Premier Jason Kenney says he wants to eliminate Alberta’s COVID-19 vaccine passport program as soon as it’s safe to do so, but he noted that it’s not yet the right time, as hospitals continue to feel pandemic pressures.
Kenney said Thursday the government will move toward a widespread relaxation of public health measures once pressure on the health system and COVID-19 hospitalizations trend down.
The vaccine passport system in Alberta, called the Restrictions Exemption Program, permits businesses to operate with fewer restrictions if patrons provide proof of vaccination, negative test results or a medical exemption.
“While there is some good news that can be encouraging for all of us, now is not the right time to be relaxing measures when … hospitals are under so much pressure,” Kenney said at a briefing on Thursday.
Decisions will be based on data and public health advice, he said — and though he did not offer precise timelines, he noted that he’s “pretty confident” it will come before the end of March.
“I’ll just tell you this — we will eliminate the Restriction Exemption Program as soon as it’s safe to do so.”
After the premier’s comments on Thursday, Alberta reported 1,496 total COVID-19 hospitalizations on Friday, an increase of 27 over the previous day. There were 105 COVID-19 patients being treated in the province’s intensive care units. Thirteen more deaths and 3,036 lab-confirmed cases were also reported on Friday.
Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, said children under the age of two will be eligible again for provincial PCR testing, since rapid tests and vaccinations are not currently an option for this age group.
Meanwhile, Saskatchewan is revising its public health orders as it moves to treat the COVID-19 Omicron variant like other common respiratory viruses. Starting Friday, close contacts of people who test positive will not be required to self-isolate.
Anyone who is infected, immunized or not, will still need to self-isolate for five days, but the change eases the isolation requirement of 10 days for the unvaccinated. Health officials said Omicron is so transmissible that many people who have been able to dodge COVID-19 thus far will be exposed.
Total COVID-19 hospitalizations stood at 342 in Saskatchewan on Friday — up by 14 from a day earlier — with 34 people in ICUs. Saskatchewan also reported two deaths and 1,392 new cases on Friday.
Manitoba sticks with restrictions
Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba’s chief provincial public health officer, said Friday that many indicators around COVID-19 are starting to point in the right direction for the province — but he noted there’s still significant spread in the community and pressure on hospitals.
Roussin, who appeared alongside Health Minister Audrey Gordon, said the current restrictions — which were set to lapse on Feb. 1 — will remain in place until Feb. 8.
Manitoba is extending its public health order for one more week. It will now expire Feb. 8. <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/COVID19?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#COVID19</a>
The province on Friday reported 715 hospitalizations due to COVID-19, an increase of four from the previous day. There are 52 COVID-19 patients in ICUs.
-From The Canadian Press and CBC News, last updated at 5:49 p.m. ET
What’s happening across Canada
Dr. Bonnie Henry, B.C.’s provincial health officer, spoke to CBC’s Matt Galloway about why changing the approach to COVID-19 doesn’t mean the province is throwing in the towel. (Mike McArthur/CBC)
LISTEN | Dr. Bonnie Henry talks about how B.C. is handling COVID-19 and what may come next for the province:
The Current19:04Changing our approach to COVID-19 doesn’t mean throwing in the towel, says Bonnie Henry
B.C.’s provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry talks to Matt Galloway about the province’s shift around COVID-19, amidst the highly transmissible Omicron variant. 19:04
With lab-based testing capacity deeply strained and increasingly restricted, experts say true case counts are likely far higher than reported. Hospitalization data at the regional level is also evolving, with several provinces saying they will report figures that separate the number of people in hospital because of COVID-19 from those in hospital for another medical issue who also test positive for COVID-19.
For more information on what is happening in your community — including details on outbreaks, testing capacity and local restrictions — click through to the regional coverage below.
In Central Canada, Ontario on Friday reported a total of 3,535 COVID-19 hospitalizations — down by 110 from a day earlier — with 607 people in intensive care units. The province also reported a total of 68 additional deaths, along with 5,337 lab-confirmed cases.
The update came a day after the province’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board said Ontarians who suspect they caught COVID-19 at work can make a claim even without a positive result from a PCR test. But the board said people should seek out a rapid test or a medical professional’s diagnosis now that the gold-standard PCR tests aren’t widely available.
With access to lab-based PCR tests now restricted in many parts of the country, workers compensation boards in several provinces and territories are wrestling with what the standard will be for showing workplace exposure to the novel coronavirus. The workers compensation organization in Alberta, for example, will accept a positive rapid test, PCR test or a doctor’s diagnosis as part of the claim process, the province’s top doctor said Thursday.
