A major Edmonton hospital is stepping up planning to handle a potential surge in ICU admissions, and Calgary’s top emergency management official is calling for a so-called circuit breaker lockdown to try and beat back the second wave of COVID-19 in Alberta.
In Edmonton, a leaked email from an executive director of the Royal Alexandra Hospital outlined projections for a major uptick in ICU admissions and outlined some of the steps being taken to get ready.
“We need to be prepared,” said the Saturday email from Donalda Dyjur, an executive director at the hospital.
In Calgary, the chief of the city’s emergency management agency called for people to heed the warnings of physicians on Twitter, saying the second wave of COVID-19 is “large and it may run over our health-care system, our economy, and our mental health and wellness.”
“A hard one — it may be a fairly long one. It could be as long as 28 days,” he said. “But if we did it sooner rather than later, hopefully we’d be back up and have a normal Christmas, and have our normal shopping environment for Christmas.”
Researchers in Canada and around the world have been racing to find therapeutics and vaccines and on Monday, U.S-based company Moderna announced a significant milestone in its search for a safe and effective vaccine.
The Cambridge, Mass.,-based company said its vaccine appears to be 94.5 per cent effective, according to preliminary data from the company’s still ongoing study. A week ago, competitor Pfizer Inc. announced its own COVID-19 vaccine appeared similarly effective — news that puts both companies on track to seek permission within weeks for emergency use in the United States.
WATCH | Interim analysis suggests COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna will work, but final results are necessary to confirm, says epidemiologist:
Interim analysis suggests COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna will work, but final results, expected later this year, are necessary to confirm, says epidemiologist Dr. Christopher Labos. 5:40
Moderna’s vaccine, created with the U.S. National Institutes of Health, is being studied in 30,000 volunteers who received either the real vaccination or a dummy shot. It’s very unusual for results to be analyzed and released before a clinical trial is complete.
Despite that, on Sunday, an independent monitoring board examined 95 infections that were recorded starting two weeks after volunteers’ second dose — and discovered all but five illnesses occurred in participants who got the placebo.
The study is continuing, and Moderna acknowledged the protection rate might change as more COVID-19 infections are detected and added to the calculations. Also, it’s too soon to know how long protection lasts. Both cautions apply to Pfizer’s vaccine as well.
Canada, which has already signed deals with several companies to procure vaccine candidates, has an agreement with Moderna to receive up to 56 million doses of its vaccine.
WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday warned against complacency in the face of increasing COVID-19 numbers, even as vaccine developments allow for what he described as cautious optimism.
“This is a dangerous virus, which can attack every system in the body,” he said. “Those countries that are letting the virus run unchecked are playing with fire.”
There’s “no excuse for inaction,” he said during a briefing from Geneva. “My message is clear: act fast, act now, act decisively.”
What’s happening across Canada
Canada’s COVID-19 case count — as of late Monday morning — stood at 298,782 with 50,251 of those considered active cases. A CBC News tally of deaths based on provincial reports, regional health information and CBC’s reporting stood at 10,988.
In Nunavut, which only recently reported its first confirmed cases of the novel virus that causes COVID-19, health officials reported 10 new cases on Sunday. The new cases are linked to an outbreak in the community of Arviat and took the territory’s overall total to 18.
Arviat’s first positive diagnosis was only confirmed on Friday.
“Due to the number of cases of COVID-19 in Arviat, anyone from Arviat who left the community on or after November 2 is being asked to immediately isolate for 14 days wherever they are,” territorial Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Michael Patterson said in a statement.
There were no new cases reported in Yukon or the Northwest Territories.
Several regions in Ontario are moving into the “red zone” on Monday after Premier Doug Ford lowered the thresholds for his colour-coded system of public health restrictions. Hamilton, Halton and York regions moved Monday to the red alert level, joining Toronto and Peel Region.
