The COVID-19 pandemic is no longer a global health emergency, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Friday. Global News says that Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO, said the decision to end the declaration of a public health emergency of international concern comes after a recommendation from the organization’s emergency committee. It’s a remarkable announcement that probably won’t get a lot of attention, but it should. I also note that the U.S. this week announced that it will end requirements for visitors to the U.S. to show proof of vaccination against the coronavirus. The rule, which Read more
travel rules
Canada isn’t ditching its mask rules for airplane and train passengers, at least not yet. A U.S. federal court judge on Monday quashed the U.S. masking law. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in the States then announced it would no longer enforce masking rules on airlines. Canadian Transport Minister Omar Alghabra on Tuesday gave no indication that the Trudeau government plans to drop its masking requirement for air and train passengers in Canada in the near future, according to the CBC. “We constantly consult our experts and whenever the advice that we receive changes because the circumstances change, we will Read more
The vast majority of Canadians support measures aimed at controlling the Omicron variant of COVID-19, and we’re mostly staying home this holiday season, a new poll reports. A new study from Leger polling and marketing, in conjunction with Canadian Press, also finds that Canadians and Americans think rather differently about COVID-19, at least in some respects. The latest poll, conducted online from Dec. 3 to 5, finds that a whopping 87% of Canadians support the idea of “going back to mandatory testing for all travellers coming into Canada.” For the U.S. the number was 81%. The Canadian government last week Read more
Mayors of Canadian and U.S. border cities are pushing the Canadian government to jettison COVID testing requirements it says are both overly expensive and unnecessary. Mayors from the likes of Niagara Falls, Ontario, Windsor, Sarnia, and Niagara Falls, New York, as well as upstate New York Congressman Brian Higgins, gathered for a virtual press event on Monday to denounce the current rules implemented by the Trudeau government in Ottawa. In a tidy symbolic note, the event was held just hours after the U.S. government opened its land borders to fully vaccinated residents of Canada and Mexico, as well as opening Read more
