COVID-19 cases are surging across Canada, spurred by the emergence of the Omicron variant.
British Columbia, Quebec and Newfoundland imposed additional public health restrictions on Monday.
The restrictions in B.C., announced by provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry on Friday, are in effect until Jan. 31.
They include:
• Limits on indoor personal gatherings, including at rental and vacation properties. Such gatherings should only be one household plus 10 individuals, or one additional household. Everyone age 12 and older should have received two doses of COVID-19 vaccine.
• B.C. Vaccine Card required for entry at organized events of all sizes; QR codes should be scanned.
• At food and liquor establishments with table service, patrons can not go to other tables; masks need to be worn when not seated.
• Seating limited to 50% at venues with a capacity of 1,000 and up.
• Sports tournaments can not be held.
• New Year's Eve organized gatherings must be seated-only events; no mingling or dancing allowed.
• Retail stores are being urged to have COVID-19 safety plans in effect for holiday sales.
Ontario, meanwhile, is expanding COVID-19 vaccine booster eligibility to all adults, provided it's been at least three months since they received their second dose.
In B.C., boosters have been going to the elderly and the most-at-risk. Invitations will expand beginning in January to all British Columbians age 12 and up.
Canada reported thousands of new cases of COVID-19 over the weekend as the Omicron variant continued its rapid spread.
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NHL shuts down until Christmas Day
The Canadian Press
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TORONTO — The NHL and the National Hockey League Players’ Association have announced the suspension of all operations from Wednesday to Sunday amid an increase of positive COVID-19 tests.
The league and players’ association announced in a joint statement Monday night that all NHL team facilities will be closed until Boxing Day,
The league’s decision will result in five additional NHL games being postponed — all were scheduled to be played on Thursday. All four matches on Wednesday had already been postponed.
The league’s holiday break was initially scheduled to begin Friday and end Sunday.
The NHL has been forced to scrub 49 games this season, with 44 announced since Dec. 13.
After the shutdown, practices can resume Sunday afternoon and games are scheduled to resume next Monday. When team facilities reopen, all people travelling with the team will only be able to access the facility by showing a negative COVID-19 test result.
The two remaining games on the schedule before the new holiday break are today when the Philadelphia Flyers host the Washington Capitals, and the Tampa Bay Lightning are in Las Vegas.
Prior to the league-wide shutdown, the Montreal Canadiens, Edmonton Oilers, Ottawa Senators and Columbus Blue Jackets were the latest teams sidelined by COVID-19. They joined the Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins, Colorado Avalanche, Detroit Red Wings, Florida Panthers and Nashville Predators.
The Calgary Flames, who have endured the largest outbreak across the league with 32 people impacted, had re-opened their facility to members of the organization that had remained negative throughout daily testing. But that facility will be closed again until Boxing Day.
Ottawa and the New York Islanders were previously shut down by the league because of COVID-19 outbreaks earlier in the fall.
The NHL and the NHL Players’ Association previously said in a joint statement the plan was to avoid a full-league shutdown, instead choosing to continue halting team activities on a case-by-case basis.
Unlike last season, the league isn’t providing a daily count of players in COVID-19 protocol, but the number currently stands at roughly 15 per cent.
The NHL issued a statement Monday when announcing the Canadiens and Blue Jackets would be shuttered that repeated a line that’s been used over the last week. It indicated the decision was made “due to concern with the number of positive cases within the last several days as well as concern for continued COVID spread.”
Columbus was supposed to visit Buffalo on Monday, but cancelled its morning skate while awaiting test results, some 24 hours after scrapping practice due to virus concerns. The Blue Jackets were also scheduled to host the Sabres on Thursday.
The Oilers then announced defencemen Darnell Nurse and William Lagesson have been added to protocol, joining five teammates and head coach Dave Tippett. Edmonton had already planned to close its facility through the Christmas break.
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Quebec shuts bars, movie theatres, no spectators at sport events
By Sidhartha Banerjee and Jacob Serebrin
The Canadian Press
MONTREAL - Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé announced tough new restrictions Monday in an effort to stem the rapid growth of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in the province, and he warned further measures may come soon.
Dubé called the situation "critical" as he announced that bars, movie theatres and other entertainment venues were to close as of 5 p.m. Monday. Restaurants will be allowed to operate at 50 per cent capacity but will be required to close by 10 p.m.
"With the increase of cases and hospitalizations, we must put in place new measures," Dubé told a virtual news conference, adding that half of the dedicated COVID-19 beds in the province's hospitals are now occupied.
He urged Quebecers not to get discouraged and to stay strong. "We are eight million people in Quebec, and we are at war," he said. "It is war right now against the virus."
He said the arrival of the Omicron variant has completely changed the game in the past week. Vaccines that offered 70 per cent protection against symptomatic infection from the Delta variant of the novel coronavirus are believed to offer only 30 per cent protection against Omicron, he said.
The province's elementary schools and high schools will close effective Tuesday, with in-person learning scheduled to resume Jan. 10, but schools will remain accessible until the holiday break for vaccinations or distributing rapid tests to students.
Spectators will not be permitted to attend professional or amateur sporting events, and gyms and spas will also shutter. Remote work, which before was recommended by authorities, is now mandatory.
The new measures came hours after previously announced restrictions took effect that included reducing capacity by half in bars, restaurants, retail stores, places of worship and entertainment venues.
Asked if the province should have announced additional restrictions last week, Dubé said the situation is changing rapidly.
"We're doing the best every day to adjust," he said. He added that more restrictions may come soon.
