Today’s coronavirus news: Ontario reporting 1,969 additional cases with 36 more deaths; Mandatory testing of international travellers takes effect in Ontario – Toronto Star
11:50 a.m.: Roberta Place facing proposed class-action lawsuit
11:10 a.m.: Province to allocate $381 million in for schools
10:12 a.m.: Ontario reporting 1,969 additional cases, 36 more deaths.
The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Monday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.
11:50 a.m.: Quebec is reporting fewer than 1,000 daily COVID-19 infections for the first time since early November.
Health officials reported 890 new cases today and 32 more deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus, including 14 that occurred in the past 24 hours.
The province says hospitalizations rose by eight, to 1,144, and 183 people were in intensive care, a drop of eight.
Officials say 796 doses of vaccine were administered yesterday, for a total of 239,023.
Quebec’s public health institute reported 1,435 more recoveries today, bringing the total number of people recovered from the disease to 240,083. There are 13,564 active reported cases in the province.
The province has reported a total of 263,473 cases of COVID-19 and 9,826 deaths linked to the virus.
11:50 a.m.: A central Ontario long-term care home devastated by an outbreak of a highly contagious variant of COVID-19 is facing a proposed class-action lawsuit from residents’ families who allege their loved ones were neglected by those charged with keeping them safe.
The unproven statement of claim filed to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice alleges Roberta Place, a long-term care home in Barrie, Ont., failed to take basic precautionary measures to protect against the novel coronavirus 10 months after the pandemic took hold in Canada.
“As a result of the defendants’ failures to adequately and properly plan, prepare and respond to the COVID-19 virus, the virus has run rampant through the Roberta Place Long Term Care Home,” the statement of claim reads.
“They failed to rectify a pattern of mismanagement, misallocation of resources and staffing, and repeated violations and cited deficiencies of infection control and prevention requirements.”
11:50 a.m.: Two men are facing charges after police say a church in Aylmer, Ont., held an in-person service this weekend, in violation of provincial pandemic rules.
Police say the men — a 57-year-old and a 26-year-old whose names have not been released — are charged with hosting an event exceeding the number of people permitted.
Investigators say a charge has also been laid against the church corporation.
They say other evidence is being reviewed that could lead to additional charges.
Police say the service was held Sunday at the Church of God.
Last week, police said they had identified 47 people alleged to have breached emergency orders during an indoor and outdoor gathering at the same church on Jan. 24.
11:50 a.m.: Ontario says it will allow students in teacher-education programs to work in supply positions this year.
The province says it is making the temporary change to its teacher certification program to address educator shortages and absenteeism due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The teacher candidates must be enrolled in a current program and have successfully completed a portion of it.
They must also be scheduled to complete the program by Dec. 31, 2021.
The province says the temporary certificate changes will expire at the end of the year.
It hopes the changes will mean up to 2,000 additional supply teachers will be available for positions across the province.
11:50 a.m.: Health officials in British Columbia say specific students and staff at a Maple Ridge high school will receive COVID-19 tests after a person at the school had close contact with someone carrying a new strain of the virus that causes the illness.
Fraser Health says Garibaldi Secondary School remains open while efforts are underway to manage the exposure because the variant strain is not one currently in the community.
Mutations of COVID-19 are known to spread more quickly, but doctors say they do not seem to cause more severe illness, interfere with the effectiveness of vaccines or affect testing for the virus.
The health authority says the person who originally developed the variant version does not attend Garibaldi Secondary and all affected individuals at the school have been told about the need for a test.
A statement from Fraser Health says it is working to identify any other connected cases and ensure immediate isolation of those involved to prevent further transmission.
Chief health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix are set to provide an update on COVID-19 cases in British Columbia after confirming 514 new cases of the virus on Friday, and five more deaths .
11:10 a.m.: The province will allocate $381 million in federal funding for schools on personal protective equipment, summer learning for kids who’ve fallen behind or need a refresher on key concepts, portable air filters and also give boards money to buy more devices for students for virtual learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Education Minister Stephen Lecce made the announcement Monday morning, as well as the government’s move to help boards in their struggles to find occasional teachers by allowing upper-year university students in education programs to fill empty supply positions.
