton region. Another 187 new infections were detected in Ottawa, 113 in Simcoe-Muskoka and 105 each in Thunder Bay and the Niagara region. All other areas reported fewer than 100 new infections. 39 cases were detected among residents and 94 among long-term care facilities across Ontario (and 6 of 41 deaths related to facility residents). There are still 88 long-term care homes where there is an outbreak. The active and known cases in Ontario are currently 18,419.

On the other hand, there were 2,604 healings today, bringing the number of patients healed in Ontario to 1,063,134, while the total number of cases confirmed in the laboratory since the beginning of the pandemic in the province is 1,093,930.

There are still many victims also in Quebec where another 28 deaths were recorded today, bringing the total from the beginning of the pandemic in the province to 13,931. The number of hospitalized is decreasing: today there were 1,604 (-68), of which 96 in intensive care (-6). 1,517 new cases of Covid-19 on the basis of tests limited, however, only to the “at risk” categories: the positivity rate is 8.5%. The number of active and known cases is, official, at 18,925 even if we know that the figure is far from reality due to the limited number of tests. Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 917,279 coronavirus cases in Quebec, 884,423 healings.

Meanwhile, today Health Canada authorized a “made in Canada” anti-Covid vaccine from Medicago, a biotechnology company based in Quebec City. The two-dose plant-based vaccine is called “Covifenz” and is authorized for use in people aged 18 to 64 because, as reported by the Canadian health agency, its efficacy and safety in minors under 18 and over 64 “have not yet been established”. Clinical studies have suggested that the vaccine is 71% effective in protecting against Covid-19 one week after the second dose, which must be administered twenty-one days after the first. Protection rises to 75.3%, in particular against the Delta variant, with the booster from GlaxoSmithKline, the company with which Medicago presented Phase 3 data to Health Canada last December.

Medicago’s vaccine uses technology that does not involve live animal products or viruses like traditional methods. It uses recombinant technology, which involves the genetic sequence of a virus, with living plants as hosts. The resulting virus-like particles mimic the shape and size of a virus, which allows the body to recognize them and trigger an immune response. The details about this vaccine are here

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