Quebec will shut down non-essential businesses for two weeks following Christmas Day in an attempt to slow a surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.
The measure was one of several new public health orders that Premier François Legault announced on Tuesday evening, a day after the first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine were administered in the two hardest-hit provinces in the country.
It also came on the heels of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau revealing Canada is expected to receive 168,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine by the end of December.
WATCH | Will masks, distancing be needed following vaccination? Doctors answer viewer questions:
Infectious disease physicians answer viewer questions about the COVID-19 vaccine, including whether masks and physical distancing will be needed after getting both doses of the vaccine and how we’ll know how long immunity lasts. 10:40
The new restrictions in Quebec include a mandatory work-from-home order, with few exceptions, from Dec. 17 to Jan. 11. The province is also extending the winter break period for elementary schools by one week, to Jan. 11. High schools were already previously scheduled to be on break from Dec. 17 to Jan. 11.
As well, between Dec. 17 and Jan. 11, the province’s yellow zones will be upgraded to orange and orange zones to red, the highest alert level, which means tighter restrictions on restaurant dining rooms, gyms, museums and theatres.
“We want to give ourselves all the chances of breaking this second wave and to start 2021 without hospitals overflowing,” Legault said.
At the same time, the premier announced an easing of other restrictions during that period. Up to eight people will be allowed to gather in outdoor public spaces for physical activities, though outdoor gatherings on private property, no matter how small, will remain banned.
As well, people who live alone, who currently are allowed one visitor at a time, can join one family’s bubble.
Quebec and Ontario both launched their COVID-19 vaccination efforts on Monday while B.C. vaccinated its first resident Tuesday and several other provinces were expected to follow suit.
Gisèle Lévesque, an 89-year-old living in the Saint-Antoine care home, was the first Quebecer to receive a COVID-19 vaccination, Legault announced on Twitter. Quebec deputy premier Genevieve Guilbault later told reporters that Lévesque’s vaccination was the first in Canada.
Ontario’s first dose went to Anita Quidangen, a personal support worker in Toronto.
Ontario on Tuesday reported 2,275 cases of COVID-19, with 711 cases in Toronto and 586 in Peel Region, Health Minister Christine Elliott said.
The province, which reported an additional 20 deaths on Tuesday, said the latest data reflects a 27-hour period for most of Ontario’s public health units because of a change in how the figures are gathered.
WATCH | Ford says lockdowns in Ontario regions are working:
Ontario Premier Doug Ford says the daily high case counts of coronavirus are troubling but would be much worse without the lockdown measures put in place by the province. 0:47
Quebec on Tuesday reported 1,741 new cases of COVID-19, with 39 additional deaths.
Hospitalizations rise in Ontario, Quebec
Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, said Tuesday that the number of people experiencing severe illness “continues to increase.”
“Over the past seven days, there were an average of 3,020 individuals with COVID-19 being treated in Canadian hospitals, including over 600 in critical care.”
Tam urged people to continue to do their part to try to reduce the spread of the disease, even as vaccination efforts get underway.
Many provinces have been facing steep increases in hospitalizations in recent weeks, including hard-hit Ontario and Quebec. As of Tuesday, Quebec reported having 959 COVID-19 patients in hospital, with 125 in intensive care units. Ontario, meanwhile, had 921 COVID-19 patients in hospital, including 249 in ICUs.
What’s happening across Canada
As of 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Canada’s COVID-19 case count stood at 474,214 with 73,511 of those cases considered active. A CBC News tally of deaths based on provincial reports, regional health information and CBC’s reporting stood at 13,659.
WATCH | Clinical allergist answers key questions about vaccine:
Dr. Zainab Abdurrahman, a clinical immunologist and allergist, says only one ingredient in the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine has been known to cause allergic reactions in the past. And the ingredient, polyethylene glycol, is already widely used. The other ingredients are not known to cause allergy. 7:29
Manitoba reported 272 new cases and nine new deaths on Tuesday, hours after the first shipments of the COVID-19 vaccine arrived in the province. The new deaths brought the total COVID-19 death toll in Manitoba to 508.
The Canada Border Services Agency said the initial vaccine doses landed early Tuesday morning. Provincial officials have said Manitoba will receive enough doses to vaccinate about 900 people to start, with the first doses going to health-care workers. The first injections are expected to be given as early as Wednesday.