That change, first reported by the Star, is unprecedented, and in order for university students to qualify for the newly created temporary teaching certificate, they must be doing well in their teacher education program, already have some practicum (in-class) experience and be on track to graduate by the end of 2021.
Faculties of education have agreed to be flexible when their students — who must be in the second-year of the now two-year teaching degree — miss university classes to take on teaching positions. Students will be paid at the going rate for beginners, and the hours logged can also count toward their practicum days.
10:35 a.m.: Ontario is also reporting 14 more residents have died in long-term-care homes for a total of 3,543 since the pandemic began.
The province says that 230 long-term-care homes are in outbreak, or 36.7 per cent of all LTC homes in the province. That number stayed the same from the previous day.
10:30 a.m.: Ontario reports that 2,256 vaccine doses were administered since the last daily update for a total of 341,900 given out.
The province reports that 70,293 people are fully vaccinated, meaning they got both shots.
10:25 a.m. (updated): Locally, there are 886 new cases in Toronto, 330 in Peel and 128 in York Region.
A spokeswoman for Ontario’s Ministry of Health says that as Toronto migrates to the provincial data system, additional records were reported for the local public health unit, resulting in an overestimate of today’s daily counts.
10:12 a.m.: Ontario is reporting 1,969 additional cases with 36 more deaths.
The seven-day average is up slightly, for the first time since Jan. 11, to 1,889 cases daily or 91 weekly per 100,000.
The seven-day average for deaths is down to 54 per day.
There were 30,359 completed tests with 5.5 per cent positivity rate.
9:40 a.m.: Canada’s national vaccine rollout seems poised to dominate COVID-19 discussions in the coming week as the country enters the 11th month of life during a global pandemic.
The federal government, which is overseeing the countrywide effort, has been facing strong criticism as it struggles to ensure there are enough immunization doses to go around.
The two companies whose vaccines have been approved for use here recently complicated matters by saying they wouldn’t immediately be able to deliver their promised number of doses due to production delays in Europe.
The Liberal government has repeatedly said both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna still intend to fulfil their promised delivery schedules and that current delays are temporary.
At least three other companies, Novavax, Astra-Zeneca and Johnson and Johnson, have all launched the process of having Health Canada approve their vaccines.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will be part of the red-carpet welcome at Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo International Airport for the shipment of the vaccines, which will be followed up later this month by another 500,000 doses of the vaccine.
The AstraZeneca vaccines will be used to inoculate South Africa’s frontline health workers, which will be the start of the country’s vaccination campaign. The first jabs are expected to be administered in mid-February, after the vaccines are tested and approved by South Africa’s drug regulatory authorities.
The government intends to inoculate 40 million people, representing 67% of the country’s population of 60 million, by the end of the year.
South Africa’s scramble to acquire adequate vaccines to reach that ambitious target received a substantial boost with the news that it has acquired 20 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine. They are expected to arrive in the second quarter of the year, the government confirmed to The Associated Press.
Minister of Health Zweli Mkhize will announce the cost of the Pfizer vaccines at a later date, said Lwazi Manzi, spokeswoman for the health ministry.
In the coming months, South Africa is expecting to receive 6 million vaccine doses from the international COVAX facility, 9 million of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine when it is approved, and an additional 20 million from the African Union’s vaccine acquisition task team. Further acquisitions of vaccines will be needed to meet the government’s inoculation target.
8:48 a.m. (updated) Minister of Education Stephen Lecce will be joined by Dr. David Williams to make an announcement at 11 a.m. Monday; 280,000 students in Ontario are back in class Monday. Students in Ontario hotspots are scheduled to go back to school on Feb. 10.
8 a.m. This is a city budget year unlike any other.
In normal times, the city would be dealing with growing inequities, ongoing gun violence and a looming climate crisis. In other words — an incredibly difficult budget year.
Add to that a global pandemic and Toronto’s finances are, well, a mess.
