The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world on Friday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.
7 am A wave of unvaccinated workers have filed wrongful termination lawsuits in protest of their employers’ vaccination mandates, but lawyers say courts are likely to prioritize public safety measures over the hardships of laid-off employees.
Canadian employers began laying off unvaccinated workers in late October after a series of corporate titans, including several of the largest banks, airlines, rail operators and automakers, warned employees over the summer that they had a matter of months to get fully vaccinated or face penalties.
Since then, workplaces across the country have faced pushback from employees and their unions over vaccine mandates they say violate their pre-existing agreements with their employers.
Read the full story of Star’s Jacob Lorinc
5:59 a.m.: Homeless and vulnerable people in British Columbia and Alberta have received offers of payment to get vaccinated against COVID-19 from those trying to fraudulently obtain a vaccination card.
Vancouver Coastal Health said Thursday that those it has contacted have been asked to get vaccinated while falsely using that person’s name and information.
“This behavior is deplorable and we are disappointed that someone would take advantage of vulnerable people in this way in an attempt to circumvent the process of receiving a BC Vaccine Card,” the health authority said in a statement.
“Future cases of fraud may be referred to local law enforcement authorities for follow-up.”
5:59 a.m.: An imminent return to classroom learning has prompted some Manitoba parents to reserve early follow-up COVID-19 shots for their young children, but public health officials say the wait is worth it.
Both Canada and Manitoba, according to the National Advisory Committee on Immunization and the Manitoba Pediatric Vaccine Advisory Committee, initially recommended an interval of eight weeks or 56 days between the first and second vaccinations for youth ages five to 11, the population most recent to be eligible for a puncture. The above recently reaffirmed their support for such a deadline, following reviews of Omicron’s guidance and consideration.
With that in mind, and with November 24 being the first day that children’s doses were administered in Manitoba, second doses will begin to ramp up later this month.
5:58 a.m.: Winnipeg schools are requesting that families only accept the rapid tests being distributed to K-6 students if they plan to use them and return unused kits that they do not intend to use, to address high demand and limited supply.
Before classes were suspended at the end of 2021, the Manitoba government announced the launch of an optional back-to-school testing program that would provide primary school students with rapid antigen tests.
The province said it had ordered more than 90,000 kits, each containing five tests, from the federal government, enough to ensure that all students enrolled in kindergarten through sixth grade in a public school or one run by a division of First Nations in Manitoba they could receive a kit.
Officials did not confirm Wednesday how many of the kits were obtained and distributed to schools.
5:57 a.m.: China further tightened its anti-pandemic measures in Beijing and across the country on Friday as scattered outbreaks continued ahead of the Winter Olympics opening in just over two weeks.
The actions appear to reflect nervousness over a possible spike in cases ahead of the Beijing Games.
Beijing has ordered children at international schools to be tested starting next week and has barred air passengers from transiting through a third checkpoint. Citizens are told to travel only if absolutely necessary, with no guarantee that they will be allowed to return if they are found to have visited a city or region where an outbreak occurred.
The city of Tianjin, an hour from the capital, has ordered a third round of mass testing starting Saturday morning to be completed within 24 hours.
A manufacturing and port hub with 14 million people, Tianjin is one of half a dozen cities where the government is imposing lockdowns and other restrictions as part of a policy to track every virus case.
Its proximity to Beijing is particularly worrying and authorities have cut all travel links between it and the Olympic host city following the discovery of 126 cases in recent days, all apparently of the highly contagious omicron variant.
5:54 a.m.: Israel has administered a fourth dose of vaccine to more than 500,000 people, the Health Ministry said on Friday.
Israel began administering second boosters to the most vulnerable late last month and then began offering them to everyone over 60.
Authorities hope that the additional reinforcements will stop a wave of infections driven by the omicron variant. Health Ministry figures show that Israel currently has some 260,000 active cases. But only 289 patients are listed as seriously ill, far fewer than in previous waves.
