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Jamadi ul II 30,1442 Feb 12, 2021
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India will ‘do its best’ to send vaccines Feds to require negative COVID-19 test for to Canada, Modi tells Trudeau those entering Canada at land borders
OTTAWA -- With the possibility for Canada to receive COVID-19 vaccines manufactured in India, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi says he told Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that his country will “do its best” to see shots sent to Canada. Trudeau and Modi spoke on the phone on Wednesday about the two nations’ respective vaccine rollouts and the need for international co-ordination on securing supplies. In a tweet, Modi said that on the call with Trudeau he “assured him that India would do its best to facilitate supplies of COVID vaccines sought by Canada.” The Serum Institute of India has a contract with AstraZeneca to produce doses of its vaccine, to “supply India but also a large number of countries around the world,” and Health Canada is currently reviewing the facilities—described by AstraZeneca as the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer—as the health agency considers approving the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University for use in Canada.Modi’s office said in a statement following the call that Trudeau spoke with Modi about “Canada’s requirements” of vaccines from India and thanked Modi for supporting Canada’s vaccination efforts, noting the role that the pharmaceutical capacity in India is playing in tackling COVID-19. According to a readout issued by Trudeau’s office following the Wednesday call, the two leaders discussed “India’s significant efforts in promoting vaccine production and sup-
ply, which have provided vital support to countries around the world,” and “agreed to work together on access to vaccines.” During a press conference earlier on Wednesday, Trudeau was asked about whether he had planned to reach out to Modi about ensuring supplies from India, and he spoke in generalities in response. “We are continually in contact with our friends and allies around the world on the issues of vaccines, on the issue of fighting COVID. I can highlight that India has been a great partner in fighting COVID, whether it’s helping us with delivery of other pharmaceuticals, or whether it’s working together on potential vaccines,” the prime minister said. He went on to say the government is also in talks with vaccine manufacturers about ensuring “reliable” supplies of shipments and access to additional doses. Source:ctvnews.ca
OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says starting next week, anyone arriving in Canada by land will also need to show a recent negative COVID-19 test. Trudeau says the new measure will kick in Feb. 15, the latest move to keep COVID-19 from spreading within Canada from people who travelled outside it. That is particularly relevant with multiple, more contagious variants of the novel coronavirus now circling, many of them already within Canada. The government began requiring all people arriving in Canada by air to show a negative PCR-based COVID-19 test in early January. But more people are coming into the country in a vehicle than on an airplane. The latest statistics from the Canada Border Services Agency show that since the end of March 2.9 million people, excluding truck drivers, entered through a land border crossing, while 2.4 million arrived by airplane.Trudeau said the federal government cannot prevent Canadians from returning to the country at a land border, even without a test, but if they don’t have the required test they can be fined up to $3,000. Monday will also mark the start of a new plan for how many doses those vaccinating people against COVID-19 can get out of a single vial from Pfizer-BioNTech. Dr. Supriya Sharma, the chief medical adviser at Health Canada, says that after a review, the regulatory team agrees with the
companies that each vial of their vaccine contains six doses, rather than five. ”Based on its assessment, Health Canada has determined that each vial will reliably contain six doses of vaccine plus the sufficient overfill volume when proper technique is used,” Sharma said Tuesday. The change means Pfizer will fulfil its contract to ship four million doses to Canada by March by sending fewer vials. Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin, the military commander overseeing Ottawa’s vaccine distribution program, says next week Canada will get the same number of vials it was expecting, but instead of Pfizer saying those 67,275 vials contained about 336,000 doses, they will count them as 400,000 doses. The week after that, Canada will get 79,170 vials, which will now be counted as 475,000 doses instead of the previous 395,850 doses. Source: ctvnews.ca
VANCOUVER -- Peter McCartney and his partner were surprised, then angered, to receive a promotional offer via text from a restaurant they visited in Vancouver’s West End.The message was sent to a cellphone number that they say is rarely shared, but was given to staff at the restaurant on Davie Street a month ago, as part of provincial health guidelines.“We sat and wracked our brains. ‘How could they have gotten the number?’ And the only way we can think of was from contact tracing,” McCartney told CTV News Tuesday. Restaurants are required to get contact details from dinein customers so they can be contacted and traced in the event of a COVID-19 outbreak.But that data is not supposed to be used for other purposes. “I’m furious,” said McCartney. “We feel a little violated to be honest. You put your name down on a form like that, and expect that it’s going to be used properly and within the law.” The Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia has strict guidelines about collecting personal information from customers: “Do not use the collected information for other purpos-
