On December 5, a British Columbian mother named Valerie Ann Foley was trying to take a TransLink SkyTrain to get home. She ended up being arrested
“China eats weird animals disease”
Ontario finance minister on holiday trip outside Canada as health officials urge people to stay home
Ontario Finance Minister Rod Phillips travelled outside of the country for a personal vacation recently, his office said Tuesday.
Toronto’s NEWSTALK1010 radio station reported the trip was taken after the legislative session ended earlier this month and said it appears to contravene recent pleas by Premier Doug Ford for people to stay home over the holidays.
In a statement on Tuesday, Phillips said the trip was “previously planned.”
This is classic.
It's #ChristmasEve. To my constituents in #Ajax & people across Ontario, all the best during this special time of year. Even as COVID-19 changes how we celebrate, we should reflect on what makes Christmas so special to us – including family & the act of giving. #MerryChristmas! pic.twitter.com/AX7hKWA88n
— Rod Phillips (@RodPhillips01) December 24, 2020
The “Loud Words” that Ruled the Lockdowns in 2020
Contrary to rumors, Governor Cuomo did not issue an executive order on 22 March to “lock down” New York State. Instead, as the state’s official Covid-19 site clarifies, Cuomo announced “the ‘New York State on PAUSE’ executive order.”
The acronym implies that activities just halted temporarily, as if in hitting “pause,” Cuomo were only fetching a bowl of popcorn in the midst of an action film. Just press “play” again, and voila!—the hero would open his parachute, land safely, and save the world from the virus. Everything would continue as before.
True toll of Wuhan infections may be nearly 10 times official number, Chinese researchers say
Nearly half a million residents in the Chinese city where the novel coronavirus first emerged may have been infected with COVID-19 — almost 10 times its official number of confirmed cases, according to a study by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The study used a sample of 34,000 people in the general population in Wuhan — the original epicentre of the pandemic — and other cities in Hubei province, as well as Beijing, Shanghai, and the provinces of Guangdong, Jiangsu, Sichuan and Liaoning to estimate COVID-19 infection rates.
Spain will register people who refuse Covid vaccine, says health minister
Spain’s health minister has said the country will create a vaccination registry that will include those who refuse to be vaccinated against Covid-19, yielding a document that could potentially be shared with other countries in Europe.
Days after EU countries began rolling out the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, Salvador Illa said that those who reject the vaccine for “whatever reason” would be documented, as is done currently for those with certain other treatments.
“What we will have is a registry, that will also be shared with our European partners … of those who have been offered it and rejected it,” Illa told the broadcaster La Sexta. “The document will not be made public and it will be done with the utmost respect for the legislation on data protection.”
Report: Travel Insurers Likely To Make Vaccination A Requirement
Yet another sector of the travel industry has signalled that it could mandate vaccination against coronavirus to provide services to travellers, according to a report that notes insurers may demand to see proof of vaccination before covering those wishing to go on holiday.
Ontario reports 2,553 new Covid cases
Ontario is reporting 2,553 cases of #COVID19 today, and 1,939 cases reported yesterday. Today, there are 895 new cases in Toronto, 496 in Peel, 147 in Windsor-Essex County, 144 in Hamilton and 142 in York Region.
— Christine Elliott (@celliottability) December 29, 2020
When it comes to pandemics, COVID-19 might not be ‘the big one’: WHO
TORONTO — Experts say that as bad as the novel coronavirus pandemic has been, worse outbreaks may be coming.
At the final World Health Organization (WHO) press conference on COVID-19 in 2020, Dr. Mike Ryan, head of the WHO emergencies program, called the current pandemic a “wake-up call” on emergency preparedness.
“It may come as a shock to people that this pandemic has been very severe — it’s spread around the world extremely quickly, it’s effected every corner of this planet — but this is not necessarily ‘the big one,'” Ryan said.
COVID-19 didn’t take a holiday, and the vaccine rollout should not have been allowed to either
As of Monday morning, 52,179 doses of novel coronavirus vaccine had been administered in Canada.
Another 350,000 or so doses are sitting in freezers, unused.
In many provinces, the vaccination rollout has slowed considerably, or even stopped, for the holidays.
Come on people! It’s only Old Folks kicking the bucket!
Security sent to observe toboggan hill in Mississauga, Ont. amid reports of crowding
TORONTO — The City of Mississauga said it found no one breaking the province’s COVID-19 lockdown rules at a toboggan hill on Sunday afternoon despite numerous reports of crowding and little social distancing.
It happened at Birchwood Park, off Lakeshore Road West and east of Southdown Road, where dozens of children and families could be seen sliding down the snow-covered hill and making their way back up to the top.
The CDC’s Rules Let Teachers, Lawyers, Media Jump to the Front of the COVID Vaccine Line
Education sector “support staff members,” corporate tax lawyers, and magazine fashion editors will all jump to the front of the coronavirus vaccination line ahead of the general population, under recommendations issued in late December by the federal government’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Families plead for help as coronavirus outbreaks worsen at Toronto long-term care homes
Family members of residents in Toronto’s long-term care homes are pleading for more government support as deadly outbreaks continue to surge amid the second wave of COVID-19.
There are active outbreaks in 162 LTC homes according to the province’s latest count, which represents just over a quarter of all facilities in Ontario.
Active cases have now reached 1,075 among residents and 967 among LTC staff.
Those figures have been on a steep and steady climb since late August, when there was briefly only a single LTC resident in all of Ontario with a confirmed case of COVID-19.
The Liberal Lockdown Playbook: What’s Next?
They’re bad for the country, but good for the Left. So expect more of the same.
Count me among the Pollyannas who was sure that when the election was done the pandemic would be “done,” too. November 4 would dawn bright and clear, the thunderheads of contagion looming on the horizon dissipated by a dry air mass of political reality.
Wuhan Covid citizen journalist jailed for four years in China crackdown
Zhang Zhan, a 37-year-old former lawyer and citizen journalist who was arrested in May while reporting from Wuhan, has been sentenced to four years in jail.
Zhang was arrested for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” – an accusation commonly used against dissidents, activists and journalists – with her video and blog reports from the Wuhan lockdown. Last month she was charged with disseminating false information.
On Monday afternoon, just hours after the trial began, Zhang’s lawyer said she had been sentenced to four years in jail.
Covid-19: Concern at ‘unprecedented’ infection level in England
England’s “very high” Covid infection level is a “growing concern” as the NHS struggles to cope with rising patient numbers, a health official has said.
On Monday, a record 41,385 Covid cases and 357 deaths were reported in the UK.
NHS England said the number of people being treated for the virus in hospital is now 20,426, which is higher than the previous peak of about 19,000 in April.
Health officials in Wales and Scotland have also said they are at risk of becoming overwhelmed.
Cheating a ‘free-for-all’ at virtual high schools, teachers say
It took less than a month for students attending virtual school to devise new ways to cheat.
From texting friends on the sly to downloading apps that spit out answers, educators say the pandemic-induced move to an online classroom has offered up a wealth of tech-driven workarounds to actually doing the work.
Olivia Meleta, a high school math teacher in Thornhill, Ont., said she realized something was amiss in late September when several students learning virtually submitted tests with matching solutions – using a method she and her colleagues don’t teach.