The Omicron variant continued to cause record-breaking COVID-19 numbers of cases in several provinces, but a new study out of Ontario suggested those infected with the variant are significantly less likely to face hospitalization or death compared to those with Delta.
In the study, Public Health Ontario compared Omicron cases with symptoms that emerged between Nov. 22 and Dec. 17 with Delta cases and found that, after adjusting for vaccination status and region, the risk of hospitalization or death was 54 per cent lower with Omicron.
The agency said Omicron appears to be the first dominant variant to show a decline in severity but warned that, due to its higher transmissibility, “the absolute number of hospitalizations and impact on the health-care system is likely to be significant, despite possible reduced severity.”
Provinces across the country have seen surging case counts as a result of Omicron, prompting some to amend or extend health restrictions.
The research institute that reports to the Quebec government said its modelling predicts “significant growth in new hospitalizations and the consequent occupancy of regular and intensive care beds over the next three weeks.”
It said its models show there could be between 1,600 and 2,100 COVID-19 patients outside intensive care units (ICUs) over the next three weeks. The institute said that could include between 300 and 375 ICU patients during that period. The most dire scenarios — 2,100 regular COVID-19 patients and 375 ICU patients — would surpass anything recorded during previous waves of the pandemic.
On Thursday, Quebec announced it is tightening restrictions in the province, bringing back a curfew and banning private indoor gatherings. It also delayed the return to school again until Jan. 17.
British Columbia said it will bring back students in January in a phased approach, with staff and students whose parents are health workers, as well as those who need extra support, returning to class on Jan. 3 or 4. All other students will go back to school on Jan. 10.
-From The Canadian Press and CBC News, last updated at 6 p.m. ET
What’s happening across Canada
For more details on the situation in your province and territory — including the latest on hospitalizations and ICU capacity, as well as struggles with testing capacity — click through to the local coverage below.
People are seen lining up for free COVID-19 rapid tests in Toronto on Tuesday. (Paul Smith/CBC)
As of Dec. 31, PCR tests will only be available to high-risk individuals who have symptoms and/or are at risk of severe illness from COVID-19 — including for the purposes of confirming a COVID-19 diagnosis to begin treatment — as well as workers and residents in the highest risk settings and vulnerable populations.
Moore said Ontario is also changing the required isolation period. Individuals with COVID-19 who are vaccinated, along with children under 12, will now be required to isolate for only five days following the onset of symptoms. Their household contacts are also required to isolate with them. Unvaccinated individuals must isolate for 10 days.
Quebec also saw a fresh high on Thursday, with 14,188 new COVID-19 cases, and nine additional deaths. Premier François Legault announced that, beginning Friday, indoor restaurant dining will be paused and private indoor gatherings will be banned. He also said that the province would bring back a curfew from between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., except for essential workers, along with fines of up to $6,000.
Indoor sports will be banned and people will continue to be encouraged to work from home. Schools, CEGEPs and universities will now reopen on Jan. 17, instead of as planned on Jan. 10.
WATCH | Premier Legault outlines Quebec’s new measures:
Quebec announces strict new measures amid rising Omicron infections
2 hours ago
Duration 2:40
Quebec Premier François Legault on Thursday announced a series of new measures, saying they are necessary to prevent overwhelming the health-care system. The province is reintroducing a curfew, limiting bubbles to one household, closing restaurant dining rooms and places of worship, and delaying school returns to Jan. 17. 2:40
In Atlantic Canada, Prince Edward Island Premier Dennis King outlined assistance measures for people impacted by COVID-19 on Thursday. The premier noted that cases have been rising on the island, but he noted that thus far most cases have been mild.
The update came as the province, which has not yet seen any COVID-19 deaths, reported 169 additional cases.
BREAKING: As of 8AM this morning there are 169 cases of <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/COVID19?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#COVID19</a> in <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/PEI?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#PEI</a>. There are now 3 people in hospital with COVID-19. There are five people in hospital for other reasons who do have COVID. More details to come <a href=”https://twitter.com/CBCPEI?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@CBCPEI</a>
In Newfoundland and Labrador, there were 349 new cases reported Thursday, another record high. Nova Scotia reported 522 new cases and is expanding booster eligibility to anyone 30 and up, beginning Monday, if they are six months out from their second dose.
Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston appealed during a Thursday afternoon briefing to retired health-care officials in the province to volunteer to help at vaccination clinics.
“We do need your skills. And the more people we can get, the quicker we can do this,” he said.
New Brunswick saw another new daily high number of cases Thursday, with 572 reported. There were two additional deaths.
