Your weekly COVID-19 update Every Tuesday, the Maclean's daily newsletter will catch you up on what you need to know about Canada's fight against the coronavirus. This week, Patricia Treble focuses on one story worth watching, and you can get a sneak peek here. You'll also get the same mix of Maclean's stories you expect every day if you scroll down below. Before 7:30 a.m. on a hot Sunday in Toronto, the doors opened at Scotiabank Arena for the first people to get vaccinated. Soon, quickly moving lines formed outside the huge one-day clinic at the home of the Toronto Raptors and Maple Leafs. The goal was not only to supercharge the city’s vaccination efforts but also to have some fun and to break the previous one-day, one-location vaccination record of around 17,000 shots, accomplished in Texas earlier this year. Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment handed out game towels and some attendees won tickets to baseball and basketball games. It was one of nearly 50 vaccination clinics that operated in Toronto over the weekend. The massive effort, put together within a few weeks, involved nearly 1,500 people, including 400 vaccinators and around 800 volunteers, while public transit offered free rides to those with appointments. Even Mayor John Tory, sporting a pandemic ponytail, got his second shot at the giant clinic. By the evening, as appointments ended, the clinic put out a call for walk-ins. Thousands more showed up, and by the time the final shot was administered, Toronto had set a new record of 26,771 shots. More than one quarter of all Canadians are now fully vaccinated, while two-thirds have at least one dose. For eligible Canadians, age 12 and older, the numbers are 29 and 76 per cent, respectively, according to data crunched by Trevor Tombe, an economics professor at the University of Calgary. His modelling suggests that 75 per cent of eligible Canadians could be fully immunized by Aug. 1 at our current pace. And there will be no shortage of vaccines: the provinces have a 16-day inventory on hand, largely thanks to recent big shipments of Moderna. READ MORE >> |