Chief Provincial Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin on Monday again urged people to follow the rules and celebrate virtually over the holidays.
“If we let our guards down — if we have a lot of gatherings, even on just one day — we’re set up for a lot of transmission, and we’ll start seeing the results of that a week or two after the holidays.”
Saskatchewan announced 194 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, along with seven additional deaths. Premier Scott Moe also announced that the first vaccines had arrived in the province and that health-care workers will be the first to get inoculated this evening.
The first COVID-19 vaccines have arrived in Saskatchewan. Today at 6:00 PM, health care workers are set to receive the first shots.<br><br>This is great news, Saskatchewan! <a href=”https://t.co/idUhOlsvFH”>pic.twitter.com/idUhOlsvFH</a>
The province introduced new public health restrictions on Monday as it tries to slow the spread of COVID-19, including strict new rules around private indoor gatherings.
As of Thursday, most people in the province will only be allowed to gather inside with members of their own household (with some exceptions, including for single people and co-parenting).
“This needs to be a much quieter Christmas,” Moe said.
Alberta reported 1,341 new cases and 11 more deaths on Tuesday. COVID-19 hospitalizations stood at 742, 137 of which were in intensive care, both record highs for the province.
As well, a pair of health-care workers — Sahra Kaahiye, a respiratory therapist at the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital in Edmonton, and Tanya Harvey, an intensive care RN at the Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary — became the first people in the province to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
Premier Jason Kenney said the province will send COVID-19 teams into the 11 hardest-hit neighbourhoods in Edmonton and Calgary to offer masks, hand sanitizer and more information.
The program will also provide free hotel rooms to allow people in those areas to self-isolate if necessary, he said.
About 3,900 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine arrived in the province Monday night, with the first doses expected to be given to health workers in Edmonton and Calgary.
The first Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine doses have been delivered and are being prepared.<br><br>We expect the first immunizations in Alberta to take place in both <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Edmonton?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#Edmonton</a> and <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Calgary?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#Calgary</a> around 4:00 PM today. <a href=”https://t.co/gpTEwLPyTl”>pic.twitter.com/gpTEwLPyTl</a>
A health-care worker became the first person in British Colombia to get the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, receiving a shot shortly after 1 p.m. PT on Tuesday at a vaccination site in the Vancouver Coastal Health region.
The initial shipment of 3,900 doses will go to health-care workers and long-term care staff. The shots are being administered at two vaccination locations, Vancouver Coastal Health region and the Fraser Health region, but as of next week the vaccine will be available in each of B.C.’s health authorities.
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B.C.’s provincial health officer says her biggest fear is that people will stop putting in the effort to curb transmission knowing that a vaccine is on the way. 1:35
B.C. on Tuesday reported 522 new cases of COVID-19 and 21 more deaths. There were 361 people in hospital with COVID-19, including 93 in ICU, a new record for both.
In the North, Nunavut reported two new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday while the Northwest Territories reported one new case. Yukon reported no new cases on Tuesday.
In Atlantic Canada, Nova Scotia reported six new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday as the province received its first delivery of 1,950 vaccine doses.
Nova Scotia Public Health will start its first immunization clinic on Wednesday at Dalhousie University in Halifax and will administer the vaccine to front-line health-care workers.
The other Atlantic provinces have also each received their initial 1,950 doses. Newfoundland and Labrador, which reported one new case, and Prince Edward Island, which reported no new cases, both plan to begin administering vaccines on Wednesday.
New Brunswick, which reported one new case on Tuesday, will begin vaccinating members of priority groups this weekend at an immunization clinic at the Miramichi Regional Hospital.
What’s happening around the world
From The Associated Press and Reuters, last updated at 4:45 p.m. ET
As of 4:45 p.m. ET Tuesday, more than 73.2 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide, with more than 41.4 million of those cases considered recovered or resolved, according to a Johns Hopkins University database that tracks cases of the novel coronavirus. The global death toll stood at more than 1.6 million.
In the Americas, top U.S. infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said president-elect Joe Biden and vice-president-elect Kamala Harris should be vaccinated for COVID-19 as soon as possible. Speaking to ABC News, Fauci said: “For security reasons, I really feel strongly that we should get them vaccinated as soon as we possibly can.