Across the North, Nunavut reported 20 new cases on Thursday.
In the Northwest Territories, officials announced a delay in the return to school until Jan. 10, citing a surge in cases over the holidays. They are also asking that students who received a rapid self-test kit prior to the holidays do the test the day before school starts.
Health officials there said 68 new COVID-19 cases had been reported since Christmas Eve, while Yukon health officials reported 27 new COVID-19 cases in the same period.
In the Prairie provinces, Manitoba reportedanother new high Thursday with 1,123 new cases and three additional deaths, while in Saskatchewan, health officials reported 589 new cases of COVID-19 and four additional deaths.
WATCH | Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe explains why the province is shortening isolation times:
Saskatchewan shortens COVID-19 isolation time to 5 days
6 hours ago
Duration 2:05
Saskatchewan is changing its guidance on COVID-19 testing and isolation times, relying heavily on rapid tests as it monitors the current falling hospitalization rate. 2:05
Alberta saw another huge jump in case numbers, with 4,000 cases reported Thursday after a previously record-setting 2,775 new cases were reported Wednesday.
In British Columbia, health officials reported five additional deaths on Wednesday and 2,944 new cases of COVID-19 — a new high for the province.
-From CBC News and The Canadian Press, last updated at 3:30 p.m. ET
What’s happening around the world
A woman gets tested for COVID-19 in La Paz, Bolivia, on Wednesday. (Claudia Morales/Reuters)
As of Thursday afternoon roughly 285 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University’s coronavirus database, which tracks cases from around the world. The reported global death toll stood at more than 5.4 million.
In the Americas, Bolivia’s main cities cancelled any public activities for New Year’s Eve after the country reached a record 4,939 new cases of COVID-19, the highest number for one day in all the pandemic in the South American country.
The Omicron-fuelled surge that is sending COVID-19 cases skyrocketing in the U.S. is putting children in the hospital in close to record numbers, and experts lament that most are not vaccinated.
“It’s just so heartbreaking,” said Dr. Paul Offit, an infectious-disease expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “It was hard enough last year, but now you know that you have a way to prevent all this.”
During the week of Dec. 21-27, an average of 334 children 17 and under were admitted per day to hospitals with the coronavirus, a 58 per cent increase from the week before, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (CDC)
In the Asia-Pacific region, India is going ahead with a legislative election in its most populous state despite daily COVID-19 infections more than doubling nationwide within a week. India reported 13,154 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, a jump from 6,000 daily cases on Dec. 24.
The Chinese city of Xi’an reported on Thursday another 155 local cases, taking the total number to the highest seen in any Chinese city this year, as infections keep spreading eight days into a lockdown.
In Europe, the U.K. reported a sharp increase in coronavirus-related deaths Thursday — 332 — as the National Health Service announced it was building temporary structures at hospitals in England to prepare for a possible surge of patients infected with the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
The number of people hospitalized in the U.K. with COVID-19 jumped to 11,898, up 44 per cent from a week earlier.
Residents and tourists in Paris will be required to wear masks outdoors starting Friday as France sees a surge of COVID-19 infections fuelled by the Omicron variant. Masks already are mandatory in shops, public facilities and office buildings and on public transportation in France
People wear face masks to curb the spread of COVID-19 as they ice skate at a funfair in Paris on Wednesday. (Thibault Camus/The Associated Press)
The Paris police prefecture said the mask rule will apply to people 12 and over, although individuals will be exempt while riding bicycles or motorcycles, travelling in vehicles and doing exercise.Those who do not comply face a fine.
France reported 206,243 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday.
In the Middle East, the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday reported 2,234 new cases of COVID-19, with no additional deaths.
-From The Associated Press, Reuters and CBC News, last updated at 2:45 p.m. ET
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LANGLEY, B.C. – Police in Langley, B.C., say one person is dead in a crash between a car and a motorcycle on Highway 1 that shut down the route for hours.
Mounties say their initial investigation indicates both vehicles were travelling east when they collided shortly before 4:20 a.m. near 240 Street on the highway.
The motorcycle rider died from their injuries.
Highway 1 was closed for a long stretch through Langley for about 11 hours while police investigated.
RCMP say their integrated collision analysis reconstruction team went to the scene.
The Mounties are asking anyone who witnessed the crash or who may have dash-camera footage from the area to call them.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
WINNIPEG – A court has been asked to declare Lake Winnipeg a person with constitutional rights to life, liberty and security of person in a case that may go further than any other in trying to establish the rights of nature in Canada.
