Many Canadians have been taking advantage of warmer weather to venture outside after spending weeks in lockdown because of COVID-19, but the easing of restrictions has sparked a backlash in Toronto.
A statement from the city said thousands of people packed Trinity Bellwoods Park in the downtown area on Saturday and some were flouting physical distancing regulations.
The city called the crowds “unacceptable” and that they threatened to undo the work done over the last 10 weeks to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Mayor John Tory said bylaw officers and police would be out in force Sunday to ensure the rules on distancing are followed.
The city has made it illegal to come within two metres of someone from a different household in parks and public squares. Those who break the bylaw could be handed a $1,000 ticket on the spot, though officers can also issue higher tickets — subject to the court system — in which fines go up to $5,000 on conviction.
Thousands gathered in Trinity Bellwoods Park on Saturday, sparking a wave of anger online. City officials say the gathering is unacceptable. 4:57
Toronto began reopening park amenities on May 20 for the first time in more than two months. At the same time, people are now being allowed to shop inside stores with street entrances.
The city’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Eileen de Villa, condemned the “selfish and dangerous behaviour” of people flocking to parks.
She noted the city has seen an uptick in cases of COVID-19, reporting 258 new cases on Friday alone.
“I think people need to at some point go on with their lives. We just have to find a way to do it in a safe fashion,” said Dr. David Carr, an emergency physician with the University Health Network in Toronto.
Police officers and special constables patrol Trinity Bellwoods Park in Toronto on Sunday. (Carlos Osorio/Reuters)
Ontario’s rolling five-day average of new COVID-19 cases has been trending steadily upward since May 12.
Carr said Ontario started reporting more than 400 new cases in one day, after dipping below 300, about 10 to 12 days after Mother’s Day.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford on Sunday said he was “absolutely shocked” to see images from Trinity Bellwoods of “just too many people, too close.”
He said the virus could “spread like wildfire” without precautions and urged people to get tested at one of the 129 assessment centres in the province if they are worried about exposure, even if they are not showing symptoms.
Ford said his government would be releasing a detailed testing strategy next week “targeting various sectors and hotspots across the province.”
A Toronto infectious disease expert took to Twitter to share his dismay at those scenes from the crowded park. Dr. Abdu Sharkawy’s message was emotional, but also practical. He said doesn’t want the people gathering in Trinity Bellwoods Park to become his patients down the line.
This isn’t right. Respect and compassion is a 2 way street. <a href=”https://t.co/xtecDTB3x5″>pic.twitter.com/xtecDTB3x5</a>
For Muslims across Canada, Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of Ramadan and a month of fasting during daylight hours, began Saturday at sunset.
Physical distancing and social gathering restrictions mean the some of the usual events have been cancelled or modified.
Chair of the Manitoba Islamic Association Idris Elbakri said the three-day festival of feasting and praying together will be “very different” for at least 25,000 Muslims living across the province who are breaking the fast.
Islamic Society of North America Mosque community members hand out candy to children in a drive-thru Eid al-Fitr celebration in Mississauga, Ont., on Sunday. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press)
Elbakri is encouraging people to join the Winnipeg Grand Mosque’s live streaming of Sunday’s sermon on the Islamic group’s Facebook and YouTube channels.
Upcoming summer powwows across Canada are being cancelled or forced to go online due to restrictions on public gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic, and this worries Josee Bourgeois, an Algonquin dancer from Pikwakanagan First Nation outside of Ottawa.
She says many people in First Nations communities use powwows to kick off their summer and that being outside and reuniting with friends and family is good for their mental health.
People wearing face masks are seen in Montreal on Sunday. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)
As of 7 p.m. ET on Sunday, Canada had 84,699 confirmed and presumptive coronavirus cases, with 43,995 of those considered resolved or recovered. A CBC News tally of deaths attributed to coronavirus based on provincial data, regional health information and CBC’s journalism stood at 6,515.
