As of Monday, the size of indoor personal gatherings and large events will be limited in B.C., sports tournaments will be cancelled, proof of vaccination will be required for all events and movement will be restricted in restaurants, under new provincial health orders intended to slow a rapid increase in COVID-19 cases.
The measures will remain in place until Jan. 31.
The revised orders announced Friday come on the heels of 302 cases of Omicron detected in B.C. on Friday — more than double the previous day’s total — with almost half of those, 145, in the Island Health region.
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said Omicron is rapidly replacing other variants in B.C., primarily Delta, and there’s been a sharp increase in the number of new cases of COVID-19, particularly in the Vancouver Coastal and Fraser Health regions and Vancouver Island.
“We will see rapidly rising cases over the next few weeks,” said Henry.”And we need to take additional measures to slow that down so that we don’t overwhelm our hospital system.”
B.C.’s COVID-19 case rate nearly doubled over the past week. New cases spiked from 345 on Dec. 1 to 789 Friday. New COVID modelling shows daily cases could climb to 2,000 a day by the end of the month. Active COVID‑19 cases in the province jumped from 2,994 on Dec. 10 to 4,313 Friday.
Island Health posted its highest-ever one-day COVID case count Friday at 147, eclipsing the previous high of 143 on Dec. 10. “It is moving quickly and so must we,” said Henry.
Most of the new cases so far have been in younger vaccinated people, and have caused mostly mild illness, she said.
Henry is asking people to limit holiday gatherings “to be only with our family and close friends.”
“We can still host a holiday meal, but ensure everybody’s fully vaccinated so that you can do that in the safest way possible.”
The new measures include:
• limiting indoor personal gatherings, including in rental and vacation properties, to one household plus up to 10 individuals, or one additional household — providing all youth and adults are fully vaccinated
• requiring the B.C. Vaccine Card for organized events of all sizes and ensuring the QR code is scanned at events
• requiring that restaurant patrons remain seated with no movement between tables; stay masked when not sitting
• limiting venues of 1,000 individuals or more to 50 per cent of the seated capacity, reinforcing mask wearing, and scanning of the B.C. Vaccine Card QR code
• restricting all New Year’s Eve organized gatherings and events to seated-only events — no matter their size — with no mingling or dancing allowed
• pausing all sports tournaments.
A number of sports tournaments, particularly hockey tournaments, had been due to start on Boxing Day, and will need to be suspended, Henry said.
Two large-scale events in Victoria will be affected by the venue capacity limits, including a Jan. 14 performance at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre as part of Canada’s Drag Race Season 2 Tour, and a concert by the Glorious Sons at the Royal Theatre on Jan. 15. Contingency plans for either event had not been announced as of late Friday.
An order for B.C. public service workers to return to the office was delayed until at least Jan. 17, when an update will be issued. Henry recommends other organizations also “consider continuing your work from home if that’s possible.”
Henry is also asking retail stores to have COVID-19 safety plans in place for holiday and Boxing Day sales.
“While vaccination remains the best defence against COVID-19, we are now dealing with the new threat of a more transmissible variant,” she said. “We need to take these measures until we understand the full impact Omicron will have in the B.C. context.”
In addition to the provincial health orders, British Columbians are being advised to avoid all travel if not fully vaccinated and avoid non-essential travel outside of Canada.
“This is going to be a very difficult three weeks,” said B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix. “We can deal with that in a number of ways, but I think what we need to do together is continue to make the best efforts we can across British Columbia supporting one another.”
The province says it will update its plan for rapid tests on Tuesday and aims to give people boosters six months after their second shots, which means many people will receive invitations to book in the next few weeks.
ceharnett@timescolonist.com
— With a file from Mike Devlin
^
• For those feeling mentally and emotionally overwhelmed and unable to cope under this latest surge of cases and added restrictions, Henry advised calling 811, visiting Bounce Back B.C. for free mental health help at https://bouncebackbc.ca/, calling the Kids Help toll-free 24-hour phone counselling line at 1 800-668-6868 or texting 68686.
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Published Mar 28, 2024 • Last updated 6 hours ago • 3 minute read
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The Canadian economy surprised to the upside in January, posting its strongest monthly growth in a year, which could keep the Bank of Canada “on its toes,” say economists.
Real gross domestic product (GDP), which measures the value of goods and services produced during a specific time frame, edged up by 0.6 per cent in January, according to Statistics Canada, beating analysts’ expectations of 0.4 per cent. The agency also expects a 0.4 per cent rise in GDP during February.
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“To put that two-month flurry of growth into perspective, the combined one per cent gain is as much as the economy grew in the entire 12 months of 2023,” Bank of Montreal chief economist Douglas Porter said in a note. “After a prolonged lull through much of last year … the economy looks to have caught some strong tailwinds early this year.”
The rise in GDP was due to broad-based growth in 18 of the 20 sectors measured by Statistics Canada.