“You want him fully protected as he enters into the presidency in January.”
WATCH | American health-care workers step up for first round of vaccinations:
Emotional scenes play out across the U.S. as exhausted health-care workers watch the rollout of a vaccine against COVID-19. 0:44
The U.S. extended its rollout of the first authorized COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday, inoculating health-care workers with an eye toward persuading skeptical Americans to get their shots and help contain a pandemic that has killed more than 300,000 people.
Brazil registered 964 additional COVID-19 deaths over the last 24 hours and 42,889 new cases, the nation’s health ministry said on Tuesday.
In Africa, South Africa imposed further restrictions as it looks to slow a sharp rise in infections.
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COVID-19 hasn’t had the devastating impact on Uganda that many expected, but doctors say it wouldn’t take much of a spike to overwhelm the country’s hospitals that have only 55 intensive care beds for 42 million people. 2:42
Sudan on Tuesday said an international initiative would provide 8.4 million shots of vaccine against the coronavirus, without providing details on the type of vaccine the country would receive.
Amal al-Fateh, a senior health official, told a news conference that the shots are expected to arrive, via COVAX, in the first quarter of 2021. She said the first stage of vaccination would cover 20 per cent of Sudanese and that health workers at the forefront of the fight against the virus and elderly people would be prioritized when the shots arrive.
In Europe, after days of pressuring the European Union’s medical regulator, Germany’s health minister said Tuesday that he has received assurances that the European Medicines Agency will approve a coronavirus vaccine by Dec. 23.
Health Minister Jens Spahn told reporters in Berlin on Tuesday that he “welcomed” German media reports that said EMA would finalize its approval process of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine by Dec. 23, instead of a Dec. 29 meeting.
“Our goal is an approval before Christmas,” Spahn said. “We want to still start vaccinating this year.”
Asked afterward by The Associated Press whether he had received direct confirmation that the vaccine would be approved by then, Spahn said he had, “otherwise I wouldn’t have said that.”
He added, however, that “the EU has to announce it.”
The Danish government will extend current lockdown measures to the entire country, broadcaster TV2 reported.
London will move into England’s highest tier of restrictions, the government has said. A study showed infections in the city rose during the last weeks of a national lockdown even as its prevalence in England as a whole fell.
The Netherlands will go into a tough second lockdown, closing all schools and shops for at least five weeks. Meanwhile, Czech restaurants, hotels and indoor sports venues, which reopened only two weeks ago, must shut again starting Friday in response to a new rise in infections.
In Russia, authorities on Tuesday said vaccination against COVID-19 with the Russian-developed Sputnik V vaccine has started in all Russian regions.
President Vladimir Putin ordered the government to start “large-scale” vaccination in Russia two weeks ago, even though the Sputnik V vaccine is still undergoing advanced studies needed to ensure its safety and effectiveness. The shots have been offered to medical workers for several months even though the vaccine was still in the middle of late-stage trials, and more than 150,000 people in Russia have already been vaccinated, according to its developers.
In the Asia-Pacific region, South Korea has reported another 880 new cases of the coronavirus as it slipped deeper into its worst wave of the pandemic yet.
More than 10,000 infections have been reported in the last 15 days alone, mostly from the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area, where health workers are struggling to stem transmissions tied to various places, including hospitals, long-term care facilities, restaurants, churches and schools.
Municipal workers carry the coffin holding an unclaimed body of a COVID-19 victim to a crematorium in Colombo, Sri Lanka, last week. (Lakruwan Wanniarachchi/Getty Images)
Authorities in Sri Lanka said on Tuesday that more than 3,000 COVID-19 cases have been detected in the country’s highly congested prisons, as infections also surge in the capital and its suburbs.
They said that 2,984 inmates and 103 guards have been confirmed to have the disease in seven prisons around the country. Sri Lankan prisons are highly congested, with more than 26,000 inmates crowded in facilities with a capacity of 10,000.
In the Middle East,Saudi Arabia has started registering citizens and foreign residents for COVID-19 vaccination. Lebanon is expected to sign a deal this week for supplies of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine and is set to receive the first batch eight weeks after that.
