Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says "rare exceptions" to new travel restrictions will be made on compassionate grounds, but that more contagious COVID-19 variants now taking hold in Canada mean tough rules must be implemented in the next few weeks.Trudeau announced last week that passengers returning from abroad will have to quarantine at a hotel for up to three days after taking a PCR test at the airport, but no date has been set for when this will take effect.The move is one of several measures meant to choke off entry of the virus into Canada, but comes after case numbers of more transmissib

Chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam says there are signs of community spread of COVID-19 variants in several provinces. Dr. Tam says 148 cases of the mutations that first emerged in the United Kingdom and South Africa have been confirmed across the country, even as overall coronavirus case counts continue to decline. The country's top doctor says that provincial officials should be very cautious about relaxing safety measures, as the U.K. and South African strains are highly contagious. Dr. Tam says the variants' arrival in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia means health authoritie

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada has signed a tentative agreement for Novavax to produce millions of doses of its COVID-19 vaccine in Canada once it's approved for use here.The U.S. company is still doing clinical trials of its vaccine but if Health Canada approves it, a new National Research Council facility in Montreal will begin pumping out Novavax doses when the building is finished later this year.It would be the first COVID-19 vaccine to be produced domestically.Canada is currently at the mercy of foreign governments, which could at any time slam the doors shut to vaccine export

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada's other vaccine supplier has to cut back on its deliveries next week. Moderna will ship only about three-quarters of the expected supply, cutting Canada's next shipment by more than 50,000 doses. Similar cuts are being made to Europe's deliveries, with Italy, France and Switzerland all reporting they, too, are getting less than 80 per cent of their expected doses. It is more bad news for Canada's already troubled vaccine supplies, after Pfizer cut back its deliveries by more than two-thirds since mid-January. Pfizer is also pushing Canada to change th

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada’s air carriers have agreed to suspend service to the Caribbean and Mexico beginning this Sunday. The restriction will remain in place till April 30th. Speaking outside his home in Ottawa this morning, Trudeau said this involves flights with Air Canada, WestJet, Sunwing and Air Transat. Trudeau also announced that all international flights will only be allowed to land at one of four airports: Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal. Passengers entering Canada must also undergo a PCR test for COVID-19 upon arrival, then self-isolate at an approved hot

American pharmaceutical giant Johnson and Johnson says its vaccine is very good at preventing people from being hospitalized or dying from COVID-19.The vaccine is the first to use just a single dose and can be stored in a fridge for up to three months, making it a potential game changer in the COVID-19 vaccination campaign.The results aren't quite as good as those seen in the two vaccines Health Canada has already approved, with both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna saying their vaccines showed 95 per cent efficacy against severe illness.Johnson and Johnson says it's single-dose vaccine is 85 per

The man overseeing the country's national vaccine rollout says Canada is getting 149,000 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine over the next two weeks. That's only one-fifth of what had been promised before the company slowed production in a bid to ramp up operations in Belgium. Canada has been saying for several weeks that the shipments would return to normal in mid-February, but Maj. Gen. Dany Fortin now says Pfizer is sending 335,000 doses the week of Feb. 15, which is still only 91 per cent of the previous delivery schedule. Fortin says the deliveries still are based on five doses per vial.

The review of Rideau Hall that led governor general Julie Payette to resign found dozens of people who called the working conditions there hostile, negative, toxic or poisoned. The government released the review by Quintet Consulting Corp. Wednesday evening.It's heavily redacted, primarily to protect participants' privacy, and whole pages of details are blacked out or removed.But the review says representative comments about Rideau Hall include phrases such as "the definition of a poisoned work environment," and "humiliation," "disrespect" and "condescension." It says participants reported ye

Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller says it's the most idiotic thing he's seen in weeks. Miller says a wealthy Vancouver couple's decision to fly to a remote Yukon community to get COVID-19 vaccines was stupid, and they should pay for their stupidity. He says perhaps reparations are due on some level. Former Great Canadian Gaming Corporation CEO Rodney Baker and his wife Ekaterina have already each been fined. Miller says he is attending a second, virtual meeting with First Nations, Metis and Inuit leaders Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller says he is attending a second, virtual me