Health officials across Canada continue to warn about the risks of gatherings as a family Thanksgiving dinner in Ontario is cited as the source of a major COVID-19 outbreak, and British Columbia announces the death of an elderly woman who contracted the virus at a small birthday party.
In the case of the Thanksgiving dinner in Renfrew County, Ont., up to 20 people attended the event, Medical Officer of Health Dr. Robert Cushman told CBC News.
“Someone must have showed up to the event with COVID. Either they were asymptomatic or they didn’t pay attention to their symptoms,” he said. “And then it continued to spread.”
WATCH | Family Thanksgiving dinner was superspreading event, health official says:
Dr. Robert Cushman, medical officer of health for Renfrew County, says a Thanksgiving gathering attended by up to 20 people has led to a dozen cases of COVID-19 so far. 0:59
About a dozen cases have been linked to the dinner so far, Cushman said.
Among them were two teenagers, which necessitated “some very aggressive contact tracing and testing in their particular high school,” he said. As a result, about 70 students missed at least a week of classes.
In British Columbia, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry highlighted the province’s most recent COVID-19 death — a woman in her 80s who contracted the disease at a birthday party — as she urged residents to remain vigilant.
“Somebody unknowingly brought COVID-19, and even though it was a small party in one person’s home, the majority of people who were in that home became infected with COVID-19,” Henry said.
The birthday party, which had fewer than 10 people, took place in the Fraser Valley region, which has more than half of B.C.’s identified cases despite accounting for only 39 per cent of the population.
(CBC News)
Meanwhile, with Halloween this weekend, health experts are urging Canadians to be mindful of certain things to keep any holiday activities from becoming superspreaders.
“Halloween is usually an outdoor activity — keep it exclusively outdoors,” Dr. Matthew Oughton, an infectious diseases specialist at Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, told CBC News Network.
He said people should make sure trick-or-treaters don’t cluster together to get candy from a communal bowl; rather, prepackaged bags of candy should be available that can be handed out one or two at a time.
People should keep Halloween activities outdoors while making sure that kids don’t cluster together for candy when trick-or-treating, says infectious diseases specialist Dr. Matthew Oughton. 1:35
On Friday, the federal government released new modelling projections that found all Canadians must reduce close contacts by 25 per cent in order to flatten the second wave.
Dr. Theresa Tam, the country’s chief public health officer, said despite new health restrictions, transmission will continue if Canadians keep up the number of contacts they currently have.
The projections show the number of COVID-19 cases could rise from the current level — 230,547 as of 11:20 a.m. ET Friday — to 262,000 by Nov. 8. Another 300 people are expected to die during that period if cases rise at that rate.
While the number of deaths have risen, it’s at a slower rate than earlier in the pandemic. Tam said this is likely because more young people have had the virus recently and recovered at home, and because treatment options have improved.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also said Friday that the federal government will provide further supports for Indigenous communities dealing with the pandemic.
Ottawa is adding $200 million to its funding to help those communities fight COVID-19, he said. More than half of that money will go toward pre-schools and daycare centres, to improve training and staffing and enhance cleaning.
Around $60 million is going to First Nations to make community buildings safer with renovations, better cleaning and upgraded ventilation, while $26 million is going to Indigenous post-secondary institutions, Trudeau said.
The new money is on top of more than $2.2 billion the federal government has already allocated to help Indigenous and northern communities get through the health crisis.
What’s happening in the rest of Canada
As of 6 p.m. ET on Friday, Canada had 231,727 confirmed or presumptive coronavirus cases, with 27,903of those active. Provinces and territories listed 193,715 as recovered or resolved. A CBC News tally of deaths based on provincial reports, regional health information and CBC’s reporting stood at 10,109.
In the Yukon, the first COVID-19-related death was announced on Friday. The territory has reported 23 confirmed cases since the pandemic and 17 of those positive cases are considered recovered.
The person who died was from the rural community of Watson Lake, where there has been a recent cluster of cases with an unknown source of infection. Yukon’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Brendan Hanley said at a news conference Friday that the person was “older” and had “significant” underlying medical conditions.
