Ontario Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk says both the provincial government and the long-term care home sector failed to heed lessons learned from the SARS epidemic and were poorly prepared for the COVID-19 pandemic. Her report into the deaths of more than 3,700 nursing home residents last spring finds concerns about systemic weaknesses that had been raised for years were never addressed. Among other things, Bonnie Lysyk says emergency planning was woefully inadequate. Bonnie Lysyk says vaccinations have now blunted the impact of the virus but the sector remains vulnerable given past neglect. Ly

Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau spoke with his counterpart in India earlier today about how Canada could best help the country struggling with a deadly surge in COVID-19 cases. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the federal government is ready to provide $10 million to the Indian Red Cross, through the Canadian Red Cross. He says this money would support everything from procuring more personal protective equipment locally to ambulance services. Trudeau says government in close contact with US about procuring more doses Canada is counting on a US promise to share surplus COVID-19vaccines

A Quebec woman in her 50s has died of a blood clot that occurred after she received the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. The province's public health director says officials always knew that rare complications were possible with vaccines. Dr. Horacio Arruda says the benefits of the COVID-19 vaccine still far outweigh the risks. Arruda notes there have been four reports of complications out of 400,000 people who have received the vaccines. He says Quebec will continue to offer the vaccine to residents between the ages of 45 and 79. Health Minister Christian Dube a told a news conference that any de

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the Canadian Armed Forces is deploying 60 service members to help out at COVID-19 testing centres in Nova Scotia. Trudeau says the province asked for help as the number of COVID-19 cases has been rising quickly, especially in the Halifax region. This comes the day after the federal government confirmed it would be deploying military medical personnel to help Ontario's beleaguered health-care system. Trudeau says the Forces carried out its assessment of what Ontario needs on the ground Monday and that military personnel will be mobilized over the next days. H

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, received their first shot of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine Friday at a Rexall pharmacy in downtown Ottawa.Pharmacist Zaineb Hassan disinfected a spot on Trudeau's left arm where the prime minister has an Indigenous tattoo, before he jokingly asked his wife to hold his right hand while he received the vaccine dose.Trudeau told the pharmacist he was "very excited" before Hassan injected the shot into Trudeau's arm and covered the spot with a bandage.Hassan then gave Gregoire Trudeau her vaccine shot and told the coupl

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada has reached an agreement with Pfizer for 35 million booster doses for next year, and 30 million in the year after.He says the deal includes options to add 30 million doses in both 2022 and 2023, and an option for 60 million doses in 2024.Booster shots are expected to be important as the virus continues to mutate, similar to how the flu shot is altered every year to be effective against the most dominant strain.Trudeau says these boosters will be the latest version of the Pfizer vaccine based on research and testing, and they will help Canada keep the v

Ontario has reported its first case of a rare blood clot in a person who received the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.Dr. David Williams, Ontario's top doctor, says the 60-year-old patient had received his first dose of the vaccine.Williams says the man has been treated and is recovering at home.It's the fourth case of the rare clotting condition in Canada, out of more than 1.1 million AstraZeneca doses administered across the country.B.C. has been facing a stark shortage of the AstraZeneca vaccine, with several doses being diverted from Vancouver Island Health to the Lower Mainland

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says suspending incoming passenger flights from India and Pakistan for the next month must be done to keep Canadians safe. Trudeau says it's necessary because there has been a concerning surge of COVID-19 cases and the emergence of more variants of concern in certain parts of the world.Also, the federal health minister has said half of the people who have tested positive for the novel coronavirus after arriving in Canada by plane have come from India.The new travel measures were announced yesterday following pressure from provincial leaders, who said not enough w

Canada's top public health doctor says there's been an increase of more than 200,000 COVID-19 cases since last month, but there are signs the epidemic is easing.Dr. Theresa Tam says average case counts have more than doubled over the past month, with upwards of 8,400 infections reported daily over the last week.But Tam says there's reason for hope due to Canada's declining reproduction rate, which represents how many people are infected by each new case.She says this measure has fallen below the key threshold of one for the first time in weeks, meaning the rate of transmission is trending dow