Indian envoy warns of 'big red line,' days after charges laid in Nijjar case
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
The World Health Organization (WHO) is set to decide Friday, whether the COVID-19 pandemic still qualifies for an international emergency declaration title— a decision that will involve factoring in how the virus and its variants are impacting countries around the world, says an infectious disease expert.
“They’re not discussing if COVID-19 is still a problem or not. They are discussing whether or not this is a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, and that of course means that it’s a major event that impacts multiple countries, where you need global co-ordination to get it under control,” Dr. Isaac Bogoch, a Toronto-based infectious disease specialist, told CTV’s Your Morning Friday.
The WHO first enacted the emergency declaration title for the COVID-19 pandemic on Jan.30, 2020. It has been renewed since then, most recently in July 2022. Now, the organization will decide again whether the title merits renewal, given widespread vaccine access in wealthier nations and the easing of restrictions in most regions globally.
The title is meant to signal to the global community and governments to accelerate research, funding and international public health measures to contain an illness.
At the start of the meeting Friday of the WHO’s Emergency Committee, the body that will make the decision around the declaration, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the world is in a “much better position” in the fight against COVID-19 than it was a year ago, when the Omicron subvariant peaked.
But since the beginning of December, deaths due to the disease have risen, with 40,000 deaths reported last week, more than half of which were in China, he said. More than 170,000 deaths have been reported in the last eight weeks, he added.
As well, the global response to COVID-19 also remains “hobbled” because in many countries, vaccines and therapeutics are not widely available, he said.
Surveillance and genetic sequencing has declined, and public trust in tools to fight COVID-19 like vaccines have been undermined “by a continuous torrent of mis- and disinformation,” said Ghebreyesus. It is within this context that the Committee will make its decision.
Bogoch said along with global spread and variants, the WHO will also look at countries capacity for data sharing and specifically examine China, due to its large population and current COVID-19 outbreak that has ripped through the population after strict health measures were lifted.
It’s important for the public to know, even if the emergency declaration is lifted, “COVID is not going away. It’s going to wax and wane over time,” said Bogoch.
As well, the virus is going to continue to hit vulnerable communities, and steps need to continue to be taken to mitigate the impact, he said.
“That of course is creating a safer indoor environment globally, sharing data globally, surveillance and data to look at emerging variants of concerns, equity for vaccinations, equity for therapeutics— there’s still a lot that needs to be done,” he said.
The unequal distribution of vaccines and treatments for COVID-19 continues to disproportionately impact the global south. Scientists continue to raise concerns that the West’s failure to aid nations struggling due to the long-reaching impacts of colonialism,for example, will result in more variants emerging.
The work is not over, with or without the emergency designation, he explained.
It also won’t change how Canada is tackling the virus, he said. “Canada is going to stay the course, we have plans and programs in place, and there is room for improvement,” he said.
On Jan. 20, Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, said at a press conference that regardless of the WHO’s decision, Canada plans to monitor the evolution of the virus over the next year.
“It's still spreading quite a bit all over the world, it is going to undergo mutations,” she said.
The current spread of the nicknamed “Kraken” subvariant, officially titled XBB.1.5, has Canadian officials on alert and encouraging the public to get their bivalent booster shot for protection.
While it’s unknown whether the subvariant will become dominant, “Kraken” has driven cases in the United States, with the CDC estimating the subvariant was making up over 40 per cent of cases, with some estimates reaching 75 per cent in the northeastern U.S., as of mid-January.
Canada's Deputy Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Howard Njoo also said,at the Jan 20 press conference,that Canadians need to understand the pandemic has not reached its end and it’s not time to let your guard down.
“We're continuing to state the same messages: Get vaccinated, keep your vaccinations up to date, and we'll see what happens,” said Njoo.
With files from CTVNews.ca Writer Natasha O’Neill and CTV News Producer Kendra Mangione
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S.
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
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.
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
Accused killer Jeremy Skibicki could have a challenging time convincing a judge that he is not criminally responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women, a legal analyst says.
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
Two Nova Scotia men are dead after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Annapolis River in Granville Centre, N.S., on Monday.
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.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.