“It really is that simple,” said Grand Chief Jerry Daniels of the Manitoba Southern Chiefs’ Organization, which filed the suit Thursday in Court of King’s Bench in Winnipeg.
“The lake has its own rights. The lake is a living being.”
The argument is being used to help force the provincial government to conduct an environmental assessment of how Manitoba Hydro regulates lake levels for power generation. Those licences come up for renewal in August 2026, and the chiefs argue that the process under which those licences were granted was outdated and inadequate.
They quote Manitoba’s Clean Environment Commission, which said in 2015 that the licences were granted on the basis of poor science, poor consultation and poor public accountability.
Meanwhile, the statement of claim says “the (plaintiffs) describe the lake’s current state as being so sick that she is dying.”
It describes a long list of symptoms.
Fish species have disappeared, declined, migrated or become sick and inedible, the lawsuit says. Birds and wildlife including muskrat, beavers, duck, geese, eagles and gulls are vanishing from the lake’s wetlands.
Foods and traditional medicines — weekay, bulrush, cattail, sturgeon and wild rice — are getting harder to find, the document says, and algae blooms and E. coli bacteria levels have increased.
Invasive species including zebra mussels and spiny water fleas are now common, the document says.
“In Anishinaabemowin, the (plaintiffs) refer to the water in Lake Winnipeg as moowaakamiim (the water is full of feces) or wiinaagamin (the water is polluted, dirty and full of garbage),” the lawsuit says.
It blames many of the problems on Manitoba Hydro’s management of the lake waters to prevent it flushing itself clean every year.
“She is unable to go through her natural cleansing cycle and becomes stagnant and struggles to sustain other beings like animals, birds, fish, plants and people,” the document says.
The defendants, Manitoba Hydro and the provincial government, have not filed statements of defence. Both declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Daniels said it makes sense to consider the vast lake — one of the world’s largest — as alive.
“We’re living in an era of reconciliation, there’s huge changes in the mindsets of regular Canadians and science has caught up a lot in understanding. It’s not a huge stretch to understand the lake as a living entity.”
The idea has been around in western science since the 1970s. The Gaia hypothesis, which remains highly disputed, proposed the Earth is a single organism with its own feedback loops that regulate conditions and keep them favourable to life.
The courts already recognize non-human entities such as corporations as persons.
Personhood has also been claimed for two Canadian rivers.
Quebec’s Innu First Nation have claimed that status for the Magpie River, and the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation in Alberta is seeking standing for the Athabasca River in regulatory hearings. The Magpie’s status hasn’t been tested in court and Alberta’s energy regulator has yet to rule on the Athabasca.
Matt Hulse, a lawyer who argued the Athabasca River should be treated as a person, noted the Manitoba lawsuit quotes the use of “everyone” in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
“The term ‘everyone’ isn’t defined, which could help (the chiefs),” he said.
But the Charter typically focuses on individual rights, Hulse added.
“What they’re asking for is substantive rights to be given to a lake. What does ‘liberty’ mean to a lake?
“Those kinds of cases require a bit of a paradigm shift. I think the Southern Chiefs Organization will face an uphill battle.”
Hulse said the Manitoba case goes further than any he’s aware of in seeking legal rights for a specific environment.
Daniels said he believes the courts and Canadians are ready to recognize humans are not separate from the world in which they live and that the law should recognize that.
“We need to understand our lakes and our environment as something we have to live in cohesion with.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
OTTAWA – MPs on the public safety and national security committee voted unanimously to launch an investigation into an alleged Russian ploy to dupe right-wing influencers into sowing division among Americans.
A U.S. indictment filed earlier this month charged two employees of RT, a Russian state-controlled media outlet, in a US$10-million scheme that purportedly used social media personalities to distribute content with Russian government messaging.
While not explicitly mentioned in court documents, the details match up with Tenet Media, founded by Canadian Lauren Chen and Liam Donovan, who is identified as her husband on social media.
The committee will invite Chen and Donovan to testify on the matter, as well as Lauren Southern, who is among the Tenet cast of personalities.
The motion, which was brought forward by Liberal MP Pam Damoff and passed on Thursday, also seeks to invite civil society representatives and disinformation experts on the matter.
Court documents allege the Russians created a fake investor who provided money to the social media company to hire the influencers, paying the founders significant fees, including through a company account in Canada.
The U.S. Justice Department doesn’t allege any wrongdoing by the influencers.
Following the indictment, YouTube removed several channels associated with Chen, including the Tenet Media channel.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
