Coronavirus Update: Delta variant changing what we think we know about COVID-19

Good evening, we’re updating the coronavirus newsletter to better reflect the pandemic as it changes.  What would you like to see included? Send your thoughts to audience@globeandmail.com

Top headlines:

1. The Delta variant is upending assumptions about the coronavirus even as nations loosen restrictions, according to virologists and epidemiologists
2. Stiff joints, grey hair: Isolation, grief and anxiety may have aged you over the last 16 months – but it’s not too late to reverse the pandemic’s effects
3. The United States will not lift any existing travel restrictions due to concerns over the highly transmissible Delta variant

In the past seven days, 3,437 cases were reported, up 23 per cent from the previous seven days. There were 49 deaths announced, down 26 per cent over the same period. At least 385 people are being treated in hospitals and 1,395,783 others are considered recovered.

Canada’s inoculation rate is 7th among countries with a population of one million or more people.

Sources: Canada data is compiled from government websites, Johns Hopkins and COVID-19 Canada Open Data Working Group; international data is from Johns Hopkins University.

Coronavirus explainers: Coronavirus in maps and charts • Tracking vaccine doses • Lockdown rules and reopening

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Coronavirus in Canada

• Ontario has requested the Trudeau government work with the World Health Organization to ensure that mixed COVID-19 vaccines are “internationally accepted as a complete vaccine regimen.”
• Quebec will offer a third shot of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine for those who received the AstraZeneca shot and wish to travel internationally. The province warned it is up to individuals to seek advice and weigh the risks before getting a third dose.

The stress of the pandemic – 16 months of stress, isolation, and grief – may have aged you prematurely, according to researchers who study the biological impact of stress.

• Stress wears on your body – it hampers its ability to repair itself, and the effects go beyond what you feel or see in the mirror.
• Stress can take years off your life – but it is possible to turn back the clock, researchers say. Healthy habits, such as eating and sleeping well, and especially physical activity, help mitigate the aging effects of stress.

🔊 COVID-19 vaccine passports: “I just don’t think it’s fair to make [the staff] stand there for hours on end, inside, next to unmasked people,” says one Toronto restaurant owner who is in favour of vaccine passports, on today’s episode of The Decibel.

Vaccine mix-and-match: Getting an AstraZeneca and then a Pfizer COVID-19 shot – a common mix in Canada – boosts antibody levels by six times compared to two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, a new study shows.

Coronavirus around the world

• The United States will not lift border restrictions in the short term amid concerns regarding the highly transmissible Delta COVID-19 variant.
• A study in China found that people infected with the Delta variant carry 1,000 times more virus in their noses compared with the original version of the virus, upending previous assumptions about COVID-19.
• India will miss its target to administer over a half billion COVID-19 vaccine doses by the end of the month.
• Tokyo: The Dutch rowing team has agreed to separate itself from other competitors after one of its athletes, a coach and a staff member all tested positive for COVID-19. And, nearly two-thirds of Japanese residents polled said that the country’s rollout of coronavirus vaccinations was not going well.
• French lawmakers approved a bill which will make COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory for health workers.

Coronavirus and business

Youth unemployment rose during the pandemic – but Statistics Canada data shows this is part of a broader trend of precarious work ongoing since the 1980s.

• Male and female workers between 15 and 30 were less likely to have a full-time job in 2019 compared with 1989, the agency said.
• The pandemic has caused further upheaval as the percentage of young people not employed or in school rose almost four percentage points from 2019 to 2020.

Also today: Amid rising Delta infections, the United States Federal Reserve is facing dual risks of inflation and growth as supply chains falter.

And: As pandemic restrictions relax, many cities are hurtling back to tight market conditions with meagre rental vacancies, putting a strain on tenants’ finances.

Globe opinion

• André Picard: The time for debating COVID-19 vaccine passports is over
• Ken Hansen: If Ontario really is in a war against COVID-19, our former military officers let us down

More reporting

• What makes some coronaviruses such a threat to global health?
• As restaurants begin to reopen, how are their stocks doing?

Information centre

• Everything you need to know about Canada’s travel restrictions for vaccinated and unvaccinated people
• Waiting for a second dose? We answer your COVID-19 vaccine questions
• What is and isn’t ‘paid sick leave’ in Canada? A short primer
• Got a vaccine ‘hangover’? Here’s why

Sources: Canada data are compiled from government websites, Johns Hopkins University and COVID-19 Canada Open Data Working Group; international data are from Johns Hopkins.

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