The Public Health Agency of Canada said it hopes to keep the number of wasted doses of COVID-19 vaccines in Canada under five per cent.
That would amount to 3.7 million of the 73.7 million vaccines that have been distributed to provinces and territories, used by the federal government or held in the central vaccine inventory as of Nov. 18.
The federal, provincial and territorial governments aim to keep vaccine wastage as low as possible.
PHAC would not release the total number of wasted doses to date, but a Canadian Press survey of provincial governments showed an average of about 2.6 per cent of distributed doses in responding jurisdictions have been discarded.
The federal government warned that as demand for COVID-19 vaccines slows down, there could be more wastage because new vials may have to be opened without every dose making it into someone’s arm.
The government said it works with provinces and territories to make sure procurement of new vaccines align with their needs and helps facilitate the transfer of doses between provinces to minimize waste.
What’s happening across Canada
WATCH | 1st shipment of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for kids arrives in Canada:
First shipment of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for kids arrives in Canada
23 hours ago
Canada received its first doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for children ages five to 11 on Sunday, just two days after being approved by Health Canada. The pediatric vaccine uses a dosage that is one-third the size of those given to people 12 and older. 2:03
What’s happening around the world
A man walks along a sales stand for hot wine at the closed Christmas market in Dresden, Germany, on Monday. (Matthias Rietschel/Reuters)
As of Monday evening, more than 258 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide, according to a case-tracking tool maintained by U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University. The reported global death toll stood at more than 5.1 million.
In Africa, the first of nearly 100 million doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine being donated by the European Union by year-end have begun arriving in African countries, a statement by the GAVI vaccine alliance said on Monday.
“The first doses have reached Niger, with more doses arriving in a number of countries this week,” Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission president, said in the statement that also listed Guinea Conakry, Mauritania, the Central African Republic, Djibouti, Nigeria, Togo and the Republic of Congo.
In Europe, Austrians awoke Monday to their fourth national lockdown of this pandemic, cutting short a Christmas season of shared merriment to fight rising coronavirus infections.
Austria has one of the lowest vaccination rates in western Europe, about 66 per cent of its population of 8.9 million people, with a vocal minority who refuse to be inoculated. On the eve of the latest lockdown, people flocked to Christmas markets for one last night of public socializing and in-person holiday shopping.
A vendor covers a news stand with a plastic sheet in Vienna. On Monday, Austria went into a nationwide lockdown to combat soaring coronavirus infections. (Vadim Ghirda/The Associated Press)
Under the lockdown, people can leave their homes only for specific reasons, including buying groceries, going to the doctor or exercising. Day care centres and schools remained open for those who need them, but parents were asked to keep children at home if possible.
In the Middle East, Israel began rolling out Pfizer-BioNtech’s COVID-19 vaccinations for five-to-11-year-olds on Monday hoping to beat down a recent rise in coronavirus infections.
A fourth wave of infections that hit Israel in June began subsiding in September. But over the past two weeks the reproduction rate of the virus that had remained below one for two months began climbing and has now crossed that threshold — indicating the virus could again be spreading exponentially.
Daily cases have also crept up over the past few days, with half the confirmed infections presently among children age 11 and younger.
Israel’s 9.4 million population is relatively young, with around 1.2 million children in the five -to-11 age group. By November, that group comprised more than a third of new cases, according to health ministry data.
Eleven-year-old Noa Bershadsky, left, reacts as she receives a COVID-19 vaccine in Holon, Israel, while her brother Ori covers his eyes. (Tsafrir Abayov/The Associated Press)
In the Asia-Pacific region, New Zealand will adopt a new system of living with the coronavirus on Dec. 3, which will end tough restrictions and allow businesses to operate in its biggest city, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday.
In the Americas, the White House confirmed Monday that more than 90 per cent of 3.5 million federal employees covered by a presidential COVID-19 vaccine mandate have received at least one vaccine dose ahead of a Monday deadline.
In total, the administration has deemed 95 percent of federal workers comply with its requirements in that either they have been vaccinated, are completing vaccinations or have a pending religious or medical exemption request, the White House said.
The figures suggest relatively high vaccination rates for federal employees compared with the U.S. population as a whole, and underscore the administration’s effort to get every American inoculated in an effort to bring COVID-19 under control.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