“This is the toughest budget year the city has ever faced in its entire history. Period. Full stop,” Mayor John Tory said this week. “Never before has a mayor and council been faced with a situation where we lost virtually overnight, and then for a long period of time, hundreds of millions of dollars from transit and other sources of revenue.”
Over two days of meetings where the public could present their views of the budgets and requests for funding, three things were heard by council members loud and clear: Defund the police, invest more in climate change action and deal with structural inequities that hurt the most vulnerable Torontonians.
7:45 a.m. For the two-and-a-half decades Pete Lilly has been in the bicycle business, he’d been praying for a year like 2020.
Lilly, the owner of the popular Sweet Pete’s bike shop in Toronto’s west end, first noticed COVID-19 was driving a spike in demand last spring when parents came in to buy rides for kids who suddenly had no recreation programs to go to. Later in the year when workplaces started to open back up, it was commuters wary of taking the TTC coming through his doors.
Bike shops across North America “sold basically down to the studs,” said Lilly, who has two retail locations on Bloor Street West. “We sold every piece of inventory we had.”
7:40 a.m. The Ontario government has given the go-ahead for university students in teacher education programs to work in schools — an unprecedented move meant to help boards as they struggle with a shortage of educators during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Star has learned.
In order to qualify for the newly created temporary teaching certificate, the university students — who can be hired for supply jobs when boards can’t find fully certified teachers — must be doing well in their teacher education program, already have some practicum (in-class) experience and be on track to graduate by the end of 2021, a government source said.
“There’s just not enough (teachers) with what’s going on right now,” said the source. “This is really going to help with the problem boards are having” by adding up to 2,000 educators to school board rosters.
7:20 a.m. India’s government has proposed to increase spending on health care in a $477 billion budget for 2021-22 that promises extra help for weathering the coronavirus pandemic.
India is in its worst economic slowdown in a decade. The budget proposal presented to parliament by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday also focuses on developing financial institutions and shoring up of infrastructure to get the pandemic-ravaged nation back on track as the world’s fastest-growing major economy.
“India is well well-poised to be the land of promise and hope,” she said in explaining the budget for the fiscal year that begins April 1.
Contrary to expectations, the proposed budget did not promise extra support for the country’s farmers who have been protesting for more than two months against new agricultural laws which they say will favour large agribusiness and corporations.
Those protests have posed the biggest political challenge for Modi since he took office in 2014, in part because farmers are the most influential voting bloc in the country.
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7:10 a.m. Jade plants in yogurt containers, vintage clothing, even barenaked (wood) ladies: They’ve all been the source of easy money for those with an urge to purge during the pandemic.
Steve Townson saw dollar signs pretty fast after putting an ad for jade cuttings on Facebook Marketplace.
“I could have sold 100 if I’d had them,” says the almost-retired rural resident of Erin, northwest of Toronto.
University student Bianca Tomori discovered a ready market for surplus fashions from her overstuffed closets. With pieces priced at $10 to $40 on Instagram, “you can easily make a few hundred dollars here and there,” she says.
Getting rid of stuff has become a profitable pastime for enterprising types using stay-at-home time to declutter, downsize or dig up old relics. With the range of social media and marketing platforms available, everything from oddities to entire contents can be peddled online. (Sellers and buyers are urged to delay in-person transactions until lockdown restrictions ease.)
7:05 a.m. For weeks, Ciara Blair has watched the endless stream of COVID-19 patients flowing into the intensive care unit with mounting fear.
With each patient admitted, the registered nurse worries whether ICU staff at North York General Hospital have the stamina to endure this second pandemic wave.
“We’re all so tired; you can see and feel the burnout.”
As bad as it was in the spring, when so much was unknown about the virus, this winter is even worse: Many COVID-19 patients in the ICU are young, in their 40s or 50s. They seem sicker — the infection tearing through their bodies faster — than those who filled hospital beds in April and May. And they are arriving to the ICU at relentless speed.
