One person is now dying from COVID-19 every two minutes in Iran, state TV said on Monday, as the Middle East’s worst-hit country reported a new record daily toll of 588 fatalities.
Total deaths over the course of the pandemic have reached 94,603, Iranian authorities said, while cases rose by 40,808 in the past 24 hours to 4,199,537 in a fifth wave blamed on the highly transmissible delta variant. Only about four per cent of the country’s 83 million people have been fully inoculated.
People line up to be tested at a COVID-19 screening site in front of a pharmacy in Montpellier in the south of France on Monday. (Pascal Guyot/AFP/Getty Images)
France took a big step Monday into a post-pandemic future by requiring people to show a QR code proving they have a special virus pass before they can enjoy restaurants and cafes or travel across the country.
The measure is part of a government plan to encourage more people to get a COVID-19 vaccine shot and slow down a surge in infections, as the highly contagious delta variant now accounts for most cases in France. Over 36 million people in France, or more than 54 per cent of the population, are fully vaccinated.
The special pass is issued to people who are vaccinated against COVID-19, or have proof of a recent recovery from the virus or who have a recent negative test. The measure also applies to tourists visiting the country. All adults will need the pass, unless they are exempt for a medical reason. It will be required for those aged 12 to 17 starting Sept. 30.
In hospitals, visitors and patients who have appointments are required to have the pass. Exceptions are made for people needing urgent care at the emergency ward.
The pass is now required on high-speed, intercity and night trains, which carry over 400,000 passengers per day in France, Transport Ministry chief Jean-Baptiste Djebbari said Monday. It is also required on long-distance travels by plane or bus.
Visitors present their pass sanitaire (health pass) to an official at the entrance to a cinema in Montpellier on July 29. (Pascal Guyot/AFP/Getty Images)
“We’re going to enforce massive controls,” Djebbari said.
Paper or digital documents are accepted.
Polls show that most French support the health pass. But the measure has prompted strong opposition from some people who say it compromises their freedoms by limiting movements and daily activities outside the home.
WATCH | How convenient COVID-19 vaccine clinics help convince some to get the shot:
As health officials work to get more people vaccinated against COVID-19, there’s hope that convenient pop-up clinics could help some decide to get the shot. 2:01
On Saturday, thousands of demonstrators marched in Paris and other French cities for a fourth consecutive week of protests against the measure.
The health pass was already in place for last month for cultural and recreational venues including cinemas, concert halls, sports arenas and theme parks.
The law also requires French health-care workers to be vaccinated against the virus by Sept. 15.
What’s happening in Canada
Drivers heading into Canada line up at the Rainbow International Bridge in Niagara Falls, N.Y., just after midnight on Aug. 9. Canada will now allow fully vaccinated Americans who are entering the country to skip the previously mandatory 14-day quarantine period as part of an easing of COVID-19 restrictions on travel. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
Manitoba reports 99 new cases, 1 death due to COVID-19 over 3 days.
What’s happening around the world
As of Monday afternoon, more than 202.9 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported around the world, according to the coronavirus tracker maintained by U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University. The reported global death toll stood at more than 4.4 million.
In the Asia-Pacific region, Australia’s pharmaceutical regulator has granted provisional approval to Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Monday,
The first one million doses of the Moderna vaccine will arrive in September, with a total of 10 million doses arriving this year, Morrison said. Australia in May agreed to buy 25 million doses of the vaccine.
In China, more than 30 local officials have been fired or received other punishments for shortcomings in handling the country’s latest virus surge. The National Health Commission said Monday that 94 new cases of domestic transmission had been recorded over the previous 24 hours.
In the Philippines, nearly a fifth of hospitals are close to full capacity due to a surge in COVID-19 infections, driven by the delta variant of the virus, the country’s health ministry said on Monday.
Coronavirus cases in the Philippines, a country of 110 million, have been growing at a rate of around 8,000 to 10,000 infections a day over recent weeks, above the daily average of 5,700 cases reported last month, according to official data.
People hoping to get vaccinated against COVID-19 line up outside a vaccination site on Sunday in Las Pinas, Metro Manila, Philippines. (Ezra Acayan/Getty Images)
In the Middle East, Saudi Arabia is reopening Islam’s holiest sites in Mecca and Medina to pilgrims from abroad to perform the smaller pilgrimage known as “umrah.”
State media reported that for the first time since the pandemic prompted the government to seal off Mecca to international travelers, the kingdom will begin gradually receiving requests for umrah pilgrims from various countries of the world, starting Monday.
Travellers will need to prove they have been vaccinated and will need to quarantine if they are traveling from nations still red-listed by the kingdom, which include many of the countries that once sent the most pilgrims annually. The government plans to increase the capacity of pilgrims to two million per month.
In Africa, more than 6.9 million cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed on the continent since the pandemic began in early 2020, and about 176,000 deaths have been attributed to the illness, according to the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for Africa.
Nigeria announced it was postponing the rollout of its second batch of COVID-19 vaccine due to “unforeseen circumstances,” a setback for Africa’s most populous nation as it faces a major surge in confirmed cases. The rollout was scheduled for Tuesday. Less than two per cent of the country’s 200 million citizens have been vaccinated.
In the Americas, the cumulative total of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States surpassed 35.76 million as of Sunday, with the death toll reaching 616,828, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.
Mexico will ask the United States to send at least 3.5 million more doses of COVID-19 vaccine as the country faces a third wave of infections, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Monday.
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.