Quebec on Friday reported 3,091 hospitalizations — down by 62 from a day earlier — with 228 people in intensive care. The province’s COVID-19 dashboard also showed 48 new deaths and 3,600 lab-confirmed cases.
In the North, health officials in Nunavut on Friday reported 41 new cases of COVID-19. Yukon‘s governmentreported 23 new cases. Health officials in the Northwest Territories had not yet provided updated information for the day.
In Atlantic Canada, Newfoundland and Labrador health officials said Friday that 20 people were in hospital, with eight people in ICUs. The province, which sent students back to in-person education earlier this week, also reported 265 lab-confirmed cases and no new deaths.
Nova Scotia had 88 COVID-19 patients being treated in hospitals, a decrease of five from the day before, officials said Friday. There were 15 patients in ICUs. The province also reported 620 new cases and one death Friday.
Push to resume pay hikes for essential retail workers
22 hours ago
Duration 1:59
There’s a push to bring back pay hikes for retail workers in essential stores such as grocery stores. The so-called hero pay was instituted early in the pandemic before vaccines, but workers say they still face risks. 1:59
In Prince Edward Island, 17 people were hospitalized for COVID-19 Friday, the same number as Thursday. Two patients were in ICUs. The province also reported 215 new cases.
In New Brunswick, officials on Friday reported a total of 135 COVID-19 hospitalizations, including 16 people in ICUs, which was an increase of eight over the previous day. The province also reported four additional deaths and 396 lab-confirmed cases.
In British Columbia, health officials on Thursday reported a total of 977 COVID-19 hospitalizations — up 28 from a day earlier — with 141 people in the province’s ICUs. The province also reported 13 additional deaths and 2,033 lab-confirmed cases.
–From CBC News and The Canadian Press, last updated at 5:53 p.m. ET
What’s happening around the world
Pfizer testing Omicron-based vaccine amid concerns about twin variant
Pfizer has started testing an Omicron-based COVID-19 vaccine to see if it can prevent infection and not only severe illness. The testing comes as researchers investigate an emerging variant described as Omicron’s twin. 2:02
As of Friday afternoon, more than 368.6 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University’s case-tracking tool. The reported global death toll stood at more than 5.6 million.
In Europe, the BA.2 subtype of the Omicron coronavirus variant appears to have a substantial growth advantage over the currently predominant BA.1 type, Britain’s UK Health Security Agency said on Friday.
UKHSA said that there was an increased growth rate of BA.2 compared with BA.1 in all regions of England where there were enough cases to compare them, and that “the apparent growth advantage is currently substantial.”
“We now know that BA.2 has an increased growth rate which can be seen in all regions in England,” said Dr. Susan Hopkins, Chief Medical Advisor for the UKHSA.
The agency said there was no data on the severity of BA.2 compared to BA.1, but reiterated that a preliminary assessment did not find a difference in vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic disease between the two Omicron subtypes.
The rapid spread of BA.1 fuelled an Omicron wave which pushed cases to record highs in Britain in December, displacing the previously dominant Delta variant.
However, hospitalizations did not rise to the same extent, owing to population immunity through vaccination and previous infection, as well as Omicron’s lower severity.
The UKHSA said that a separate analysis showed that between Nov. 24 and Jan. 19, the majority of intensive care admissions from COVID-19 had Delta infections, even as Omicron was growing to dominate the number of cases.
Pedestrians wearing face masks walk along a street in central Moscow on Friday. Russia recorded more than 98,000 new COVID-19 cases in a single day, though officials cautioned the true figure is likely far higher. (Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP/Getty Images)
Russia’s COVID-19 deaths passed the 700,000 mark on Friday, Reuters calculations based on new data from the Rosstat state statistics service showed.
In the Americas, Omicron is driving the daily American death toll higher than during last fall’s Delta wave, with deaths likely to keep rising for days or even weeks. The seven-day rolling average for daily new COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. has been climbing since mid-November, reaching 2,288 on Friday, according to data from U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, surpassing a September peak of 2,100 when Delta was the dominant variant. Now Omicron is estimated to account for nearly all of the virus circulating in the country.
In the Asia-Pacific region, Thai health authorities approved new guidelines Friday outlining the parameters for declaring the coronavirus pandemic an endemic disease. Official figures show that the country already meets the criteria, but a government spokesman said it would be between six months and a year before the government would be able to make the decision to start treating COVID-19 as an illness that is here to stay, such as the flu or measles.
