Coronavirus: What’s happening in Canada and around the world on Wednesday

On Wednesday evening, the federal government unanimously passed Bill C-4 – legislation that would allow new benefits to be offered to workers who have been left unemployed or unemployed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Watch | Ottawa buys millions of post-approval COVID-19 rapid tests:

The vote, seen as a measure of confidence, garnered the support of the most adversarial parties, the Quebec Bloc and the Conservatives. 306-0 passed.

The bill aims to replace the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) of $ 500 per week, which expired last weekend after helping nearly nine million Canadians weather the impact of the pandemic.

The bill introduces a series of new COVID-19 benefits to Canadians to facilitate their transition away from CERB.

Millions of CERB beneficiaries will automatically transfer to employment insurance (EI). The expanded eligibility rules will also mean that more people can qualify and the changes will also include three new replacement benefits.

Watch | Ontario races to contain second round of COVID-19 outbreak in nursing homes:

There are at least 46 confirmed outbreaks in long-term care homes in Ontario as the province seeks to prevent a second wave of COVID-19 from spiraling out of control. But after nearly 1,900 deaths in long-term care homes since the pandemic began, some say the province should have been able to prevent these new outbreaks. 2:11

To deal with what is expected to be an unprecedented number of EI claims and a record number of calls over the coming weeks, Service Canada nearly doubled the number of specialist call center agents. But he still cautions people to expect long waits.

Meanwhile, in Ontario, advocates for the long-term care sector say the province’s latest plan to protect residents from the second wave of COVID-19 lacks a very important component: frequent and comprehensive home inspections.

Doug Ford’s government on Tuesday announced new funding of more than $ 500 million to protect long-term care, the bulk of which will be used to help home workers, purchase equipment and prevent infection.

However, the plan does not contain any measures to improve inspections or enforce safety regulations, which advocates describe as a persistent flaw that put residents at risk when large-scale long-term care outbreaks began in the spring.

Watch | Canada needs to get tested for COVID-19 quickly now, says the respiratory specialist:

Dr Samir Gupta, associate professor at the University of Toronto, says that long waiting times for testing can help boost the growth of the coronavirus pandemic. He also said there aren’t enough people using the COVID Alert app. 4:55

“The whole idea of ​​inspection has been a problem for a very long time,” said Carol Dweck, Chair of the Network 4 Advocacy Family Council, which focuses on long-term care.

Dweck described “the lack of consistency from home to home” when it comes to safety procedures. She said annual proactive inspections are necessary to ensure homes follow safety protocols and protect residents while existing cases re-emerge.

What is happening in the rest of Canada

As of 11:15 a.m. ET on Wednesday, Canada had 158,425 confirmed or presumed cases of coronavirus. Provinces and Territories recorded 134,194 of those recovered or dissolved. The death toll released by CBC News on the basis of county reports, regional health information and CBC reports, reached 9,332.

Now that the cold season has begun, it is time to remove some symptoms from the COVID-19 checklist New Brunswick Chief Medical Officer of Health.

Dr. Jennifer Russell said her colleagues from all over the country spoke of “simplifying” testing requirements to avoid a pitfall in testing for people who simply end up getting a cold.

Many of the symptoms of COVID-19 overlap with symptoms of the common cold, including a runny nose, sore throat and headache. These are three of the 10 symptoms that were removed from British Columbia last week

She said the system can handle the current situation, but if there is a spike in COVID-19 cases in New Brunswick, the checklist may have to be curtailed.

Quebec The provincial government said Tuesday it will start using the federal government’s COVID-19 exposure alert app in the coming days, reflecting its past opposition to the technology in an effort to slow the rapid increase in infections.

The ongoing wave of infections has already prompted the Quebec government to close bars, dining rooms, restaurants and theaters for most of October in the province’s most densely populated area. Social gatherings at home are also prohibited.

Watch | Backlog of critical contact tracing as COVID-19 cases soar in Ontario:

Ontario has made a lot of efforts to ramp up testing for COVID-19, but experts say contact tracing is woefully late and it might be too late to fix the problem. 2:01

Officials say they have had difficulty tracking those in contact with a positive case, which has hampered efforts to isolate potentially infectious individuals.

Health Minister Christian Dube said on Tuesday he was finalizing details about the approval of the federal app, COVID Alert, which informs users when they have had prolonged contact with someone who has tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.

Tory leader Irene O’Toole And the Mass Quebec leader Yves Francois Blanchett I returned to Parliament on Wednesday after self-isolating for two weeks due to positive COVID-19 tests.

Blanchett said his personal experience should serve as a warning for everyone to take public health guidelines seriously.

“Some people get through it a lot more painfully than I did. I was very, very lucky. Some people die from this thing,” he said at a news conference.

There is no absolute protection [are] Only ways to reduce the likelihood of catching the thing and give it to someone who may be more vulnerable to it. “

What is happening around the world

According to Johns Hopkins University, the global total of confirmed coronavirus cases is more than 33.7 million. More than 1 million people have died, while more than 23.4 million have recovered.

The United nations The president says the COVID-19 pandemic has caused “unprecedented losses”, especially on the economies of many developing countries, and the world has not responded with “the tremendous and urgent support that these countries and societies need.”

In the United States, Canada, Europe and most of the developed world, governments have adopted packages with double the value of GDP to help tackle the coronavirus crisis and its impact, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.

“The problem is mobilizing resources to allow developing countries to do the same,” he said at a joint press conference with Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holnes and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who jointly lead the high-level meetings. To try to increase the resource.

South Korea It reported 113 new cases of COVID-19, its first daily increase of more than 100 cases in five days, as the country entered a holiday holiday that officials feared could worsen transmission.

The figures released by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency on Wednesday bring the number of cases to 23,812, including 413 deaths.

Eighty-one new cases came from the Seoul metropolitan area, as health workers struggled to stop transmission of infections linked to various sources, including churches, medical facilities, restaurants, schools and workers.

Indonesia On Wednesday, data from the country’s COVID-19 task force showed that 4,284 new cases of coronavirus were recorded, raising the total number of infections to 287.008.

An additional 139 virus-related deaths were also reported, bringing the total number of deaths to 10,740.

Russia Clinical trials of a possible second vaccine against COVID-19, developed by the Vector Institute in Siberia, have completed clinical trials, the Russian Information Agency quoted Russia’s consumer safety watchdog Rospotrebnadzor as saying, Wednesday.

The institute completed early human trials, known as Phase Two, earlier this month.

German On Wednesday, Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged US $ 100 million to help developing countries get a COVID-19 vaccine, and World Bank President David Malpass said that “broad, rapid and affordable access to vaccines” will be at the core of a resilient global economic recovery that strengthens everyone. “

Merkel also called on “those who still hesitate” to commit to the global vaccine effort.

The Czech Health Minister Roman Primula said on Wednesday that the government will limit indoor gatherings of 10 people and outdoor gatherings to 20 as part of new measures in effect for two weeks starting Monday to combat the increase in coronavirus cases.

Primula said sporting matches would continue but without spectators, and theaters and cinemas could still function, but concerts, musicals and operas would be banned.