Ontario on Monday reported 1,487 cases of COVID-19, with 508 in Toronto, 392 in Peel and 170 in York.
There were 10 additional deaths reported on Monday, bringing the provincial death toll to 3,371, according to the province’s public COVID-19 tracking site. Hospitalization numbers were up to 500, with 125 in intensive care.
WATCH | What to do if you’re confused about COVID-19 rules and guidelines:
Doctors answer questions about the COVID-19 pandemic including what to do if you’re confused by the current rules and guidelines in your area. 5:56
Quebec on Monday reported 1,218 new cases of COVID-19 and 25 new deaths, with six of those deaths reported to have occurred in the previous 24 hours. A provincial dashboard put the number of hospitalizations at 591, with 87 in intensive care.
“Home care is what people want, and they want it even more because of the pandemic,” said Health Minister Christian Dubé.
WATCH | Why COVID-19 is finding its way back into long-term care homes:
A growing number of long-term care homes are again overrun with COVID-19. Familiar and horrific scenes are again playing out. The problem? The virus may move quickly, but there’s no quick fix for problems in the long-term care sector that go back years. 2:32
In Manitoba, health officials on Sunday reported a record-high 494 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of cases reported in the province since the pandemic began to 10,947. The province also reported 10 additional deaths on Sunday — including seven tied to an outbreak at a Winnipeg long-term care home — bringing the province’s death toll to 162.
In Saskatchewan, health officials on Sunday reported 181 new cases of COVID-19 and two additional deaths, bringing the province’s death toll to 31. Premier Scott Moe said Sunday that more measures could be coming to fight COVID-19 in the province in addition to those already slated to take effect this week.
Three schools in British Columbia’s hard-hit Fraser Health region are being closed for two weeks because of COVID-19.
WATCH | B.C. woman on life support after catching COVID-19 while pregnant:
A B.C. woman is fighting for her life, after contracting COVID-19 from an unknown source while pregnant. Her baby was born via emergency C-section, she is in an induced coma, and her husband has a message for everyone: COVID-19 can hit anyone, even those who take every precaution. 1:59
WATCH | COVID-19 is on the rise in the U.S and transition troubles could slow efforts to fight it:
Donald Trump concedes nothing as he appeared to suggest earlier Joe Biden won the election; continued transition intransigence slows down efforts to battle COVID. 1:58
From The Associated Press and Reuters, last updated at 7:30 a.m. ET
As of early Monday morning, more than 54.4 million cases of COVID-19 have been reported worldwide, with more than 35 million of those listed as recovered by Johns Hopkins University. The university’s COVID tracking tool put the number of deaths at more than 1.3 million.
In the Americas, more than 11 million cases of the coronavirus have now been reported in the United States, with the most recent million coming in less than a week.
COVID-19 is spreading more rapidly across the U.S. than it has at any time since the pandemic started. Deaths are also on the rise, though not at the record high numbers reached in the spring. The seven-day rolling average for daily new deaths was more than 1,080 as of Saturday, more than 30 per cent higher than it was two weeks earlier.
COVID-19 has now killed more than 246,000 people in the U.S., according to Johns Hopkins.
In Brazil, the health ministry said it had taken the system used to report COVID-19 case numbers and deaths offline in recent days to protect against a suspected cyber attack.
In the Asia-Pacific region, India has registered 30,548 new coronaviruses cases, the fewest in the last four months but amid growing concerns about the latest surge in the capital, New Delhi.
India has now recorded a total of 8.84 million cases, second behind the U.S.
The Health Ministry said Monday that the country was showing a trend of declining average daily cases over the last two months. The ministry also reported 435 new fatalities, raising the death toll to 130,070.
India’s daily cases have seen a steady decline since the middle of September, but New Delhi is now recording more new infections than any other state.
A man in personal protective equipment sanitizes a temple before it reopens for the public in Mumbai on Sunday. (Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters)
South Korea’s daily coronavirus tally has stayed above 200 for a third consecutive day, as authorities consider raising the country’s physical distancing rules.
