'He's in our hearts': Family and friends still seek answers one year after Nathan Wise’s disappearance
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
With health authorities across Canada on high alert for another wave of COVID-19 as health restrictions continue to ease, the Atlantic provinces as well as the Northwest Territories are reporting more COVID-19 cases per capita than anywhere else in Canada or the U.S.
Experts say the high case-counts in these regions is likely due to the fact that some of these provinces have fewer restrictions on who is eligible for a COVID-19 test.
According to CTVNews.ca's tracker comparing Canadian provinces and territories with U.S. states, Prince Edward Island is reporting an average of 350.6 daily cases over the last seven days as of Saturday. That translates to 2,216.6 cases per million, which is more than every other jurisdiction on both sides of the border.
The Northwest Territories ranks second on the list, with an average of 88.3 cases per day. That equates to 1,996.1 cases per million. This is followed by Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, which are reporting 757.6, 612.1 and 567.0 cases per million, respectively.
The looser testing criteria in some of these provinces "would explain much of the difference, possibly all of it," Colin Furness, an expert in infectious disease epidemiology from the University of Toronto, told CTVNews.ca in an email on Friday.
However, N.W.T. still has the second highest COVID-19 case count per capita, despite the territory's strict PCR testing eligibility criteria. Furness said the "lower population immunity in areas that have been successful with COVID in the first several waves" may be another factor that explains the high cases reported in these regions.
In late 2021, when COVID-19 cases surged across Canada due to the rise of the Omicron variant, many provinces started restricting access to laboratory tests as testing capacity became strained.
In provinces like Ontario, Quebec, B.C. and others, only health-care workers, people in long-term care homes, immunocompromised people, pregnant people and others deemed to be at a higher risk of COVID-19 are eligible to be tested at a screening clinic. Anyone else exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms are being encouraged to stay home and use rapid at-home tests.
However, in P.E.I., COVID-19 testing clinics are available for anyone who develops symptoms or has already tested positive with a rapid at-home test. P.E.I.'s top doctor has also attributed the province's higher case counts to the wider access to testing.
"In P.E.I., we've had much better access to COVID-19 testing compared to other provinces and territories, given we have tested more people. It is really not accurate to compare our case rates directly with other jurisdictions," P.E.I. Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Heather Morrison said during a COVID-19 media briefing last month.
In Nova Scotia, anyone who is symptomatic and previously tested positive on a rapid test is eligible for a PCR test. New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador have more restrictions on who is eligible for a PCR test, but residents who test positive with a rapid test can report their positive results to their provinces online.
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Dozens of Ontarians are expressing frustration in the province’s health-care system after their family doctors either dropped them as patients or threatened to after they sought urgent care elsewhere.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
Amazon's paid subscription service provides free delivery for online shopping across Canada except for remote locations, the company said in an email. While customers in Iqaluit qualify for the offer, all other communities in Nunavut are excluded.
The fire burning near Fort McMurray grew from 25 hectares to 5,500 hectares over the weekend.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin began a Cabinet shakeup on Sunday, proposing the replacement of Sergei Shoigu as defence minister as he begins his fifth term in office.
Police are searching for a male suspect after a man was “slashed in neck” on Sunday morning in downtown Toronto and died.
There were some scary moments for several people on a northern Ontario highway caught on video Thursday after a chain reaction following a truck fire.
Health Canada announced various product recalls this week, including electric adapters, armchairs, cannabis edibles and vehicle components.
English, history, entertainment, math and geography: high school trivia teams could be quizzed on any of it when they compete at the Reach for the Top Nationals in Ottawa in June.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
The threat of zebra mussels has prompted the federal government to temporarily ban watercraft from a Manitoba lake popular with tourists.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
Just as she had feared, a restaurant owner from eastern Quebec who visited Montreal had her SUV stolen, but says it was all thanks to the kindness of strangers on the internet — not the police — that she got it back.