es, such as marketing or analytics,” the rules clearly state.The private information must also be destroyed after 30 days. “It’s illegal, number one. But secondly, it undermines the trust that customers will have in your business,” B.C. Privacy Commissioner Michael McEvoy told CTV News. “It’s really unfortunate that certain businesses might operate in this way.” McCartney understands restaurants are struggling, and didn’t want to reveal the name of the small Indian restaurant, but said he’s still angry about getting a message advertising the upcoming event Dine Out Vancouver. “People need to be able to trust that is happening properly, otherwise they’re going to have reservations about putting their phone number on that contact tracing sheet,” he said.Source: bc.ctvnews.ca
Canada should consider hosting 2022 Winter B.C. couple ‘furious’ restaurant used phone number Olympics, says Green Leader Annamie Paul from contact tracing list to send promotional offers OTTAWA -- Canada should support moving the 2022 Olympics outside China over its “genocidal campaign” against the Uighur Muslim minority, says Green Leader Annamie Paul, and consider offering to play a role in hosting the global competition instead.“If an ongoing genocide is not reason enough to relocate a sporting event, then my question is, what is?” she said during a virtual news conference Tuesday. She urged the International Olympic Committee, along with Canada and other countries that condemn human rights violations in China, to find another venue. She said Canada should think about offering to host the Winter Olympics, possibly with the United States, because both countries have the needed infrastructure and experience. “This is the kind of creative solution that Canada used to be known for and can be known for again,” she said. An open letter signed by 13 MPs, a halfdozen Quebec politicians and others Saturday called for the 2022 Winter Olympics to be moved outside China.The letter demands the International Olympic Committee relocate the global competition to avoid having athletes “tainted” by an event legislators
say would be comparable to the 1936 Berlin games under the Nazi regime, rendering it “The Games of Shame.” Bob Rae, Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations, called on the United Nations in November to investigate whether China’s persecution of ethnic Muslim Uighurs in its Xinjiang province constitutes genocide. A Canadian parliamentary subcommittee concluded in an October report that China’s treatment of Uighurs does amount to genocide, a characterization the country rejected as baseless.China has been accused of using forced birth control to limit Uighur births and detention camps to indoctrinate the mostlyMuslim minority into mainstream Chinese society. Beijing has denied any wrongdoing, saying it is running a voluntary employment and language-training program. Source: ctvnews.ca
OTTAWA -- A new survey suggests Canadians are split on believing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that anyone who wants a COVID-19 vaccine will get one by September. According to the latest survey from Nanos Research, commissioned by CTV News,
50 per cent of respondents either believe or somewhat believe that all Canadians will be able to receive a vaccine by September 2021, while 47 per cent do not believe or somewhat do not believe in the timeline. “The outright confidence in hitting that target of September 2021 when it comes to all Canadians getting vaccinated, it’s actually very thin right now,” Nik Nanos, founder of Nanos Research, told CTV’s Power Play on Monday. Despite several delays in vaccine shipments, Trudeau has been adamant that Canada is still on pace with the original plan.“I speak almost every week with CEOs of these vaccine companies, and they have assured me that they will meet their obliga-
Canadians split in believing Trudeau on vaccinations by September: Nanossurvey tions,” Trudeau told reporters last week. “Those doses will begin to accelerate and come in the hundreds of thousands in the coming weeks.” According to CTVNews.ca’s vaccine tracker, just 2.39 per cent of Canadians had received the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as of Monday. Canadians were also split as to whether they think the federal government should take over control of the vaccine rollout from the provinces and territories, with 48 per cent of respondents either opposed or somewhat opposed to the idea, and 49 per cent supportive or somewhat supportive of it. Additionally, 60 per cent of Canadians would support the government paying a
premium to pharmaceutical companies so Canada could receive more doses faster. The survey also asked Canadians’ opinion on travelling to other provinces to receive a vaccine sooner and 70 per cent of Canadians oppose the practice. Two weeks ago, Great Canadian Gaming Corp. CEO Rod Baker and his wife Ekaterina Baker were each fined $1,150 after allegedly travelling from British Columbia to Yukon and posing as local workers to receive a dose of the vaccine ahead of schedule. British Columbia’s health ministry has indicated that proof of age and residence would be required to receive a vaccine in the later stages of vaccine rollout.Source: ctvnews.ca