On Thurdsay, Yukon reported its most recent case, which officials said was travel-related and not linked to Watson Lake.
Ontario reported another 896 cases of COVID-19 and nine new deaths on Friday, with 796 recoveries. Its seven-day average of daily cases has now climbed above 900 for the first time in the pandemic.
Premier Doug Ford said Friday that he’ll ask the province’s health experts when more businesses can open in harder-hit areas after the 28-day period of tightened restrictions ends next month.
At Friday’s news conference Ford also said he’d ask Ontario’s health team if lifting Stage 2 restrictions can be done safely.
Associate Medical Officer of Health Dr. Barbara Yaffe told reporters that while cases continue to increase, the climb has slowed — making it possible to discuss loosening restrictions.
WATCH | Gym owners, patrons frustrated by renewed COVID-19 closures:
Despite Manitoba’s surge in COVID-19 cases, gyms remain open in most of the province even though the facilities are closed in Ontario and Quebec. Gym owners and patrons are increasingly frustrated and want to know why they’re paying more to contain the pandemic than other jurisdictions. 1:57
The province is not yet declaring a victory around data showing that there are fewer COVID-19 deaths so far associated with the surge in infections over the last few weeks. Doctors told CBC News that a person who is infected with COVID-19 now is more likely to survive than they would have been during the initial spring outbreak, as they now know more about how to treat the virus effectively.
However, the number of deaths may rise in the coming weeks as there is a “lagging issue” in that it takes time for COVID-19 to jump from younger people to older, more vulnerable members of the population.
In Ottawa, the city’s medical officer of health Dr. Vera Etches said that spread has slowed in the region but there are outbreaks at long-term care homes that are concerning. Provincial data released Thursday showed that although Ottawa is a COVID-19 hotspot, it’s fairing better than other regions with a high number of infections.
Quebec reported 1,108 new cases, 1,150 new recoveries and 18 new deaths on Friday.
Cases in hard-hit Montreal have remained steady at 250 new infections per day on average, but some neighbourhoods are grappling with more outbreaks than others, Montreal Public Health Director Dr. Mylène Drouin said on Friday.
Workplace transmission has become less of an issue, but health officials are seeing more cases of the virus in schools, she said. There are 93 schools currently experiencing outbreaks.
Clients write comments on the outside wall of a gym during a morning protest in Montreal on Thursday. The Quebec government has extended the closure of gyms until Nov. 23. (Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press)
New Brunswick reported one new COVID-19 case and three recoveries on Friday.
That comes a day after the province reported four new confirmed cases, declared an outbreak at a special care home in Balmoral and announced new isolation rules for people who travel outside the Atlantic bubble for work.
Newfoundland and Labrador reported no new cases on Friday for the fourth straight day in a row. Three active cases remain in the province.
In Nova Scotia, officials said Friday that the state of emergency would be renewed as the province announced two new cases. The emergency status will begin at noon on Nov. 1 and run until Nov. 15, unless the province extends it.
Alberta recorded a dramatic jump in COVID-19 cases on Friday, reporting 622 new infections. That figure is significantly higher than the daily average of 450 that the province has seen in the last 10 days.
Currently, 140 Albertans are in hospital with the disease, 25 of them in ICU, also both record numbers. The province also reported another five deaths.
Manitoba reported another 480 new cases on Friday, shattering the record number of new cases announced on Thursday.
As a result of the continued increase in cases, the Winnipeg region is being moved to the critical red alert, which is the highest level on the province’s pandemic response system. The rest of the province is being moved to the orange level.
Starting Monday, bars and restaurants will be closed in Winnipeg and will be offering take-out or delivery only. Concert halls and movie theatres will also close.
WATCH | Dr. Brent Roussin explains new, strict health rules being implemented in Manitoba:
While widespread closures and capacity restrictions have significant impacts on people, Manitoba’s Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin says a concerning trend of rising COVID-19 cases and strain on the healthcare system in recent days forced the province to introduce the latest round of rules meant to slow the spread of the illness. 0:42
Other restrictions are being ushered in as well, including hospitals suspending non-urgent and elective procedures, retail outlets being reduced to 25 per cent capacity and faith-based gatherings will be limited to 15 per cent capacity. The new rules will be in place for two weeks, and then reassessed, said Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba’s chief public health officer.