From Thursday, New Zealanders will be legally required to wear masks on public transport in Auckland and on planes nationwide. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Virus Response Minister Chris Hipkins announced the new rules on Monday after meeting with senior lawmakers.
The country has been largely successful in eliminating the virus but has experienced several small outbreaks in Auckland, the latest one after a military worker at a hotel where travellers returning from abroad are being quarantined got infected.
In Africa, Algeria will reimpose restrictions to combat the spread of COVID-19 from Nov. 17, including closing gyms, cultural centres, leisure venues and used car markets.
In the Middle East, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday declared “the general mobilization of the nation and the government” to confront the third wave of the coronavirus. The country has reported more than 775,000 cases of COVID-19 and more than 41,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins.
In Europe, Germany’s federal government and states are considering new measures to halt the rise in infections, such as dramatically reducing the number of people at household gatherings and compulsory mask wearing for school students.
Britain said on Monday it will open two new “mega” laboratories in early 2021 for carrying out COVID-19 tests, a day after Prime Minister Boris Johnson went into self-isolation after coming into contact with someone who tested positive for the virus.
With banners reading “Let us Pray” and “We Want Mass,” Catholic protesters held scattered demonstrations around France on Sunday to demand that authorities relax virus lockdown measures to allow religious services.
In the western city of Nantes, hundreds gathered in front of a statue of the Virgin Mary, some kneeling on the rain-soaked pavement, according to local broadcaster France Bleu. Similar gatherings were reported or planned in the eastern city of Strasbourg, in Bordeaux in the southwest, and outside the Saint-Louis Cathedral in Versailles.
Parishioners wearing protective face masks pray at Graslin square during an open air mass in Nantes, France, as public masses are suspended during the second national lockdown as part of the measures to fight a second wave of COVID-19. (Stephane Mahe/Reuters)
With more confirmed virus cases than any other European country, predominantly Catholic France banned mass and other religious services for the month of November as part of nationwide partial lockdown measures aimed at reining in infections and relieving pressure on hospitals. Churches and other religious sites remain open for individual visitors to come and pray.
France’s interior minister is scheduled to meet with religious leaders on Monday to discuss when and how services could again be permitted, notably amid pressure to allow Christmas ceremonies.
VANCOUVER – A disciplinary investigation has found a former Vancouver police sergeant shared “disrespectful” commentary on a fellow officer’s court testimony about being sexually assaulted by a colleague.
The decision against Narinder Dosanjh, obtained by The Canadian Press, includes the running commentary on the woman’s testimony — apparently written by someone inside the courtroom — that calls her a “bad drunk” and says there was “no way” her case would be proved.
Former New Westminster police chief Dave Jansen, the external officer who rendered the decision against Dosanjh, says his assessment accounts for a culture of treating officers who testify against each other as “rats.”
Former Vancouver constable Jagraj Roger Berar was convicted in 2021 and sentenced to a year in jail for assaulting the woman, who can’t be identified because of a publication ban on her name.
Jansen says in his ruling, dated Oct. 11, that the comments in a Vancouver police group chat appear “supportive” of Berar and reflect “all-too-common myths” about women who make sexual assault allegations.
While Jansen found Dosanjh committed discreditable conduct by sharing the chats, a complaint against a more-senior Vancouver officer who was inside the courtroom, and who the victim and other officers believed wrote the commentary, were not substantiated.
The ruling says Jansen, who retired as New Westminster’s chief constable, would accept submissions before deciding how Dosanjh should be punished.
The woman who was assaulted was the complainant in the disciplinary investigation, and said in an interview she felt “vindicated” by Jansen’s decision because it “truly paints what I’ve been through,” after reporting a fellow officer for sexual assault.
She said many other women in municipal policing fear speaking out about ill-treatment at work, and some have told her about being assaulted and harassed but feared ruining their careers if they complained.
