“China eats weird animals disease”

Austria’s parliament on Thursday passed a vaccine mandate that will require all adults in the country to get vaccinated against COVID-19 beginning in February. The move makes Austria the first EU country to pass a vaccine mandate, despite tens of thousands of angry citizens continuing to protest such measures in Austria and across Europe.

The law enjoyed broad support in parliament, with only far-right legislators voting against it in a 137-33 tally. After an “introductory phase” ending mid-March, those who refuse to get the shot will face fines of up to €3,600 ($4,084). The mandate only applies to adults and makes exemptions for pregnant women and those with medical conditions that prevent them from getting the jab.

More than 40 physicians are currently being investigated by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) for promoting unproven treatments for COVID-19 or sharing unverified information about its vaccines, Global News can reveal.

On Wednesday, the United Kingdom announced it will lift all COVID restrictions on Jan. 26, based on the mildness of Omicron and how it’s receding.

Ontario is long overdue to play catch-up with the United States’ more evolved approach to managing the virus, and now it looks like we’ll be left playing catch-up with the U.K., as well.

We can hope.

UPDATE: Ontario announces reopening plan; restaurants, gyms, theatres to reopen at 50% capacity on Jan. 31

Ontario will allow restaurants, gyms, theatres and other indoor settings to reopen at 50 per cent capacity as of Jan. 31 as part of a wider plan to gradually lift most COVID-19 restrictions by mid-March.

On Thursday, Premier Doug Ford announced that the province will gradually lift current public health measures to blunt transmission of the highly contagious Omicron variant.

A Canadian lawyer has condemned COVID jabs mandates as an “affront to democracy” and hitherto something expected only from “authoritarian regimes.”

“Canadians cannot legally be subjected to forced injections, especially not with an experimental drug treatment that is still undergoing long-term clinical trials and for which there is no long-term safety data,” Allison Kindle Pejovic, a lawyer for the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF), told LifeSiteNews.

The restrictions were supposed to be in effect until at least Jan. 26 but lifting them was contingent on improving public health indicators.

According to multiple sources, the Ford government now plans to allow 50 per cent capacity in restaurants as of Jan. 31 and will gradually lift other public health restrictions throughout the month of February.

At this point it remains unclear when other sectors that are currently prohibited from operating, such as gyms and theatres, will be able to reopen but Premier Doug Ford did appear to suggest that “positive news” was coming for shuttered business while speaking with a cameraperson at Queen’s Park earlier on Wednesday.

It may be unpopular to stand up for travellers during COVID-19, but violations of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms should concern every Canadian. Reports coming out of the U.S. suggest our federal government is de facto denying Canadian citizens a key right : the one to enter, remain in, or leave Canada.

Boris Johnson has announced the end of all Covid measures introduced to combat the Omicron variant – compulsory mask-wearing on public transport and in shops, guidance to work from home and vaccine certificates – from next week.

The prime minister also told the Commons that the legal requirement on people with coronavirus to self-isolate would be allowed to lapse when the regulations expired on 24 March, and that date could be brought forward.

To cheers from some on the Conservative benches, Johnson announced an immediate end to the need for pupils to wear masks at secondary schools.