Federal public health officials have been encouraging people to stick with frequent handwashing, cough etiquette, physical distancing and staying home when sick. On Wednesday, Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam added another recommendation, saying people should wear non-medical face masks in public when they aren’t sure they will be able to physically distance.
Here’s what’s happening in the provinces and territories
British Columbia’s top doctor says she strongly encourages the federal government to use its resources to monitor international travellers entering the province. Dr. Bonnie Henry says public servants from various provincial ministries have been working to ensure about 18,000 people who returned to B.C. during the COVID-19 pandemic are self-isolating.
Henry says “meticulous follow-up” is needed if and when the border between the United States and Canada is reopened to ensure anyone with COVID-19 isn’t passing the illness on to others. She says discussions are expected to be held with her federal counterparts on how that could be done with help from Ottawa.
Henry says the province is beefing up public health teams this summer to keep up with COVID-19 testing, contact tracing and tracking because more cases are probable in the fall with the arrival of seasonal respiratory illnesses. Read more about what’s happening in B.C.
A vendor serves mini doughnuts to a driver at a drive-thru event in Vancouver on Sunday. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press)
In Alberta, Calgary and Brooks will join the rest of the province by allowing bars, restaurants, hair salons and barbershops to open on Monday, while more restrictions will be lifted across the province on June 1.
Premier Jason Kenney said Friday that the decision comes on the advice of the chief medical officer of health, though he warned that the virus is still a threat.
Saskatchewan said it will move to the next phase in its reopening on June 8. Bars and restaurants are among the businesses that will be allowed to reopen in Phase 3, though they will have to operate at reduced capacity and with physical distancing measures in place. Read more about what’s happening in Saskatchewan.
“Boeing previously announced we would adjust the size of our company to reflect new market realities through a combination of voluntary layoffs, natural turnover and involuntary layoffs,” spokesperson Jessica Kowal said in a statement emailed to CBC News. Read more about what’s happening in Manitoba.
As Manitoba continues to ease restrictions and plan for the next phase of its reopening plan, here’s what some people dream of doing once life gets back to a “new” normal. 1:38
Ontario reported 460 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, up from the 412 new cases recorded the previous day. The increases bring the province’s total for cases to 25,500 since the pandemic began.
Meanwhile, new testing regulations took effect on Saturday, with asymptomatic front-line health-care workers being tested across the province.
A worker disenfects a surface at a store in Montreal on Sunday. Stores with a street entrance are allowed to reopen in Montreal on Monday. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)
New Brunswick reported no new coronavirus cases on Sunday. The total number of cases is 121 with 120 of those patients listed as recovered. No one with COVID-19 is in hospital. Read more about what’s happening in N.B.
Nova Scotia reported one new case on Sunday. There are now 19 active cases in the province.
“It is still important to follow public health advice, practise good hygiene and limit large gatherings,” Dr. Robert Strang, the chief medical officer of health, said in a press release sent out Sunday. “Doing all of these things will help ensure our case numbers continue to stay low.” Read more about what’s happening in N.S.
Gov. Gen. Julie Payette, left, and Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan wear masks as they attend the homecoming ceremony of Captain Jennifer Casey, who was killed in the crash of a Royal Canadian Air Force Snowbirds exhibition team aircraft, in Halifax on Sunday. (Darren Calabrese/Reuters)
Prince Edward Island moved into Phase 2 of reopening on Friday,and is now allowing retail stores to open their doors to the public with physical distancing measures. Read more about what’s happening on P.E.I.
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. syphilis epidemic slowed dramatically last year, gonorrhea cases fell and chlamydia cases remained below prepandemic levels, according to federal data released Tuesday.
The numbers represented some good news about sexually transmitted diseases, which experienced some alarming increases in past years due to declining condom use, inadequate sex education, and reduced testing and treatment when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
Last year, cases of the most infectious stages of syphilis fell 10% from the year before — the first substantial decline in more than two decades. Gonorrhea cases dropped 7%, marking a second straight year of decline and bringing the number below what it was in 2019.