“This decision is important for those women to see,” she said. “It shows the tides are changing. Like, this is the first win I’ve had.”
A spokesman for the Surrey Police Service, where Dosanjh now works, did not immediately answer a question about how he was penalized, and said Dosanjh declined an interview request with The Canadian Press.
In his decision, Jansen said there was an “unfortunate but often pervasive” culture of treating officers who complain as “‘rats’, who betrayed their colleagues.”
“In terms of the messages themselves, Sergeant Dosanjh alleges that they are not degrading, humiliating or derogatory and do not attack the personal character of the complainant. I disagree,” Jansen wrote.
The decision includes a screenshot of the commentary about the complainant, who said the order of the messages appeared to refer to her evidence while she was being cross-examined and suggested the comments were written by someone listening to her testimony.
The commentary on a Vancouver police chat group on the Signal messaging app said the victim “wore a wire twice,” and “admitted in cross to possibly drinking way more alcohol than she originally claimed.”
“Her memory is super hazy and there’s no way you can prove beyond reasonable doubt,” the person wrote.
“And she admitted that she is really bad drunk,” they added.
Another message said it was a “nail in the coffin” of the case that video showed the complainant “cuddling, holding hands” with Berar.
The victim, who became aware of the commentary when a friend in the department showed them to her, was distressed by the messages and disputed their accuracy, said Jansen.
“The comments also appear to reflect some of the all-too-common myths around women making allegations of sexual assault. Some of these myths include the belief that because a victim socialized with the perpetrator, or engaged in some consensual activity with him, therefore she must have consented to the assault,” he wrote.
Jansen’s decision said Dosanjh shared the messages with a fellow officer after getting them from a “VPD chat group that he claims he knew little about, from a co-worker he claims not to be able to identify.”
The decision said other officers believed the commentary was written bya more-senior officer in the department who had been present at the trial, but Jansen said the discreditable conduct complaint against that person was unsubstantiated.
The decision said Dosanjh claimed he was the “fall guy” and “a pawn in a broader game.”
Jansen’s decision said Dosanjh was a senior officer and supervisor who was aware of the “vulnerability of victims of sexual crimes and of the myths that surround sexual assault victims.”
It said Dosanjh’s “distribution of these messages that were disrespectful of an alleged victim of sexual violence who was also a co-worker, should they become public, would likely discredit the reputation of the police force.”
The Vancouver Police Department did not immediately provide comment on Jansen’s decision.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.
FREDERICTON – The offspring of beetles imported from British Columbia are ready to take up the fight against an invasive insect that is killing hemlock trees in Nova Scotia.
Last fall and spring, about 5,000 Laricobius nigrinus beetles — affectionately called Lari by scientists — made an overnight journey from the West Coast.
Lucas Roscoe, research scientist with the Canadian Forest Service, says in the fight against the woolly adelgid that is destroying swaths of hemlock trees in Nova Scotia, the first step was to make sure the Lari beetle can survive a Nova Scotia winter.
The one-to-two-millimetre black flying beetles were released across six sites in Nova Scotia that had the woolly adelgids.
In one of the sites, scientists placed cages of imported beetles and about 60 per cent of them were able to survive the winter in Nova Scotia, which Roscoe says is an encouraging rate.
He says the woolly adelgid was first seen in southwestern Nova Scotia in 2017 and the peppercorn-sized insect, aided by climate change, has since spread north.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.
Dozens of researchers across Canada, including renowned environmentalist David Suzuki, have joined a growing chorus of voices urging the federal government to halt the importation of an endangered monkey species for medical research in Quebec.
A letter signed by 80 scientists, academics, doctors and students says testing on long-tailed macaques from Cambodia should be banned due to ethical concerns and potential public-health risks.
