Canada - Coronavirus COVID-19 #2

[otto]

Any excuse to get around immigration law! This couple came to Canada on work visas and remained in Canada illegally for 6 years after their visas expired. Now they claim that they should not be deported to their own country because there's a pandemic in their country too, just like in Canada. Simply bizarre.

"A family in Milton, Ont., is racing against the clock to be able to stay in Canada, saying that being deported to Portugal will put their health in jeopardy.

"Sending us back to Portugal now, in the middle of this pandemic, it's like they are sending us into war," said Eva Ferreira, who, along with her husband and 15-year-old son, has been living in Canada for eight years.
...

The family first arrived in Canada in 2012 after struggling to find steady employment in Europe. The parents obtained valid Canadian work permits while working as truck drivers.

According to their lawyer, their status then lapsed without their knowledge two years later, primarily as a result of inept legal counsel."
​

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/family-deportation-canada-portugal-risk-1.5902716

 

[LadyL]

Why returning travellers will pay $2000 per person for quarantine:

"Many people have questioned how a three-day stay in a hotel could total $2,000. The government says the amount would also cover related expenses, such as the cost of the test, transportation, hotel security and added health protections for hotel staff. Presumably, meals would be included as well

"It's not just simply the cost of a hotel room," Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said on Jan. 29.

He said travellers shouldn't balk at the price tag.

"We think that if they're going to make that choice [to travel], that they should bear the full cost and responsibility of all the measures that are necessary to keep Canadians safe."
​

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/hotel-quarantine-travel-questions-1.5904275

I agree!

 

[LadyL]

Today’s coronavirus news: First cases of Brazil, South Africa variants confirmed in Toronto; Ontario reports 1,489 new COVID-19 cases, 22 deaths; Quebec surpasses 10,000 deaths

 

[otto]

Today’s coronavirus news: First cases of Brazil, South Africa variants confirmed in Toronto; Ontario reports 1,489 new COVID-19 cases, 22 deaths; Quebec surpasses 10,000 deaths

This is interesting - from the link:

"South Africa has suspended plans to inoculate its front-line health-care workers with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine after a small clinical trial suggested that it isn’t effective in preventing mild to moderate illness from the variant dominant in the country."​

 

[LadyL]

10,000 lives lost: A closer look at the people behind Quebec's staggering pandemic death toll

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/mont...deINJI67h6ugyBeJCEQ96t6mbE8MfrXPJRYJef_kigpfM

 

[LadyL]

dbm paywall

 

[Tadpole12]

^ that certainly is a grim threshold, LL

 

[Tadpole12]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/covid-19-ontario-february-8-2021-reopening-ford-1.5905213

Ontario will let more businesses reopen, gradually lift stay-at-home orders

"1,265 new cases of COVID-19"

Ontario to loosen COVID-19 restrictions in some regions on Wednesday

"Other parts of the province will have their stay-at-home orders lifted after another week, on Feb.16 - ... Toronto, York Region and Peel, which are to remain under a stay-at-home order until Feb. 22"

Ontario begins phased reopening Wednesday, majority of regions to remain in lockdown

"The Ontario government said residential evictions which were paused under stay-at-home orders will be able to resume once it is lifted in a region."


Ontario Newsroom | Salle de presse de l'Ontario
Ontario Extending Stay-At-Home Order across Most of the Province to Save Lives

 

[musicaljoke]

Are we allowed to discuss the Emergency Wage Supplement that came into effect as a response to Covid?

Doesn't anyone here understand the CRA's new T4 requirements for employers? I realise that they need to verify the emergency wage supplement payments, but I can't find a form that has a place to enter the required information. Besides, I sent in my T4 summary a few weeks ago, and now it looks like I have to redo it.

Bah!

T4 Statement of Remuneration Paid - Canada.ca

 

[otto]

The 1918-1920 pandemic lasted two years and had three waves. This is based on watching widely available documentaries about that pandemic produced prior to 2018. Each wave, in 1918, hit a different age group hardest. That doesn't mean history will be repeated.

I think 2 years and 3 waves means virus mutation variants, each one targeting a different age group before petering out. Hopefully the virus will peter out after 2 years and not be sustained by the airline industry.

At the beginning of the 2020 pandemic, the thought was that there was one virus, one variant, no variant worse than another, and it will be gone by Summer, or Fall, maybe Winter, or maybe next Spring, or the next Spring. No one anticipated that "second wave" meant a more transmissible and deadly variant of the already deadly virus.

Was what politicians called "second wave" the quiet before the storm?

 

[deugirtni]

Are we allowed to discuss the Emergency Wage Supplement that came into effect as a response to Covid?

Doesn't anyone here understand the CRA's new T4 requirements for employers? I realise that they need to verify the emergency wage supplement payments, but I can't find a form that has a place to enter the required information. Besides, I sent in my T4 summary a few weeks ago, and now it looks like I have to redo it.

