Today, in an effort to support India’s COVID-19 response, senior executives from FreshCo and Chalo! FreschCo presented a cheque for $50,000 to the Canadian Red Cross at the Chalo! FreshCo Brampton store on Airport Road. These funds will directly support preparedness, response and recovery activities on the ground in India, helping communities that have been affected or are at risk of being affected by the deadly virus. Today’s donation cheque was presented by Tony McGrath, VP Operations, Discount Format, Sobeys Inc., Donny Sandher, National Chalo Operations District Operator, Discount Form

Four people in Canada have now died from a rare blood-clotting event linked to the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. The latest person was in their 50s in New Brunswick. The province's chief medical officer of health, Dr. Jennifer Russell, says the person received a first dose of AstraZeneca on April 11th. They developed blood clot symptoms 17 days later and died recently. This latest death comes as Ontario is resuming use of the vaccine, but only as a second dose. More than 2.1-million Canadians have received at least one dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Canada's deputy chief medical officer says the country's COVID-19 vaccination rates have doubled in five weeks, reaching nearly 20 million doses administered to date, while daily cases continue to decline. But Dr. Howard Njoo says Canadians should take care to maintain the country's progress this Victoria Day long weekend. Njoo is urging people choose lower-risk outdoor activities and follow the public health advice of their respective jurisdictions. Daily COVID-19 cases have dropped by 25 per cent over the past seven days. Njoo says, while hospitalizations, deaths and critical-care admission

Transport Canada is extending the ban on incoming flights from India and Pakistan for another month. The flight ban that began April 22 was set to expire on Saturday. A notice posted on the Nav Canada website says the extension is ordered by Transport Minister Omar Alghabra. It says the ministry believes barring flights from those two countries for another month is necessary to protect the public. Transport Minister Omar Alghabra says it will be extended until June 21st. The ban has cut down the number of international flights arriving in Canada with at least one passenger who later tests po

Health Canada says as of May 13th, 740 fully vaccinated people have contracted COVID-19. It also says 13-thousand, 461 who had received their first dose were infected. The department says the statistics come from nine provinces that submitted data. It takes about 14 days after the first dose, and seven-days after the second dose for the immunity it confers to take effect. Health Canada says 443 people were hospitalized with COVID-19, two weeks or more after they got their first dose, and 95 people in that group died. Health Canada says 32 were hospitalized at least a week after getting their

Canada is expected to move ahead of the United States today in at least one of the markers in the race to herd immunity against COVID-19. By the end of the day nearly 49 per cent of all Canadians should have their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, pushing slightly ahead of the U.S. at just over 48 per cent.Canada is set to get one dose to more than half the population before the end of the long weekend, but remains far back of the pack in the full-vaccination race, with fewer than four per cent of Canadians fully immunized.It is a marked turnaround for Canada, which just one month ago remaine

Canada's chief public health officer says COVID-19 disease activity continues to decline but there are areas of the country experiencing very high infection rates. Dr. Theresa Tam says over the past seven days, an average of 5,700 cases were reported daily and 3,600 people were treated in hospital each day, including over 1,300 in intensive care. She says there were an average of 43 deaths reported daily. But nevertheless, she says Canada is making steady progress with a 25 per cent decrease in reported active cases since the peak of the third wave in April. Canada crosses grim milestone on 2

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada is receiving 4.5 million vaccine doses this week, including a shipment from Pfizer-BioNTech that has been moved up ahead of the holiday weekend. He says it is the largest weekly shipment to date, and it will help keep Canada within the top of the G20 on daily vaccinations, where he says it has been for over two weeks. Trudeau also says Canada will receive 9 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in July. That means that between now and at least the end of July, Canada will continue to get over two million Pfizer doses a week. Prime Minister Just

The Liberal government has tapped another military officer to take over Canada's vaccine rollout. Brigadier-General Krista Brodie will step into the role, after the sudden departure of Major-General Dany Fortin because of a military investigation. Brodie is a 30-year veteran of the military with extensive logistics experience, who had been working with Fortin since November. The Liberal government has given little details about why Fortin had been removed. The Canadian Press has confirmed the investigation relates to an allegation of sexual misconduct.