Israel was one of the first countries to roll out vaccines a year ago and began widely offering third doses last summer in a bid to contain the Delta variant. Nearly half the population has received at least one booster shot.
5:53 a.m.: Tens of thousands of devout Hindus, led by ash-smeared monastery heads and ascetics, took a holy dip in the frigid waters of the Ganges River in northern India on Friday despite a surge in COVID-19 infections in the country. .
Hindu pilgrims gathered at the Sangam, the confluence of three rivers – the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati – in the city of Prayagraj, 200 km (124 miles) northeast of Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh state, to participate in the Magh Mela festival, one of the most sacred pilgrimages in Hinduism. They bathed in the waters of the Ganges, a ritual Hindus believe will wash away their sins and free them from the cycle of death and rebirth.
A similar gathering at a Hindu festival last year in the Himalayan city of Haridwar in the neighboring state of Uttarakhand helped spread the Delta variant that has ravaged the country and made India one of the worst-affected countries in the world. . Epidemiologists described the festival as a “superspreader event.”
5:52 a.m.: To mask or not to mask is a question that Italy resolved at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak with a resounding “yes”. Now Europe’s one-time epicenter of the pandemic is hoping even stricter mask rules will help it beat back the latest wave of infections.
Other countries are taking similar steps as the more transmissible, though apparently less virulent, omicron variant spreads across the continent.
With Italy’s hospital intensive care units rapidly filling up with mostly unvaccinated COVID-19 patients, the government announced on Christmas Eve that FFP2 masks, which offer wearers more protection than cloth or surgical masks, they must be used on public transportation, including airplanes, trains, ferries, and subways. .
That’s despite the fact that all passengers in Italy, as of this week, must be vaccinated or have recently recovered from COVID-19. FFP2s must now also be worn in theaters, cinemas and sporting events, indoors or outdoors, and cannot be removed even for eating or drinking.
5:51 a.m.: Cambodia began a fourth round of coronavirus vaccines in response to the omicron variant on Friday, with high-risk groups among the first to receive the additional boosters.
Front-line medical personnel and members of the military were among those lining up at hospitals and clinics. Government ministers, including Prime Minister Hun Sen, also received booster doses on Friday.
Hun Sen called on all Cambodians to get fully vaccinated, including a booster, saying on his Facebook page that it is the only way to make sure they keep their families and communities safe from COVID-19. A campaign for people to get their third injections is still ongoing.
5:50 a.m.: Two members of the US Marine Corps have received religious exemptions from the Pentagon’s vaccine mandate, the first of their kind since the mandate was introduced last summer.
According to officials, 95% of active duty Marines, the military branch with the most hesitancy to COVID-19 vaccines, are vaccinated against COVID. About 97% of the 1.3 million active duty service members in the United States have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
Thousands of US soldiers across the military have sought religious exemptions from the vaccine, but none had been approved as of this week. There have been 3,350 requests for religious accommodations in the Marines.
“The Marine Corps recognizes COVID-19 as a preparedness issue. The speed with which the disease is spreading between people has increased the risk to our Marines and the mission of the Marine Corps,” Maj. Jim Stenger, a spokesman for the Marine Corps, said Thursday in a written statement. .
He added that 88% of Marines hospitalized for complications from the virus were not vaccinated.
Friday 5:49 a.m.: South Korea will slightly ease its coronavirus gathering restrictions starting next week, but will continue to maintain a 9 p.m. curfew at restaurants and entertainment venues as it braces for a possible spike in infections driven by the variant. contagious omicron.
Health Minister Kwon Deok-cheol said Friday that the four-person limit on private social gatherings between fully vaccinated people will be raised to six for at least three weeks from Monday.
While officials have acknowledged frustration and fatigue with prolonged virus restrictions and damage to small businesses, they say they can’t afford to further relax social distancing rules when the country may face a major wave of cases in the coming weeks as omicron continues to spread.
Read Thursday’s coronavirus news.
Reference-www.thestar.com