6:30 a.m.: Canada’s hopes of speeding up COVID-19 vaccinations brightened slightly over the weekend as regulators began work to approve a new inoculation, even as the federal government sought to head off any restrictions on vaccine shipments from Europe.
Pharmaceutical company Novavax quietly submitted its COVID-19 vaccine to Health Canada for regulatory approval on Friday, less than two weeks after Ottawa finalized a deal with the Maryland-based company for 52 million doses of the shot.
Because of the emergency nature of the pandemic Health Canada is accepting applications for vaccines before the final trial data is ready, allowing the review team to start poring over the documents on an ongoing basis, rather than waiting until everything is finished.
The rolling review allows for much faster approval once the final results from clinical trials are complete.
“Health Canada is expediting the review of all COVID-19 vaccines,” Health Canada spokesman Andre Gagnon said in an email. “This is being done through rolling submissions, where data is being reviewed as it becomes available from the manufacturer.”
Novavax is the fifth vaccine maker to submit an application for rolling review. AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna all submitted in early October, and Johnson and Johnson followed suit at the end of November.
5:23 a.m.: U.S. President Joe Biden is set to meet Monday with a group of 10 Republican senators who have proposed spending about one-third of the $1.9 trillion he is seeking in coronavirus aid, though congressional Democrats are poised to move ahead without Republican support.
An invitation to the White House came hours after the lawmakers sent Biden a letter Sunday urging him to negotiate rather than try to ram through his relief package solely on Democratic votes. The House and Senate are on track to vote as soon as this week on a budget resolution, which would lay the groundwork for passing an aid package under rules requiring only a simple majority vote in the closely divided Senate.
The goal is for passage by March, when extra unemployment assistance and other pandemic aid expires. The meeting to be hosted by Biden would amount to the most public involvement for the president in the negotiations for the next round of virus relief. Democratic and Republican lawmakers are far apart in their proposals for assistance.
5:15 a.m.: Chancellor Angela Merkel and German state governors were planning to talk Monday with representatives of the pharmaceutical industry on ways to beef up the country’s sluggish vaccination campaign.
Monday’s videoconference, which also will involve the European Union’s Executive Commission, comes as finger-pointing in the bloc’s most populous country mounts over who is to blame for the slow vaccine rollout.
By Friday, 1.85 million people had received a first vaccine dose in Germany — a country of 83 million — and more than 461,000 had a second dose. In comparison, Britain, a country of 67 million, has given nearly 9 million people a first vaccine shot.
A slew of bad news about delays to vaccine deliveries was alleviated only somewhat by news Sunday night that AstraZeneca has agreed to supply 9 million additional doses of its vaccine to the EU during the first quarter — bringing the total to half what the company originally aimed for.
Pfizer, which developed the first widely tested and approved coronavirus vaccine together with German firm BioNTech, has said it expects to increase global production this year from 1.3 million doses to 2 billion doses. BioNTech said Monday that up to 75 million of those additional doses will be delivered to the EU in the second quarter.
4:30 a.m.: Some of Canada’s top airlines, banks, telecommunications companies and sports teams have formed a consortium piloting rapid tests to identify COVID-19 in workplaces and help reopen offices.
The 12 companies including Air Canada and Bank of Nova Scotia are experimenting with antigen tests as part of a program being run by the University of Toronto’s Creative Destruction Lab.
Lab founder Ajay Agrawal says the pilot centres around companies asking employees to go through COVID testing twice a week when they appear at work.
He says it takes about 90 seconds to administer the rapid tests and about 15 minutes for them to detect whether someone has COVID-19.
Agrawal says Rogers Communications Inc. and Air Canada were the first two companies to begin the testing and were joined by Suncor Energy Inc. and Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment in late January.
Bank of Nova Scotia, Loblaw Companies Ltd., Magna International Inc., Nutrien Ltd. and Canada Pension Plan Investments are also part of the consortium
4:02 a.m.: Canada’s national vaccine rollout seems poised to dominate COVID-19 discussions in the coming week as Canada enters the 11th month of life during a global pandemic.
