Art Li wants to get vaccinated and to give his 89-year-old mother a hug.
The problem is, he lives in England and she’s in Vancouver.
They talk on the phone every Sunday and video chat when they can, but it’s not the same as seeing each other face to face.
“There’s nothing like getting a hug and just holding her hand, you know?” he said. “It’s very tough and it’s tough on her as well.”
They’re among the untold millions who have been kept apart by the pandemic and who, despite the arrival of vaccines, seem unlikely to be reunited anytime soon.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reiterated Friday that Ottawa isstill “discouraging all non-essential travel” as it tries to reduce the spread of the coronavirus and prevent a possible third wave.
Art Li, a lawyer and British citizen, has been unable to visit his family in Canada because of the pandemic. (Submitted by Art Li)
Canada also has a long way to go before herd immunityis reached and at least one immunologist believes the ability to travel more freely is still months away, at a minimum.
“The biggest challenge is that society currently sees vaccination as a checkmark and not as something, you know, that comes with different functional states of the immune response,” said Dr. Jörg Fritz of McGill University in Montreal.
“So, while hopefully, we can reach a level where we can say the vaccine, at large, protects people with infection of SARS-CoV-2, it would also require that most people around us have gotten the vaccine as well.”
More than 260,000 Canadians have been fully vaccinated to date, but the country was recently ranked 27th in the world for vaccines administered, behind the U.S., the U.K. and smaller countries like Poland and Serbia, according to data aggregated by the University of Oxford.
Fritz also misses his mother, who lives in Austria and who he’s not visited during the pandemic. Vaccination will be a key part of seeing her again.
However, Fritz says more open travel will depend on various factors, including seeing a large proportion of the population immunized, the relative effectiveness of the vaccines themselves and keeping track of who has been vaccinated. Having proof of vaccination could, potentially, be a component of being able to travel.
Dr. Jörg Fritz, a McGill University immunologist, misses his mother, who lives in Austria and who he’s not visited since before the pandemic. (Submitted by Jörg Fritz)
“I can imagine, you know, that travel should be more opened, in a sense of that, on this flight, only people that have been vaccinated,” Fritz said. “Something like that I think would make sense.”
Dr. Rakshanda Ishrat is dealing with a smaller geographic divide, but still not small enough. She’s a Canadian citizen and she lives and works in Baltimore, Md., but her family resides in the Calgary area.
Ishrat was last there in 2019, before the pandemic changed everything.
“I haven’t seen my parents in that long and I have a niece who is just two, so I’m missing all of her life, as well,” Ishrat said.
“So, it’s been extremely hard not having family around.”
She’s been vaccinated — which makes her more comfortable with the idea of flying home. But she would almost certainly have to quarantine upon arrival (there’s currently no exemption for vaccinated citizens arriving for non-essential travel), which makes such a journey more difficult.
Like so many others, Ishrat simply wants to know when she’ll be able to see them again.
Dr. Rakshanda Ishrat lives and works in Baltimore, Md. The pandemic has kept her from her family in Calgary. (Submitted by Rakshanda Ishrat)
Trip not taken
Gina Bateson has a suitcase ready to pack when it’s possible to see her parents in California again, whenever that is.
She and her immediate family moved to Ottawa for work ahead of the pandemic; comfortable knowing it wasn’t that far from the United States.
“The thing that threw us for a loop is the border suddenly closing after we moved here,” she said. “That’s just resulted in us being a lot more isolated than we thought was going to happen.”
And while Bateson wants to see her parents and other relatives, she’s clear on why travel restrictions are needed.
“I understand the public health issues and the need to hopefully keep the case numbers lower in Canada than what’s happened in the U.S., which has been really tragic,” said Bateson.
In any case, she’ll be ready to meet up with her parents again — something she’d hoped was going to happen last winter.
“We had actually planned a trip where one of my kids and I were going to go over the school break for March last year, we were going to go to California to see my parents and I was so excited,” she said.
“I even bought a new suitcase. I’m that person who bought a suitcase in February 2020 and I have definitely never used it.”
Gina Bateson moved to Ottawa with her family shortly before the pandemic changed everyone’s day-to-day lives. (Submitted by Regina Bateson)
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — The San Francisco 49ers placed All-Pro running back Christian McCaffrey on injured reserve because of his lingering calf and Achilles tendon injuries.
The move made Saturday means McCaffrey will miss at least four more games after already sitting out the season opener. He is eligible to return for a Thursday night game in Seattle on Oct. 10.
McCaffrey got hurt early in training camp and missed four weeks of practice before returning to the field on a limited basis last week. He was a late scratch for the opener on Monday night against the Jets and now is sidelined again after experiencing pain following practice on Thursday.
