Spring allergy season has begun. Where is it worse in Canada?
The spring allergy season has started early in many parts of Canada, with high levels of pollen in some cities already. Experts weigh in on which areas have it worse so far this season.
As schools get ready to welcome students back to the classroom in September they’re outlining measures to keep everyone safe from COVID-19, but there’s growing concern about what that means for the youngest cohort.
Canada hasn’t approved a vaccine yet for children under the age of 12. And only about 37 per cent of children between the ages of 12 and 17 have been fully vaccinated.
That means precautions are needed. And the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) plans to release guidance for schools, including those with children under the age of 12, in the next few weeks, agency spokesperson Anne Génier said on Wednesday.
“It takes into consideration important factors such as transmission dynamics in school settings and child/youth populations, community vaccine coverage, as well as indicators like COVID-19 epidemiology, healthcare and public health capacity, and risk reduction measures in place,” Génier said.
In the meantime, various pandemic rules remain and schools are laying out plans.
“We’re now starting to hear about back-to-school protocols across the country,” Toronto-based infectious disease specialist Dr. Isaac Bogoch said Wednesday on CTV's Your Morning. “Many of them have a focus on masking, distancing, ventilation etc. These are all measures that can create safer indoor environments.”
The key will be how well they’re implemented, he said.
“That will determine whether or not schools are a major focus and a major driver of COVID-19 as we enter the fall.”
Bogoch said he expects Health Canada may approve a vaccine for children under the age of 12 in the late fall, early winter.
In July, PHAC said in an emailed statement that “all manufacturers of the COVID-19 vaccines authorized in Canada are conducting or planning studies in adolescents and younger children,” and that the organization, expected data “in the coming months.”
“At this time, no submission has been received for the approval of any COVID-19 vaccine in children under 12 years of age,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, released modelling on Friday that indicates COVID-19 cases are beginning to rise as a result of the more contagious Delta variant.
To date, there have been about 1.4 million cases of COVID-19 in Canada and about 7,795 are active. About 59.89 per cent of the country’s 38.1 million people are fully vaccinated.
It’s important for people to be vigilant and to take precautions due to the rapid spread of the variant and the expected flu season in the fall.
“We certainly know kids can get infected [with COVID-19] and we know they can transmit this infection,” Bogoch said.
And while children don’t tend to get as sick as older people, some are hit hard by COVID-19.
“You still can’t ignore that there are a small percentage of kids that do get acutely ill,” Bogoch said.
And according to recent studies, it’s estimated that 1.8 per cent of kids may have long-term symptoms, he said.
The spring allergy season has started early in many parts of Canada, with high levels of pollen in some cities already. Experts weigh in on which areas have it worse so far this season.
Premier Doug Ford says that lawsuits launched by four Ontario school boards against a trio of social media platforms are “nonsense” and risk becoming a distraction to the work that really matters.
Multiple flight attendants from Pakistan International Airlines have abandoned their jobs and are believed to have sought asylum in Canada in the past year and a half, a spokesperson for the government-owned airline says.
A New Brunswicker will go to bed Thursday night much richer than he was Wednesday after collecting on a winning lottery ticket he let sit on his bedroom dresser for nearly a year.
Calgary police have shut down a number of bridges into and out of the downtown core as officers deal with a distraught individual.
King Charles III gave public remarks for Maundy Thursday, addressing the importance of acts of friendship, following his and Catherine, Princess of Wales’ cancer diagnoses.
Crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced Thursday to 25 years in prison for a massive fraud that unravelled with the collapse of FTX, once one of the world's most popular platforms for exchanging digital currency.
Peggy is a stout and muscular Staffordshire bull terrier, and Molly is a magpie, an Australian bird best known for swooping on humans during breeding season, not for befriending dogs. But in an emotional video posted online, Peggy’s owners announced that the animals had been separated.
A Toronto restaurant introduced a surprising new rule that reduced the cost of a meal and raised the salaries of staff.
B.C. conservation officers recently seized a nine-foot-long Burmese python from a home in Chilliwack.
A New Brunswicker will go to bed Thursday night much richer than he was Wednesday after collecting on a winning lottery ticket he let sit on his bedroom dresser for nearly a year.
The Ontario government is introducing changes to auto-insurance, but some experts say the move is ill-advised.
A Toronto restaurant introduced a surprising new rule that reduced the cost of a meal and raised the salaries of staff.
Newfoundland’s unique version of the Pine Marten has grown out of its threatened designation.
A Toronto man is out $12,000 after falling victim to a deepfake cryptocurrency scam that appeared to involve Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
It started small with a little pop tab collection to simply raise some money for charity and help someone — but it didn’t take long for word to get out that 10-year-old Jace Weber from Mildmay, Ont. was quickly building up a large supply of aluminum pop tabs.
There’s a group of people in Saskatoon that proudly call themselves dumpster divers, and they’re turning the city’s trash into treasure.
Ontario is facing a larger than anticipated deficit but the Doug Ford government still plans to balance its books before the next provincial election.