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B.C. closes nightclubs, banquet halls after confirming 429 new COVID-19 cases over long weekend
B.C. is ordering nightclubs and stand-alone banquet halls closed, ending the sale of liquor at restaurants past 10 p.m. and telling venues to reduce the volume from music or other sources to conversational levels, as cases of COVID-19 continue to spike in the province. Bars and restaurants must close by 11 p.m., unless they are serving food.
The amendments to public health orders come as the province reported 429 new cases of COVID-19 from a four-day period over the long weekend, bringing the total to 6,591. Two more people, both in long-term care, have died of the virus. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said 123 of the cases were recorded between Friday and Saturday, 116 were reported between Saturday and Sunday, 107 between Sunday and Monday, and 83 new cases were confirmed between Monday and Tuesday.
The amended orders were issued as “a last resort,” Henry said. “We recognize that these venues have tried. We’ve made adjustments but there are still exposures happening.”
“Going to a nightclub, going to a bar, going to somebody’s home — close spaces with face-to-face encounters with people we don’t know … that’s a risk,” Henry said.
She said the province’s philosophical approach to the pandemic has been to issue minimal mandatory restrictions, but that exposures in venues like nightclubs had become a “major source” of transmission, putting strain on public health resources.
Watch | Nightclubs ordered closed in British Columbia after spike in COVID-19:
Jeff Guignard, executive director of the Alliance of Beverage Licensees of B.C., said Tuesday’s announcement was both disappointing and frustrating. “It’s a difficult day,” he said. “Businesses are going to close because of this.”
What’s most frustrating, said Guignard, is that the vast majority of nightclubs were meeting or exceeding safety standards. He blamed the spike in infections on people who think the rules don’t apply to them, referencing recent media coverage of drum circles at the beach and dance parties on Vancouver’s Granville Street. Read more on this story here.
Fully extended
(Robert Deutsch/USA TODAY Sports/Reuters)
Denis Shapovalov of Canada reaches out to hit the ball against Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain during their U.S. Open men’s singles quarter-final match in Flushing Meadows, New York. In a contest that lasted more than four hours and ended early Wednesday, Shapovalov took his opponent to five sets before the Spaniard won 3-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4), 0-6, 6-3. Read more on the match here.
In brief
The Royal Canadian Navy’s move to change the titles of its junior ranks has no legal force, says a former military lawyer. In the interest of making the service more inclusive, the navy is replacing all references to “seaman” in the English-language ranks (ordinary, able, leading and master) with gender-neutral terms. As of last week, the ranks are: sailor third class, sailor second class, sailor first class and master sailor. But according to retired lieutenant-colonel Rory Fowler — a former military lawyer now in private practice who deals with many disciplinary and grievance cases — the Department of National Defence hasn’t gone through the proper channels to change the regulations governing conduct in the ranks. He said the government has failed to issue what’s known as a Governor in Council order — an oversight the department now confirms. Read more about the change in titles here.
A nasal swab isn’t the only way to detect the virus that causes COVID-19 — scientists around the world have been able to track the presence of the novel coronavirus in sewage. Now, a team of researchers at Ontario Tech University in Oshawa, Ont., is monitoring wastewater in Durham Region with the aim of giving public health units around the province a COVID-19 early warning system. One key feature of monitoring wastewater is that it can detect the virus before people show the symptoms that would prompt them to get tested. Such a finding from a particular sewage treatment plant could show the local public health unit which part of its community is seeing evidence of infections. In turn, that could help officials decide where to direct testing resources in an effort to track down individual COVID-19 cases. Read more on this story here.
Drug company AstraZeneca confirmed Tuesday evening that late-stage studies of a possible COVID-19 vaccine are on temporary hold while it investigates whether a report of a patient with a serious side effect is linked to the shot. AstraZeneca said its “standard review process triggered a pause to vaccination to allow review of safety data.” The company didn’t reveal any information about the possible side effect except to call it “a potentially unexplained illness.” The news site STAT first reported the pause in testing, saying the possible side effect occurred in the United Kingdom. A spokesperson for AstraZeneca said the pause in vaccinations covers studies in the U.S. and other countries. In late August, the company started recruiting 30,000 people in the U.S. for its largest study of the vaccine. It also is testing the vaccine, developed by Oxford University, in thousands of people in Britain, and in smaller studies in Brazil and South Africa. Read more on the halt of the trial here.