The federal government, which is overseeing the nationwide effort, has been facing strong criticism as it struggles to ensure there are enough immunization doses to go around.
The two companies whose vaccines have been approved for use here recently complicated matters by saying they wouldn’t immediately be able to deliver their promised number of doses due to production delays in Europe.
The Liberal government has repeatedly said both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna still intend to fulfill their promised delivery schedules and that current delays are temporary.
At least three other companies, Novavax, Astra-Zeneca and Johnson and Johnson, have all launched the process of having Health Canada approve their vaccines.
Canada officially recorded more than 20,000 deaths caused by COVID-19 as of Sunday and is still logging high daily case counts in several provinces, though Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam says overall totals are trending downward.
4:01 a.m.: International travellers will have to take a COVID-19 test upon arrival in Ontario starting today in a bid to stop contagious new variants of the virus from further infiltrating the province.
The provincial government announced the plan on Friday, the same day the federal government announced a similar program that’s to take effect in the coming weeks.
Premier Doug Ford praised the prime minister for announcing the new federal testing plan, but said Ontario would conduct its own traveller testing until Ottawa’s program kicked in.
The testing order comes into effect today at Toronto’s Pearson International airport, and will also eventually apply to the province’s land border crossings to the United States.
4 a.m.: The latest numbers on COVID-19 vaccinations in Canada as of 4 a.m. ET on Monday Feb. 1, 2021.
In Canada, the provinces are reporting 5,017 new vaccinations administered for a total of 957,229 doses given. The provinces have administered doses at a rate of 2,525.718 per 100,000.
There were zero new vaccines delivered to the provinces and territories for a total of 1,124,816 doses delivered so far. The provinces and territories have used 85.1 per cent of their available vaccine supply.
Newfoundland is reporting 1,531 new vaccinations administered over the past seven days for a total of 10,080 doses given. The province has administered doses at a rate of 19.25 per 1,000. There were zero new vaccines delivered to Newfoundland for a total of 16,500 doses delivered so far. The province has received enough of the vaccine to give 3.2 per cent of its population a single dose. The province has used 61.09 per cent of its available vaccine supply.
P.E.I. is reporting 985 new vaccinations administered over the past seven days for a total of 7,510 doses given. The province has administered doses at a rate of 47.343 per 1,000. There were zero new vaccines delivered to P.E.I. for a total of 9,225 doses delivered so far. The province has received enough of the vaccine to give 5.8 per cent of its population a single dose. The province has used 81.41 per cent of its available vaccine supply.
Nova Scotia is reporting 4,014 new vaccinations administered over the past seven days for a total of 14,589 doses given. The province has administered doses at a rate of 14.949 per 1,000. There were zero new vaccines delivered to Nova Scotia for a total of 28,850 doses delivered so far. The province has received enough of the vaccine to give 3.0 per cent of its population a single dose. The province has used 50.57 per cent of its available vaccine supply.
New Brunswick is reporting 3,821 new vaccinations administered over the past seven days for a total of 14,257 doses given. The province has administered doses at a rate of 18.277 per 1,000. There were zero new vaccines delivered to New Brunswick for a total of 21,675 doses delivered so far. The province has received enough of the vaccine to give 2.8 per cent of its population a single dose. The province has used 65.78 per cent of its available vaccine supply.
Quebec is reporting 84 new vaccinations administered for a total of 238,227 doses given. The province has administered doses at a rate of 27.841 per 1,000. There were zero new vaccines delivered to Quebec for a total of 238,100 doses delivered so far. The province has received enough of the vaccine to give 2.8 per cent of its population a single dose. The province has used 100.1 per cent of its available vaccine supply.
Ontario is reporting 2,816 new vaccinations administered for a total of 339,644 doses given. The province has administered doses at a rate of 23.122 per 1,000. There were zero new vaccines delivered to Ontario for a total of 411,650 doses delivered so far. The province has received enough of the vaccine to give 2.8 per cent of its population a single dose. The province has used 82.51 per cent of its available vaccine supply.
