Good evening, these are the top coronavirus headlines tonight:
Top headlines:
- Executive bonuses were up at Canadian long-term care home companies in 2021, the first full year of the pandemic
- ‘The pandemic housing boom is clearly winding down’: Economists are predicting a double digit drop in housing prices as the market retreats from its COVID-19 fury
In the past seven days, there were 412 deaths from COVID-19 nationally. At least 5,196 people are being treated in hospitals and 346 are in the ICU.
Canada’s inoculation rate is 13th 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
COVID-19 updates from Canada and the world
- At the public companies that operate long-term care homes in Canada, Extendicare Inc., Sienna Senior Living Inc. and Chartwell Retirement Residences, their CEOs made more in 2021 than in 2020, the year their business changed markedly with the onset of the pandemic, according to those companies.
- A long-awaited report from the Quebec coroner says residents of long-term care homes were kept in a blind spot while the provincial government reacted to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The province is reporting five more deaths linked to COVID-19 and an 11-patient drop in the number of hospitalizations associated with the disease.
- The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 hit 1 million on Monday. The confirmed number of dead is equivalent to a 9/11 attack every day for 336 days.
- Leader Kim Jong-un has ordered North Korea’s military to stabilize distribution of COVID-19 medicine in the capital, Pyongyang, as the country battles drug shortages, state media said.
- China’s retail and factory activity fell sharply last month as wide COVID-19 lockdowns confined workers and consumers to their homes and severely disrupted supply chains.
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Pandemic recovery
- It’s the beginning of the end of Canada’s pandemic real estate boom. Sales in many markets across the country have, “cooled off pretty sharply over the last two months,” says a rep from the Canadian Real Estate Association.
- The CEO of Europe’s largest airline, Ryanair, said it was “impractical, if not impossible” to provide a sensible or accurate profit guidance range until the second half of its fiscal year, amid uncertainties over COVID-19 and the Ukraine war.
- Restaurants across Canada are reducing hours and condensing menus as persistent staff shortages and spiking costs threaten to derail the industry’s comeback from crushing pandemic restrictions.
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Globe opinion
Ambarish Chandra and Duncan Dee: Why the return of travel in Canada now feels up in the air
David Parkinson: Canada’s pandemic jobs recovery has been remarkable for both quantity and quality
André Picard: How sincere is Canada’s commitment to COVID-19 vaccine equity?
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More reading
- Before COVID-19 emerged, modern investors had never endured a pandemic. All of the speculation about the digital economy seemed to make sense, but we now know this was wildly optimistic.
- The COVID-19 pandemic prompted conversations around drinking alcohol in parks as crowds flocked to green spaces to gather more safely and because restaurants and bars were closed. Several Canadian cities have adapted their drinking laws, except for Toronto.
Information centre
- Everything you need to know about Canada’s travel rules for vaccinated and unvaccinated people
- When will COVID-19 be endemic? The four factors that will shape the virus’s future
- Wastewater is filling the COVID-19 data gap
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