“I’m encouraged, and it’s been a long time since I felt that way” about the nation’s epidemic of sexually transmitted infections, said the CDC’s Dr. Jonathan Mermin. “Something is working.”
More than 2.4 million cases of syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia were diagnosed and reported last year — 1.6 million cases of chlamydia, 600,000 of gonorrhea, and more than 209,000 of syphilis.
Syphilis is a particular concern. For centuries, it was a common but feared infection that could deform the body and end in death. New cases plummeted in the U.S. starting in the 1940s when infection-fighting antibiotics became widely available, and they trended down for a half century after that. By 2002, however, cases began rising again, with men who have sex with other men being disproportionately affected.
The new report found cases of syphilis in their early, most infectious stages dropped 13% among gay and bisexual men. It was the first such drop since the agency began reporting data for that group in the mid-2000s.
However, there was a 12% increase in the rate of cases of unknown- or later-stage syphilis — a reflection of people infected years ago.
Cases of syphilis in newborns, passed on from infected mothers, also rose. There were nearly 4,000 cases, including 279 stillbirths and infant deaths.
“This means pregnant women are not being tested often enough,” said Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, a professor of medicine at the University of Southern California.
What caused some of the STD trends to improve? Several experts say one contributor is the growing use of an antibiotic as a “morning-after pill.” Studies have shown that taking doxycycline within 72 hours of unprotected sex cuts the risk of developing syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia.
In June, the CDC started recommending doxycycline as a morning-after pill, specifically for gay and bisexual men and transgender women who recently had an STD diagnosis. But health departments and organizations in some cities had been giving the pills to people for a couple years.
Some experts believe that the 2022 mpox outbreak — which mainly hit gay and bisexual men — may have had a lingering effect on sexual behavior in 2023, or at least on people’s willingness to get tested when strange sores appeared.
Another factor may have been an increase in the number of health workers testing people for infections, doing contact tracing and connecting people to treatment. Congress gave $1.2 billion to expand the workforce over five years, including $600 million to states, cities and territories that get STD prevention funding from CDC.
Last year had the “most activity with that funding throughout the U.S.,” said David Harvey, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors.
However, Congress ended the funds early as a part of last year’s debt ceiling deal, cutting off $400 million. Some people already have lost their jobs, said a spokeswoman for Harvey’s organization.
Still, Harvey said he had reasons for optimism, including the growing use of doxycycline and a push for at-home STD test kits.
Also, there are reasons to think the next presidential administration could get behind STD prevention. In 2019, then-President Donald Trump announced a campaign to “eliminate” the U.S. HIV epidemic by 2030. (Federal health officials later clarified that the actual goal was a huge reduction in new infections — fewer than 3,000 a year.)
There were nearly 32,000 new HIV infections in 2022, the CDC estimates. But a boost in public health funding for HIV could also also help bring down other sexually transmitted infections, experts said.
“When the government puts in resources, puts in money, we see declines in STDs,” Klausner said.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists can’t know precisely when a volcano is about to erupt, but they can sometimes pick up telltale signs.
That happened two years ago with the world’s largest active volcano. About two months before Mauna Loa spewed rivers of glowing orange molten lava, geologists detected small earthquakes nearby and other signs, and they warned residents on Hawaii‘s Big Island.
Now a study of the volcano’s lava confirms their timeline for when the molten rock below was on the move.
“Volcanoes are tricky because we don’t get to watch directly what’s happening inside – we have to look for other signs,” said Erik Klemetti Gonzalez, a volcano expert at Denison University, who was not involved in the study.
Upswelling ground and increased earthquake activity near the volcano resulted from magma rising from lower levels of Earth’s crust to fill chambers beneath the volcano, said Kendra Lynn, a research geologist at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory and co-author of a new study in Nature Communications.
When pressure was high enough, the magma broke through brittle surface rock and became lava – and the eruption began in late November 2022. Later, researchers collected samples of volcanic rock for analysis.
