Indonesia facing surge in COVID-19 cases, preparing for more hospitalizations.
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Britain’s government says it is scrapping rules for self-isolation for those who are fully vaccinated starting mid-August, as the country prepares to lift most remaining coronavirus restrictions.
Currently, people who are notified they’ve come into close contact with someone who tested positive must enter self-isolation for 10 days. Health Secretary Sajid Javid says this rule no longer applies starting Aug. 16 to anyone who has received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Young people under 18 years old will no longer need to isolate unless they test positive — a change that will come as a big relief for families with schoolchildren who have had to repeatedly isolate and miss school because of reported cases in their classes.
Javid said those who have come into close contact with an infected person will instead be advised to take a test as soon as possible. Officials are looking into removing the need for isolation after travelling abroad for fully vaccinated people, he said.
“Step by step, jab by jab, we’re replacing the temporary protection of restrictions with the long-term protection of vaccines,” he said.
Britain on Monday announced plans to scrap laws requiring face masks and physical distancing on July 19.
Javid, appointed late last month after Matt Hancock quit as health minister, has underlined the importance of other health issues, economic problems and education challenges that have built up during the pandemic.
“We can’t live in a world where the only thing that we are thinking about is COVID — and not about all the other health problems, our economic problems, our education challenges,” Javid told Sky News. “We have to make use of a vaccine that is thankfully working.”
Critics say Johnson and Javid have abandoned a pledge to take a cautious approach to lifting restrictions.
Javid said that by the time restrictions are lifted on July 19, there could be 50,000 COVID-19 cases a day — double current rates — and that cases “could go as high as 100,000.”
-From Reuters and The Associated Press, last updated at 9:40 a.m. ET
Canadian citizens and permanent residents returning from international travel no longer have to quarantine for 14 days if it’s been over two weeks since their second dose and their vaccines are approved by Health Canada. 1:58
As of 12:55 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Canada had reported 1,417,992 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 5,694 considered active. A CBC News tally of deaths stood at 26,377. More than 39.9 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered so far across the country.
In Quebec, health officials reported no additional deaths on Tuesday and 67 new cases of COVID-19.
Ontario, meanwhile, reported nine additional deaths on Tuesday and 244 cases of COVID-19, though Health Minister Christine Elliott noted 164 of the cases were new.
In Atlantic Canada on Tuesday, Nova Scotia reported seven new cases of COVID-19, while there were no new cases reported in New Brunswick,Prince Edward Island or Newfoundland and Labrador.
Across the North on Tuesday, there were no new cases reported in Nunavut. Health officials in the Northwest Territories and Yukon, which is dealing with an increase in COVID-19 numbers, had not yet reported updates for the day.
In the Prairies on Monday, Manitoba reported one additional death and 65 new cases of COVID-19. Saskatchewan, meanwhile, reported no additional deaths and 20 new cases of COVID-19.
In Alberta, health officials on Monday reported two additional deaths and 139 new cases since Friday.
British Columbia saw three deaths since Friday and 87 new cases of COVID-19.
-From CBC News and The Canadian Press, last updated at 12:55 p.m. ET
What’s happening around the world
WATCH | ‘Premature’ for countries to drop COVID-19 restrictions, says WHO official:
It’s ‘premature’ of countries to drop COVID-19 health restrictions and try to rush back to normal, said Dr. Michael Ryan, head of the emergencies program for the World Health Organization. (The Associated Press) 0:38
As of early Tuesday morning, more than 184.1 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported around the world, according to a tracker from Johns Hopkins University. The reported global death toll stood at more than 3.9 million.
In the Middle East, Israel will deliver about 700,000 expiring doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine to South Korea this month, and South Korea will give Israel back the same number, already on order from Pfizer, in September and October.
In the Americas, Pfizer will reduce deliveries of its COVID-19 vaccine to Mexico for two weeks due to renovations at a Pfizer plant in the United States, Mexican deputy health minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell said on Tuesday.
Brazil’s government extended its emergency cash transfer program to poor families during the pandemic for another three months from August.
