Large celebrations held yearly for Canada Day have been called off, but there are other activities — virtual and otherwise — still ongoing this July 1.
Outdoor gathering limits were increased from 100 to 200 people on Tuesday for events like festivals, sporting events and performances, but not private gatherings like weddings.
Alberta Safeway workers voted in favour of striking after the company ended its COVID-19 ‘hero pay’ program.
Four outbreaks at Edmonton restaurants are responsible for 40 cases of COVID-19: Greta Bar (15 cases), Earl’s Tin Palace (6 cases), The Pint (10 cases) and Local (9 cases) on Jasper Avenue.
An outbreak at a Calgary condo building, the Verve in East Village, has grown to 49 cases, 33 of which are active.
Alberta will spend billions on infrastructure projects, cut its corporate tax rate, establish a new investment agency and introduce a series of targeted incentives for industry as part of a plan to restart its battered economy.
A backlog of cattle waiting to be processed at meatpacking plants has put Alberta cattle ranchers in a tough position.
The province reported 41 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, for a total of 547 active cases.
Two areas in Alberta are under “watch” as their active cases have surpassed a rate of 50 per 100,000 people: Calgary-Centre and Edmonton-Mill Woods West.
(CBC)
What you need to know today in Alberta:
Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the province’s chief medical officer of health, said the province has decided to increase its outdoor gathering limits, just in time for Canada Day, because it was seeing little community transmission of COVID-19 at public outdoor events.
Toronto’s city council has voted to make non-medical masks mandatory indoors, and Hinshaw said Alberta municipalities can look at their own circumstances and take appropriate measures.
Small to mid-sized businesses, co-operatives and non-profits impacted by COVID-19 were able to apply for grant relief on Monday morning — but some are saying that while the support is welcome, it won’t be enough on its own.
The Alberta government’s blueprint to reboot the economy was announced Monday in Calgary.
Alberta will increase spending on infrastructure projects, cut its corporate tax rate and establish a new investment agency as part of a plan to restart its battered economy.
Alberta reported 41 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday.
In all, 154 people have died of COVID-19 in Alberta.
(CBC)
As of Tuesday, there are 547 active cases and 7,407 recovered in the province. The province has completed more than 449,000 tests for COVID-19.
Here’s how the active cases break down within provincial zones:
Edmonton zone: 246 cases.
Calgary zone: 232 cases.
North zone: 36 cases.
South zone: 28 cases.
Central zone: 4 cases
Unknown: 1 case.
Dr. Samir Gupta says Alberta’s testing may help to understand how far the coronavirus spread but he’s doubtful we’ve reached herd immunity. 8:35
What you need to know today in Canada:
Large-scale Canada Day events across the country have been cancelled, including the celebration and firewalks held yearly at Parliament Hill. Instead, a show was streamed live and will be followed by virtual fireworks.
For the past few months, WestJet has barred the sale of adjacent seats throughout entire planes and Air Canada has followed suit in economy class. Those practices are set to end tomorrow.
As of 2:15 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Canada had 104,271 confirmed and presumptive coronavirus cases. Provinces and territories listed 67,746 of the cases as recovered or resolved. A CBC News tally of deaths based on provincial reports, regional health information and CBC’s reporting stood at 8,663. Wednesday’s tally did not include Ontario cases because of the Canada Day holiday.
Canada had 103,918 confirmed and presumptive coronavirus cases as of Tuesday. (The Canadian Press/NIAID-RML via AP)
Self-assessment and supports:
Alberta Health Services has an online self-assessment tool that you can use to determine if you have symptoms of COVID-19, but testing is open to anyone, even without symptoms.
The province says Albertans who have returned to Canada from other countries must self-isolate. Unless your situation is critical and requires a call to 911, Albertans are advised to call Health Link at 811 before visiting a physician, hospital or other health-care facility.
If you have symptoms, even mild, you are to self-isolate for 10 days from the onset of symptoms.
The province also operates a confidential mental health support line at 1-877-303-2642 and addiction help line at 1-866-332-2322, available from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week.
Online resources are available for advice on handling stressful situations and ways to talk with children.
There is a 24-hour family violence information line at 310-1818 to get anonymous help in more than 170 languages, and Alberta’s One Line for Sexual Violence is available at 1-866-403-8000, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Some Ontario doctors have started offering a free shot that can protect babies from respiratory syncytial virus while Quebec will begin its immunization program next month.