Israel said it was beginning a second-phase trial for its vaccine candidate, which, if successful, could be ready for the general public by the end of next summer.
Montreal Alouettes wide receiver Tyson Philpot has announced he will be out for the rest of the CFL season.
The Delta, B.C., native posted the news on his Instagram page Thursday.
“To Be Continued. Shoutout my team, the fans of the CFL and the whole city of Montreal! I can’t wait to be back healthy and write this next chapter in 2025,” the statement read.
Philpot, 24, injured his foot in a 33-23 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Aug. 10 and was placed on the six-game injured list the next week.
The six-foot-one, 195-pound receiver had 58 receptions, 779 yards and five touchdowns in nine games for the league-leading Alouettes in his third season.
Philpot scored the game-winning touchdown in Montreal’s Grey Cup win last season to punctuate a six-reception, 63-yard performance.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa sustained a concussion for the third time in his NFL career, leaving his team’s game Thursday night against Buffalo after running into defensive back Damar Hamlin and hitting the back of his head against the turf.
Tagovailoa remained down for about two minutes before getting to his feet and walking to the sideline after the play in the third quarter. He made his way to the tunnel not long afterward, looking into the stands before smiling and departing toward the locker room.
The Dolphins needed almost no time before announcing it was a concussion. The team said he had two during the 2022 season, and Tagovailoa was diagnosed with another concussion when he was a college player at Alabama.
Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said Tagovailoa would get “proper procedural evaluation” and “appropriate care” on Friday.
“The furthest thing from my mind is, ‘What is the timeline?’ We just need to evaluate and just worry about my teammate, like the rest of the guys are,” McDaniel said. “We’ll get more information tomorrow and take it day by day from here.”
Some players saw Tagovailoa in the locker room after the game and said they were encouraged. Tagovailoa spoke with some players and then went home after the game, McDaniel said.
“I have a lot of love for Tua, built a great relationship with him,” said quarterback Skylar Thompson, who replaced Tagovailoa after the injury. “You care about the person more than the player and everybody in the organization would say the same thing. Just really praying for Tua and hopefully everything will come out all right.”
Tagovailoa signed a four-year, $212 million extension before this season — a deal that makes him one of the highest-paid players in the NFL — and was the NFL’s leading passer in Week 1 this season. Tagovailoa left with the Dolphins trailing 31-10, and that was the final score.
“If you know Tua outside of football, you can’t help but feel for him,” Bills quarterback Josh Allen said on Amazon following the game. “He’s a great football player but he’s an even greater human being. He’s one of the best humans on the planet. I’ve got a lot of love for him and I’m just praying for him and his family, hoping everything’s OK. But it’s tough, man. This game of football that we play, it’s got its highs and it’s got its lows — and this is one of the lows.”
Tagovailoa’s college years and first three NFL seasons were marred by injury, though he positioned himself for a big pay bump with an injury-free and productive 2023 as he led the Dolphins into the playoffs. He threw for 29 touchdowns and a league-best 4,624 yards last year.
When, or if, he can come back this season is anyone’s guess. Tagovailoa said in April 2023 that the concussions he had in the 2022 season left him contemplating his playing future. “I think I considered it for a time,” he said then, when asked if he considered stepping away from the game to protect himself.
McDaniel said it’s not his place to say if Tagovailoa should return to football. “He’ll be evaluated and we’ll have conversations and progress as appropriate,” McDaniel said.
Tagovailoa was hurt Thursday on a fourth-down keeper with about 4:30 left in the third. He went straight ahead into Hamlin and did not slide, leading with his right shoulder instead.
Hamlin was the player who suffered a cardiac arrest after making a tackle during a Monday night game in January 2023 at Cincinnati, causing the NFL to suspend a pivotal game that quickly lost significance in the aftermath of a scary scene that unfolded in front of a national television audience.
Tagovailoa wound up on his back, both his hands in the air and Bills players immediately pointed at him as if to suggest there was an injury. Dolphins center Aaron Brewer quickly did the same, waving to the sideline.
Tagovailoa appeared to be making a fist with his right hand as he lay on the ground. It was movement consistent with something that is referred to as the “fencing response,” which can be common after a traumatic brain injury.
