Coronavirus: What's happening in Canada and around the world on Wednesday
The Associated Press | Posted: August 25, 2021 11:32 AM | Last Updated: August 26, 2021
B.C. sees big jump in vaccination bookings after announcing COVID-19 vaccine passport
The latest:
- Mandatory masking to start Thursday in N.W.T.
- Sask. health minister says signs point to 4th wave, cites personal freedoms as reason against mandates.
- China denounces U.S. 'politicization' of COVID-19 origin tracing efforts.
- Diamond Princess cruise ship won't sail again until next year.
- Yukon government to end COVID-19 state of emergency.
- Montreal public health director says city already seeing steeper rise in cases than last fall.
- Not true that Ontario plans to implement vaccine certificates, province says.
- New York's new governor adds 12,000 COVID-19 deaths to state's previous tally.
- Have a coronavirus question or news tip for CBC News? Email: COVID@cbc.ca.
A pending move to require British Columbians to show proof of vaccination for a wide range of social and recreational activities seems to have spurred a lot of people to sign up for a shot.
Since Monday, the number of people registering for the vaccination program or booking appointments each day has jumped by as much as 201 per cent compared to a week earlier, according to a statement from the province. The biggest jumps, the government says, have been in people under the age of 40.
On Monday, officials announced that proof of vaccination would be required to do things like eating at a restaurant, seeing a movie in the theatre or taking part in a fitness class.
-From CBC News, last updated at 8:35 p.m. ET
What's happening in Canada
WATCH | Several provinces bring back mask mandates:
- COVID-19 booster now available for higher-risk Ottawa residents.
- COVID-19 in Indigenous communities: Active cases in First Nations communities on the rise.
- 'I didn't want him to go yet': N.W.T. family mourns patriarch, territory's 1st death from COVID-19
- Low wages, instability to blame for restaurant industry labour shortage, workers say.
- Manitoba ICUs could be overwhelmed during 4th wave without more vaccinations, modelling suggests.
- Travellers to Canada doubled after border reopened to Americans.
- How Quebec's vaccine passport will work, and where it will apply.
- Toronto Police Service announces mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy for all members.
What's happening around the world
As of Wednesday evening, more than 213.7 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University. The reported global death toll stood at more than 4.4 million.
In the Middle East, COVID-19 vaccinations in Afghanistan have dropped by 80 per cent in the first week following the Taliban conquest of Kabul, the UN agency UNICEF said, warning that half of the few doses delivered to the country so far are close to expiry.
A study from Israel says COVID-19 carries a far higher risk of heart inflammation than Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine.
Researchers in Tel Aviv estimate there were three cases of inflammation for every 100,000 people vaccinated with the Pfizer shot. But the risk of it was 11 per 100,000 in people who were infected with the virus. The findings were published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Previous reports have linked the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to inflammation of the heart muscle. The problem was mainly seen in male teens and young men, who developed chest pain a few days after vaccination.
In the Americas, Uruguay is once again starting to dance. The government last week authorized ballrooms and event halls to open as the country's COVID-19 death rate — once among the highest in the world per capita — has fallen sharply. Seventy per cent of Uruguayans have received both doses of vaccine against the virus, and once-overstressed hospitals now have empty beds.
Bolivia's Congress on Wednesday approved a government-backed law that allows citizens to withdraw up to 15 per cent of their privately-held pension funds to help them overcome the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns.
Pfizer is seeking U.S. approval of a booster dose of its two-shot COVID-19 vaccine. The drugmaker said Wednesday that it has started the application process for a third dose of its vaccine for everyone 16 and older.
In Europe, the international scientists dispatched to China by the World Health Organization (WHO) to find out where the coronavirus came from say the search has stalled and warned that the window of opportunity for solving it is "closing fast."
In a commentary published in the journal Nature, WHO-recruited experts said the origins investigation is at "a critical juncture" requiring urgent collaboration but has instead come to a standstill. They noted, among other things, that Chinese officials are still reluctant to share some raw data, citing concerns about patient confidentiality.
In their analysis, published in March, the team from WHO concluded that the virus likely jumped to humans from animals and described the possibility of a laboratory leak as "extremely unlikely."
But WHO experts say their report was intended only as a first step, noting that further delays "will render some of the studies biologically impossible."
In the Asia-Pacific region, Vietnam is offering patients who have recovered from the coronavirus a monthly allowance if they agree to stay on at stretched hospitals to help health workers struggling to cope with an influx of infected people.
South Korea has reported 2,155 new coronavirus cases, nearly matching a record daily increase set earlier this month amid an alarming spread of infections. With Wednesday's report, the country has tallied more than 1,000 new cases for 50 consecutive days, including a record 2,221 on Aug. 11.
Japan expanded its coronavirus state of emergency on Wednesday for the second week in a row, adding eight more prefectures as a surge in infections fuelled by the delta variant strains the country's health-care system. The government last week extended the state of emergency until Sept. 12 and expanded the areas covered to 13 prefectures, up from six, including Tokyo. With four new prefectures added to a separate "quasi-emergency" status, 33 of Japan's 47 prefectures are now under some type of emergency measures.
Pakistan on Wednesday reported 141 deaths from COVID-19, one of its highest tallies since May. According to Pakistan's National Command Operation Centre, more than 4,000 new coronavirus infections were also reported in the past 24 hours.
In Africa, Nigeria has recently approved China's Sinopharm vaccine against COVID-19.
-From The Associated Press, Reuters and CBC News, last updated at 9:30 p.m. ET