Whether in Quebec or elsewhere on the planet, the COVID-19 pandemic has been disrupting our lives for nearly two years
Here you will find all the news throughout the day related to this crisis affecting the population, governments and the economy.
LAST REVIEW 9:41
PLANETARY
Case: 298 040 180
Dead: 5,467,613
UNITED STATES
Case: 57 762 144
Dead: 832,148
CANADA
Ontario: 828,032 cases (10,252 deaths)
Quebec: 680,308 cases (11,820 deaths)
Alberta: approximately 379,374 cases (3,322 deaths)
British Columbia: 266,710 cases (2,427 deaths)
Saskatchewan: 87,167 cases (960 deaths)
Manitoba: 87,263 cases (1,400 deaths)
Nova Scotia: 20,658 cases (111 deaths)
New Brunswick: 17,566 cases (165 deaths)
Newfoundland and Labrador: 6,075 cases (20 deaths)
Northwest Territories: 2,419 cases (12 deaths)
Yukon: 1944 cases (15 deaths)
Prince Edward Island: 1,862 cases
Nunavut: 900 cases (4 deaths)
Canadian returnees: 13 cases
Total: approximately 2,380,291 cases (30,476 deaths)
NEWS
The pharmacist Diane Lamarre explains how to use rapid tests that several Quebecers have received in recent weeks.
9h30 | Around 3,000 COVID beds within two weeks
Within two weeks, more than 3,000 hospital beds could be occupied by COVID patients, including more than 400 in intensive care, according to projections by the National Institute of Excellence in Health and Social Services (INESSS)
INESSS specifies in these communications that the effects of the health measures implemented recently are not yet visible in the data presented today.
8h20 | YOUR OPINION | “I-don’t care has limits”
Influencers are returning from Mexico following a controversial trip where they were seen partying on the flight. Airlines have denied them access to return to the country, while Transport Canada is studying the sanctions that could be taken.
Would you crack down on them? The question, posed on the Quebec Matin Facebook page, provoked many reactions.
8h16 | Confusion over screening: citizens show up at clinics despite instructions to the contrary
Confusion reigns around the new guidelines for PCR testing, so many citizens still showed up at walk-in clinics today, even though these tests were to be reserved for essential workers.
7h40 | Now is the turn of 50 to 54 year olds to make an appointment for their 3rd dose
Quebecers aged 50 to 54 can now make an appointment on Clic Santé to obtain their booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Joël Lemay / QMI Agency
6:29 am | India: political rallies canceled amid COVID-19 outbreak
Campaign rallies were called off Thursday in central India amid a sudden surge in COVID cases blamed on the Omicron variant, with the daily number of new infections nearly tripling in two days.
India has recorded a total of more than 90,000 new cases in the past 24 hours, Bombay, the financial capital of the country, recording a record since the start of the pandemic with 15,166 new infections in a single day.
6h26 | Party aboard a plane: “I fuck you big”
Influencers from Cancun who managed to catch a flight despite the ban on airlines were expected by the authorities on their arrival at Montreal airport.
According to our information, at least fifteen influencers belonging to the group which raised a monster outcry for its non-compliance with health and aviation rules were on an Air Canada flight that landed in Montreal towards 7:20 p.m. yesterday.
Photo QMI Agency, Thierry Laforce
5h58 | Quarantine lifted in France for vaccines arriving from South Africa
Travelers arriving in France from South Africa and having a complete vaccination schedule are no longer subject to a ten-day quarantine, according to a decree published on Thursday.
South Africa moving from the “scarlet red” category to the “red” category, the ten-day quarantine remains mandatory only for travelers whose vaccination schedule is not complete.
5h57 | New measures would affect the unvaccinated
Quebec Minister of Health and Social Services Christian Dubé is due to announce measures this morning that would affect unvaccinated Quebecers.