The chemical makeup of certain crystals within the lava indicated that around 70 days before the eruption, large quantities of molten rock had moved from around 1.9 miles (3 kilometers) to 3 miles (5 kilometers) under the summit to a mile (2 kilometers) or less beneath, the study found. This matched the timeline the geologists had observed with other signs.
The last time Mauna Loa erupted was in 1984. Most of the U.S. volcanoes that scientists consider to be active are found in Hawaii, Alaska and the West Coast.
Worldwide, around 585 volcanoes are considered active.
Scientists can’t predict eruptions, but they can make a “forecast,” said Ben Andrews, who heads the global volcano program at the Smithsonian Institution and who was not involved in the study.
Andrews compared volcano forecasts to weather forecasts – informed “probabilities” that an event will occur. And better data about the past behavior of specific volcanos can help researchers finetune forecasts of future activity, experts say.
(asterisk)We can look for similar patterns in the future and expect that there’s a higher probability of conditions for an eruption happening,” said Klemetti Gonzalez.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Waymo on Tuesday opened its robotaxi service to anyone who wants a ride around Los Angeles, marking another milestone in the evolution of self-driving car technology since the company began as a secret project at Google 15 years ago.
The expansion comes eight months after Waymo began offering rides in Los Angeles to a limited group of passengers chosen from a waiting list that had ballooned to more than 300,000 people. Now, anyone with the Waymo One smartphone app will be able to request a ride around an 80-square-mile (129-square-kilometer) territory spanning the second largest U.S. city.
After Waymo received approval from California regulators to charge for rides 15 months ago, the company initially chose to launch its operations in San Francisco before offering a limited service in Los Angeles.
Before deciding to compete against conventional ride-hailing pioneers Uber and Lyft in California, Waymo unleashed its robotaxis in Phoenix in 2020 and has been steadily extending the reach of its service in that Arizona city ever since.
Driverless rides are proving to be more than just a novelty. Waymo says it now transports more than 50,000 weekly passengers in its robotaxis, a volume of business numbers that helped the company recently raise $5.6 billion from its corporate parent Alphabet and a list of other investors that included venture capital firm Andreesen Horowitz and financial management firm T. Rowe Price.
“Our service has matured quickly and our riders are embracing the many benefits of fully autonomous driving,” Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana said in a blog post.
Despite its inroads, Waymo is still believed to be losing money. Although Alphabet doesn’t disclose Waymo’s financial results, the robotaxi is a major part of an “Other Bets” division that had suffered an operating loss of $3.3 billion through the first nine months of this year, down from a setback of $4.2 billion at the same time last year.
But Waymo has come a long way since Google began working on self-driving cars in 2009 as part of project “Chauffeur.” Since its 2016 spinoff from Google, Waymo has established itself as the clear leader in a robotaxi industry that’s getting more congested.
Electric auto pioneer Tesla is aiming to launch a rival “Cybercab” service by 2026, although its CEO Elon Musk said he hopes the company can get the required regulatory clearances to operate in Texas and California by next year.
Tesla’s projected timeline for competing against Waymo has been met with skepticism because Musk has made unfulfilled promises about the company’s self-driving car technology for nearly a decade.
Meanwhile, Waymo’s robotaxis have driven more than 20 million fully autonomous miles and provided more than 2 million rides to passengers without encountering a serious accident that resulted in its operations being sidelined.
That safety record is a stark contrast to one of its early rivals, Cruise, a robotaxi service owned by General Motors. Cruise’s California license was suspended last year after one of its driverless cars in San Francisco dragged a jaywalking pedestrian who had been struck by a different car driven by a human.
Cruise is now trying to rebound by joining forces with Uber to make some of its services available next year in U.S. cities that still haven’t been announced. But Waymo also has forged a similar alliance with Uber to dispatch its robotaxi in Atlanta and Austin, Texas next year.
Another robotaxi service, Amazon’s Zoox, is hoping to begin offering driverless rides to the general public in Las Vegas at some point next year before also launching in San Francisco.