In orange zones outside of Winnipeg, new rules are also being implemented including reducing capacity to 50 per cent at restaurants, bars, retail stores, museums, galleries and libraries.
The shutdown announcement comes as 12 doctors in the province published a letter Friday in the Winnipeg Free Press directed toward the premier and health minister, stating it’s time for a province-wide shutdown. Manitoba’s positivity rate has climbed to 8.6 per cent, and there are 104 people in hospital as of Friday.
The physicians say in the letter that what’s needed is mass closures such as those implemented in Manitoba and elsewhere when COVID-19 emerged in the spring.
It’s important to note that Manitoba’s active case count is currently inaccurate, as there’s a backlog for tracking recoveries, Roussin said earlier this month.
Saskatchewan reported 76 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, with 34 of those cases coming from the Saskatoon area. There are currently 22 people in hospital with sixteen of those receiving inpatient care.
A public health order on nightclubs is now in effect in Saskatoon, where drinking alcohol is barred between 10 p.m. and 9:30 a.m. CST, and they are required to close between 11 p.m. and 9:30 a.m. CST. Karaoke and dance floors have been closed at the clubs, where guests are to be seated and cannot mingle between tables.
Two medical experts told CBC News they’re worried the number of new infections will overwhelm the province’s health system.
British Columbia announced in a written public statement another 272 cases of COVID-19 on Friday and one additional death. There are currently 2,390 active cases in the province.
Three new outbreaks at health care facilities were announced by health officials who also reminded residents not to hold large parties over the Halloween weekend.
What’s happening around the world
A database maintained by Johns Hopkins University put the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases reported around the world since the pandemic began at more than 45.1 million as of Friday morning, with more than 30.3 million of those listed as recovered. The death toll reported by the U.S.-based university stood at more than 1.1 million.
European Union officials said Friday that the World Health Organization (WHO) needs to be quickly overhauled to be strengthened, so it can be faster when handling emergencies.
Those comments were made during a video conference of EU health ministers who endorsed an EU document outlining changes they say need to occur at WHO. The document also urges the UN body to make public how and if member states respect their obligations to share information on health crises.
The move comes after criticisms that some countries, including China, did not share information with WHO about COVID-19 quickly enough at the outset of the pandemic.
At the same conference Germany’s health minister said that when a vaccine for COVID-19 is ready, it will be distributed equally among all European Union member nations.
Jens Spahn told EU health ministries that they will wait for Phase 3 trials to be completed and then organize fair distribution.
Spahn, who was in quarantine after testing positive for COVID-19, has emphasized that comprehensive clinical trials must be completed before the vaccine is approved for use.
The United States now has nine million cases of COVID-19 according to data compiled by John Hopkins University. The country was at eight million just two weeks ago, marking the fasted accumulation of another million cases reported so far.
Infections are rising in nearly every state. The U.S. also broke its single-day record for new coronavirus infections on Thursday, reporting at least 91,248 new cases, as 21 states reported their highest daily number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients since the pandemic started, according to a Reuters tally of publicly reported data.
WATCH | COVID-19 long-haulers share experience with prolonged symptoms:
During a World Health Organization news conference, an infectious disease epidemiologist, a nurse and a software engineer share the long-term effects they’ve had after getting COVID-19. 5:38
Among the hardest-hit states are those most hotly contested in Tuesday’s presidential election between Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden, such as Ohio, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Also in the U.S., Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, a biotech company based out of Tarrytown, N.Y., said Friday that their study testing an experimental antibody drug for the coronavirus has been paused to investigate a possible safety issue.
Independent monitors had recommended placing on hold enrolment of the most severely ill patients — those who need intense oxygen treatment or breathing machines — because of a potential safety problem and unfavourable balance of risks and benefit, they said.
