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
TORONTO – Will Taylor Swift bring chaos or do we all need to calm down?
It’s a question many Torontonians are asking this week as the city braces for the arrival of Swifties, the massive fan base of one of the world’s biggest pop stars.
Hundreds of thousands are expected to descend on the downtown core for the singer’s six concerts which kick off Thursday at the Rogers Centre and run until Nov. 23.
And while their arrival will be a boon to tourism dollars — the city estimates more than $282 million in economic impact — some worry it could worsen Toronto’s gridlock by clogging streets that already come to a standstill during rush hour.
Swift’s shows are set to collide with sports events at the nearby Scotiabank Arena, including a Raptors game on Friday and a Leafs game on Saturday.
Some residents and local businesses have already adjusted their plans to avoid the area and its planned road closures.
Aahil Dayani says he and some friends intended to throw a birthday bash for one of their pals until they realized it would overlap with the concerts.
“Something as simple as getting together and having dinner is now thrown out the window,” he said.
Dayani says the group rescheduled the gathering for after Swift leaves town. In the meantime, he plans to hunker down at his Toronto residence.
“Her coming into town has kind of changed up my social life,” he added.
“We’re pretty much just not doing anything.”
Max Sinclair, chief executive and founder of A.I. technology firm Ecomtent, suggested his employees avoid the company’s downtown offices on concert days, saying he doesn’t see the point in forcing people to endure potential traffic jams.
“It’s going to be less productive for us, and it’s going to be just a pain for everyone, so it’s easier to avoid it,” Sinclair said.
“We’re a hybrid company, so we can be flexible. It just makes sense.”
Swift’s concerts are the latest pop culture moment to draw attention to Toronto’s notoriously disastrous daily commute.
In June, One Direction singer Niall Horan uploaded a social media video of himself walking through traffic to reach the venue for his concert.
“Traffic’s too bad in Toronto, so we’re walking to the venue,” he wrote in the post.
Toronto Transit Commission spokesperson Stuart Green says the public agency has been working for more than a year on plans to ease the pressure of so many Swifties in one confined area.
“We are preparing for something that would be akin to maybe the Beatles coming in the ‘60s,” he said.
Dozens of buses and streetcars have been added to transit routes around the stadium, and the TTC has consulted the city on potential emergency scenarios.
Green will be part of a command centre operated by the City of Toronto and staffed by Toronto police leaders, emergency services and others who have handled massive gatherings including the Raptors’ NBA championship parade in 2019.
“There may be some who will say we’re over-preparing, and that’s fair,” Green said.
“But we know based on what’s happened in other places, better to be over-prepared than under-prepared.”
Metrolinx, the agency for Ontario’s GO Transit system, has also added extra trips and extended hours in some regions to accommodate fans looking to travel home.
A day before Swift’s first performance, the city began clearing out tents belonging to homeless people near the venue. The city said two people were offered space in a shelter.
“As the area around Rogers Centre is expected to receive a high volume of foot traffic in the coming days, this area has been prioritized for outreach work to ensure the safety of individuals in encampments, other residents, businesses and visitors — as is standard for large-scale events,” city spokesperson Russell Baker said in a statement.
Homeless advocate Diana Chan McNally questioned whether money and optics were behind the measure.
“People (in the area) are already in close proximity to concerts, sports games, and other events that generate massive amounts of traffic — that’s nothing new,” she said in a statement.
“If people were offered and willingly accepted a shelter space, free of coercion, I support that fully — that’s how it should happen.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Hundreds of Taylor Swift fans lined up outside the gates of Toronto’s Rogers Centre Wednesday, with hopes of snagging some of the pop star’s merchandise on the eve of the first of her six sold-out shows in the city.
Swift is slated to perform at the venue from Thursday to Saturday, and the following week from Nov. 21 to Nov. 23, with concert merchandise available for sale on some non-show days.
Swifties were all smiles as they left the merch shop, their arms full of sweaters and posters bearing pictures of the star and her Eras Tour logo.
Among them was Zoe Haronitis, 22, who said she waited in line for about two hours to get $300 worth of merchandise, including some apparel for her friends.
Haronitis endured the autumn cold and the hefty price tag even though she hasn’t secured a concert ticket. She said she’s hunting down a resale ticket and plans to spend up to $600.
“I haven’t really budgeted anything,” Haronitis said. “I don’t care how much money I spent. That was kind of my mindset.”
The megastar’s merchandise costs up to $115 for a sweater, and $30 for tote bags and other accessories.
Rachel Renwick, 28, also waited a couple of hours in line for merchandise, but only spent about $70 after learning that a coveted blue sweater and a crewneck had been snatched up by other eager fans before she got to the shop. She had been prepared to spend much more, she said.
“The two prized items sold out. I think a lot more damage would have been done,” Renwick said, adding she’s still determined to buy a sweater at a later date.
Renwick estimated she’s spent about $500 in total on “all-things Eras Tour,” including her concert outfit and merchandise.
The long queue for Swift merch is just a snapshot of what the city will see in the coming days. It’s estimated that up to 500,000 visitors from outside Toronto will be in town during the concert period.
Tens of thousands more are also expected to attend Taylgate’24, an unofficial Swiftie fan event scheduled to be held at the nearby Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
Meanwhile, Destination Toronto has said it anticipates the economic impact of the Eras Tour could grow to $282 million as the money continues to circulate.
But for fans like Haronitis, the experience in Toronto comes down to the Swiftie community. Knowing that Swift is going to be in the city for six shows and seeing hundreds gather just for merchandise is “awesome,” she said.
Even though Haronitis hasn’t officially bought her ticket yet, she said she’s excited to see the megastar.
“It’s literally incredible.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.
OTTAWA – Via Rail is asking for a judicial review on the reasons why Canadian National Railway Co. has imposed speed restrictions on its new passenger trains.
The Crown corporation says it is seeking the review from the Federal Court after many attempts at dialogue with the company did not yield valid reasoning for the change.
It says the restrictions imposed last month are causing daily delays on Via Rail’s Québec City-Windsor corridor, affecting thousands of passengers and damaging Via Rail’s reputation with travellers.
CN says in a statement that it imposed the restrictions at rail crossings given the industry’s experience and known risks associated with similar trains.
The company says Via has asked the courts to weigh in even though Via has agreed to buy the equipment needed to permanently fix the issues.
Via said in October that no incidents at level crossings have been reported in the two years since it put 16 Siemens Venture trains into operation.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.
