With COVID-19 cases surging in the U.S., Canadians living south of the border are hunkering down and find themselves thinking a bit more about home these days.
Some who spoke with The Canadian Press from the hardest-hit areas said they were surprised by the speed at which their respective states reopened, while others said the situation was overblown.
All are trying to maintain physical distancing and wear masks when they do go out.
“All we can do is the best we can to stay as safe as possible, but it’s definitely nerve-wracking,” said Houston resident and Toronto native Grace Gonzalez.
Texas surpassed 5,000 hospitalizations last week as the second-biggest state scaled back its aggressive opening strategy, ordering bars closed indefinitely and restaurants to reduce capacity.
A person is tested at a free COVID-19 in Houston on Sunday. (David J. Phillip/The Associated Press)
In Houston, where Gonzalez has lived for eight years, the public threat level was raised to its highest level on Friday.
“I was in shock when they decided to open up Texas, I felt it was way too early,” Gonzalez said. “We never saw a dip at all … there wasn’t any of that flattening of the curve before they decided to reopen.”
Gonzalez said masks weren’t prevalent in recent weeks and many went about their lives as if everything was back to normal. But she stayed at home most of the time, while making limited trips to stores.
“I feel like a lot of mentality (here) is if you feel sick or if you’re in one of those groups that are immunocompromised, you should stay home, but if I’m healthy, why should I have to stay home?” Gonzalez said.
WATCH | COVID-19 cases are surging throughout the U.S. Why it’s not a surprise:
Director of the Harvard Global Health Institute Dr. Ashish Jha says several U.S. states at the centre of a new surge in COVID-19 cases took measures to ease lockdown restrictions against the official advice of the White House. 6:48
That question of individual-versus-collective good is something Ontario-born Cheryl Applebaum noted in Florida, where more and more younger people have been infected. The state set a record Saturday with more than 9,500 cases.
Officials moved to shutter beaches and discouraged bar gatherings in a state that has more than 3,300 registered COVID-19 deaths.
“It really just increased our anxiety level,” said Applebaum, who lives in the Tampa area.
A beach is seen closed due to COVID-19 in Miami on Sunday. (Joe Cavaretta /South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)
Applebaum was born in Windsor, Ont., raised in Toronto and his lived in the U.S. for more than 20 years with her Canadian husband.
“Both my husband and myself are in the more vulnerable age group, we’re both seniors and we have been very conscientious about social distancing, wearing face coverings, proper hygiene when we go out and come in,” said Applebaum. “And to see some of the people in the grocery stores relax those things has been very disconcerting.”
Applebaum acknowledges the situation has her thinking about Canada a lot these days.
“To be honest, this (COVID-19) in conjunction with the political climate down here has made us seriously think about moving back,” Applebaum said.
Not everyone worried
However, not all Canadians living in the U.S. are overly worried.
Ken Moon, who lives in a town just north of Dallas, feels the situation is overblown on both sides of the border.
“Others may choose to say you must hide away forever and never do anything again, but that’s not how we live our lives,” said Moon, a southeastern Ontario native who found out through serological testing that he’d had COVID-19 in February, with milder symptoms, despite having other health issues.
Dr. Michael Gardam says U.S. figures suggesting the coronavirus is 10 times more widespread than official statistics indicate could very well be accurate. 6:42
Moon said he believes the bigger numbers in recent days are more a result of increased testing. He says the only real change in his day-to-day life is wearing a mask.
“It is what it is, the biggest thing is keeping those that are infected away from the seniors’ care facilities,” Moon said.
Moon said he wasn’t opposed to the Texas reopening plan, noting some acquaintances in Canada haven’t left home in months.
“I have no idea where this idea of complete quarantine came from but that’s what they’re doing, and it’s kind of like ‘Why are you doing that?”‘ Moon said.
Pandemic varies across U.S.
Like in Canada, the COVID-19 circumstances vary across the country.
The situation in Florida was worrisome enough for Ontario-born Laurie Turley-Michel that she headed back to her summer residence in Ohio early, with the impression that people in the Sunshine State were in denial about COVID-19.
“I was personally afraid to go out at all,” said Turley-Michel, who has been in the U.S. for 15 years. “It wasn’t until right before we decided to come back to Ohio that they implemented a stay-at-home order, but it didn’t last long. Florida was one of the first to start reopening.”
Hand sanitizer and cleaning spray are seen inside a church in New York City on Sunday. (Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)
She works at a law firm where employees are mostly working remotely and clients are obliged to wear a mask for meetings. Turley-Michel has largely stayed home. other than going for groceries or essential purchases. She always wears a mask in public.
“We haven’t had family over here, we live in a rural area so it’s easier to stay social distanced,” Turley-Michel said.
Amy Williams, who lives in a small town near the Arizona-Mexico border where cases have been low, said she was optimistic when the lockdowns in March in her home state and her home province of Ontario happened almost in lockstep.
Air Canada and WestJet are ending their seat distancing policy. Transport Canada listed physical distancing among the key ways to help prevent the spread of the virus in a guide issued to the aviation industry in April. 2:18
“Ontario and Arizona issued lockdown orders within two or three days of each other and then I felt in terms of cases, we were on the same trajectory as Ontario and then our governor decided to open things up,” said Williams, a native of Mississauga who will have to put off an annual summer trip home due to obligatory quarantine measures.
On Sunday, Arziona had 3,858 new cases of COVID-19. Ontario, with almost double the population, had 178.
Williams, a mother of two who works as a psychologist in the local school system, said her primary concern is how schools will reopen during the earlier August return in that state amid the spike.
“I just don’t see how we’re going to be able to not only physically prepare for the reopening, but mentally,” Williams said.
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.