A health worker in personal protective equipment awaits patients for COVID-19 testing at a health centre in New Delhi on Friday. (Manish Swarup/The Associated Press)
South Korea plans next month to add hundreds of small neighborhood hospitals and clinics to treat the thousands more people expected to get COVID-19 during a developing Omicron surge.
In the Middle East, Israel has signed a deal to buy five million COVID-19 vaccine doses from Novavax, the country’s Health Ministry said on Friday. The vaccines are due to arrive in Israel in the coming months, pending regulatory approval, the ministry said. Financial details of the deal, which includes the option for an additional five million doses, were not disclosed.
In Africa, Nigeria’s vaccine rollout has slowly gained pace as public confidence increases and the government has assured citizens they will not receive expired doses.
Meanwhile, health officials in South Africa on Thursday reported 4,100 new cases of COVID-19 and 160 additional deaths.
-From The Associated Press, Reuters and CBC News, last update at 4:34 p.m. ET
Montreal Alouettes wide receiver Tyson Philpot has announced he will be out for the rest of the CFL season.
The Delta, B.C., native posted the news on his Instagram page Thursday.
“To Be Continued. Shoutout my team, the fans of the CFL and the whole city of Montreal! I can’t wait to be back healthy and write this next chapter in 2025,” the statement read.
Philpot, 24, injured his foot in a 33-23 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Aug. 10 and was placed on the six-game injured list the next week.
The six-foot-one, 195-pound receiver had 58 receptions, 779 yards and five touchdowns in nine games for the league-leading Alouettes in his third season.
Philpot scored the game-winning touchdown in Montreal’s Grey Cup win last season to punctuate a six-reception, 63-yard performance.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa sustained a concussion for the third time in his NFL career, leaving his team’s game Thursday night against Buffalo after running into defensive back Damar Hamlin and hitting the back of his head against the turf.
Tagovailoa remained down for about two minutes before getting to his feet and walking to the sideline after the play in the third quarter. He made his way to the tunnel not long afterward, looking into the stands before smiling and departing toward the locker room.
The Dolphins needed almost no time before announcing it was a concussion. The team said he had two during the 2022 season, and Tagovailoa was diagnosed with another concussion when he was a college player at Alabama.
Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said Tagovailoa would get “proper procedural evaluation” and “appropriate care” on Friday.
“The furthest thing from my mind is, ‘What is the timeline?’ We just need to evaluate and just worry about my teammate, like the rest of the guys are,” McDaniel said. “We’ll get more information tomorrow and take it day by day from here.”
Some players saw Tagovailoa in the locker room after the game and said they were encouraged. Tagovailoa spoke with some players and then went home after the game, McDaniel said.
“I have a lot of love for Tua, built a great relationship with him,” said quarterback Skylar Thompson, who replaced Tagovailoa after the injury. “You care about the person more than the player and everybody in the organization would say the same thing. Just really praying for Tua and hopefully everything will come out all right.”
Tagovailoa signed a four-year, $212 million extension before this season — a deal that makes him one of the highest-paid players in the NFL — and was the NFL’s leading passer in Week 1 this season. Tagovailoa left with the Dolphins trailing 31-10, and that was the final score.
“If you know Tua outside of football, you can’t help but feel for him,” Bills quarterback Josh Allen said on Amazon following the game. “He’s a great football player but he’s an even greater human being. He’s one of the best humans on the planet. I’ve got a lot of love for him and I’m just praying for him and his family, hoping everything’s OK. But it’s tough, man. This game of football that we play, it’s got its highs and it’s got its lows — and this is one of the lows.”
Tagovailoa’s college years and first three NFL seasons were marred by injury, though he positioned himself for a big pay bump with an injury-free and productive 2023 as he led the Dolphins into the playoffs. He threw for 29 touchdowns and a league-best 4,624 yards last year.
When, or if, he can come back this season is anyone’s guess. Tagovailoa said in April 2023 that the concussions he had in the 2022 season left him contemplating his playing future. “I think I considered it for a time,” he said then, when asked if he considered stepping away from the game to protect himself.
McDaniel said it’s not his place to say if Tagovailoa should return to football. “He’ll be evaluated and we’ll have conversations and progress as appropriate,” McDaniel said.
Tagovailoa was hurt Thursday on a fourth-down keeper with about 4:30 left in the third. He went straight ahead into Hamlin and did not slide, leading with his right shoulder instead.
Hamlin was the player who suffered a cardiac arrest after making a tackle during a Monday night game in January 2023 at Cincinnati, causing the NFL to suspend a pivotal game that quickly lost significance in the aftermath of a scary scene that unfolded in front of a national television audience.