The public sector, which includes education, health care and social assistance and public administration, increased 1.9 per cent in January, following two consecutive monthly declines. Education, which grew by six per cent, was the largest contributor to the country’s growth as activity rebounded from strikes by public sector workers in Quebec late last year.
Manufacturing fully recouped December’s decline in growth with a 0.9 per cent rise in January. A sudden drop in temperature in mid-January in parts of Canada contributed to increased activity in the utilities sector, which rose by 3.2 per cent, its highest growth rate since January 2022.
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The real estate and rental sector grew for a third consecutive month — by 0.4 per cent — on higher resale activity. The Greater Toronto Area, Hamilton-Burlington and most markets in Ontario’s Greater Golden Horseshoe contributed to the growth.
The information and cultural services sector, which includes the motion picture and sound recording industry, also grew for the third consecutive month, as activity continued to ramp up following the end of a strike by the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists in November.
These “robust” figures could pose a difficult challenge for the Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank economist Marc Ercolao said in a note.
While the central bank has received “solid evidence” in the past two months that inflation is cooperating, “strong GDP data prints” such as today’s will “keep them on their toes,” said Ercolao, who expects the first interest rate cut to take place in July.
On the labour front, Statistics Canada said there were 632,100 job vacancies in January, down 34,800, or 5.2 per cent, from November. Vacancies in the manufacturing sector declined by 10.2 per cent to 37,500, the lowest level since September 2017.
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Monthly payroll increases were recorded in 13 of 20 sectors, led by retail trade, manufacturing and finance. But these gains were offset by a 0.3 per cent decline in construction.
The number of employees receiving pay and benefits from their employers, as measured by payroll employment, rose for the first time in the retail trade after four consecutive monthly declines.
Despite the strong start to the year, some economists expressed caution, especially regarding February’s GDP estimate.
Claire Fan, an economist at the Royal Bank of Canada, said the “substantially stronger-than-expected” numbers are partially driven by one-off factors such as the ending of the Quebec teachers’ strike, so growth isn’t likely to be sustained in the coming months.
“We’ve learned to take the advance estimates (February) with a grain of salt as they have been highly revision prone,” she said, while retaining RBC’s assessment of a weak economic backdrop.
BMO’s Porter said Canada experienced something similar last year when GDP stalled after a strong start to the year.
“There could be a serious issue with seasonality here, especially in light of much milder winters recently,” he said.
Despite the increase in GDP, most economists have stuck to their previous predictions that June will be when the Bank of Canada issues its initial interest rate cut.
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Bankman-Fried, 32, sentenced for fraud on customers of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange he founded.
Former crypto tycoon Sam Bankman-Fried has been sentenced to 25 years in United States federal prison for stealing $8bn from customers of the now-bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange he founded.
US District Judge Lewis Kaplan handed down the sentence at a Manhattan court hearing on Thursday after rejecting Bankman-Fried’s claim that FTX customers did not actually lose money and accusing him of lying during his trial testimony.
A jury found Bankman-Fried, 32, guilty on November 2 on seven fraud and conspiracy counts stemming from FTX’s 2022 collapse in what prosecutors have called one of the biggest financial frauds in US history.
“He knew it was wrong,” Kaplan said of Bankman-Fried before handing down the sentence. “He knew it was criminal. He regrets that he made a very bad bet about the likelihood of getting caught. But he is not going to admit a thing, as is his right.”
Bankman-Fried stood with his hands clasped before him as Kaplan read the sentence.
Kaplan said the sentence reflected “that there is a risk that this man will be in position to do something very bad in the future. And it’s not a trivial risk at all.”
Prior to sentencing, Bankman-Fried stood and apologised. “A lot of people feel really let down. And they were very let down. And I’m sorry about that. I’m sorry about what happened at every stage,” he said.
“My useful life is probably over. It’s been over for a while now, from before my arrest.”
Al Jazeera’s Kristen Saloomey, reporting from New York, said that Bankman-Fried could have received up to 110 years behind bars for his crimes and that the 25-year sentence was less than the 40-50 years that prosecutors were seeking.
“Given the scale of this crime, one of the largest frauds in history, the judge took a very strong stance but also showed some flexibility… perhaps based on the arguments made by Bankman-Fried’s lawyers and his family that he had always intended to do good”, she said.
Bankman-Fried had billed himself as a proponent of effective altruism – finding the best way to help other people, in particular by donating all or part of one’s wealth to charity rather than, say, volunteering at a soup kitchen.
When the cryptocurrency world lurched into crisis in the spring of 2022, he bought shares in the troubled platform BlockFi and another troubled company, Voyager.
However, prosecutors have said the responsible image he cultivated concealed his years-long embezzlement of customer funds.
“The defendant victimised tens of thousands of people and companies, across several continents, over a period of multiple years. He stole money from customers who entrusted it to him” prosecutors said in a court filing.
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