"I'm warning all Quebecers, tonight we're having a meeting with our experts and we'll have additional information, and based on that additional information, we'll make, again, tough decisions," he said.
The Monday evening briefing was to include projections for virus spread in the province that incorporate new research about the Omicron variant. "To be honest, they will probably not be encouraging," he said.
Plans are also being made in hospitals, Dubé said, to postpone non-urgent surgeries and other procedures to free up staff to treat COVID-19 patients.
For the moment, Dubé said, private gatherings of up to 10 people remain allowed, but he encouraged people who plan to see their friends and family over the holidays to gather in the smallest groups possible, and he warned that the limit could be reduced.
Quebec reported 4,571 COVID-19 cases Monday, the most since the beginning of the pandemic. The province analyzed more than 45,000 tests on Sunday, with 10.1 per cent of them coming back positive for COVID-19.
Quebec's testing resources are now at capacity, Dubé said, adding that anyone testing positive is being asked to notify people with whom they have been in contact, as contact-tracing staff are overwhelmed.
Along with the new restrictions, Quebec is continuing to expand access to third doses of COVID-19 vaccines, opening up booster shots to people 65 and over on Monday, as well as family caregivers of people who live in long-term care centres and first responders.
While the province plans to administer booster shots to all adults, Daniel Paré, the head of Quebec's vaccination campaign, said he didn't have a timeline for when people under 60 would be able to get their third dose, saying only it would happen "as soon as possible" and that the province still needs more vaccinators.
Earlier in the day, Quebec began distributing rapid COVID-19 tests to the general public. However, some Montreal pharmacies were out of tests within an hour of opening. Paré said more tests will be distributed as they are received from the federal government.
The Health Department reported three more deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus and said 21 more people entered hospital, bringing total hospitalizations to 397. There were 82 COVID-19 patients in intensive care, an increase of three.
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Victorians hesitate about holiday get-togethers
Roxanne Egan-Elliott, Times Colonist
Some Victoria residents are feeling anxious and uncertain about having even small get-togethers this holiday season as they watch COVID-19 case counts rise and new restrictions are announced.
Amity Skala was planning to celebrate the holidays with just her husband and her parents, but even that small group has her parents worrying.
“They’re just feeling vulnerable, so I don’t think they even want us to come over. That would have just been the four of us,” she said.
B.C. announced new measures to take effect Monday aimed at curbing the spread of COVID‑19 amid the rise of Omicron, the newest variant of concern, believed to be much more transmissible. The restrictions include limiting indoor social gatherings to 10 visitors or one household in addition to the host household.
While many people were planning small gatherings that are still allowed under the new rules, the changes are causing some to think twice about their plans.
“It feels harder this year, because last year, there were very clear restrictions, and this year it seems like there’s a lot more negotiating going on,” Skala said. “I was talking to a friend the other day and she was invited to a whole bunch of tiny Christmas parties, and she’s saying I don’t want to go to all of them, but I can’t see all my friends the way I normally do.”
Other measures taking effect Monday through the end of January include restricting New Year’s Eve celebrations to seated-only events with no dancing or mingling between tables, which has caused the Fairmont Empress Hotel to cancel their gala to ring in the new year.
The event featured a seated dinner and entertainment, but with some groups booking more than one table, it would have been difficult to monitor mingling, said Brigitte Guy, manager of marketing and public relations for the hotel.
“We understand some people might be disappointed about the New Year’s Eve but we do need to make sure that our guests and employees stay healthy and safe,” Guy said.
The roughly 80 guests who had purchased tickets to the event are being automatically refunded.
Christmas dinners and brunches are expected to go ahead at the hotel.
Sports tournaments are another casualty of the new restrictions. Several hockey tournaments set to take place on the Island this month are cancelled, some just days before they were meant to begin.
The Comox Valley Minor Hockey Association has cancelled two tournaments scheduled to start just after Christmas.
Simon Morgan, the association’s registrar, said local players and those who planned to travel to Courtenay for the tournaments will likely be disappointed by the cancellation. The association managed to have a couple of tournaments in the fall, “and you could see the enjoyment on the players’ faces” to compete against teams from out of town, Morgan said.
“It does change the complexion of things a little bit, but we have to be safe. Safe is the number one issue,” he said.
regan-elliott@timescolonist.com
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Israel imposes ban on travel to Canada, U.S., eight other countries
The Associated Press
Israeli ministers on Monday agreed to ban travel to the United States, Canada and eight other countries amid the rapid, global spread of the Omicron variant.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s office announced the decision following a Cabinet vote.
The move comes amid rising coronavirus infections in Israel. Canada and the U.S. will join a growing list of European countries and other destinations to which Israelis are barred from travelling to, and from which returning travellers must go into quarantine.
A parliamentary committee is expected to give the measure final approval. Once authorized, the travel ban will take effect at midnight Wednesday morning.
Israel has seen a surge in new cases of the more infectious coronavirus variant in recent weeks, and began closing its borders and restricting travel in late November. Foreign nationals are not allowed to enter, and all Israelis arriving from overseas are required to quarantine — including people who are vaccinated.
Other countries that were approved to be added to the travel ban starting Wednesday are Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Switzerland and Turkey.
Israel rolled out a world-leading vaccination campaign early this year, and more than 4.1 million of Israel’s 9.3 million people have received a third dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
In a prime-time address on Sunday, the prime minister urged parents to vaccinate their children, declaring that the country’s “fifth wave” of coronavirus infections had begun. As of Sunday, Israel’s Health Ministry has reported 175 cases of the new variant.
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