Good evening, these are the top coronavirus headlines tonight:
Top headlines:
- Blood donations suggest 73 per cent of Canadians have had COVID-19
- As demand for COVID-19 shots wanes, underserved communities face multiple barriers again
- COVID-zero is gone. Can China get its economy back on track in 2023?
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
- While many Canadians are finding it easier than ever to get COVID-19 shots, access to vaccines and boosters has dwindled for some. For underserved populations, the return of barriers is creating challenges at an inopportune time, some experts say.
- Almost three-quarters of Canadians have now had COVID-19, although far fewer seniors have caught the coronavirus, tests of blood donations show.
- The World Health Organization said on Monday that COVID-19 continues to constitute a public health emergency of international concern, its highest form of alert.
- Ontario has released a billing code for doctors to use when diagnosing long COVID – a move doctors and advocates say is a crucial first step to better understanding, treating and destigmatizing a growing problem. Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore said the code will allow researchers to follow patients with long COVID over time.
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Pandemic recovery
- The Canada Revenue Agency says it is not worth the effort to conduct a full review of more than $15-billion in pandemic wage benefits the Auditor-General has said may have been sent to ineligible recipients. The Auditor-General’s report found $4.6-billion in overpayments to ineligible recipients.
- Vaccine hesitancy, fuelled by misinformation and conspiracy theories, led to thousands of unnecessary deaths and hospital stays and cost the health care system at least $300-million during two COVID-19 waves in 2021, according to a new report.
- Public Safety Canada and the Canadian Armed Forces were caught off guard by a request for help from Saskatchewan during the height of the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in October, 2021.
- Normalcy is finally returning to China, after years of some of the world’s toughest COVID-19 policies were relaxed in the final weeks of 2022. But as the sense of whiplash – and resulting infections – begins to fade, the question is whether the country can get its economy back on track.
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Globe opinion
André Picard: Is COVID-19 still a global health emergency?
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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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Samantha Edwards