“A decade ago, chimpanzees, our closest primate relatives, ceased to be used for experimentation because using such animal ‘models’ could no longer be justified from scientific, ethical, and/or financial perspectives,” says the letter addressed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, his environment minister and the premier of Quebec.
The researchers say they are also concerned about “the serious risks of transmission of zoonotic pathogens” that could be associated with transporting macaques.
Their letter urges the federal government to end charter flights that have been bringing the macaques into Canada, and to adopt regulations banning the importation of all primates for biomedical testing.
It’s the latest group to add more pressure on Ottawa to suspend the monkey imports by Charles River Laboratories, a U.S.-based pharmaceutical giant that has a sprawling facility in Montreal.
The company announced in 2023 that it was halting macaque imports into the U.S., after it was subpoenaed in a case that involved the indictment of two senior Cambodian officials over what authorities described as “multiple felonies for their role in bringing wild long-tailed macaques into the United States.”
No charges have been brought against Charles River Laboratories, or any of its officials, and the company has said it will fully co-operate with the U.S. investigation.
At around the same time, imports of monkeys from Cambodia into Canada dramatically surged, with Statistics Canada data showing a 500 per cent increase in 2023 from the year before.
Environment and Climate Change Canada, the federal department responsible for monitoring commercial trade in wildlife, confirmed to the Canadian Press that Charles River Laboratories has imported 6,769 long-tailed macaques into the country between January 2023 and August of this year. The monetary value of these imported macaques is around $120 million dollars, according to Statistics Canada.
The department previously said that officials rigorously and closely inspect imports of foreign animals, including those brought in by Charles River Laboratories, and that all macaque imports so far this year have complied with federal and international wildlife regulations.
The government and the company have both said that no Canadian laws have been broken.
Last month, the Canadian Transportation Authority issued a permit for another shipment on a cargo plane chartered by Charles River Laboratories. A flight tracker shows that a plane with the same flight number as what is shown on the permit departed Phnom Penh, Cambodia last Thursday, and arrived in Montreal on Friday.
Jesse Greener, a professor of chemistry at Laval University who signed the researchers’ letter to the government, said medical technology has developed to a point that makes it unjustifiable for the pharmaceutical industry to continue using live primates for testing.
“The government should take a leadership role and help researchers and surely the private sector to pivot from using these unethical, and I would say old and outdated and unreliable animal models, and embrace these much more efficient and ethical approaches that are … exploding right now,” said Greener, who has done research on methods to replace animals in such experiments.
“It is grotesque,” he said of the animal use. “It is time that we change the page on this chapter of terrible research and commercial activities.”
Canada banned the use of animals for cosmetic testing last year, but it is still legal to use live primates for drug testing purposes.
The federal government said a draft strategy aimed at reducing and replacing the use of animals in drug testing was published in September and open to public consultations for 60 days.
The strategy, which will be revised based on input from researchers, experts and others, is expected to be published in June 2025, it said.
“The government of Canada is committed to advancing efforts to replace, reduce, or refine the use of vertebrate animals in toxicity testing where possible,” Environment and Climate Change Canada said in a statement Tuesday.
Charles River Laboratories previously told The Canadian Press that while it is also committed to reducing its use of live primates, global regulatory bodies require drugs to be tested on animals before they are evaluated in humans.
The company said the use of non-human primates has been vital in developing treatments for various diseases and that the standards it applies in its facilities are exceeding global norms.
Matthew Green, a New Democrat MP who had previously called on the federal government to halt the latest shipment of macaques, said he has “great concern” about importing this exotic animal.
“Generally in Canada, Canadians like to believe that our government has higher regulations and more stringent enforcement protocols when it comes to protecting endangered species, yet this is not the case in comparison to what the United States has done,” he said.
Green and two of his NDP colleagues wrote a letter to three federal ministers last month, demanding an “immediate attention” to the issue.
The Animal Alliance of Canada also sent a letter to the environment minister in August, urging the immediate suspension of monkey importation from Cambodia.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.
