Coronavirus: What's happening in Canada and around the world Wednesday
CBC
The latest:
The number of coronavirus cases has risen in Europe for the fifth consecutive week, making it the only world region where COVID-19 is still increasing, the World Health Organization reported.
In its weekly report on the pandemic, the UN health agency said new cases jumped by six per cent in Europe for the week of Oct. 25 to 31, compared to an 18 per cent increase the previous week. The weekly number of new infections in other regions either fell or remained about the same, according to the report.
Overall, three million new weekly cases were reported globally, the report states. The number of deaths from COVID-19 worldwide rose by eight per cent.
The coronavirus infection rate was by far the highest in Europe, which reported about 192 new cases per 100,000 people, followed by the Americas, which had about 72 new cases per 100,000.
While the Czech Republic, Poland and other countries in Central and Eastern Europe have reported recent infection spikes, the continuing rise in confirmed cases across Europe has been driven mostly by:
The highest number of deaths in the region were reported in:
Several hundred people blocked traffic in the centre of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, on Wednesday in a protest against coronavirus restrictions and mandatory vaccinations, which the government introduced to curb new infections. Vaccines have become mandatory for some state workers, and in "red" zone areas including Kyiv, only vaccinated people or those with negative COVID-19 test results are allowed into restaurants, gyms and on public transport.
The weekly WHO report also said the easier-to-spread delta variant remains predominant worldwide and continues to mostly crowd out other variants — more than 99 per cent of COVID-19 samples sequenced by an international database were the delta variant. It said delta's spread has been slightly slower in some parts of South America, where other variants, including the mu variant, account for a large proportion of cases.
-From The Associated Press and CBC News, last updated 8:20 a.m. ET
As of early Wednesday morning, more than 247.6 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University's online coronavirus tracker. The reported global death toll stood at more than five million.
In the Americas, the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention backed broad use of Pfizer/BioNTech's vaccine in children aged 5 to 11, clearing the way for shots to go into young arms as soon as Wednesday.
Mexico's health ministry reported 269 confirmed coronavirus fatalities, bringing the country's overall death toll from the pandemic to 288,733.
In the Asia-Pacific region, Hong Kong will roll out booster doses of vaccines from next week, Health Secretary Sophia Chan said, as authorities ramp up efforts to convince Beijing to allow cross-border travel to mainland China.
Just as Alberta begins to dig out from its last winter storm, most of the province is preparing for another blast of snow and brutal cold, just in time for the holidays.
The B.C. Conservative candidate for the Surrey-Guildford riding in the 2024 provincial election, which was narrowly won by the B.C. NDP, has now abandoned a lawsuit that sought to invalidate that result.
A new suite will soon be available for the families of patients receiving care at P.E.I.'s Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
TTC ridership was lower than expected this past fall despite a push by some employers to bring employees back into the office, according to a TTC draft budget document.
Extreme cold is drawing near the prospect of rolling blackouts in Whitehorse.
Egmont MP Bobby Morrissey says federal help for Prince Edward Island's struggling oyster fishery is expected early in the new year.
Calgary police have charged a man with defrauding numerous seniors out of about $186,000 in a string of incidents over a five-week period.
A Brampton lawyer allegedly connected to fugitive Ryan Wedding was granted bail Tuesday morning by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
Rankin Inlet hamlet councillors recently passed a motion that has had them avoid drinking alcohol for the 12 days leading up to Christmas, with the goal of setting a positive example for the community.
Jason Jacques says he learned a lot about the importance of choosing his words carefully in his first few months as the interim parliamentary budget officer (PBO).
Durham police say a man is dead after suffering multiple stab wounds in Oshawa Tuesday morning.
An internal review of technical outages that caused significant delays at airports and international land borders this fall has exposed critical flaws with the Canada Border Services Agency's IT services.
Two people are in life-threatening condition after being pulled from a house fire in Scarborough Tuesday morning, according to Toronto Fire Services.