The study can continue to test the two-antibody drug combo in hospitalized patients who need little or no extra oxygen. Other studies in mild or moderately ill people also are continuing.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also released a new study on Friday that found COVID-19 can spread in households more extensively than previous research suggests. The report emphasizes why it’s important for those who test positive to isolate from other household members while they are recovering.
The research looked at 101 homes in Tennessee and Wisconsin and discovered about 53 per cent of household members tested positive after the first person became sick.
Confirmed coronavirus infections in Slovakia have also hit a new record high as the country gets ready for countrywide testing.
The Health Ministry says the day-to-day increase in the country of 5.4 million reached 3,363 on Thursday, more than 300 above the previous record set on Saturday.
People are seen at a COVID-19 testing site in Nizna, Slovakia, last week. Authorities are hoping a broad testing program will help them respond to the pandemic more effectively. (Radovan Stoklasa/Reuters)
The government wants to use antigen tests, which are less accurate than polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests but have the advantage of producing faster results, for testing almost the entire population older than age 10 over the next two weekends. It’s not compulsory and is free of charge.
India reported 48,648 new coronavirus cases, continuing a month-long slowing trend in infections even as the country adds to its eight million cases.
The Health Ministry also reported 563 more fatalities in the past 24 hours, raising the confirmed death toll to 121,090.
Even as cases are dropping across the country, New Delhi is facing what could be a third wave of infections. The capital is India’s worst-hit city and is among the few regions in the country seeing further new infections, clocking more than 5,000 daily in the last three days. The surge comes while seasonal pollution levels are soaring in the capital, worsening respiratory illnesses.
Muslims, many wearing masks, leave the Jama Masjid mosque after offering Friday prayers on the occasion of Eid-e-Milad-ul-Nabi, the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad, in the old quarters of Delhi on Friday. (Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters)
In Britain, a weekly survey by the region’s statistics agency shows an average of nearly 52,000 daily coronavirus cases, an increase of nearly 50 per cent in the most recent week.
The highest rates were shown in northern England, where restrictions have been tightened the most in the last few weeks.
France is grappling with a strict new lockdown that started Friday. Parisians fled for the countryside, jamming up roads and booking trains solid to ride out the lockdown away from the city.
The entire country, made up of 67 million people, has been ordered to stay at home at all times with no visitors. Those who break the rules could face steep fines or be charged. There are some exceptions, including being allow outside for one hour per day within one kilometre of home, going to work, medical appointments, or shopping for essentials.
A woman walks by closed shops near Galeries Lafayette in the center of Paris as a national lockdown went into effect. (The Associated Press/Lewis Joly)
Restaurants have closed, other than offering take-out. Per capita, France has two and half times the number of cases the U.S. has. The lockdown is set to last for four weeks until it’s reassessed.
Kenya has joined the trial of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine candidate, which was developed with Oxford University. The Kenya Medical Research Institute said the first of 40 volunteers in the country who have been vaccinated are all front-line health workers.
The news of the east African nation joining the trial comes as Kenya’s government said a second surge in COVID-19 cases had begun there.
VANCOUVER – A disciplinary investigation has found a former Vancouver police sergeant shared “disrespectful” commentary on a fellow officer’s court testimony about being sexually assaulted by a colleague.
The decision against Narinder Dosanjh, obtained by The Canadian Press, includes the running commentary on the woman’s testimony — apparently written by someone inside the courtroom — that calls her a “bad drunk” and says there was “no way” her case would be proved.
Former New Westminster police chief Dave Jansen, the external officer who rendered the decision against Dosanjh, says his assessment accounts for a culture of treating officers who testify against each other as “rats.”
Former Vancouver constable Jagraj Roger Berar was convicted in 2021 and sentenced to a year in jail for assaulting the woman, who can’t be identified because of a publication ban on her name.
Jansen says in his ruling, dated Oct. 11, that the comments in a Vancouver police group chat appear “supportive” of Berar and reflect “all-too-common myths” about women who make sexual assault allegations.
While Jansen found Dosanjh committed discreditable conduct by sharing the chats, a complaint against a more-senior Vancouver officer who was inside the courtroom, and who the victim and other officers believed wrote the commentary, were not substantiated.