Manitoba is reporting 1,495 new vaccinations administered for a total of 40,785 doses given. The province has administered doses at a rate of 29.619 per 1,000. There were zero new vaccines delivered to Manitoba for a total of 55,650 doses delivered so far. The province has received enough of the vaccine to give 4.0 per cent of its population a single dose. The province has used 73.29 per cent of its available vaccine supply.
Saskatchewan is reporting 120 new vaccinations administered for a total of 35,359 doses given. The province has administered doses at a rate of 29.987 per 1,000. There were zero new vaccines delivered to Saskatchewan for a total of 35,091 doses delivered so far. The province has received enough of the vaccine to give 3.0 per cent of its population a single dose. The province has used 100.8 per cent of its available vaccine supply.
Alberta is reporting 502 new vaccinations administered for a total of 106,254 doses given. The province has administered doses at a rate of 24.137 per 1,000. There were zero new vaccines delivered to Alberta for a total of 122,725 doses delivered so far. The province has received enough of the vaccine to give 2.8 per cent of its population a single dose. The province has used 86.58 per cent of its available vaccine supply.
British Columbia is reporting zero new vaccinations administered for a total of 129,241 doses given. The province has administered doses at a rate of 25.185 per 1,000. There were zero new vaccines delivered to British Columbia for a total of 144,550 doses delivered so far. The province has received enough of the vaccine to give 2.8 per cent of its population a single dose. The province has used 89.41 per cent of its available vaccine supply.
Yukon is reporting zero new vaccinations administered for a total of 6,496 doses given. The territory has administered doses at a rate of 155.664 per 1,000. There were zero new vaccines delivered to Yukon for a total of 14,400 doses delivered so far. The territory has received enough of the vaccine to give 35 per cent of its population a single dose. The territory has used 45.11 per cent of its available vaccine supply.
The Northwest Territories are reporting zero new vaccinations administered for a total of 9,471 doses given. The territory has administered doses at a rate of 209.912 per 1,000. There were zero new vaccines delivered to the Northwest Territories for a total of 14,400 doses delivered so far. The territory has received enough of the vaccine to give 32 per cent of its population a single dose. The territory has used 65.77 per cent of its available vaccine supply.
Nunavut is reporting zero new vaccinations administered for a total of 5,316 doses given. The territory has administered doses at a rate of 137.272 per 1,000. There were zero new vaccines delivered to Nunavut for a total of 12,000 doses delivered so far. The territory has received enough of the vaccine to give 31 per cent of its population a single dose. The territory has used 44.3 per cent of its available vaccine supply.
Skinstitut Holiday Gift Kits take the stress out of gifting
Toronto, October 31, 2024 – Beauty gifts are at the top of holiday wish lists this year, and Laser Clinics Canada, a leader in advanced beauty treatments and skincare, is taking the pressure out of seasonal shopping. Today, Laser Clincs Canada announces the arrival of its 2024 Holiday Gift Kits, courtesy of Skinstitut, the exclusive skincare line of Laser Clinics Group.
In time for the busy shopping season, the limited-edition Holiday Gifts Kits are available in Laser Clinics locations in the GTA and Ottawa. Clinics are conveniently located in popular shopping centers, including Hillcrest Mall, Square One, CF Sherway Gardens, Scarborough Town Centre, Rideau Centre, Union Station and CF Markville. These limited-edition Kits are available on a first come, first served basis.
“These kits combine our best-selling products, bundled to address the most relevant skin concerns we’re seeing among our clients,” says Christina Ho, Senior Brand & LAM Manager at Laser Clinics Canada. “With several price points available, the kits offer excellent value and suit a variety of gift-giving needs, from those new to cosmeceuticals to those looking to level up their skincare routine. What’s more, these kits are priced with a savings of up to 33 per cent so gift givers can save during the holiday season.
There are two kits to select from, each designed to address key skin concerns and each with a unique theme — Brightening Basics and Hydration Heroes.
Brightening Basics is a mix of everyday essentials for glowing skin for all skin types. The bundle comes in a sleek pink, reusable case and includes three full-sized products: 200ml gentle cleanser, 50ml Moisture Defence (normal skin) and 30ml1% Hyaluronic Complex Serum. The Brightening Basics kit is available at $129, a saving of 33 per cent.
