Canadians feel grocery inflation getting worse, two in five boycotting Loblaw: poll
Almost two-thirds of Canadians feel that inflation at the grocery store is getting worse, a new poll suggests, even as food inflation has been steadily cooling.
A recently designated COVID-19 variant of interest by the World Health Organization is coming under scrutiny as more cases are being detected in multiple countries, and amid concerns that it carries mutations that could potentially make it more resistant to neutralizing antibodies.
The newly labelled Lambda variant, or C.37, was first detected as early as last August 2020 in Peru and was being monitored as an alert for some time prior to its new designation. As of mid-June, the variant had been detected in 29 countries or territories with a particularly high prevalence in South America.
“Lambda has been associated with substantive rates of community transmission in multiple countries, with rising prevalence over time concurrent with increased COVID-19 incidence,” the global health agency wrote in its Weekly Epidemiological Update published on June 15.
“Lambda carries a number of mutations with suspected phenotypic implications, such as a potential increased transmissibility or possible increased resistance to neutralizing antibodies.”
The WHO said there was currently limited evidence on what the impact of these mutations will mean and that further studies were necessary to better understand how to contain the spread and how the vaccines will hold up against the variant.
WHO virologist Jairo Mendez-Rico told Germany’s Deutsche Welle there were no indications thus far the lambda variant is more dangerous or leads to higher mortality.
Pablo Tsukayama, a virologist with Lima’s Cayetano Heredia University told the German broadcaster that given Peru’s struggles with the containing the pandemic, it was not a surprise that the variant started there and has now taken hold.
The South American country has experienced more deaths per capita than any other country since the start of the pandemic, with 586 deaths per 100,000 people as of July 5. It is a figure that is almost 89 percent higher than Hungary, the second-worst country by the same measure, with 310.5 deaths per 100,000. Now, more than 80 per cent of new infections sequenced since April in Peru are associated with the Lambda variant, according to Peruvian authorities.
About a third of new infections in Chile over the last two months were also found to be the Lambda variant -- circulating at about the same rate as the Gamma variant, first detected in Brazil.
In the U.K., Lambda was designated as a Variant Under Investigation (VUI) on June 23, after half a dozen cases were identified across the country. That number now stands at eight. Public Health England (PHE) say there is currently “no evidence that this variant causes more severe disease or renders the vaccines currently deployed any less effective.”
As of July 5, there are no known reported cases of the Lambda variant in Canada, though publicly available data focuses on variants of concern.
While there is still little research on the Lambda variant, Brazilian researchers wrote in a pre-print study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, that they believe it has “considerable potential to become a VOC (variant of concern),” while another pre-print study suggests that this variant is more transmissible than the Alpha and Gamma variants, and that CoronaVac, also known as the Sinovac vaccine, was less effective against it.
Almost two-thirds of Canadians feel that inflation at the grocery store is getting worse, a new poll suggests, even as food inflation has been steadily cooling.
Norway, Ireland and Spain said on Wednesday they are recognizing a Palestinian state, in a historic but largely symbolic move that deepens Israel’s isolation more than seven months into its grinding war against Hamas in Gaza.
Ticks are parasitic bloodsuckers, capable of spreading deadly disease, and they’re becoming increasingly common. Here’s what you need to know about them.
Donald Trump had spent weeks needling U.S. President Joe Biden for his refusal to commit to a debate. But Washington political columnist Eric Ham describes how in one fell swoop, Biden ingeniously stole the issue from the Trump campaign and made it his own.
An Ontario mother lost $2,500 to a scammer pretending to be her daughter asking for help in late April.
A Montreal photographer captured the moment a Canada goose defended itself from a fox at the Botanical Garden.
From artificial intelligence running wild to collapsing ecosystems, a new Canadian government report outlines 35 disruptions that could rattle the country in the near future.
In his latest column for CTVNews.ca, former NDP leader Tom Mulcair argues that if there's an unofficial frontrunner in the eventual race to replace Justin Trudeau as Liberal leader, it has to be former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney.
Police in Ontario say a group of suspects charged in an armed home invasion north of Toronto last year were driving a vehicle stolen in a carjacking in Calgary just one month earlier.
A Montreal photographer captured the moment a Canada goose defended itself from a fox at the Botanical Garden.
Public libraries in Atlantic Canada are now lending a broader range of items.
Flashes of purple darting across the sky mixed with the serenading sound of songs will be noticed more with spring in full force in Manitoba.
Catching 'em all with impressive speed, a 7-year-old boy from Windsor, Ont. who only started his competitive Pokémon journey seven months ago has already levelled up to compete at a world championship level.
A sanctuary dedicated to animals with disabilities is celebrating the third birthday of one of its most popular residents.
2b Theatre recently moved into the old Video Difference building, seeking to transform it into an artistic hub, meeting space, and temporary housing unit for visiting performers in Halifax.
A B.C. woman says her service dog pulled her from a lake moments before she had a seizure, saving her life.
A Starbucks fan — whose name is Winter — is visiting Canada on a purposeful journey that began with a random idea at one of the coffee chain's stores in Texas.
Members of Piapot First Nation, students from the University of Winnipeg and various other professionals are learning new techniques that will hopefully be used for ground searches of potential unmarked grave sites in the future.