Good evening, these are the top coronavirus headlines tonight:
Top headlines:
- “The pandemic is over,” U.S. President Joe Biden said during an interview on CBS’s 60 Minutes. The comment was made last Wednesday, at a time when nearly 400 people a day continue to die from COVID-19 in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Ontario is currently mulling a long COVID strategy for people whose symptoms persist for long after they are infected, says the province’s chief medical officer of health, noting that standardized treatment and funding decisions could be made soon
- A government vehicle transporting people under COVID-19 quarantine crashed early Sunday morning in southwestern China – killing 27 people and injuring the 20 others on board
An increasing number of health agencies have changed how they're reporting data on the coronavirus. A look at the current numbers in Canada for reported cases, deaths from COVID-19 and for hospitalizations can be found here.
COVID-19 updates from Canada and the world
- U.S. President Joe Biden said in an interview that aired on Sunday that “the pandemic is over,” even though the country continues to grapple with coronavirus infections that kill hundreds of Americans daily. The toll of the COVID-19 pandemic has diminished significantly since early in Biden’s term when more than 3,000 Americans per day were dying, as enhanced care, medications and vaccinations have become more widely available. On Monday, Dr. Anthony Fauci said “we’re dealing with a very complicated situation” and warned of another, new variant that could come this fall.
- Ontario health officials are currently in the process of defining long COVID, and creating standardized treatment protocols. “We’re trying to create a standardization of how to define what long COVID is, what would be the major symptoms, whether they’re neurologic, cardiac or respiratory that we’d like to have treatment protocols for,” Chief Medical Officer of Health Kieran Moore said.
- The sexual assault trial of Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin, who was abruptly removed as head of the federal government’s COVID-19 vaccine campaign in May, 2021 over an unspecified “military investigation,” began today.
- An official government vehicle transporting people under COVID-19 quarantine in China crashed, killing 27 people, and is now sparking anger online, with many holding it up as an example of the dangers of China’s draconian COVID-19 policies.
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Pandemic recovery
- China’s government issued draft rules today aimed at making it easier for some foreigners to enter China for visits to tourism sites along the Chinese border. The country had shut its borders to foreign tourists since the outbreak of the new coronavirus in 2020.
- The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development warned Monday that the coronavirus pandemic, Russia’s war against Ukraine and climate change are putting intense pressure on the world’s poorest. Only one in three people in fragile places have received COVID vaccines, compared with three of four in the relatively wealthy 38 OECD countries.
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Globe opinion
Angela Rasmussen And Michael Worobey: COVID-19 almost certainly did not come from a lab leak. Here’s how we know
Doug Saunders: How the pandemic may have made government agencies better at their jobs
Adam Bisby: Hallelujah! My spouse is returning to the office
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Information centre
- Everything you need to know about Canada’s travel rules for vaccinated and unvaccinated people
- When will COVID-19 be endemic? The four factors that will shape the virus’s future
- Wastewater is filling the COVID-19 data gap
Thank you for subscribing to our Coronavirus Update Newsletter. As the pandemic eases, we plan to wind this down and eventually cease sending, but have many other newsletters to keep you informed, including Globe Climate, Carrick on Money and Breaking News.
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