Hydration Heroes is a mix of hydration essentials and active heroes that cater to a wide variety of clients. A perfect stocking stuffer, this bundle includes four deluxe products: Moisture 15 15 ml Defence for normal skin, 10 ml 1% Hyaluronic Complex Serum, 10 ml Retinol Serum and 50 ml Expert Squalane Cleansing Oil. The kit retails at $59.
In addition to the 2024 Holiday Gifts Kits, gift givers can easily add a Laser Clinic Canada gift card to the mix. Offering flexibility, recipients can choose from a wide range of treatments offered by Laser Clinics Canada, or they can expand their collection of exclusive Skinstitut products.
Brightening Basics 2024 Holiday Gift Kit by Skinstitut, available exclusively at Laser Clincs Canada clinics and online at skinstitut.ca.
Hydration Heroes 2024 Holiday Gift Kit by Skinstitut – available exclusively at Laser Clincs Canada clinics and online at skinstitut.ca.
LONDON (AP) — Most people have accumulated a pile of data — selfies, emails, videos and more — on their social media and digital accounts over their lifetimes. What happens to it when we die?
It’s wise to draft a will spelling out who inherits your physical assets after you’re gone, but don’t forget to take care of your digital estate too. Friends and family might treasure files and posts you’ve left behind, but they could get lost in digital purgatory after you pass away unless you take some simple steps.
Here’s how you can prepare your digital life for your survivors:
Apple
The iPhone maker lets you nominate a “ legacy contact ” who can access your Apple account’s data after you die. The company says it’s a secure way to give trusted people access to photos, files and messages. To set it up you’ll need an Apple device with a fairly recent operating system — iPhones and iPads need iOS or iPadOS 15.2 and MacBooks needs macOS Monterey 12.1.
For iPhones, go to settings, tap Sign-in & Security and then Legacy Contact. You can name one or more people, and they don’t need an Apple ID or device.
You’ll have to share an access key with your contact. It can be a digital version sent electronically, or you can print a copy or save it as a screenshot or PDF.
Take note that there are some types of files you won’t be able to pass on — including digital rights-protected music, movies and passwords stored in Apple’s password manager. Legacy contacts can only access a deceased user’s account for three years before Apple deletes the account.
Google
Google takes a different approach with its Inactive Account Manager, which allows you to share your data with someone if it notices that you’ve stopped using your account.
When setting it up, you need to decide how long Google should wait — from three to 18 months — before considering your account inactive. Once that time is up, Google can notify up to 10 people.
You can write a message informing them you’ve stopped using the account, and, optionally, include a link to download your data. You can choose what types of data they can access — including emails, photos, calendar entries and YouTube videos.
There’s also an option to automatically delete your account after three months of inactivity, so your contacts will have to download any data before that deadline.
Facebook and Instagram
Some social media platforms can preserve accounts for people who have died so that friends and family can honor their memories.
When users of Facebook or Instagram die, parent company Meta says it can memorialize the account if it gets a “valid request” from a friend or family member. Requests can be submitted through an online form.
The social media company strongly recommends Facebook users add a legacy contact to look after their memorial accounts. Legacy contacts can do things like respond to new friend requests and update pinned posts, but they can’t read private messages or remove or alter previous posts. You can only choose one person, who also has to have a Facebook account.
You can also ask Facebook or Instagram to delete a deceased user’s account if you’re a close family member or an executor. You’ll need to send in documents like a death certificate.
TikTok
The video-sharing platform says that if a user has died, people can submit a request to memorialize the account through the settings menu. Go to the Report a Problem section, then Account and profile, then Manage account, where you can report a deceased user.
Once an account has been memorialized, it will be labeled “Remembering.” No one will be able to log into the account, which prevents anyone from editing the profile or using the account to post new content or send messages.
X
It’s not possible to nominate a legacy contact on Elon Musk’s social media site. But family members or an authorized person can submit a request to deactivate a deceased user’s account.