The ruling says Jansen, who retired as New Westminster’s chief constable, would accept submissions before deciding how Dosanjh should be punished.
The woman who was assaulted was the complainant in the disciplinary investigation, and said in an interview she felt “vindicated” by Jansen’s decision because it “truly paints what I’ve been through,” after reporting a fellow officer for sexual assault.
She said many other women in municipal policing fear speaking out about ill-treatment at work, and some have told her about being assaulted and harassed but feared ruining their careers if they complained.
“This decision is important for those women to see,” she said. “It shows the tides are changing. Like, this is the first win I’ve had.”
A spokesman for the Surrey Police Service, where Dosanjh now works, did not immediately answer a question about how he was penalized, and said Dosanjh declined an interview request with The Canadian Press.
In his decision, Jansen said there was an “unfortunate but often pervasive” culture of treating officers who complain as “‘rats’, who betrayed their colleagues.”
“In terms of the messages themselves, Sergeant Dosanjh alleges that they are not degrading, humiliating or derogatory and do not attack the personal character of the complainant. I disagree,” Jansen wrote.
The decision includes a screenshot of the commentary about the complainant, who said the order of the messages appeared to refer to her evidence while she was being cross-examined and suggested the comments were written by someone listening to her testimony.
The commentary on a Vancouver police chat group on the Signal messaging app said the victim “wore a wire twice,” and “admitted in cross to possibly drinking way more alcohol than she originally claimed.”
“Her memory is super hazy and there’s no way you can prove beyond reasonable doubt,” the person wrote.
“And she admitted that she is really bad drunk,” they added.
Another message said it was a “nail in the coffin” of the case that video showed the complainant “cuddling, holding hands” with Berar.
The victim, who became aware of the commentary when a friend in the department showed them to her, was distressed by the messages and disputed their accuracy, said Jansen.
“The comments also appear to reflect some of the all-too-common myths around women making allegations of sexual assault. Some of these myths include the belief that because a victim socialized with the perpetrator, or engaged in some consensual activity with him, therefore she must have consented to the assault,” he wrote.
Jansen’s decision said Dosanjh shared the messages with a fellow officer after getting them from a “VPD chat group that he claims he knew little about, from a co-worker he claims not to be able to identify.”
The decision said other officers believed the commentary was written bya more-senior officer in the department who had been present at the trial, but Jansen said the discreditable conduct complaint against that person was unsubstantiated.
The decision said Dosanjh claimed he was the “fall guy” and “a pawn in a broader game.”
Jansen’s decision said Dosanjh was a senior officer and supervisor who was aware of the “vulnerability of victims of sexual crimes and of the myths that surround sexual assault victims.”
It said Dosanjh’s “distribution of these messages that were disrespectful of an alleged victim of sexual violence who was also a co-worker, should they become public, would likely discredit the reputation of the police force.”
The Vancouver Police Department did not immediately provide comment on Jansen’s decision.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.
FREDERICTON – The offspring of beetles imported from British Columbia are ready to take up the fight against an invasive insect that is killing hemlock trees in Nova Scotia.
Last fall and spring, about 5,000 Laricobius nigrinus beetles — affectionately called Lari by scientists — made an overnight journey from the West Coast.
Lucas Roscoe, research scientist with the Canadian Forest Service, says in the fight against the woolly adelgid that is destroying swaths of hemlock trees in Nova Scotia, the first step was to make sure the Lari beetle can survive a Nova Scotia winter.
The one-to-two-millimetre black flying beetles were released across six sites in Nova Scotia that had the woolly adelgids.
In one of the sites, scientists placed cages of imported beetles and about 60 per cent of them were able to survive the winter in Nova Scotia, which Roscoe says is an encouraging rate.
He says the woolly adelgid was first seen in southwestern Nova Scotia in 2017 and the peppercorn-sized insect, aided by climate change, has since spread north.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.
Dozens of researchers across Canada, including renowned environmentalist David Suzuki, have joined a growing chorus of voices urging the federal government to halt the importation of an endangered monkey species for medical research in Quebec.
