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Anti-vaccine-mandate truck convoy passing through Alberta on way to Ottawa
Nearly $3M raised for convoy through GoFundMe campaign as of 9:30 p.m. Sunday
In November, the federal government announced new protocols for unvaccinated people travelling across the Canada-U.S. border. Part of that announcement included changes in the new year for groups of travellers who were exempt from entry requirements, such as truck drivers.
As of Jan. 15, unvaccinated or partially vaccinated Canadian truck drivers, among others, entering the country must get a PCR test outside of Canada within 72 hours of planned entry; get tested when they arrive; and then self-test on Day 8 of a mandatory 14-day quarantine period.
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Ontario reports 604 in intensive care due to COVID-19, 57 new deaths
Ontario says there are 3,797 patients in hospital with COVID-19 and 604 people in intensive care units due to critical illness related to the disease.
The province says the numbers don’t represent the full extend of hospitalizations as more than 10 per cent of hospitals don’t update their numbers on the weekend.
Ontario is also reporting 57 new deaths related to COVID-19.
New case numbers were up by 5,833, though Public Health Ontario has said the number of new infections is likely higher because of a current policy restricting who can access tests.
A total of 371 long-term care homes have an active outbreak, up from 368 the day before.
The province says 50.1 per cent of Ontarians aged 18 and older have received a booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 82.9 per cent of residents aged five and older have received two shots
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COVID-19 has taken a toll on churchgoing in America as country shifts its views on religion
Christianity has been a defining cultural feature of the U.S. since its inception. But COVID-19 has stripped away large numbers of people from the country’s places of worship amid a broader trend toward secularization. In the past two years, some smaller churches have sought government pandemic funds, cut staff and even put buildings up for sale. Bigger churches, with their Grammy-winning worship bands and television-calibre livestreams, have fared better.
Polling by the Pew Research Center has found that the percentage of U.S. adults who identify as Christian has fallen 15 percentage points since 2007, to 63 per cent, mostly among Protestants. In that time, those who say they have “no religion” has almost doubled, to 29 per cent. In 2020, for the first time in eight decades of polling by Gallup, less than half of Americans belonged to places of worship, including churches, synagogues and mosques.
This week, the Institute for Family Studies, a religious research group, released a new analysis showing a six-percentage-point decline in regular religious attendance in the U.S., using data that compared 2021 with 2019. That suggests the pandemic ended churchgoing for 20 million people; 57 per cent of Americans now say they never or seldom attend church. (A Canadian survey last fall found 67 per cent of Canadians never attend church.)
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COVID-19 vaccine mandates will worsen trucker shortage, affecting consumers, experts say
“There’s going to be food on the shelves, it’s just not going to be what you and I expect to see when we get in there. You won’t have as many options,” said Trevor Bent, chief executive officer of Nova Scotia-based Eassons Transportation Group, which operates across Canada and into the United States. Its main business is delivering fresh and frozen food to producers, retailers and restaurants. Eassons has 340 trucks, 515 employees and four operating divisions.
The Canadian Trucking Alliance has called for the mandate to be delayed until supply chains have improved, warning that the vaccine rules will sideline about 12,000 cross-border truckers, based on vaccination rates.
“There’s going to be food on the shelves, it’s just not going to be what you and I expect to see when we get in there. You won’t have as many options,” said Trevor Bent, chief executive officer of Nova Scotia-based Eassons Transportation Group, which operates across Canada and into the United States. Its main business is delivering fresh and frozen food to producers, retailers and restaurants. Eassons has 340 trucks, 515 employees and four operating divisions.
The Canadian Trucking Alliance has called for the mandate to be delayed until supply chains have improved, warning that the vaccine rules will sideline about 12,000 cross-border truckers, based on vaccination rates.
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