Alberta will need “additional measures” to bring COVID-19 numbers down, the province’s top doctor said Monday as health officials reported 1,735 new cases.
“I will be blunt — so far we are not bending the curve back down,” Dr. Deena Hinshaw told reporters Monday.
“The exact restrictions that are needed — that’s where that question lies,” the province’s chief medical officer of health said, noting that her team will be making recommendations to premier and cabinet in the days ahead.
Alberta reported 16 additional deaths on Monday, bringing its COVID-19 death toll to 631. Hospitalizations have been on the rise, and as of Monday there were 609 people hospitalized and 108 were in intensive care — record highs in the province.
Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi said that if the province doesn’t move, he’ll call a special meeting of city council to talk about measures for their city.
“We are way beyond the time where we even have 24 hours to spare,” Nenshi said Monday. “Decisions have to be made today, they have to be made tomorrow, and we have to work way harder on flattening this curve.”
In Edmonton, Mayor Don Iveson said his city is looking at what it can do on its own.
“We are on a collision course with calamity,” said Iveson, who also urged the province to do more.
What’s happening across Canada
As of 11:15 a.m. ET on Tuesday, Canada’s COVID-19 case count stood at 426,297, with 71,907 of those cases considered active. A CBC News tally of deaths based on provincial reports, regional health information and CBC’s reporting stood at 12,823.
In British Columbia, COVID-19 restrictions were extended to Jan. 8 as the transmission and community spread of the illness remain high.
WATCH | COVID-19 outbreak on B.C. mink farm sparks concern:
Eight employees at a British Columbia mink farm have tested positive for COVID-19 and though health officials don’t know the source of the virus, there is concern after a similar outbreak in Denmark led to hundreds of human cases and the culling of millions of animals. 1:55
That means the holidays will be affected as hosting or visiting people from different households is prohibited with very few exceptions, said Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry.
“We don’t want to be exposing our loved ones to the virus,” she told a news conference.
Saskatchewan health officials reported 274 new cases of COVID-19 and one additional death on Monday, bringing the provincial death toll to 60.
Manitoba reported 325 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday and 12 additional deaths, which pushed the provincial death toll over 400.
Dr. Brent Roussin, the province’s chief public health officer, reiterated his call for people to stay home as much as possible.
“Our case numbers remain too high to sustain — there’s still to much strain on our health-care system,” he said Monday.
Ontario on Tuesday reported 1,676 new cases of COVID-19 and 10 additional deaths, bringing the provincial death toll to 3,808.
Ontario is reporting 1,676 cases of <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/COVID19?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#COVID19</a> and nearly 39,200 tests completed. Locally, there are 588 new cases in Toronto, 349 in Peel and 141 in York Region. There are 1,549 more resolved cases.<br> <br>Today’s numbers will be available at 10:30 a.m. at <a href=”https://t.co/ypmgZcdsmV”>https://t.co/ypmgZcdsmV</a>.
As of Tuesday, the province reported having 794 COVID-19 patients in hospital, with 219 in intensive care units.
The update from Health Minister Christine Elliott comes a day after the province reported 1,925 new cases of COVID-19 — a new daily record.
Quebec on Tuesday reported 1,564 new cases of COVID-19 and 36 additional deaths, bringing the provincial death toll to 7,313.
Hospitalizations increased to 835, with 114 people in intensive care units, according to provincial data.
Speaking Monday, Health Minister Christian Dubé said the province plans to give its first doses of the Pfizer vaccine to about 2,000 people in long-term care homes.
In Atlantic Canada, Prince Edward Island reported no new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, leaving the number of cases in the province at 84. P.E.I. Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Heather Morrison announced four additional cases on Monday, all individuals in their 20s and 30s.
There were no new cases reported in Newfoundland and Labrador. Premier Andrew Furey said on Monday the province would not be rejoining the so-called Atlantic bubble for at least the next month. That means all visitors to the province will be required to self-isolate for 14 days whether they’re from Atlantic Canada or not.
There were no new cases reported on Monday in the Northwest Territories.
