'A beautiful soul': Funeral held for baby boy killed in wrong-way crash on Highway 401
A funeral was held on Wednesday for a three-month-old boy who died after being involved in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 in Whitby last week.
Quebec is offering an extra dose of mRNA vaccine to people who want to travel to countries that don't recognize their vaccination status.
A third dose is being made available because some countries don't consider people fully vaccinated if they have received a mix of COVID-19 vaccines, the Health Department said Monday.
“The administration of an additional dose of vaccine remains an exceptional measure for people who have an essential trip planned outside the country, in the short term, and that must meet vaccination requirements,” the department said in a statement.
But health officials are warning it's up to the recipient to seek advice and weigh the risks before getting an extra dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines.
A spokesman for the Health Department said earlier on Monday an additional dose doesn't necessarily provide more protection compared with two doses, adding the safety of receiving three doses is unclear.
“The person should be properly counselled to be informed of the potential risks associated with this added dose compared to the benefits of the planned trip,” Robert Maranda said in an email. “It is up to everyone to weigh the balance of risks and benefits.”
Quebec considers people who have recovered from COVID-19 and who have had a single dose of a two-dose vaccine to be adequately vaccinated. But health officials in mid-July said they would offer that group a second dose if they wanted to travel.
One expert preached patience, noting that the rules are evolving as more data becomes available. “I think we need to be patient, we shouldn't give people vaccines they don't need,” said Dr. Andre Veillette, an immunologist at the Montreal Clinical Research Institute, a research centre affiliated with Universite de Montreal.
Veillette said there are certain segments of the population that could benefit from a third dose, such as those who are immunocompromised or who have had an organ transplant. Another group that might be considered for a third dose are residents of seniors homes, many of whom will be six months removed from their second doses by October.
But third doses shouldn't be needlessly doled out, Veillette said in an interview Monday. “We should not waste vaccines simply because people want to go to the Caribbean,” he said, adding that it would be embarrassing given some countries haven't yet begun to vaccinate their own population.
“It's not a good image,” he said.
The Health Department says there is no international consensus on what constitutes a fully vaccinated person, adding that the federal government is working to have mixed vaccinations or shots of AstraZeneca or Covishield more widely recognized internationally.
“In the meantime, certain exceptional measures are possible in Quebec to accommodate people who have an essential trip planned in the short term,” the department said.
In Quebec and the rest of the country, mixing doses is accepted. Dr. Matthew Oughton, an infectious disease specialist at Montreal's Jewish General Hospital, said there is accumulating evidence that certain combinations of mixed vaccine schedules are equivalent or superior to two doses of the same vaccine.
“It's kind of a conflict between the bureaucratic and the scientific,” Oughton said. “Until such time, people in that situation are stuck between the bureaucratic and the scientific where if they want to travel, they may have to go get a second dose of an approved two-dose vaccine to be fully immunized.”
Quebec reported 75 new cases of COVID-19 Monday along with 223 new infections from Friday and Saturday. The province has 814 active reported cases. Health officials reported one death attributed to the novel coronavirus since Friday's report, and they said the number of patients in hospital with COVID-19 was 67 - stable since Friday.
Meanwhile, Premier Francois Legault announced on Monday his government is relaxing more rules for bars, nightclubs, festivals and entertainment venues.
Legault said on Twitter that beginning Sunday, bars and nightclubs can serve alcohol for an extra hour, until 1 a.m., and they must close by 2 a.m. Festivals will be able to host a maximum of 15,000 people outside - up from 5,000. Indoor venues will be permitted to welcome a maximum of 7,500 people seated indoors, up from 3,500. Dancing, however, remains prohibited.
Quebec's public health institute says 83.5 per cent of residents aged 12 and up have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 62.5 per cent are considered adequately vaccinated.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 26, 2021.
A funeral was held on Wednesday for a three-month-old boy who died after being involved in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 in Whitby last week.
There has been a "sophisticated" cybersecurity breach detected on B.C. government networks, Premier David Eby confirmed Wednesday evening.
Toronto police say a man was taken into custody outside Drake's Bridle Path mansion Wednesday afternoon after he tried to gain access to the residence.
U.S. President Joe Biden said for the first time Wednesday he would halt shipments of American weapons to Israel, which he acknowledged have been used to kill civilians in Gaza, if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders a major invasion of the city of Rafah.
Dakota Joshua had a goal and two assists and the Vancouver Canucks scored three third-period goals to claw out a 5-4 comeback victory over the Edmonton Oilers in Game 1 of their second-round playoff series Wednesday.
One of the Indian nationals accused of murdering British Columbia Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar says in a social media video that he received a Canadian study permit with the help of an Indian immigration consultancy.
Pfizer has agreed to settle more than 10,000 lawsuits about cancer risks related to the now discontinued heartburn drug Zantac, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the deal.
Quebec Premier Francois Legault is defending his comments about a new history museum after he was accused by a prominent First Nations group of trying to erase their history.
Independent U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had a parasite in his brain more than a decade ago, but has fully recovered, his campaign said, after the New York Times reported about the ailment.
The stakes have been set for a bet between Vancouver and Edmonton's mayors on who will win Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
A grieving mother is hosting a helmet drive in the hopes of protecting children on Manitoba First Nations from a similar tragedy that killed her daughter.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
A P.E.I. lighthouse and a New Brunswick river are being honoured in a Canada Post series.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.