A Canadian Ranger group under investigation over ties between one of its members and two far-right militia groups has advertised on its website for years that part of its mission is to guard Canada against illegal immigration. One expert says that language on immigration mirrors the messaging of far-right organizations and could reinforce interest in the Canadian Rangers by members of extremist groups. Minutes after CBC News conducted an interview with Lt.- Gen. Wayne Eyre, commander of the Canadian Army, that reference to “watching for illegal immigrants” disappeared from the 4 Canadian Ranger Patrol Group’s website. “If that is being seen as a way, as a message that attracts that ideology, yes, absolutely, we will address it,” Eyre told CBC News. Read more here about the investigation into the Ranger group.
Hydrogen is having a moment globally, in large part because it’s viewed as a critical component in combating climate change, improving air quality and creating economic growth in a carbon-constrained world. Amid this resurgence of interest in hydrogen, Ottawa has been crafting a long-term strategy aimed at securing a place for a Canadian sector in what’s expected to be a significant, global industry in the decades ahead. The government anticipates it will release its plan this fall. As momentum around hydrogen builds globally and other countries execute their own strategies, Ottawa is under pressure to act. “Things are happening quickly,” said Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan. “It looks like trends we saw before the pandemic have accelerated. We want to be ahead of it.” Read more on Ottawa’s hope to supercharge Canada’s hydrogen fuel sector
Watch | What it’s like owning a hydrogen car:
Now for some good news to start your Wednesday: In normal times, Kingston, Ont., author Iain Reid would be suiting up for premieres and press junkets to promote the new Hollywood film based on his first novel. But these are pandemic times, so the Ottawa-born writer instead watched I’m Thinking of Ending Things for the first time on his bed with a bowl of popcorn. “It kind of felt like everything came full circle because I wrote most of the book there,” Reid told CBC’s Ottawa Morning. The movie premiered Sept. 4 and is now available for streaming on Netflix. It was directed and written by Charlie Kaufman and stars Jessie Buckley, Jesse Plemons, Toni Collette and David Thewlis. Reid’s 2016 thriller centres upon a young couple who head off on a road trip to visit the farm of the boyfriend’s parents. Read more about the novel and the launch of the film here.
Front Burner: As B.C. overdose deaths soar, calls for fully regulated addiction treatment
In 2018, a BC Coroners Service panel called for provincial regulations to ensure evidence-based care at addiction recovery facilities. The panel said this system should be developed by September 2019. Now, one year later, more people are dying of overdoses than ever before, but the regulations recommended by the panel still do not exist.
Today, CBC Vancouver’s Bethany Lindsay tells us about a young woman who died in an addiction facility, how the government currently regulates addiction treatment, and the changes advocates are seeking.
Today in history: September 9
1954: Sixteen-year-old Marilyn Bell becomes the first person to swim across Lake Ontario. Bell started her swim the previous day from Youngstown, N.Y. She swam for almost 21 hours under gruelling conditions, fighting waves and lamprey eels attacking her legs. About 300,000 people were on hand when she came ashore in Toronto.
1967: The federal Progressive Conservative party ousts John Diefenbaker as leader at a Toronto convention and replaces him with Nova Scotia Premier Robert Stanfield.
2009: In a legal first in Canada, a Quebec court sentences a drunk driver to life in prison. The Crown had been pushing to have 57-year-old Roger Walsh declared a dangerous offender. It was Walsh’s 19th drunk-driving conviction, which left a wheelchair-bound woman dead.
2015: Queen Elizabeth becomes the longest-reigning British monarch, surpassing her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria, who served for 63 years and 216 days from 1837-1901. Elizabeth began her reign upon the death of her father King George VI on Feb. 6, 1952.
