U.S. President Joe Biden signed his $1.9-trillion US stimulus bill into law on Thursday, commemorating the one-year anniversary of the coronavirus pandemic with a measure designed to bring relief to Americans and boost the economy.
The Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives gave final congressional approval to the measure on Wednesday, handing the Democratic president a major victory in the early months of his term.
“This historic legislation is about rebuilding the backbone of this country,” Biden said before signing.
U.S. President Joe Biden signs the $1.9-trillion US economic stimulus bill in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. Biden will later give a national address urging ‘hope’ on the first anniversary of the start of the coronavirus pandemic. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)
Biden signed the measure before a prime-time speech planned for later on Thursday to herald the anniversary of the lockdown, urge vigilance as the pandemic rages and offer hope amid a growing number of vaccinated people across the country.
Biden’s signing of the legislation, called the American Rescue Plan, had initially been scheduled for Friday. Chief of staff Ron Klain said it was moved up after it arrived at the White House on Wednesday night.
“We want to move as fast as possible,” Klain posted on Twitter. A celebration with congressional leaders would still take place on Friday, he said.
The package provides $400 billion US for $1,400 US direct payments to most Americans, $350 billion US in aid to state and local governments, an expansion of the child tax credit and increased funding for COVID-19 vaccine distribution.
“People can expect to start seeing direct deposits hit their bank accounts as early as this weekend. This is, of course, just the first wave,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. Payments to eligible Americans will continue throughout the course of the next several weeks.
Nearly 160 million households are expected to get payments, according to White House estimates.
– From Reuters, last updated at 3:45 p.m. ET
What’s happening in Canada
WATCH | Doctors discuss habits we should keep after the pandemic:
Cleaner hands, virtual medicine and Canadians’ resilience are some of the things doctors on the front line would like to see continue once the coronavirus pandemic recedes. 2:07
Canada is marking the one-year anniversary today of the “global pandemic” declaration made by the World Health Organization regarding COVID-19.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other political leaders addressed the House of Commons on Thursday with statements on this national day of observance to commemorate those who’ve died from the novel coronavirus.
“For families and close ones, each death has a before and an after,” Trudeau said.
The government has also asked Canadians to think about the health-care and other essential workers who have been on the front lines treating our illnesses, cooking our food, cleaning our stores, schools and workplaces, and delivering countless items to us.
WATCH | ICU nurse uses COVID-19 vaccine-vial lids to make artwork:
Shawn Toovey describes how he embeds plastic medical waste, including COVID-19 vaccine vial lids, in a piece of artwork 1:49
Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, urged caution on Wednesday, saying in a statement that the vast majority of Canadians are still susceptible to COVID-19.
“Although COVID-19 activity had been declining nationally from mid-January through mid-February, daily case counts have since levelled off,” Tam said.
“With the continued increase of cases and outbreaks associated with more contagious variants, we must all remain vigilant with public health measures and individual precautions to prevent a rapid shift in trajectory of the epidemic.”
As of 3:45 p.m. ET on Thursday, Canada had reported 898,829 cases of COVID-19, with 30,595 cases considered active. A CBC News tally of deaths stood at 22,363.
In Quebec, health officials reported 738 new cases of COVID-19 and 15 additional deaths on Thursday. Hospitalizations in the province stood at 563, with 111 COVID-19 patients in intensive care units.
Ontario on Thursday reported 1,092 new cases of COVID-19 and 10 additional deaths. COVID-19 hospitalizations stood at 680, with 277 patients in the province’s intensive care units.
Meanwhile, Sudbury, sbout 400 kilometres northwest of Toronto, will move into lockdown on Friday after a large spike in COVID-19 cases. The government said it’s placing the region in the strictest category of Ontario’s pandemic restrictions framework to curb the spread of more contagious COVID-19 variants and protect health system capacity. Sudbury has been in the second-strictest “red” category of the framework and the province is using its “emergency brake” mechanism to impose the lockdown.
WATCH | Ontario facing new surge in COVID cases due to variants, expert says:
Aggressive COVID-19 variants have the upper hand in Ontario, which is why the province needs to vaccinate as quickly as possible, said Dr. Peter Jüni of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table. 3:15
In Atlantic Canada, health officials in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island reported no new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday. Health officials in New Brunswick reported two new cases, while Newfoundland and Labrador reported one additional case.
In the North, Nunavut had no new cases to report on Thursday. Health officials in Yukon and the Northwest Territories had not yet provided updated figures for the day.
Manitoba reported 91 new cases and three new deaths on Wednesday. More than half of the new cases — 50 — are in the Northern Health Region, the province said.
In the rest of the Prairies, Saskatchewan reported 165 new cases on Thursday, but no new deaths. Alberta reported 399 new cases of COVID-19 and two additional deaths on Wednesday.
In British Columbia, health officials reported 531 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday and one additional death.
Here’s a look at what’s happening across the country:
– From The Canadian Press and CBC News, last updated at 3:45 p.m. ET
What’s happening around the world
A medical staff member prepares to administer the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine at Sunway Medical Center in Subang Jaya, on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, on Thursday. (Mohd Rasfan/AFP/Getty Images)
As of Thursday afternoon, more than 118.2 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide with 66.9 million cases listed as recovered on the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 tracking tool. The global death toll stood at more than 2.6 million.
In Europe, health authorities in Denmark, Norway and Iceland on Thursday suspended the use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine shots following reports that blood clots had formed in some people who had been vaccinated and there had been one death in Denmark.
Austria earlier stopped using a batch of AstraZeneca shots while investigating a death from coagulation disorders and an illness from a pulmonary embolism.
Still, the European medicine regulator EMA said the vaccine’s benefits outweighed its risks and could continue to be administered.
