Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
At the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, China set out its "zero-COVID" measures that were harsh, but not out of line with what many other countries were doing to try and contain the virus. While most other nations saw the health and safety regulations as temporary until vaccines were widely available, however, China has stuck steadfastly to its strategy.
Weary of the policy that has confined millions of people to their homes in an attempt to isolate every infection, and with an eye on the freedoms now enjoyed elsewhere around the world, protests have broken out around China in recent days.
Though some antivirus restrictions have been eased in some places, the ruling Communist party has affirmed its "zero-COVID" strategy.
Here are some of the regulations:
Inbound travellers need to take a PCR test before flying and quarantine in a hotel for five days and at home for three days upon arrival. That may seem strict, but before updated regulations earlier this month, travellers needed to take two PCR tests before flying and quarantine for seven days in a hotel and three days at home. Before that, the quarantine period was 14 days.
China also ended its "circuit breaker" policy of shutting down a flight for a week or two if a certain percentage of passengers aboard tested positive for COVID-19, with the length of the ban dependent upon how many had the virus.
Travelers on domestic flights, trains or buses who are close contacts of someone with COVID-19 need to quarantine for five days at designated sites, plus three days at home. Before November changes, the quarantine time was longer and the close contacts of the person with close contact to someone with COVID-19 also needed to isolate. People who visited areas in China deemed "high-risk" also need to quarantine for seven days at home.
Inside China, individuals need to show their personal "green code" – indicating they are COVID-19-negative – when entering public places like shopping malls and restaurants, or when using public transit. Everyone must register with their identification papers, and the code is then displayed through a smartphone app. Staying "green" means not contracting COVID-19, not being a close contact of someone with the virus, and not visiting areas deemed to be a risk. If there is an outbreak in your area, local authorities may require regular testing to keep the code green. In Beijing at the moment, for example, residents must undergo a rapid coronavirus test at least every 48 hours at a government-approved facility.
China has reacted quickly and decisively to any detection of COVID-19, and has locked down parts of, or entire cities. At the moment the central urban area of Chongqing, with about 10.3 million people, is on lockdown, as is part of Guangzhou.
The decision on what to lock down depends on the scale of the outbreak. Smaller lockdowns of buildings, building compound areas or city districts are common. Entire apartment building units are locked down if a single resident is found to have COVID-19, and people are not allowed to leave for at least five days. Food and other essential supplies can be ordered for delivery.
Similarly, office buildings are locked down if someone in the building tests positive for COVID-19 until the building can be disinfected, a process that usually takes several days.
China has in place many other regulations that would be familiar to most from the early months of the pandemic. Social distancing is encouraged, and people have to wear masks in public venues. In areas where there is believed to be a risk of transmission, there are restrictions on large gatherings, restaurants are closed for indoor dining, and enhanced disinfection measures are required at public venues.
Much like the bubble measures imposed for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, facilities where people are deemed most at risk, like nursing homes, have "closed-loop management" plans in place, under which workers live in their workplaces with no outside contacts.
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
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.
A spike in impaired driving-related collisions has caused Ontario’s provincial police to begin enforcing mandatory alcohol screening (MAS) at all traffic stops in the Greater Toronto Area -- a move one civil rights group says is ‘not acceptable.’
William Nylander scored twice and Joseph Woll made 22 saves as the Toronto Maple Leafs downed the Boston Bruins 2-1 on Thursday to force Game 7 in their first-round series.
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.
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.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.
The lawyer for a residential school survivor leading a proposed class-action defamation lawsuit against the Catholic Church over residential schools says the court action is a last resort.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.