Coronavirus: What's happening in Canada and around the world on Sunday
CBC
The latest:
In the Americas, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is considering employing the U.S. National Guard and out-of-state medical workers to fill hospital staffing shortages — with tens of thousands of workers possibly losing their jobs for not meeting a Monday deadline for mandated COVID-19 vaccination.
The plan, outlined in a statement from Hochul on Saturday, would allow her to declare a state of emergency to increase the supply of health-care workers to include licensed professionals from other states and countries, as well as retired nurses.
Hochul said the state was also looking at using National Guard officers with medical training to keep hospitals and other medical facilities adequately staffed. Some 16 per cent of the state's 450,000 hospital staff, or roughly 72,000 workers, have not been fully vaccinated, the governor's office said.
The plan comes amid a broader battle between state and federal government leaders pushing for vaccine mandates to help counter the highly infectious delta variant of the novel coronavirus and workers who are against inoculation requirements, some objecting on religious grounds.
Hochul attended the Sunday service at a large church in New York City to ask Christians to help promote vaccines.
"I need you to be my apostles. I need you to go out and talk about it and say we owe this to each other," Hochul told congregants at the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, according to an official transcript.
A wildfire whipped up by extreme winds swept through a Los Angeles hillside dotted with celebrity residences Tuesday, burning homes and prompting evacuation orders for tens of thousands. In the frantic haste to get to safety, roadways were clogged and scores of people abandoned their vehicles and fled on foot, some toting suitcases.