WATCH | COVID-19’s burden on health care extends outside hospitals:
COVID-19 isn’t just putting pressure on emergency rooms and ICUs. Family doctors are faced with diagnosing and treating patients using telemedicine instead of in person. They’re feeling the strain, and that pressure ends up impacting other parts of the health-care system. 1:54
What’s happening around the world
From The Associated Press and Reuters, last updated at 9:10 a.m. ET
As of early Tuesday morning, there were more than 67.7 million cases of COVID-19 reported worldwide, with more than 43.6 million of those considered recovered or resolved, according to a coronavirus tracking tool maintained by Johns Hopkins University. The global death toll stood at more than 1.5 million.
In Europe, a retired British shop clerk received the first shot in the country’s COVID-19 vaccination program Tuesday, the start of an unprecedented global immunization effort intended to offer a route out of a pandemic that has killed 1.5 million.
Margaret Keenan, who turns 91 next week, got the shot at 6:31 a.m. local time on what public health officials have dubbed “V-Day.” She was first in line at University Hospital Coventry, one of several hospitals around the country that are handling the initial phase of the United Kingdom’s program. As luck would have it, the second injection went to a man named William Shakespeare, an 81-year-old who hails from Warwickshire, the county where the Bard was born.
“I feel so privileged to be the first person vaccinated against COVID-19,” said Keenan, who wore a surgical mask and a blue Merry Christmas T-shirt decorated with a cartoon penguin wearing a Santa hat. “It’s the best early birthday present I could wish for, because it means I can finally look forward to spending time with my family and friends in the New Year after being on my own for most of the year.”
The U.K. is the first Western country to start a mass vaccination program after British regulators last week authorized the use of a COVID-19 shot developed by U.S. drugmaker Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech. U.S. and European Union regulators may approve the vaccine in coming days, fueling a global immunization effort.
WATCH | British woman, 90, first to receive Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine:
Margaret Keenan has kicked off a global vaccination effort by receiving the first shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in Coventry, England. ‘Hopefully it will help other people to come along and do as I did,’ she said. 0:48
Britain has received 800,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, enough to vaccinate 400,000 people. The first shots will go to people over 80 who are either hospitalized or already have outpatient appointments scheduled, along with nursing home workers and vaccination staff. Others will have to wait their turn.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she expects the first coronavirus vaccine to become available in the country early next year. The European Medicines Agency set a meeting to discuss approval for the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine for Dec. 29.
In a Monday interview with Metropol FM, a Berlin radio station aimed at Germany’s Turkish community, Merkel said the vaccine “will probably be available and approved in Europe from the beginning of 2021, according to everything we now know.”
People wearing face masks to curb the spread of COVID-19 stroll along a shopping street decorated for Christmas in downtown Rome on Monday. (Andrew Medichini/The Associated Press)
Meanwhile, in Switzerland, the national rail operator said nearly all train travel between Italy and Switzerland will be suspended indefinitely starting Thursday due to COVID-19 control measures that have been required by Italian authorities.
The railway standstill could affect many cross-border workers, particularly in the health-care sector, who travel from Italy to southern Switzerland every day.
Switzerland has recorded high levels of coronavirus transmission but hasn’t enacted strict control measures.
In the Asia-Pacific region, authorities have ordered mass coronavirus testing and locked down some locations in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu following the detection of two new virus cases there.
In Pakistan, officials reported 89 new coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours, one of the highest single day totals since the pandemic began. Also Tuesday it reported another 2,885 infections in the last 24 hours. The country’s tally of COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began is 423,179, with 8,487 deaths.
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam says social distancing measures will be tightened as cases of the coronavirus continue to surge, with a ban on nighttime dining and more businesses ordered to close.
Lam said at a regular news conference Tuesday that there will be a ban on dine-in services at restaurants after 6 p.m., and venues such as massage parlours, beauty salons and gyms will be closed temporarily. She did not specify when the measures will take effect.
A health worker wearing a hazmat suit walks in a public basketball court being used as a makeshift COVID-19 coronavirus testing centre in Hong Kong on Tuesday. (Anthony Wallace/AFP/Getty Images)
“We all need to be mentally prepared about more measures to be rolled out,” Lam said, adding that there was “no choice” given the current virus situation in the city.