“Both we and the Danish Medicines Agency have to respond to reports of possible serious side-effects, both from Denmark and other European countries,” the director of the Danish Health Authority, Soren Brostrom, said in a statement.
The vaccine would be suspended for 14 days, the health agency said. It did not give details of the Danish blood clot victim.
In France, Germany and Spain, the countries’ respective health ministers all said they plan to continue vaccinating with AstraZeneca. Britain’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who is in Norway for talks with his counterpart in that country, told a news conference the United Kingdom considers the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine safe.
Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, tweeted Thursday that Canada has “a robust surveillance system in place to detect rare occurrences that may or may not be related to vaccine. It is important to note these are extremely rare events in an area that is using a lot of this vaccine.”
There is currently no indication that vaccination has caused these events and the actions these countries have taken is out of an abundance of caution. We will continue watching closely and monitoring every dose of the vaccine in Alberta. (4/4)
COVIShield, the version of the vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India that’s considered equivalent to AstraZeneca’s by Health Canada, is not linked to the potential side-effect issues under investigation in Europe.
In an email to CBC News, an AstraZeneca spokesperson confirmed that different batches are used in Canada than the ones in Europe.
“It’s yet another example of the system investigating if there’s any hint of a safety issue,” Dr. Michael Gardam, an infectious disease physician and senior medical advisor for Health PEI, said of the process underway in Europe. “This happens every day with every new medication or every new vaccine. It’s just normally the world’s not watching it.”
WATCH | Dr. Isaac Bogoch, infectious disease specialist, talks about Denmark’s decision:
There’s no reason to be overly worried after Denmark said it was temporarily stopping inoculations with the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to investigate a small number of blood clots, says infectious disease specialist Dr. Isaac Bogoch. 2:16
That wasn’t the only vaccine news out of Europe on Thursday — European Medicines Agency has recommended that Johnson & Johnson’s one-dose coronavirus vaccine be licensed in the EU.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the J&J shot in late February and Canadian regulators gave the OK for the one-dose shot in early March. Health experts hope that having a one-dose vaccine will speed efforts to immunize the world against the novel coronavirus, especially given the arrival of worrying new variants in recent months.
The EU has struggled to quickly roll out shots and immunize its most vulnerable citizens.
In the Asia-Pacific region, Cambodia reported its first death from the coronavirus on Thursday amid its biggest outbreak so far.
India reported its worst single-day increase in COVID-19 cases since late December on Thursday, as the western state of Maharashtra battled a fresh wave of infections and imposed a lockdown in one of its most densely populated cities.
A total of 22,854 new coronavirus cases were reported in the last 24 hours, the health ministry said. It was the highest daily rise since Dec. 25, according to a Reuters tally.
India’s overall caseload of more than 11.2 million — the world’s biggest outside the United States — had been falling steadily since a peak in late September, but increased public gatherings and travel are causing a surge at a time when a majority of Indians have yet to be vaccinated.
The figures are still well below September’s peak of more than 90,000 a day.
WATCH | CBC’s Salimah Shivji reports on the big spike in India’s COVID-19 cases:
The CBC’s Salimah Shivji reports on the big spike in India’s COVID-19 cases and the difficulties of trying to encourage public health policies to curb the virus. 2:04
South Korea will begin vaccinating elders in long-term care settings against the coronavirus this month after authorities approved the AstraZeneca vaccine for adults 65 years old and older.
The decision by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was based on encouraging data from England and Scotland that the vaccine lowered hospitalizations and death rates in the age group.
South Korea delayed approving the AstraZeneca vaccine for people older than 65 when it began its vaccination campaign last month, citing insufficient laboratory data. But health experts accused the government of risking the safety of people who are most vulnerable to COVID-19.
The KCDC says 376,000 workers and residents older than 65 at long-term care hospitals, nursing homes, mental health facilities and rehab centres will begin receiving the shots this month. About 35 per cent of the country’s COVID-19 deaths in 2020 were linked to long-term care facilities.
In the Middle East, Jordan’s foreign minister is calling for more support with coronavirus vaccines as his country tries to ensure its own citizens as well as hundreds of thousands of refugees, primarily from Syria, are inoculated.
Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told Germany’s Deutsche Welle that Jordan was far short of the number of vaccines it needed, and was trying to procure doses from China and Russia as well as from Western producers.
Jordan has included its massive refugee population in its virus response and is offering them free vaccines. But he says the onus shouldn’t be on Jordan alone. Safadi said “refugees cannot be the responsibility of host countries only; it is a global challenge and therefore the solution has to be global.”
He says Jordan does “appreciate the tremendous support that we got from our partners in Europe and the U.S. and others,” but that now resources are dwindling for refugees.
In Africa, the director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging “continental capacity” to produce COVID-19 vaccines as Africa tries to vaccinate more of its 1.3 billion people. Dr. John Nkengasong told reporters Thursday that at least five African countries appear to have the capacity to produce vaccines. He mentioned South Africa, Senegal, Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt.
He said a meeting is planned for April 12 between the African Union and outside partners to create a “road map” for boosting African capacity to produce COVID-19 vaccines. “It’s so important for us to have that,” he said.
Birgitte Markussen, head of the European Union delegation to the African Union, told the briefing that “efforts will be made to support local production” of vaccines. She said solidarity is important “to make sure no one is left behind” in global efforts to stop the pandemic.
At least 22 of Africa’s 54 countries have received COVID-19 vaccines through the COVAX program. The continent has set a target of vaccinating at least 60 per cent of its people.
In the Americas, new COVID-19 cases continue to fall in North America, but in Latin America infections are still rising, particularly in Brazil where a resurgence has caused record daily deaths.
– From The Associated Press and Reuters, last updated at 2 p.m. ET
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.