The new shot called Nirsevimab gives babies antibodies that provide passive immunity to RSV, a major cause of serious lower respiratory tract infections for infants and seniors, which can cause bronchiolitis or pneumonia.
Ontario’s ministry of health says the shot is already available at some doctor’s offices in Ontario with the province’s remaining supply set to arrive by the end of the month.
Quebec will begin administering the shots on Nov. 4 to babies born in hospitals and delivery centers.
Parents in Quebec with babies under six months or those who are older but more vulnerable to infection can also book immunization appointments online.
The injection will be available in Nunavut and Yukon this fall and winter, though administration start dates have not yet been announced.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
-With files from Nicole Ireland
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Polio cases are rising ahead of a new vaccination campaign in Pakistan, where violence targeting health workers and the police protecting them has hampered years of efforts toward making the country polio-free.
Since January, health officials have confirmed 39 new polio cases in Pakistan, compared to only six last year, said Anwarul Haq of the National Emergency Operation Center for Polio Eradication.
The new nationwide drive starts Oct. 28 with the aim to vaccinate at least 32 million children. “The whole purpose of these campaigns is to achieve the target of making Pakistan a polio-free state,” he said.
Pakistan regularly launches campaigns against polio despite attacks on the workers and police assigned to the inoculation drives. Militants falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
Most of the new polio cases were reported in the southwestern Balochistan and southern Sindh province, following by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and eastern Punjab province.
The locations are worrying authorities since previous cases were from the restive northwest bordering Afghanistan, where the Taliban government in September suddenly stopped a door-to-door vaccination campaign.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are the two countries in which the spread of the potentially fatal, paralyzing disease has never been stopped. Authorities in Pakistan have said that the Taliban’s decision will have major repercussions beyond the Afghan border, as people from both sides frequently travel to each other’s country.
The World Health Organization has confirmed 18 polio cases in Afghanistan this year, all but two in the south of the country. That’s up from six cases in 2023. Afghanistan used a house-to-house vaccination strategy this June for the first time in five years, a tactic that helped to reach the majority of children targeted, according to WHO.
Health officials in Pakistan say they want the both sides to conduct anti-polio drives simultaneously.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of people with private health insurance would be able to pick up over-the-counter methods like condoms, the “morning after” pill and birth control pills for free under a new rule the White House proposed on Monday.
Right now, health insurers must cover the cost of prescribed contraception, including prescription birth control or even condoms that doctors have issued a prescription for. But the new rule would expand that coverage, allowing millions of people on private health insurance to pick up free condoms, birth control pills, or “morning after” pills from local storefronts without a prescription.
The proposal comes days before Election Day, as Vice President Kamala Harris affixes her presidential campaign to a promise of expanding women’s health care access in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to undo nationwide abortion rights two years ago. Harris has sought to craft a distinct contrast from her Republican challenger, Donald Trump, who appointed some of the judges who issued that ruling.
“The proposed rule we announce today would expand access to birth control at no additional cost for millions of consumers,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “Bottom line: women should have control over their personal health care decisions. And issuers and providers have an obligation to comply with the law.”
The emergency contraceptives that people on private insurance would be able to access without costs include levonorgestrel, a pill that needs to be taken immediately after sex to prevent pregnancy and is more commonly known by the brand name “Plan B.”
Without a doctor’s prescription, women may pay as much as $50 for a pack of the pills. And women who delay buying the medication in order to get a doctor’s prescription could jeopardize the pill’s effectiveness, since it is most likely to prevent a pregnancy within 72 hours after sex.
If implemented, the new rule would also require insurers to fully bear the cost of the once-a-day Opill, a new over-the-counter birth control pill that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved last year. A one-month supply of the pills costs $20.
Federal mandates for private health insurance to cover contraceptive care were first introduced with the Affordable Care Act, which required plans to pick up the cost of FDA-approved birth control that had been prescribed by a doctor as a preventative service.
The proposed rule would not impact those on Medicaid, the insurance program for the poorest Americans. States are largely left to design their own rules around Medicaid coverage for contraception, and few cover over-the-counter methods like Plan B or condoms.