Hong Kong is grappling with the latest surge of coronavirus infections, with nearly 1,200 new cases in the last two weeks after a three-month lull.
In the Americas, the U.S. Congress will vote this week on a one-week stopgap funding bill to provide more time for lawmakers to reach a deal on COVID-19 relief and an overarching spending bill to avoid a government shutdown.
Case numbers are on the rise in the U.S., prompting dire warning from some politicians and health officials. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf warned Monday that the coronavirus is running rampant throughout the state and could soon force overwhelmed hospitals to begin turning away patients.
Wolf called it a “dangerous, disturbing scenario” that will become reality if people don’t take steps to slow the spread. He said additional pandemic restrictions might be on the way but did not elaborate on what his administration might be considering while also acknowledging the ones already in place have not worked.
Health-care workers conduct COVID-19 testing at a drive-thru site in Butler, Pa., last week. The state is facing a steep increase in cases, prompting words of warning from the governor. (Keith Srakocic/The Associated Press)
Wolf said the unchecked spread of the virus in all regions of the state means that resource-sharing agreements among hospitals could soon begin to break down and force them to begin rationing care.
In Brazil, the president said COVID-19 vaccines will be offered for free to all citizens, as his government entered advanced talks to buy 70 million doses from Pfizer.
In the Middle East, Yemen is “on the edge of a precipice” after years of civil war, a senior UN official warned on Monday, with millions of children suffering from malnutrition and facing the risk of famine. Ted Chaiban sounded the alarm about the worsening humanitarian situation as the United Nations Children’s Fund launched an appeal for a record $2.5 billion in emergency funds from global donors.
As UNICEF’s director for the Middle East and North Africa, Chaiban oversees an effort to assist children and families in a region hit hard by conflict, natural disaster and the coronavirus crisis. With some 39 million children in need of assistance, the Middle East alone accounts for 40 per cent of the agency’s $6 billion global appeal.
South Africa remained the hardest hit nation in Africa, with nearly 818,000 reported cases of COVID-19 and more than 22,000 deaths.
EDMONTON – Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his career as the New Jersey Devils closed out their Western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.
Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored for the Devils (8-5-2) who have won three of their last four on the heels on a four-game losing skid.
The Oilers (6-6-1) had their modest two-game winning streak snapped.
Calvin Pickard made 13 stops between the pipes for Edmonton.
TAKEAWAYS
Devils: In addition to his goal, Bratt picked up his 12th assist of the young season to give him nine points in his last eight games and now 15 points overall. Nico Hischier remains in the team lead, picking up an assist of his own to give him 16 points for the campaign. He has a point in all but four games this season.
Oilers: Forward Leon Draisaitl was held pointless after recording six points in his previous two games and nine points in his previous four. Draisaitl usually has strong showings against the Devils, coming into the contest with an eight-game point streak against New Jersey and 11 goals in 17 games.
KEY MOMENT
New Jersey took a 2-0 lead on the power play with 3:26 remaining in the second period as Hischier made a nice feed into the slot to Bratt, who wired his third of the season past Pickard.
KEY RETURN?
Oilers star forward and captain Connor McDavid took part in the optional morning skate for the Oilers, leading to hopes that he may be back sooner rather than later. McDavid has been expected to be out for two to three weeks with an ankle injury suffered during the first shift of last Monday’s loss in Columbus.
OILERS DEAL FOR D-MAN
The Oilers have acquired defenceman Ronnie Attard from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenceman Ben Gleason.
The 6-foot-3 Attard has spent the past three season in the Flyers organization seeing action in 29 career games. The 25-year-old right-shot defender and Western Michigan University grad was originally selected by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Attard will report to the Oilers’ AHL affiliate in Bakersfield.
UP NEXT
Devils: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.
Oilers: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Patrick Mahomes threw for 291 yards and three touchdowns, and Kareem Hunt pounded into the end zone from two yards out in overtime to give the unbeaten Kansas City Chiefs a 30-24 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night.
