Arabnews24.ca:Saturday 23 October 2021 10:02 AM: The latest:
- Canadians who had allergic reaction to first vaccine dose can safely get second, advisory committee says.
- The House of Commons vaccine rule puts O'Toole in an awkward spot.
Members of the Canadian Armed Forces will be deployed to Saskatchewan to help battle the province's fourth wave of COVID-19, Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair said.
Blair said on Twitter Friday night that the federal government approved "a request for federal assistance to support the people of Saskatchewan" and that "we will have more to say on the situation in Saskatchewan shortly."
He said talks were also underway with the province to provide additional personnel from the Canadian Red Cross.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also tweeted on Friday night that members of the Armed Forces would be https://twitter.com/JustinTrudeau/status/1451739750398824454?s=20.
Saskatchewan health officials reported 12 new COVID-19-related deaths on Friday, making it the third-deadliest day the province has seen since the start of the pandemic. In total, 308 people are currently hospitalized with the illness in the province.
Starting early next week, up to three intensive care unit patients a day will transferred from Saskatchewan to hospitals in Ontario. These transfers would add to the six COVID-19 ICU patients moved out east earlier this week, along with the additional three expected over the weekend.
The Saskatchewan Health Authority said Friday it may activate the next stage of its triage plan, as COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to overwhelm the health-care system.
Derek Miller, the authority's chief of emergency operations, said a committee made up of doctors and ethicists is set to prepare a formal recommendation to move to the second stage of triage.
The province has been operating under the first stage for several months, which involves cancelling surgeries to free up bed space and health-care workers to focus on COVID-19 cases.
The second stage would involves doctor consulting with ethicists about who does and does not get life-saving care.
"It's absolutely shocking, and there's no other way to describe the direction Saskatchewan is headed," Dr. Katharine Smart, president of the Canadian Medical Association, said from her home in Whitehorse.
Officials from Saskatchewan's emergency operations centre wouldn't comment to The Canadian Press about when triage could start.
What's happening across Canada
WATCH | Ontario announces plans to lift all COVID-19 restrictions by end of March 2022:
Ontario announces plans to lift all COVID-19 restrictions by end of March 2022
Sen. Josée Forest-Niesing, 56, of Sudbury, Ont., is in hospital after contracting COVID-19, despite being fully vaccinated earlier this year. Her office said she is no longer in intensive care.
Ontario reported that just 2.4 per cent of COVID-19 cases reported since last December involved people who had received two doses of an approved vaccine.
Newfoundland and Labrador's vaccine https://twitter.com/PeterCBC/status/1451328374429921285?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet. The passport system must now be used at places like restaurants, bars, bingo halls and performance spaces. The system uses a QR code containing a person's vaccination status, which can be downloaded and stored in an app.
Businesses can use another app to scan the code and permit entry.
The province on Friday reported 30 new cases of COVID-19 over two days. At a surprise afternoon coronavirus briefing, Newfoundland and Labrador's chief medical officer of health said there is an emerging COVID-19 cluster in the Marystown area made up of mostly students under 12.
What's happening around the world
As of Saturday morning, more than 243 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide, according to a case-tracker maintained by Johns Hopkins University. The reported global death toll stood at more than 4.9 million.
In the Americas, U.S. federal health regulators said late Friday that doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine intended for children appear highly effective at preventing symptomatic infections in elementary school children and caused no unexpected safety issues, as the United States weighs beginning vaccinations in kids.
WATCH | Pfizer releases clinical trial data for COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 5 to 11:
Pfizer releases clinical trial data for COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 5 to 11
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) posted its analysis of Pfizer's data ahead of a public meeting next week to debate whether the shots are ready for the country's roughly 28 million children ages 5 to 11. The agency will ask a panel of outside vaccine experts to vote on that question.
The FDA review affirmed results from Pfizer posted earlier in the day saying the two-dose vaccine showed 90.7 per cent efficacy at preventing symptomatic infections in children of that age group.
In Asia, South Korea said on Saturday that it has achieved its goal of vaccinating 70 per cent of its 52 million people, paving the way for a planned return to normal activities starting Nov. 1.
South Korea has largely managed to cope with the pandemic successfully without imposing lockdowns seen in many other parts of the world on the back of intensive testing and tracing.
But it has struggled to suppress its fourth COVID-19 wave since last summer, with new daily cases topping 3,000 for the first time last month, although they brought fewer critical cases and deaths.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency reported 1,508 new cases for Friday.
In Europe, Russia is reporting a record high number of COVID-19 infections and deaths. The national coronavirus task force said Saturday that 1,075 people had died from the virus in the past day and that 37,678 new infections were tallied — the largest single-day numbers of the pandemic.
Ukraine's coronavirus infections and deaths reached all-time highs for a second straight day Friday. Ukrainian health authorities reported 23,785 new confirmed infections and 614 deaths. Authorities in the capital Kyiv shut schools for two weeks, starting Friday.
Unvaccinated people in Austria could face new lockdown restrictions if COVID-19 case numbers in ICUs continue to rise, Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg said Friday night.