Doctors prepare syringes with the Sinovac coronavirus vaccine at a makeshift mass vaccination clinic on a football field in Surabaya, East Java, on Tuesday as the nation battles an unprecedented wave of new infections. (Juni Kriswanto/AFP/Getty Images)
In the Asia-Pacific region, Indonesia has prepared backup medical facilities for a worst-case scenario where daily infections reach 40,000 to 50,000, a senior official said, as the country battles its fastest-spreading outbreak.
Struggling to contain an outbreak of the highly transmissible delta variant, Fiji reported a record 636 infections and six deaths on Tuesday, with the mortuary at the Pacific island’s main hospital filled to capacity.
The premier of Australia’s New South Wales state said she aims to decide within the next 24 hours whether to extend a COVID-19 lockdown in Sydney.
In Europe, Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel is in serious but stable condition after contracting COVID-19 and will remain in hospital for the time being, the government said.
A health-care worker prepares a dose of Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination centre in Moscow late last week. (Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP/Getty Images)
Coronavirus deaths in Russia have hit another daily record, with authorities reporting 737 more fatalities amid a rapid rise in infections. Russia’s coronavirus task force on Tuesday reported 23,378 new coronavirus cases. The daily tally of confirmed infections has more than doubled in the past month, soaring from around 9,000 in early June to over 23,000 this week.
Despite the surge, the Kremlin has said there are no plans to impose another lockdown. Russia had one nationwide lockdown in the spring of 2020 that lasted six weeks, and the government has since resisted shutting down businesses.
The coronavirus task force has reported over 5.6 million confirmed coronavirus cases and a total of 139,316 deaths in the pandemic. The actual mortality rate is believed to be higher.
In Africa, South Africa reported 12,513 new cases of COVID-19 and 331 additional deaths. The country is currently in a lockdown as it tries to slow transmission of the virus.
-From The Associated Press, Reuters and CBC News, last updated at 9:35 a.m. ET
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FREDERICTON – New Brunswick’s finance minister says the province recorded a surplus of $500.8 million for the fiscal year that ended in March.
Ernie Steeves says the amount — more than 10 times higher than the province’s original $40.3-million budget projection for the 2023-24 fiscal year — was largely the result of a strong economy and population growth.
The report of a big surplus comes as the province prepares for an election campaign, which will officially start on Thursday and end with a vote on Oct. 21.
Steeves says growth of the surplus was fed by revenue from the Harmonized Sales Tax and federal money, especially for health-care funding.
Progressive Conservative Premier Blaine Higgs has promised to reduce the HST by two percentage points to 13 per cent if the party is elected to govern next month.
Meanwhile, the province’s net debt, according to the audited consolidated financial statements, has dropped from $12.3 billion in 2022-23 to $11.8 billion in the most recent fiscal year.
Liberal critic René Legacy says having a stronger balance sheet does not eliminate issues in health care, housing and education.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
HALIFAX – Some Halifax-area landlords say fixed-term leases allow property owners to recoup operating costs they otherwise can’t under Nova Scotia’s rent cap.
Their comments to a legislative committee today are in reaction to plans by the government to extend the five per cent cap on rental increases to the end of 2027.
But opposition parties and housing activists say the bill’s failure to address fixed-term leases has created a loophole that allows large corporate landlords to boost rents past five per cent for new tenants.
But smaller landlords told a committee today that they too benefit from fixed-term leases, which they said help them from losing money on their investment.
Jenna Ross, of Halifax-based Happy Place Property Management, says her company started implementing those types of leases “because of the rent cap.”
Landlord Yarviv Gadish called the use of fixed-term leases “absolutely essential” in order to keep his apartments presentable and to get a return on his investment.
Unlike a periodic lease, a fixed-term lease does not automatically renew beyond its set end date. The provincial rent cap covers periodic leases and situations in which a landlord signs a new fixed-term lease with the same tenant.
However, there is no rule preventing a landlord from raising the rent as much as they want after the term of a fixed lease expires — as long as they lease to someone new.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
OTTAWA – Former vice-admiral Haydn Edmundson has been found not guilty of sexual assault and committing an indecent act, concluding a trial that began in February.