DeAndre Hopkins had two touchdown receptions for the Chiefs (8-0), who drove through the rain for two fourth-quarter scores to take a 24-17 lead with 4:17 left. But then Kansas City watched as Baker Mayfield led the Bucs the other way in the final minute, hitting Ryan Miller in the end zone with 27 seconds to go in regulation time.
Tampa Bay (4-5) elected to kick the extra point and force overtime, rather than go for a two-point conversion and the win. And it cost the Buccaneers when Mayfield called tails and the coin flip was heads. Mahomes and the Chiefs took the ball, he was 5-for-5 passing on their drive in overtime, and Hunt finished his 106-yard rushing day with the deciding TD plunge.
Travis Kelce had 14 catches for 100 yards with girlfriend Taylor Swift watching from a suite, and Hopkins finished with eight catches for 86 yards as the Chiefs ran their winning streak to 14 dating to last season. They became the sixth Super Bowl champion to start 8-0 the following season.
Mayfield finished with 200 yards and two TDs passing for the Bucs, who have lost four of their last five.
It was a memorable first half for two players who had been waiting to play in Arrowhead Stadium.
The Bucs’ Rachaad White grew up about 10 minutes away in a tough part of Kansas City, but his family could never afford a ticket for him to see a game. He wound up on a circuitous path through Division II Nebraska-Kearney and a California junior college to Arizona State, where he eventually became of a third-round pick of Tampa Bay in the 2022 draft.
Two year later, White finally got into Arrowhead — and the end zone. He punctuated his seven-yard scoring run in the second quarter, which gave the Bucs a 7-3 lead, by nearly tossing the football into the second deck.
Then it was Hopkins’ turn in his first home game since arriving in Kansas City from a trade with the Titans.
The three-time All-Pro, who already had caught four passes, reeled in a third-down heave from Mahomes amid triple coverage for a 35-yard gain inside the Tampa Bay five-yard line. Three plays later, Mahomes found him in the back of the end zone, and Hopkins celebrated his first TD with the Chiefs with a dance from “Remember the Titans.”
Tampa Bay tried to seize control with consecutive scoring drives to start the second half. The first ended with a TD pass to Cade Otton, the latest tight end to shred the Chiefs, and Chase McLaughlin’s 47-yard field goal gave the Bucs a 17-10 lead.
The Chiefs answered in the fourth quarter. Mahomes marched them through the rain 70 yards for a tying touchdown pass, which he delivered to Samaje Perine while landing awkwardly and tweaking his left ankle, and then threw a laser to Hopkins on third-and-goal from the Buccaneers’ five-yard line to give Kansas City the lead.
Tampa Bay promptly went three-and-out, but its defence got the ball right back, and this time Mayfield calmly led his team down field. His capped the drive with a touchdown throw to Miller — his first career TD catch — with 27 seconds to go, and Tampa Bay elected to play for overtime.
UP NEXT
Buccaneers: Host the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Darcy Kuemper made 16 saves for his first shutout of the season and 32nd overall, helping the Los Angeles Kings beat the Nashville Predators 3-0 on Monday night.
Adrian Kempe had a goal and an assist and Anze Kopitar and Kevin Fiala also scored. The Kings have won two of their last three.
Juuse Saros made 24 saves for the Predators. They are 1-2-1 in their last four.
Kopitar opened the scoring with 6:36 remaining in the opening period. Saros denied the Kings captain’s first shot, but Kopitar collected the rebound below the goal line and banked it off the netminder’s skate.
Fiala, a former Predator, made it 2-0 35 seconds into the third.
The Kings held Nashville to just three third-period shots on goal, the first coming with 3:55 remaining and Saros pulled for an extra attacker.
Elsewhere in the NHL on Monday:
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DEVILS 3 OILERS 0
EDMONTON, Alta. (AP) — Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his NHL career, helping the New Jersey Devils close their western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers.
Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored. The Devils improved to 8-5-2. They have won three of their last four after a four-game skid.
Calvin Pickard made 13 saves for Edmonton. The Oilers had won two straight.
