In the delta-powered fourth wave, the U.S. is projected to see nearly 100,000 more COVID-19 deaths between now and Dec. 1, according to modelling figures released Thursday by the nation’s most closely watched forecaster. But health experts say that toll could be cut in half if nearly everyone wore a mask in public spaces.
“Behaviour is really going to determine if, when and how sustainably the current wave subsides,” said Lauren Ancel Meyers, director of the University of Texas COVID-19 Modelling Consortium. “We cannot stop delta in its tracks, but we can change our behaviour overnight.”
Halfway around the world, the delta variant was spreading quickly across the continent of Africa. While COVID-19 vaccinations there tripled over the past week, protecting even 10 per cent of the continent by the end of September remains “a very daunting task,” the Africa director of the World Health Organization (WHO) said Thursday.
Meanwhile, the continent reported 248,000 new confirmed cases over the past week, with at least 24 countries seeing a surge in infections driven by the delta variant.
“This is a preventable tragedy if African countries can get fair access to the vaccines,” Dr. Matshidiso Moeti told reporters.
The brutal resurgence of the coronavirus in Africa, driven by the delta variant, is further stretching already strained health systems across the continent. As African countries struggle, the United States and other high-income countries are exploring the idea of recommending booster shots.
WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus recently said it was “unconscionable” that some countries are now offering booster shots “while so many people remain unprotected.”
“I think it is very difficult for us to talk about booster doses in Africa,” Moeti said Thursday. “We have not covered even five per cent of the population yet with the initial vaccinations that are needed to slow down the spread of the virus and, most importantly, stop what we think might be a fourth wave, which is coming.”
-From The Associated Press, last updated at 12:05 p.m. ET
What’s happening across Canada
WATCH | Waning immunity sparks debate about need for COVID-19 booster shots:
Waning immunity sparks debate about need for COVID-19 booster shots
21 hours ago
Recent studies show a drop in effectiveness for COVID-19 vaccines, but the lack of information about how severe breakthrough cases were has sparked a debate about whether booster shots are necessary. 2:03
What’s happening around the world
Ivan Fischer, founder of Budapest’s Festival Orchestra, receives his third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as he conducts the orchestra during a free concert in Budapest, Hungary, on Wednesday. (Laszlo Balogh/The Associated Press)
As of early Thursday evening, more than 214.3 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University’s COVID-19 tracking tool. The reported global death toll stood at more than 4.4 million.
In Europe, a Hungarian orchestra conductor received a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot onstage during a free open-air concert in Budapest on Wednesday as part of an effort to encourage people to get vaccinated.
Workers at public hospitals in Greece were holding a five-hour work stoppage on Thursday to protest a government decision making vaccination against COVID-19 mandatory for all health-care workers in the public and private sectors. About 300 hospital workers rallied outside the Health Ministry in Athens to protest the measure, which goes into effect on Sept. 1. The government has made clear that no extension will be granted.
COVID-19 vaccines are freely available in Greece to anyone over the age of 12. Vaccination is not mandatory except for those in the health-care sector, but on Tuesday the government announced new testing requirements and restrictions on access to various venues for people who are unvaccinated.
In France, Prime Minister Jean Castex has announced plans to give COVID-19 booster shots to people over age 65 and those living in nursing homes starting next month.
In the Middle East, Iran’s health officials reported 665 additional deaths on Wednesday, a day after reporting a record high of 709 COVID-19 related deaths in 24 hours.
In the Americas, General Motors Co. said on Thursday it would require all U.S. salaried employees to report if they have received COVID-19 vaccinations, as companies navigate through how and when to reopen offices amid rising cases of the delta variant.
The Arkansas medical board has opened an investigation following reports that inmates at a county jail were prescribed an anti-parasitic drug to combat COVID-19 even though it hasn’t been approved to treat the coronavirus.
Washington County’s sheriff confirmed Tuesday night that inmates were prescribed ivermectin, but did not say how many. The Food and Drug Administration has not approved its use in treating or preventing COVID-19. The jail’s physician has said no inmates were forced to take the drug.
In Illinois, health-care workers and educators from kindergarten through college will be required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit to weekly testing, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Thursday in announcing new safety protocols that also include a fresh statewide mandate for masks to be worn indoors.
In the state of New Mexiso, top health officials are warning that the state is about a week away from having to ration medical care as coronavirus infections continue to climb.
Today’s COVID-19 Update: 770 new cases today, 5 deaths and 433 hospitalized. Vaccinate against the virus and stay masked up to prevent more new cases. More details from today’s report at <a href=”https://t.co/VlCApRsSc7″>https://t.co/VlCApRsSc7</a> <a href=”https://t.co/bwfa7VMXlh”>pic.twitter.com/bwfa7VMXlh</a>
In the Asia-Pacific region, Moderna Inc. said it has withheld supply of about 1.63 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine in Japan after a report of contamination of vials with particulate matter, which it suspects involves a production line in Spain.
New Zealand has reported 68 new community cases of the coronavirus, the largest daily increase since April of last year as an outbreak of the delta variant continues to grow. The government put the nation into a strict lockdown last week as it tries to stamp out the outbreak, which has grown to a total of 277 infections.
-From The Associated Press, Reuters and CBC News, last updated at 5:30 p.m. ET
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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.