A letter signed by 80 scientists, academics, doctors and students says testing on long-tailed macaques from Cambodia should be banned due to ethical concerns and potential public-health risks.
“A decade ago, chimpanzees, our closest primate relatives, ceased to be used for experimentation because using such animal ‘models’ could no longer be justified from scientific, ethical, and/or financial perspectives,” says the letter addressed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, his environment minister and the premier of Quebec.
The researchers say they are also concerned about “the serious risks of transmission of zoonotic pathogens” that could be associated with transporting macaques.
Their letter urges the federal government to end charter flights that have been bringing the macaques into Canada, and to adopt regulations banning the importation of all primates for biomedical testing.
It’s the latest group to add more pressure on Ottawa to suspend the monkey imports by Charles River Laboratories, a U.S.-based pharmaceutical giant that has a sprawling facility in Montreal.
The company announced in 2023 that it was halting macaque imports into the U.S., after it was subpoenaed in a case that involved the indictment of two senior Cambodian officials over what authorities described as “multiple felonies for their role in bringing wild long-tailed macaques into the United States.”
No charges have been brought against Charles River Laboratories, or any of its officials, and the company has said it will fully co-operate with the U.S. investigation.
At around the same time, imports of monkeys from Cambodia into Canada dramatically surged, with Statistics Canada data showing a 500 per cent increase in 2023 from the year before.
Environment and Climate Change Canada, the federal department responsible for monitoring commercial trade in wildlife, confirmed to the Canadian Press that Charles River Laboratories has imported 6,769 long-tailed macaques into the country between January 2023 and August of this year. The monetary value of these imported macaques is around $120 million dollars, according to Statistics Canada.
The department previously said that officials rigorously and closely inspect imports of foreign animals, including those brought in by Charles River Laboratories, and that all macaque imports so far this year have complied with federal and international wildlife regulations.
The government and the company have both said that no Canadian laws have been broken.
Last month, the Canadian Transportation Authority issued a permit for another shipment on a cargo plane chartered by Charles River Laboratories. A flight tracker shows that a plane with the same flight number as what is shown on the permit departed Phnom Penh, Cambodia last Thursday, and arrived in Montreal on Friday.
Jesse Greener, a professor of chemistry at Laval University who signed the researchers’ letter to the government, said medical technology has developed to a point that makes it unjustifiable for the pharmaceutical industry to continue using live primates for testing.
“The government should take a leadership role and help researchers and surely the private sector to pivot from using these unethical, and I would say old and outdated and unreliable animal models, and embrace these much more efficient and ethical approaches that are … exploding right now,” said Greener, who has done research on methods to replace animals in such experiments.
“It is grotesque,” he said of the animal use. “It is time that we change the page on this chapter of terrible research and commercial activities.”
Canada banned the use of animals for cosmetic testing last year, but it is still legal to use live primates for drug testing purposes.
The federal government said a draft strategy aimed at reducing and replacing the use of animals in drug testing was published in September and open to public consultations for 60 days.
The strategy, which will be revised based on input from researchers, experts and others, is expected to be published in June 2025, it said.
“The government of Canada is committed to advancing efforts to replace, reduce, or refine the use of vertebrate animals in toxicity testing where possible,” Environment and Climate Change Canada said in a statement Tuesday.
Charles River Laboratories previously told The Canadian Press that while it is also committed to reducing its use of live primates, global regulatory bodies require drugs to be tested on animals before they are evaluated in humans.
The company said the use of non-human primates has been vital in developing treatments for various diseases and that the standards it applies in its facilities are exceeding global norms.
Matthew Green, a New Democrat MP who had previously called on the federal government to halt the latest shipment of macaques, said he has “great concern” about importing this exotic animal.
“Generally in Canada, Canadians like to believe that our government has higher regulations and more stringent enforcement protocols when it comes to protecting endangered species, yet this is not the case in comparison to what the United States has done,” he said.
Green and two of his NDP colleagues wrote a letter to three federal ministers last month, demanding an “immediate attention” to the issue.
The Animal Alliance of Canada also sent a letter to the environment minister in August, urging the immediate suspension of monkey importation from Cambodia.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.