McCaffrey led the NFL last season with 2,023 yards from scrimmage and was tied for the league lead with 21 touchdowns, winning AP Offensive Player of the Year.
The Niners made up for McCaffrey’s absence thanks to a strong performance from backup Jordan Mason, who had 28 carries for 147 yards and a touchdown in San Francisco’s 32-19 victory over the New York Jets. Mason is set to start again Sunday at Minnesota.
After missing 23 games because of injuries in his final two full seasons with Carolina, McCaffrey had been healthy the past two seasons.
He missed only one game combined in 2022-23 — a meaningless Week 18 game last season for San Francisco when he had a sore calf. His 798 combined touches from scrimmage in the regular season and playoffs were the third most for any player in a two-year span in the past 10 years.
Now San Francisco will likely rely heavily on Mason, a former undrafted free agent out of Georgia Tech who had 83 carries his first two seasons. He had at least 10 touches just twice before the season opener, when his 28 carries were the most by a 49ers player in a regular-season game since Frank Gore had 31 against Seattle on Oct. 30, 2011.
The Niners also have fourth-round rookie Isaac Guerendo and Patrick Taylor Jr. on the active roster. Guerendo played three offensive snaps with no touches in the opener. Taylor had 65 carries for Green Bay from 2021-23.
San Francisco also elevated safety Tracy Walker III from the practice squad for Sunday’s game against Minnesota.
BRUSSELS – Canada walked away with some hardware at the Diamond League track and field competition Saturday.
Alysha Newman finished third in women’s pole vault, while Marco Arop did the same in the men’s 800-metre race.
Newman won a bronze medal in her event at the recent Paris Olympics. Arop grabbed silver at the same distance in France last month.
Australia’s Nina Kennedy, who captured gold at the Summer Games, again finished atop the podium. Sandi Morris of the United States was second.
Newman set a national record when she secured Canada’s first-ever pole vault medal with a bronze at the Olympics with a height of 4.85 metres. The 30-year-old from London, Ont., cleared 4.80 metres in her second attempt Saturday, but was unable conquer 4.88 metres on three attempts.
Arop, a 25-year-old from Edmonton, finished the men’s 800 metres with a time of one minute 43.25 seconds. Olympic gold medallist Emmanuel Wanyonyi of Kenya was first with a time of 1:42.70.
Djamel Sedjati, edged out by Arop for silver in Paris last month, was second 1:42.87
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 14, 2024.
MILAN (AP) — Bologna’s preparations for its Champions League debut are not going well though it managed to spoil Como’s first Serie A home match in 21 years on Saturday.
Bologna came from two goals down to salvage a 2-2 draw to gather three points from its opening four matches.
Bologna hosts Shakhtar Donetsk on Wednesday. Its only other appearance in Europe’s top competition was in 1964 in the preliminary round of the old European Cup.
AC Milan is also winless as it prepares for a Tuesday Champions League match against Liverpool. The Rossoneri hosted promoted Venezia later. Juventus drew at Empoli 0-0.
Como made a great start in the fifth minute when Patrick Cutrone attempted to roll the ball across the six-yard box but it took a huge deflection off Bologna defender Nicolò Casale for an own goal.
Bologna thought it was gifted a way back into the match on the stroke of halftime when referee Marco Piccinini signalled for a penalty following an Alberto Moreno handball, but he revoked his decision and instead gave a free kick because the handball was just outside the area.
Bologna improved after the break but found itself further behind when Cutrone raced onto a through ball and cut inside past a defender and fired into the far bottom corner.
Tommaso Pobega hit the post for Bologna, which finally pulled one back in the 76th through substitute Santiago Castro.
Another substitute helped the visitors snatch a point when Samuel Iling-Junior curled a fine strike into the top left corner in stoppage time.
Unbeaten sides
Juventus, and more surprisingly Empoli, are among six unbeaten sides.
Empoli held Monza and Bologna to draws either side of a shock 2-1 win at Roma. Juventus’ perfect start to the season was ruined by Roma in a goalless draw before the international break.
On Saturday, there were few clearcut chances in Empoli although home goalkeeper Devis Vásquez made spectacular saves to fingertip out a Federico Gatti header and deny Dusan Vlahovic in a one on one with the Juventus forward.
Empoli had a good opportunity in the 73rd minute following an Alberto Grassi one-two with Pietro Pellegri but the finish was straight at Mattia Perin.
The host could have won it right at the death but Gatti flew in with a great sliding block to keep out Emanuel Gyasi’s close-range effort.
Juventus hosts PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League on Tuesday.