Tagovailoa wound up on his back, both his hands in the air and Bills players immediately pointed at him as if to suggest there was an injury. Dolphins center Aaron Brewer quickly did the same, waving to the sideline.
Tagovailoa appeared to be making a fist with his right hand as he lay on the ground. It was movement consistent with something that is referred to as the “fencing response,” which can be common after a traumatic brain injury.
Tagovailoa eventually got to his feet. McDaniel grabbed the side of his quarterback’s head and gave him a kiss on the cheek as Tagovailoa departed. Thompson came into the game to take Tagovailoa’s spot.
“I love Tua on and off the football field,” Bills edge Von Miller said. “I’m a huge fan of him. I can empathize and sympathize with him because I’ve been there. I wish him the best.”
Tagovailoa’s history with concussions — and how he has since worked to avoid them — is a huge part of the story of his career, and now comes to the forefront once again.
He had at least two concussions during the 2022 season. He was hurt in a Week 3 game against Buffalo and cleared concussion protocol, though he appeared disoriented on that play but returned to the game.
The NFL later changed its concussion protocol to mandate that if a player shows possible concussion symptoms — including a lack of balance or stability — he must sit out the rest of the game.
Less than a week later, in a Thursday night game at Cincinnati, Tagovailoa was concussed on a scary hit that briefly knocked him unconscious and led to him being taken off the field on a stretcher.
His second known concussion of that season came in a December game against Green Bay, and he didn’t play for the rest of the 2022 season. After that, Tagovailoa began studying ways where he may be able to fall more safely and protect himself against further injury — including studying jiu-jitsu.
“I’m not worried about anything that’s out of my hands,” McDaniel said. “I’m just worried about the human being.”
NEW YORK (AP) — When her husband turns on the television to hear news about the upcoming presidential election, that’s often a signal for Lori Johnson Malveaux to leave the room.
It can get to be too much. Often, she’ll go to a TV in another room to watch a movie on the Hallmark Channel or BET. She craves something comforting and entertaining. And in that, she has company.
While about half of Americans say they are following political news “extremely” or “very” closely, about 6 in 10 say they need to limit how much information they consume about the government and politics to avoid feeling overloaded or fatigued, according to a new survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and USAFacts.
Make no mistake: Malveaux plans to vote. She always does. “I just get to the point where I don’t want to hear the rhetoric,” she said.
The 54-year-old Democrat said she’s most bothered when she hears people on the news telling her that something she saw with her own eyes — like the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol — didn’t really happen.
“I feel like I’m being gaslit. That’s the way to put it,” she said.
Sometimes it feels like ‘a bombardment’
Caleb Pack, 23, a Republican from Ardmore, Oklahoma, who works in IT, tries to keep informed through the news feeds on his phone, which is stocked with a variety of sources, including CNN, Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press.
Yet sometimes, Pack says, it seems like a bombardment.
“It’s good to know what’s going on, but both sides are pulling a little bit extreme,” he said. “It just feels like it’s a conversation piece everywhere, and it’s hard to escape it.”
Media fatigue isn’t a new phenomenon. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in late 2019 found roughly two in three Americans felt worn out by the amount of news there is, about the same as in a poll taken in early 2018. During the 2016 presidential campaign, about 6 in 10 people felt overloaded by campaign news.
But it can be particularly acute with news related to politics. The AP-NORC/USAFacts poll found that half of Americans feel a need to limit their consumption of information related to crime or overseas conflicts, while only about 4 in 10 are limiting news about the economy and jobs.
It’s easy to understand, with television outlets like CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC full of political talk and a wide array of political news online, sometimes complicated by disinformation.
“There’s a glut of information,” said Richard Coffin, director of research and advocacy for USAFacts, “and people are having a hard time figuring out what is true or not.”
Women are more likely to feel they need to limit media
In the AP-NORC poll, about 6 in 10 men said they follow news about elections and politics at least “very” closely, compared to about half of women. For all types of news, not just politics, women are more likely than men to report the need to limit their media consumption, the survey found.
White adults are also more likely than Black or Hispanic adults to say they need to limit media consumption on politics, the poll found.
Kaleb Aravzo, 19, a Democrat, gets a baseline of news by listening to National Public Radio in the morning at home in Logan, Utah. Too much politics, particularly when he’s on social media sites like TikTok and Instagram, can trigger anxiety and depression.
“If it pops up on my page when I’m on social media,” he said, “I’ll just scroll past it.”
___
Sanders reported from Washington. David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder.
The AP poll of 1,019 adults was conducted July 29-August 8, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points.
