Coronavirus: What's happening in Canada and around the world on Thursday
CBC
The latest:
Provinces face difficult choices over how to curb the spread of the Omicron variant ahead of the holiday season as COVID-19 case counts continued surging throughout much of Canada on Thursday.
British Columbia and Alberta saw their confirmed Omicron case totals jump, while Saskatchewan's premier expanded eligibility for booster shots and called Omicron the "most significant challenge" of the pandemic so far.
Quebec's premier announced new measures limiting private gatherings to a maximum of 10 people indoors, reducing capacity at stores and restaurants, and delaying the return of in-person high school classes until Jan. 10, among other restrictions.
"In this fight that we are waging, it's not enough to just get vaccinated," Premier François Legault said at a news conference.
Quebec booked 2,736 cases Thursday, up from 2,386 the day before. These numbers are the highest reported in the province since January, when Quebec was grappling with a second wave.
In Ontario, the province's table of science experts called for "circuit breaker" restrictions that will reduce people's social contacts by 50 per cent. Otherwise, the province could see between 6,000 and 10,000 new cases a day by the end of the year, the scientists said.
Nova Scotia reported 287 new cases Thursday, topping a previous record set in May. The province has identified 40 cases involving Omicron.
In New Brunswick, 177 new cases were recorded, up from the previous high of 174 set last week.
None of the new cases reported in that province Thursday were caused by Omicron, public health authorities said. But the province has identified 14 cases of the variant, and the health minister has said she expects to see many more.
Prince Edward Island has its highest active caseload yet, with 49 residents currently infected. The island reported 10 new cases Thursday.
Elsewhere in the country, case numbers are reaching levels not seen for months.
Manitoba recorded 218 new cases Thursday, its highest number since June.
On Wednesday, that province's chief provincial public health officer said that number could hit 1,000 a day by January because of the transmissibility of Omicron. He urged Manitobans to decrease the number of people they have contact with and be "very, very careful" about their holiday plans.
More Alberta seniors are now eligible for a provincially funded RSV vaccine.
More than 100 workers at a steel plant in eastern Ontario are being laid off either temporarily or permanently, as a company with facilities in Quebec and Ontario cuts its workforce due to challenging market conditions — including U.S. tariffs.
A small town northwest of Thunder Bay, Ont., has become the unlikely home for hundreds of foreign workers, but many may have to leave the community they've embraced after the end of a federal program put in place to fill gaps in Canada's labour market.
There's mixed reaction in Waterloo to an injuction allowing police to detain, arrest and charge anyone who is participating in unsanctioned street parties in that city this weekend.
Diabetes Canada is excited about Prince Edward Island's new pharmacare deal with the federal government, but hopes the province will reevaluate copays on diabetes supplies, says a senior manager with the organization.
After 26 years of accommodating guests from across the world, Faith Embleton says she and her husband Ken are ready to sell their bed and breakfast.
A group of big-name companies including Google, Meta and Dow have signed a pledge to support tripling the world's nuclear energy capacity by 2050, a signal of the technology's growing resurgence in popularity.
Five years on, Toronto-area doctors and public health officials are looking back at what they've learned since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — and most agree the early experience will prove useful if the city faces another infectious disease crisis.
City staff would like Londoners to take a good look around their home and ask themselves a direct and possibly difficult question: Could everyone in your family survive at home, without leaving and with no other help, for a full 72 hours?
Liberal Leader Mark Carney will officially become Canada's next prime minister within a few hours, taking the reins as the country barrels toward a general election and continues to fend off verbal and economic attacks from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Recent cyberattacks in Newfoundland and Labrador should have been a wake up call for the federal government about the reality of an increasingly hostile world, says one cybersecurity expert.
A recent CBC News analysis found that Nova Scotia is rapidly losing some of its most affordable apartments, but housing experts say there are ways to prevent that.
Premier Susan Holt is defending her decision to not use electricity exports to Maine as leverage against U.S. tariffs, arguing the move might cause long-term pain for New Brunswickers.