Edmundson was head of the military’s personnel in 2021 when he was accused of assaulting another member of the navy during a 1991 deployment.
The complainant, Stephanie Viau, testified during the trial that she was 19 years old and in the navy’s lowest rank at the time of the alleged assault, while Edmundson was an older officer.
Edmundson pleaded not guilty and testified that he never had sexual contact with Viau.
In court on Monday, a small group of his supporters gasped when the verdict was read, and Edmundson shook his lawyer’s hand.
Outside court, lawyer Brian Greenspan said his client was gratified by the “clear, decisive vindication of his steadfast position that he was not guilty of these false accusations.”
Justice Matthew Webber read his entire decision to the court Monday, concluding that the Crown did not meet the standard of proving its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
He cited concerns with the complainant’s memory of what happened more than 30 years ago, and a lack of evidence to corroborate her account.
“There are just too many problems, and I’m not in the business of … declaring what happened. That’s not my job, you know, my job is to just decide whether or not guilt has been proven to the requisite standard, and it hasn’t,” Webber said.
During the trial, Viau testified that one of her responsibilities on board the ship was to wake officers for night watch and other overnight duties, and that she woke Edmundson regularly during that 1991 deployment.
The court has heard conflicting evidence about the wake-up calls.
Viau estimated that she woke Edmundson every second or third night, and she told the court that his behaviour became progressively worse during the deployment.
She testified that he started sleeping naked and that one night she found him completely exposed on top of the sheets.
Viau said she “went berserk,” yelling at him and turning on the lights to wake the other officer sleeping in the top bunk.
That incident was the basis for the indecent act charge.
Webber said he did not believe that Viau could have caused such a disruption on board a navy ship at night without notice from others.
“I conclude that (Viau’s) overall evidence on the allegation that Mr. Edmundson did progressively expose himself to her as being far too compromised to approach proof of those allegations that she has made,” he said in his decision.
Viau alleged that the sexual assault happened a couple of days after her yelling at Edmundson.
She testified at trial that he stopped her in the corridor and called her into his sleeping quarters to talk. Viau said Edmundson kept her from leaving the room, and he sexually assaulted her.
When Edmundson took the stand in his own defence he denied having physical or sexual contact with Viau.
During his testimony, Edmundson also said Viau did not wake him regularly during that deployment because his role as the ship’s navigator kept him on mostly day shifts.
Defence lawyer Brian Greenspan took aim at the Crown’s corroborating witness during cross-examination. The woman, whose name is protected by a court-ordered publication ban, was a friend of Viau’s on the ship.
She testified that she remembered the evening of the assault because she and Viau had been getting ready for a night out during a port visit, and she misplaced her reading glasses. She said Viau offered to go fetch them from another part of the ship but never came back, and that she went looking for her friend.
On cross-examination, the woman explained that she had told all of this to a CBC reporter in early 2021.
Greenspan produced a transcript of that interview that he said suggests the reporter told her key details of Viau’s story before asking her any questions.
Greenspan argued the reporter provided information to the witness and she wouldn’t have been able to corroborate the story otherwise.
In his decision, Webber said the woman’s evidence “cannot be relied upon in any respect to corroborate that evidence of the complainant, because it’s it’s clearly a tainted recollection, doesn’t represent a real memory.”
Edmundson was one of several senior military leaders accused of sexual misconduct in early 2021.
He stepped down from his position as head of military personnel after the accusation against him was made public in 2021. The charges were laid months later, in December 2021.
Edmundson testified that in February 2022, he was directed by the chief of the defence staff to retire from the Armed Forces.
The crisis led to an external review by former Supreme Court justice Louise Arbour in May 2022, whose report called for sweeping changes to reform the toxic culture of the Armed Forces.
The military’s new defence chief, Gen. Jennie Carignan, was promoted to the newly created role of chief of professional conduct and culture in an effort to enact the reforms in the Arbour report.
Outside court, Edmundson declined to comment on whether he was considering legal action against the government or the military.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
