Canada’s top doctor is amplifying a call for Canadians to reduce their number of contacts each day to “only essential activities” or else the coronavirus pandemic will continue to surge.
Should appropriate efforts not be made, Dr. Theresa Tam says Canada could see 20,000 cases daily by the end of December, with a subsequent increase in hospitalizations and deaths.
“We’re not on a good trajectory,” she said at a news conference in Ottawa on Friday.
“Across Canada, the time is now — with urgency — that we limit contacts.”
Updated projections for the pandemic in Canada paint a grim picture. It predicts that cases and deaths could rise dramatically should Canadians maintain or increase their socialization.
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Reversing the course will require a “combined effort” of actions by individual Canadians and public health authorities, Tam said.
“For individual Canadians this means, whenever possible, reducing the number of people we come into contact with each day, while maintaining hand hygiene, physical distancing and face mask-wearing precautions,” she said.
“For public health authorities, it means implementing time-limited restrictions and control measures to further reduce the number of people coming into contact each day across the population.”
0:42 Coronavirus: Canada could see up to 378,000 cases in the next 10 days, latest projection shows
Coronavirus: Canada could see up to 378,000 cases in the next 10 days, latest projection shows
Some jurisdictions have already been “putting on the brakes” due to rising infections, she pointed out.
Manitoba, British Columbia and Alberta have all further toughened restrictions to stem the spread of the virus in recent weeks. Ontario’s premier has hinted at “tough” new measures ahead as well.
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While it will take time to see the impact, Tam believes it will bring some improvement.
However, she said provinces need to think about what happens once those restrictions expire. Areas that haven’t seen an escalation in cases as of yet also need to be prepared to hit the brakes “early and fast.”
“We cannot release the brakes unless we’re absolutely certain other measures have been put in place,” she said. “That’s very important.”
In the new national modelling, researchers use a colour-coded graph to predict how strong of a response is needed to slow the spread of COVID-19 in the long term.
It hinges on the number of contacts Canadians have each day.
(A slide in Public Health Canada’s update on COVID-19 in Canada, Nov. 20, 2020).
Tam believes Canada is currently on the “grey trajectory,” meaning if Canadians maintain their current number of daily contacts the epidemic will continue to grow.
“We have every chance to bend the curve,” she said. “We must not increase our contacts.”
If Canadians don’t strictly limit their contact with people outside their households, the new forecasts predict a dramatic rise in cases over the next few weeks — as many as 60,000 new cases a day by the end of the year, under a worst-case scenario.
0:51 Coronavirus: Canada’s top doctor says country might not be testing enough
Coronavirus: Canada’s top doctor says country might not be testing enough
Daily national coronavirus case tallies have grown dramatically over the past couple of months. The new modelling shows about 15 per cent more daily cases were reported this week compared to last.
In mid-October, Canada had about 2,300 new cases of COVID-19 diagnosed each day. By November, that number grew to above 4,000. In the past week, it has hovered near 5,000.
The rapid growth is being driven primarily by the six provinces outside the Atlantic bubble, Tam said.
With many provinces struggling to keep up with contact tracing, some jurisdictions are seeing at least one-third of their cases “unlinked” to others, Tam said, suggesting there’s “extensive community transmission, but you can’t link it back anymore.”
For Canada to land on the graph’s blue line — where contacts are reduced to essential activities only, bringing the epidemic under control in most places — Tam reiterated that restrictions need to be sustained.
She said it’s possible things could change in the next few weeks, but that it’s inevitably going to be “a very different Christmas.”
0:54 Coronavirus: Trudeau says a normal Christmas is “quite frankly right out of the question”
Coronavirus: Trudeau says a normal Christmas is “quite frankly right out of the question”
Tam and federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu acknowledged these necessary changes in behaviour will be particularly hard as the holiday season approaches, but that the “urgency” to bring infection rates down should come first.
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“We are all tired, we are all lonely, and we all want our lives back. But we can’t give up now,” Hajdu said.
“So let’s all pitch in to get everyone there safely. Each decision we make matters. Think about the choices you’re making carefully because lives actually depend on it. Is my travel essential? Do I need to go out today? Can I reduce my shopping time? Do I need to have that dinner?”
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A linebacker at Division II West Virginia State was fatally shot during what the university said Thursday is being investigated by police as a home invasion.
The body of Jyilek Zyiare Harrington, 21, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was found inside an apartment Wednesday night in Charleston, police Lt. Tony Hazelett said in a statement.
Hazelett said several gunshots were fired during a disturbance in a hallway and inside the apartment. The statement said Harrington had multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said they had no information on a possible suspect.
