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Lars Hagberg/The Canadian Press
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Good evening, here are the COVID-19 updates you need to know tonight.
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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.
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- Quebec’s Nunavik region moved into lockdown on Wednesday, as more than half the northern territory’s 14 Inuit communities were dealing with community spread of COVID-19. Meanwhile, the final report into the care and service offered to seniors in the pandemic’s first wave was released Wednesday, highlighting a need to overhaul the provincial Health Department. The province is reporting 88 COVID-19 deaths and a rise of eight hospitalizations linked to the disease, bringing the total to 3,425 people in hospital.
- Ontario health minister Christine Elliott said today that COVID-19 cases are expected to peak this month, with a peak in hospitalizations and ICU admissions to follow. Meanwhile, Ontario school boards struggled with staff absences and classroom closings as most of the province’s students returned to in-person learning today for the first time in a month. The province reported 4,132 people in hospital Wednesday with COVID-19, and 589 people in intensive care.
- B.C. Provincial Health Officer Bonnie Henry warned that a peak of COVID-19 patients will be arriving in hospitals this week after infections in the community topped out earlier this month. Meanwhile, businesses forced to stay closed for at least another month to contain the spread of COVID-19 will be eligible for additional financial help, the province announced today.
- In Alberta, the Edmonton school board is planning to request the province to open vaccine clinics in schools as the number of students and staff infected with COVID-19 rises. Meanwhile, a total of 3,279 new COVID-19 cases were reported Tuesday and nine new deaths. On Monday, the province said a child between five and nine years old was among those who died.
- Manitoba recorded another 12 COVID-19-related deaths today, while the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations reached 631, an increase of 11 in one day.
- In New Brunswick, a surge of hospitalizations and a shortage of health care staff has led the province to ask people to help with clinical or non-clinical work, such as vaccine administration. New Brunswick has a record 123 people in hospital with COVID-19.
- In Nova Scotia, eight people have died of COVID-19 in the last three days, and currently 12 patients are in intensive care.
- In Yukon, the government announced yesterday that is will no longer be issuing school exposure notifications for the virus. Instead the government will monitor COVID-19′s spread through schools based on higher-level absenteeism rates rather than waiting for individual cases to be tested and confirmed through interviews.
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- In Alberta, dozens of schools in Calgary and Edmonton have moved classes online.
- Meanwhile Saskatoon Public Schools shifted two schools to remote learning this week, including one experiencing a nursing shortage for its medically fragile students with multiple disabilities.
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Coronavirus around the world
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is defending the federal government’s decision to implement a vaccination mandate for truck drivers despite warnings that it could worsen price increases and shortages.
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- Critics say the mandate’s rollout is poorly timed, coming in the winter, when Canadians rely on international supply chains for fresh produce, and that it will push already high levels of inflation even higher.
- Trudeau said on Wednesday that truckers have known for months the mandate was coming, and the U.S. will soon bring an an “identical” one into force to ensure truckers are vaccinated for international travel.
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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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