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The latest:
COVID-19 cases continue to mount across Canada as the Omicron variant of the coronavirus becomes further entrenched.
Nova Scotia was the first province to report updated figures on Monday, with 581 new cases. The abbreviated release did not include updated hospitalization data, with more detail expected later in the week.
In Ontario on Monday, Health Minister Christine Elliott reported 9,418 new cases of COVID-19. The province also reported five additional deaths.
480 people are hospitalized with <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/COVID19?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#COVID19</a>, and 176 people are in ICU due to COVID-19. <br> <br>The seven-day rolling average of COVID-19 related patients in ICU is 168.<br> <br>Please note that not all hospitals report on weekends.<br> <br>There are 9,418 new cases of COVID-19.
—@celliottability
Quebec health officials on Monday reported 8,231 new cases of COVID-19 and 10 additional deaths. The update came as the province expanded booster dose eligibility to those aged 60 and up.
Experts have said there may be more cases than reported because many public health units have reached their testing capacity.
Meanwhile, public health experts expect case counts to continue to climb, given the high transmissibility of the Omicron variant, and that has renewed their concerns about the capacity of Canada’s hospitals and health-care workers to handle another wave of the pandemic.
-From The Canadian Press and CBC News, last updated at 11:40 a.m. ET
What’s happening across Canada
While the labour market seems to have staged a full recovery since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of self-employed Canadians is slowly shrinking. Some experts blame the government’s pandemic response, with concerns that some small business owners may never recover. 2:05
What’s happening around the world
As of late Monday morning, more than 280 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University’s coronavirus tracker. The reported global death toll stood at more than 5.4 million.
In the Asia-Pacific region, China’s local symptomatic COVID-19 cases crept up again, with most new infections reported in Xian city as it entered a fifth day of a lockdown, while Australian authorities refrained from imposing new curbs despite the country’s first Omicron death.
Meanwhile, South Korea said it has granted an emergency authorization to Pfizer’s COVID-19 treatment pill, Paxlovid. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said Monday it expects the introduction of Paxlovid to help diversify options for COVID-19 treatments and prevent patients’ conditions from becoming serious amid surging infections and critical cases in South Korea.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency says the government has signed contracts to procure Paxlovid pills enough to cover 362,000 patients. It says the Paxlovid pills will be delivered to South Korea as early as mid-January.
In the Americas, U.S. airlines cancelled more than 1,300 flights on Sunday as COVID-19 thinned out the number of available crews, while several cruise ships had to cancel stops after outbreaks on board, upending the plans of thousands of Christmas travellers.
Meanwhile, the Dominican Republic has identified its first case of the Omicron variant.
In Africa, health officials in South Africa on Sunday reported 5,604 new cases and 41 additional deaths.
As of today the cumulative number of <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/COVID19?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#COVID19</a> cases identified in SA is 3 413 540 with 5 604 new cases reported. Today 41 deaths have been reported bringing the total to 90 814 deaths. The cumulative number of recoveries now stand at 3 111 957 with a recovery rate of 91,2% <a href=”https://t.co/1IpJI7YJah”>pic.twitter.com/1IpJI7YJah</a>
—@HealthZA
In the Middle East, Israel’s Health Ministry said on Monday it was shortening the time between offering the second and third doses of COVID-19 vaccine to three months from five months. The new timeframe would be applied to vaccines made by Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca.
Oman will not allow employees in the public or private sectors to enter their workplace without a vaccination certificate that proves they are fully vaccinated, the health minister said in a news conference on Monday.
In Europe, France broke the 100,000 cases threshold for the first time since the pandemic began as the Omicron variant continued its rapid spread, while Italy reported a third successive record tally of cases on Saturday.
–From Reuters, The Associated Press and CBC News, last updated at 10:45 a.m. ET
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