West Virginia State said counselors were available to students and faculty on campus.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Jyilek’s family as they mourn the loss of this incredible young man,” West Virginia State President Ericke S. Cage said in a letter to students and faculty.
Harrington, a senior, had eight total tackles, including a sack, in a 27-24 win at Barton College last week.
“Jyilek truly embodied what it means to be a student-athlete and was a leader not only on campus but in the community,” West Virginia State Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics Nate Burton said. “Jyilek was a young man that, during Christmas, would create a GoFundMe to help less fortunate families.”
Burton said donations to a fund established by the athletic department in Harrington’s memory will be distributed to an organization in Charlotte to continue his charity work.
West Virginia State’s home opener against Carson-Newman, originally scheduled for Thursday night, has been rescheduled to Friday, and a private vigil involving both teams was set for Thursday night. Harrington previously attended Carson-Newman, where he made seven tackles in six games last season. He began his college career at Division II Erskine College.
“Carson-Newman joins West Virginia State in mourning the untimely passing of former student-athlete Jyilek Harrington,” Carson-Newman Vice President of Athletics Matt Pope said in a statement. “The Harrington family and the Yellow Jackets’ campus community is in our prayers. News like this is sad to hear anytime, but today it feels worse with two teams who knew him coming together to play.”
DETROIT (AP) — Joe Schmidt, the Hall of Fame linebacker who helped the Detroit Lions win NFL championships in 1953 and 1957 and later coached the team, has died. He was 92.
The Lions said family informed the team Schmidt died Wednesday. A cause of death was not provided.
One of pro football’s first great middle linebackers, Schmidt played his entire NFL career with the Lions from 1953-65. An eight-time All-Pro, he was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973 and the college football version in 2000.
“Joe likes to say that at one point in his career, he was 6-3, but he had tackled so many fullbacks that it drove his neck into his shoulders and now he is 6-foot,” said the late Lions owner William Clay Ford, Schmidt’s presenter at his Hall of Fame induction in 1973. “At any rate, he was listed at 6-feet and as I say was marginal for that position. There are, however, qualities that certainly scouts or anybody who is drafting a ballplayer cannot measure.”
Born in Pittsburgh, Schmidt played college football in his hometown at Pitt, beginning his stint there as a fullback and guard before coach Len Casanova switched him to linebacker.
“Pitt provided me with the opportunity to do what I’ve wanted to do, and further myself through my athletic abilities,” Schmidt said. “Everything I have stemmed from that opportunity.”
Schmidt dealt with injuries throughout his college career and was drafted by the Lions in the seventh round in 1953. As defenses evolved in that era, Schmidt’s speed, savvy and tackling ability made him a valuable part of some of the franchise’s greatest teams.
Schmidt was elected to the Pro Bowl 10 straight years from 1955-64, and after his arrival, the Lions won the last two of their three NFL titles in the 1950s.
In a 1957 playoff game at San Francisco, the Lions trailed 27-7 in the third quarter before rallying to win 31-27. That was the NFL’s largest comeback in postseason history until Buffalo rallied from a 32-point deficit to beat Houston in 1993.
“We just decided to go after them, blitz them almost every down,” Schmidt recalled. “We had nothing to lose. When you’re up against it, you let both barrels fly.”
Schmidt became an assistant coach after wrapping up his career as a player. He was Detroit’s head coach from 1967-72, going 43-35-7.
Schmidt was part of the NFL’s All-Time Team revealed in 2019 to celebrate the league’s centennial season. Of course, he’d gone into the Hall of Fame 46 years earlier.
Not bad for an undersized seventh-round draft pick.
“It was a dream of mine to play football,” Schmidt told the Detroit Free Press in 2017. “I had so many people tell me that I was too small. That I couldn’t play. I had so many negative people say negative things about me … that it makes you feel good inside. I said, ‘OK, I’ll prove it to you.’”
VICTORIA – British Columbia’s Environment Assessment Office has fined Coastal GasLink Pipeline Ltd. $590,000 for “deficiencies” in the construction of its pipeline crossing the province.
The office says in a statement that 10 administrative penalties have been levied against the company for non-compliance with requirements of its environmental assessment certificate.
It says the fines come after problems with erosion and sediment control measures were identified by enforcement officers along the pipeline route across northern B.C. in April and May 2023.
The office says that the latest financial penalties reflect its escalation of enforcement due to repeated non-compliance of its requirements.
Four previous penalties have been issued for failing to control erosion and sediment valued at almost $800,000, while a fifth fine of $6,000 was handed out for providing false or misleading information.
The office says it prioritized its inspections along the 670-kilometre route by air and ground as a result of the continued concerns, leading to 59 warnings and 13 stop-work orders along the pipeline that has now been completed.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
