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The 2024 wildfire season has begun, and it's shaping up to follow last year's unprecedented destruction in kind, with thousands of square kilometres already consumed.
The number of new coronavirus cases and deaths reported globally fell everywhere except the Middle East and Southeast Asia last week, according to a World Health Organization weekly report released Wednesday.
In its latest weekly update on the pandemic, the U.N. health agency said confirmed cases dropped 12% to more than 3 million and reported deaths declined 22% to about 7,600.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described the continuing decline of COVID-19, which peaked in January, as "a very encouraging trend."
Still, he warned that the pandemic was not yet over and urged caution, even as many countries have dropped their coronavirus protocols and segued into trying to live with the virus.
Tedros noted that 18 months after the first mass coronavirus immunization programs began in rich countries, 68 countries have yet to protect 40% of their populations. While enough vaccines are now available, demand has fallen, he said.
"The perception that the pandemic is over is understandable, but misguided," the WHO chief said. "A new and even more dangerous variant could emerge at any time, and vast numbers of people remain unprotected."
WHO's pandemic report noted that the number of new weekly cases rose by 19% in the Middle East and inched up by 1% in Southeast Asia, while falling everywhere else. The number of deaths increased by 7% in the Western Pacific and dropped elsewhere in the world last week.
WHO previously noted that the numbers are likely to be an underestimate and dependent on countries' testing and reporting strategies. Last week, WHO's emergencies chief Dr. Michael Ryan said the COVID-19 outbreak in North Korea, for example, was getting worse, not better.
Despite multiple offers of help, including vaccines, North Korea has not accepted any offers of aid from WHO and has yet to share more detailed information about how the outbreak is evolving there.
The 2024 wildfire season has begun, and it's shaping up to follow last year's unprecedented destruction in kind, with thousands of square kilometres already consumed.
Veteran TSN broadcaster Darren 'Dutch' Dutchyshen, one of Canada’s best-known sports journalists, has died. He was 57. His family says 'he passed as he was surrounded by his closest loved ones.'
A ‘lifetime of abuse’ led Dallas Ly to snap and repeatedly stab his mother inside their Leslieville apartment in 2022 but he never intended to kill her, his defence lawyers argued during his murder trial in Toronto on Thursday.
A burgeoning track star says his dream of going to the Olympics is being derailed by a deportation order after Immigration officials rejected his family’s claim for asylum
A father has been charged with second-degree murder in the stabbing death of his 34-year-old daughter in southern Quebec.
A medical examiner says a Massachusetts teen who participated in a spicy tortilla chip challenge died from ingesting a substance 'with a high capsaicin concentration.'
A Montreal father who kidnapped his daughter who has autism and lied to police when they asked where she was should serve three years in prison, a Crown prosecutor said.
The province’s health minister and solicitor general are urging Toronto to rescind its request to decriminalize simple possession of small amounts of drugs for personal use, calling the proposal 'misguided' and 'disastrous.'
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau assailed New Brunswick's premier and other conservative leaders on Thursday, calling out the provincial government's position on abortion, LGBTQ youth and climate change.
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.
ALS patient Mathew Brown said he’s hopeful for future ALS patients after news this week of research at Western University of a potential cure for ALS.
When Adam Kirschner wrote 'Slap Shot,' he never imagined the song would be embraced by his favourite team.
A team is ready to help an entangled North Atlantic right whale in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
A $200 reward is being offered by a North Vancouver family for the safe return of their beloved chicken, Snowflake.
Two daughters and a mother were reunited online 40 years later thanks to a DNA kit and a Zoom connection despite living on three separate continents and speaking different languages.
Mother's Day can be a difficult occasion for those who have lost or are estranged from their mom.
YES Theatre Young Company opened its acclaimed kids’ show, One Small Step, at Sudbury Theatre Centre on Saturday.