Passwords
Besides the major online services, you’ll probably have dozens if not hundreds of other digital accounts that your survivors might need to access. You could just write all your login credentials down in a notebook and put it somewhere safe. But making a physical copy presents its own vulnerabilities. What if you lose track of it? What if someone finds it?
Instead, consider a password manager that has an emergency access feature. Password managers are digital vaults that you can use to store all your credentials. Some, like Keeper,Bitwarden and NordPass, allow users to nominate one or more trusted contacts who can access their keys in case of an emergency such as a death.
But there are a few catches: Those contacts also need to use the same password manager and you might have to pay for the service.
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The Canadian Paediatric Society says doctors should regularly screen children for reading difficulties and dyslexia, calling low literacy a “serious public health concern” that can increase the risk of other problems including anxiety, low self-esteem and behavioural issues, with lifelong consequences.
New guidance issued Wednesday says family doctors, nurses, pediatricians and other medical professionals who care for school-aged kids are in a unique position to help struggling readers access educational and specialty supports, noting that identifying problems early couldhelp kids sooner — when it’s more effective — as well as reveal other possible learning or developmental issues.
The 10 recommendations include regular screening for kids aged four to seven, especially if they belong to groups at higher risk of low literacy, including newcomers to Canada, racialized Canadians and Indigenous Peoples. The society says this can be done in a two-to-three-minute office-based assessment.
Other tips encourage doctors to look for conditions often seen among poor readers such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder; to advocate for early literacy training for pediatric and family medicine residents; to liaise with schools on behalf of families seeking help; and to push provincial and territorial education ministries to integrate evidence-based phonics instruction into curriculums, starting in kindergarten.
Dr. Scott McLeod, one of the authors and chair of the society’s mental health and developmental disabilities committee, said a key goal is to catch kids who may be falling through the cracks and to better connect families to resources, including quicker targeted help from schools.
“Collaboration in this area is so key because we need to move away from the silos of: everything educational must exist within the educational portfolio,” McLeod said in an interview from Calgary, where he is a developmental pediatrician at Alberta Children’s Hospital.
“Reading, yes, it’s education, but it’s also health because we know that literacy impacts health. So I think that a statement like this opens the window to say: Yes, parents can come to their health-care provider to get advice, get recommendations, hopefully start a collaboration with school teachers.”
McLeod noted that pediatricians already look for signs of low literacy in young children by way of a commonly used tool known as the Rourke Baby Record, which offers a checklist of key topics, such as nutrition and developmental benchmarks, to cover in a well-child appointment.
But he said questions about reading could be “a standing item” in checkups and he hoped the society’s statement to medical professionals who care for children “enhances their confidence in being a strong advocate for the child” while spurring partnerships with others involved in a child’s life such as teachers and psychologists.
The guidance said pediatricians also play a key role in detecting and monitoring conditions that often coexist with difficulty reading such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, but McLeod noted that getting such specific diagnoses typically involves a referral to a specialist, during which time a child continues to struggle.
He also acknowledged that some schools can be slow to act without a specific diagnosis from a specialist, and even then a child may end up on a wait list for school interventions.
“Evidence-based reading instruction shouldn’t have to wait for some of that access to specialized assessments to occur,” he said.
“My hope is that (by) having an existing statement or document written by the Canadian Paediatric Society … we’re able to skip a few steps or have some of the early interventions present,” he said.
McLeod added that obtaining specific assessments from medical specialists is “definitely beneficial and advantageous” to know where a child is at, “but having that sort of clear, thorough assessment shouldn’t be a barrier to intervention starting.”
McLeod said the society was partly spurred to act by 2022’s “Right to Read Inquiry Report” from the Ontario Human Rights Commission, which made 157 recommendations to address inequities related to reading instruction in that province.
He called the new guidelines “a big reminder” to pediatric providers, family doctors, school teachers and psychologists of the importance of literacy.
“Early identification of reading difficulty can truly change the trajectory of a child’s life.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 23, 2024.
