COVID-19

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has released details on the federal government's vaccine passport that will be needed for international travel.

Trudeau made the announcement this morning (October 21, 2021) alongside Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa.

"We made a commitment to ensure there is a national standard for a proof of vaccination certificate that will be issued by every province and territory so that people can travel domestically but particularly internationally," said Trudeau.

The City of Kenora and the Kenora Professional Fire Fighters Association have come to reach a tentative agreement.

The two have been in negotiations since February of 2021 but COVID-19 put a pause on the talks along with emergency response needed for the horrific wildfire season the region faced.

An agreement was reached on September 15, 2021, after tough but constructive bargaining.

The Northwestern Health Unit has confirmed they have discovered a new COVID-19 case in the region. 

The newly found case was located in the Kenora Health Region. 

Follow up with the person involved and their contacts has started according to protocol. Anyone who is identified as a contact for this case will be contacted directly.

Currently, there are three active cases connected to the NWHU catchment area. 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has released details on the federal government's vaccine passport that will be needed for international travel.

Trudeau made the announcement Thursday morning alongside Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa.

"We made a commitment to ensure there is a national standard for a proof of vaccination certificate that will be issued by every province and territory so that people can travel domestically but particularly internationally," said Trudeau.

After 580 days, the state of emergency is ending.

The state of emergency in Manitoba is expiring at 4 p.m. This means the province will no longer have additional powers, granted in sections 10(1) and 10(2) of the Emergency Measures Act. 

“Nineteen months ago we declared a state of emergency to help protect the physical and financial health and safety of all Manitobans and reduce the spread of COVID-19 in our hospitals and in our communities,” Premier Kelvin Goertzen says in a statement.

No traces of COVID-19 have been found in the City of Kenora’s water supply to this point, but testing is ongoing to continue to monitor the community’s health.

“That is regular testing that is done with provincial authorities. The ones that are actually mandating the program,” explained Director of Engineering and Infrastructure Services for the City of Kenora, Kevin Gannon.

Businesses across the region are being asked to develop their own employee immunization strategies to help keep their workplaces as safe as possible from COVID-19.

Alberta has marked a grim milestone of over 3000 COVID-19 deaths.

Sadly, another 18 deaths were reported on Wednesday, October 20, bringing the total deaths in the province to 3,006.

There were 786 new cases reported in the past 24 hours with a positivity rate of around 7 per cent.

The province’s active case count has dropped to 10,824.

There are 928 people in hospital with 203 of those in ICU.

To date, 86.2 per cent of Albertans have received one shot of COVID-19 vaccine while 77.9 per cent are fully vaccinated.

The head of Manitoba's Vaccine Implementation Task Force says Manitoba could be a month away from five-year-olds being eligible to roll up their sleeves for a COVID-19 vaccine.

Dr. Joss Reimer says Pfizer announced this week that it has officially requested Health Canada approve the vaccine for children aged five to 11. She notes Health Canada will only authorize the use of this vaccine if their independent and thorough scientific review of all data shows that the vaccine is both safe and effective in this age group. This vaccine is being marketed under the name, Comirnaty.

On Sunday, Oct. 24, 2021, full vaccination for everyone born in 2009 or earlier (12+) and presentation of your BC Vaccine Card will be required to access certain events, services and businesses.