A press conference is scheduled to take place at 11 a.m. The minister will be accompanied by the big boss of the vaccination campaign, Daniel Paré and Dr. Lucie Opatrny, assistant deputy minister at the General Directorate of University, Medical, Nursing and Pharmaceutical Affairs.
MARIO BEAUREGARD / QMI AGENCY
5h54 | China: anti-COVID rules under debate after miscarriage
Miscarriage at the door of the hospital: the draconian rules against COVID are on the hot seat in China with the confinement decreed in the metropolis of Xi’an, after the appearance of a few hundred cases.
She did not have a valid screening test: An eight-month-pregnant Chinese woman miscarried at a hospital door, prompting authorities to apologize on Thursday.
5h18 | Make the difference | There is no justification for reimposing a curfew
We inherit a sick world, where work has become the new official religion. We are inheriting public services in ruins: schools that are moldy and overflowing, hospitals suffering from severe indigestion, waiting lists of 14 years in childcare centers, public transport less and less accessible to the general public, recycling which throws most of our bin in the dump as well as our hope for the future. One stone, two blows.
Let’s say it once and for all: in Quebec, the pandemic is a fiasco because our public institutions are suffocating. No, it is not the fault of the people, who, as a whole, are neither reckless nor disobedient.
Photo QMI Agency, Thierry Laforce
5:20 am | COVID, a long crisis for freedoms
In two years, the COVID-19 crisis has triggered an exceptional wave of restrictions, marking a decline in public freedoms hitherto difficult to envisage in democratic countries.
“We had gradually become accustomed to being a society of free individuals, we are a nation of united citizens”, launched at the end of 2020, to justify the restrictions the French head of state, Emmanuel Macron. A year later, he assumed the transition to “a society of vigilance”.
4h59 | Vaccination status unveiled: Lemay-Thivierge attacks La Presse for $ 1.85 million
Claiming to be “deeply shocked, frustrated and saddened” that his unvaccinated status was revealed in the media last fall, Guillaume Lemay-Thivierge claims $ 1.85 million from La Presse, which he accuses of having harmed to his career.
“He felt and still feels overwhelmed, embarrassed and humiliated every time his vaccine status is mentioned or commented on in the public square”, we can read in the civil lawsuit filed during the Holidays at the Montreal courthouse .
JEAN-FRANCOIS DESGAGNES / JOURNAL
4:06 am | Australian Open: Djokovic “knew the conditions”, emphasizes Nadal
Rafael Nadal showed little emotion on Thursday over the situation of Novak Djokovic stranded at Melbourne airport, saying the world No. 1 “knew the conditions” when he made his decision to come to Australia not vaccinated.
“Of course I don’t like the developing situation. On the one hand, I’m sorry for him. But at the same time, he had known the conditions for many months when he made his decision, ”commented the Spaniard on the sidelines of the Melbourne tournament, preparatory to the Australian Open which begins on January 17.
AFP
1h01 | Omicron disrupts cruises, companies respond low contamination
Hijacked boats, passengers placed in isolation: the Omicron variant is once again disrupting the world of cruises, which highlights in its defense the small percentage of passengers concerned and that these are mainly asymptomatic cases.
Despite the “health bubbles” (compulsory vaccination, multiple tests) put in place by the companies on their boats when travel resumed in spring 2021, in Hong Kong, a Royal Carribean Spectrum of the Seas cruise was forced Wednesday to return to port prematurely because of 9 contact cases out of 3,700 passengers.
0h31 | Transport, work, education …: some upheavals caused by 2 years of COVID
There will be a before and an after Covid-19. Tourism, health, work, education … the epidemic has already reshuffled many cards, setting up trends that could prove to be lasting.
This was the first palpable effect of the health crisis. The two years of Covid-19 have resulted in a roller coaster of uncertainty, recovery hopes and cancellations for this sector. Year in and year out, more or less accepted standards, starting with the wearing of a mask and a health pass recognized throughout Europe, have enabled a large part of travel to resume. But companies have suffered billions of euros in losses. A return to normal is not expected until at best 2024 in trains or planes.
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