Tagovailoa eventually got to his feet. McDaniel grabbed the side of his quarterback’s head and gave him a kiss on the cheek as Tagovailoa departed. Thompson came into the game to take Tagovailoa’s spot.
“I love Tua on and off the football field,” Bills edge Von Miller said. “I’m a huge fan of him. I can empathize and sympathize with him because I’ve been there. I wish him the best.”
Tagovailoa’s history with concussions — and how he has since worked to avoid them — is a huge part of the story of his career, and now comes to the forefront once again.
He had at least two concussions during the 2022 season. He was hurt in a Week 3 game against Buffalo and cleared concussion protocol, though he appeared disoriented on that play but returned to the game.
The NFL later changed its concussion protocol to mandate that if a player shows possible concussion symptoms — including a lack of balance or stability — he must sit out the rest of the game.
Less than a week later, in a Thursday night game at Cincinnati, Tagovailoa was concussed on a scary hit that briefly knocked him unconscious and led to him being taken off the field on a stretcher.
His second known concussion of that season came in a December game against Green Bay, and he didn’t play for the rest of the 2022 season. After that, Tagovailoa began studying ways where he may be able to fall more safely and protect himself against further injury — including studying jiu-jitsu.
“I’m not worried about anything that’s out of my hands,” McDaniel said. “I’m just worried about the human being.”
NEW YORK (AP) — When her husband turns on the television to hear news about the upcoming presidential election, that’s often a signal for Lori Johnson Malveaux to leave the room.
It can get to be too much. Often, she’ll go to a TV in another room to watch a movie on the Hallmark Channel or BET. She craves something comforting and entertaining. And in that, she has company.
While about half of Americans say they are following political news “extremely” or “very” closely, about 6 in 10 say they need to limit how much information they consume about the government and politics to avoid feeling overloaded or fatigued, according to a new survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and USAFacts.
Make no mistake: Malveaux plans to vote. She always does. “I just get to the point where I don’t want to hear the rhetoric,” she said.
The 54-year-old Democrat said she’s most bothered when she hears people on the news telling her that something she saw with her own eyes — like the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol — didn’t really happen.
“I feel like I’m being gaslit. That’s the way to put it,” she said.
Sometimes it feels like ‘a bombardment’
Caleb Pack, 23, a Republican from Ardmore, Oklahoma, who works in IT, tries to keep informed through the news feeds on his phone, which is stocked with a variety of sources, including CNN, Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press.
Yet sometimes, Pack says, it seems like a bombardment.
“It’s good to know what’s going on, but both sides are pulling a little bit extreme,” he said. “It just feels like it’s a conversation piece everywhere, and it’s hard to escape it.”
Media fatigue isn’t a new phenomenon. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in late 2019 found roughly two in three Americans felt worn out by the amount of news there is, about the same as in a poll taken in early 2018. During the 2016 presidential campaign, about 6 in 10 people felt overloaded by campaign news.
But it can be particularly acute with news related to politics. The AP-NORC/USAFacts poll found that half of Americans feel a need to limit their consumption of information related to crime or overseas conflicts, while only about 4 in 10 are limiting news about the economy and jobs.
It’s easy to understand, with television outlets like CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC full of political talk and a wide array of political news online, sometimes complicated by disinformation.
“There’s a glut of information,” said Richard Coffin, director of research and advocacy for USAFacts, “and people are having a hard time figuring out what is true or not.”
Women are more likely to feel they need to limit media
In the AP-NORC poll, about 6 in 10 men said they follow news about elections and politics at least “very” closely, compared to about half of women. For all types of news, not just politics, women are more likely than men to report the need to limit their media consumption, the survey found.
White adults are also more likely than Black or Hispanic adults to say they need to limit media consumption on politics, the poll found.
Kaleb Aravzo, 19, a Democrat, gets a baseline of news by listening to National Public Radio in the morning at home in Logan, Utah. Too much politics, particularly when he’s on social media sites like TikTok and Instagram, can trigger anxiety and depression.
“If it pops up on my page when I’m on social media,” he said, “I’ll just scroll past it.”
___
Sanders reported from Washington. David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder.
The AP poll of 1,019 adults was conducted July 29-August 8, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points.
