Good evening, these are the top coronavirus headlines tonight:
Top headlines:
- New research hopes to demystify diagnosis and treatment of long COVID
- China’s President Xi frets about COVID-19 in rural areas, but sees ‘light ahead’
- Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she won’t pursue COVID-19 pardon legislation on advice from justice officials
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
- Doctors should better familiarize themselves with the symptoms of long COVID, according to the lead author of a newly published papers that aim to help clinicians diagnose, assess and treat the condition.
- President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday he was particularly concerned about China’s COVID-19 wave spreading to rural areas with poor medical facilities but he urged perseverance in stressful times. Meanwhile, some doctors in China say they are being discouraged from citing COVID-19 induced respiratory failure on death certificates.
- Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she won’t introduce legislation to pardon those convicted of COVID-19 public health violations because she has been advised to let the courts handle it.
- The unusually early influenza outbreak in British Columbia last month is on the decline, but another wave of infections is expected within weeks, said Dr. Bonnie Henry. This year’s flu hit young people early and hard, said Dr. Henry, likely due to their lack of immunity after two years of COVID-19 prevention protocols.
- A safety monitoring system flagged that Pfizer and BioNTech’s updated COVID-19 vaccine could be linked to a type of brain stroke in older adults, according to preliminary data analyzed by U.S. health authorities.
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Pandemic recovery
- The biggest companies in Canada have increased their sales and profits by leaps and bounds over the course of the pandemic, according to a Globe and Mail study of the financial statements of more than 200 publicly traded companies.
- The lifting of COVID restrictions in China is set to boost global oil demand this year to a new record high, the International Energy Agency said on Wednesday.
- Beijing’s decision to relax travel restrictions has sparked excitement among Canadian restaurants, hotels, tour operators and others who cater to China’s deep-pocketed tourists, but the rebound in travel from China is unlikely to be quick.
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More reading
- Tens of thousands of nurses across England walked out of hospitals on Wednesday, on strike over low pay that they say leaves them struggling to cover their bills and extreme stress at work that has pushed many to the edge.
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
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