Bah!

T4 Statement of Remuneration Paid - Canada.ca

Yes, you will need to redo it, jmo. I'm not sure if you are using accounting software or doing manually, but I believe at least some of the accounting software has been a bit slow in updating payroll tables to accommodate these additional reporting measures.
Here is an article from back in August: CRA adds T4 reporting requirements to validate benefit payments | Advisor's Edge
and from CRA:
T4 - Information for employers - Canada.ca

 

[otto]

I have no sympathy for these people. They know the risks of travel and choose to take them for themselves. That does not give them the right to share those risks with the rest of the community.

"Another traveller, Mitch Beaulieu, said it seemed to him like a sci-fi thriller. Police and security officers escorted him from Calgary's airport to a van with blacked-out windows and took him to a hotel with hallways lined with plastic. There, he was greeted by people wearing hazmat suits, gloves and face masks.

The two men, now back home, are among the few willing to speak publicly about their mandatory stays in Calgary's isolation hotel.
...

A security guard is stationed next to the elevator to ensure no one leaves — unless they are venturing outside for their daily 15 minutes in the hotel's courtyard.
...

Penalties are stiff for anyone who violates instructions given to them under the Quarantine Act upon their arrival back into Canada.

The maximum jail sentence is six months and/or $750,000 in fines. If someone breaks their quarantine or isolation requirements and causes death or serious bodily harm to someone, they could face up to three years in prison, a fine of up to $1 million or both."
​

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calg...ne-covid-19-isolation-public-health-1.5900876

 

[Tadpole12]

Ontario reports just over 1,000 new cases of COVID-19, marking drop not seen in months

 

[Tadpole12]

Ontario reports just over 1,000 new cases of COVID-19 today, 17 more deaths

To date,
227 cases of B.1.1.7. variant (UK)
3 B.1.351 variant cases (South Africa)
One case of P.1 variant (Brazil)

 

[Tadpole12]

Reminder:
Valentine's Day on Sunday, Feb 14
Family Day, Monday Feb 15,
And possible end to Lockdown on 16th? for some.

 

[otto]

"A new study of one of Alberta's first COVID-19 superspreader events — a bonspiel last March attended by doctors from across Western Canada — suggests that most of the transmission occurred off the ice as curlers gathered to socialize and dine at buffet and banquet tables.

On March 11, 2020, the same day COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic, medical professionals gathered at Edmonton's Granite Club to hit the ice for four days of competition.

The virus moved unseen from curler to curler, eventually infecting at least 40 of the 73 attendees. Many brought the virus home, infecting their families, their work colleagues and, in some cases, even exposing their patients to the virus."​

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/bonspiel-superspreader-edmonton-covid-1.5907514

Read the report:

COVID-19 outbreak among physicians at a Canadian curling bonspiel: a descriptive observational study

 

[otto]

This is helpful in understanding the vaccine. My impression is that the current vaccine is intended to reduce or eliminate covid symptoms in vaccinated people. It does not guarantee that vaccinated people will not get sick and transmit the virus to others.

Although I don't fully understand this, my first thought is that the virus continues to be transmitted by vaccinated people and could potentially allow the virus to continue to mutate such that the vaccine is useless.

The Pfizer vaccine may lower viral load, which might reduce virus transmission rates.

Am I the only person who thought that vaccination meant we did not get the virus? When we have the polio vaccine, aren't we immune from getting the disease, or do we get the disease with reduced symptoms and we can still infect others?

"New research out of Israel offers early clues that at least one vaccine — the mRNA-based option from Pfizer-BioNTech, which is also being used here in Canada — may lead to lower viral loads, suggesting it might be harder for someone to spread the virus if they get infected post-vaccination.

In a study released publicly on Monday as an unpublished, non-peer-reviewed preprint, a team of researchers from the Israel Institute of Technology, Tel Aviv University and Maccabi Healthcare Services found the viral load was reduced four-fold for infections that occur 12 to 28 days after a first dose of the vaccine.

"These reduced viral loads hint to lower infectiousness, further contributing to vaccine impact on virus spread," the researchers wrote.

Virologist Jason Kindrachuk, an assistant professor in the department of medical microbiology at the University of Manitoba, said it's been a waiting game to figure out whether the protection from illness offered by mRNA vaccines might also curb transmission — a key tool for winding down the pandemic."
​

https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/covid-vaccine-transmission-pfizer-1.5907459

 

[otto]

There should be a daily story in the news about people who travel, get sick and die during that travel.

"The 62-year-old Calgary Transit driver ... passed away in hospital in Pakistan on Feb. 7 after contracting COVID-19 while on a trip home to visit his mother.

... trip to Pakistan to visit his mother, who had been sick.

"In our culture, people come to see you when you are coming to visit after a few years ," said Haider. "He got sick, COVID positive."
​

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/naveed-asghar-calgary-pakistan-covid-1.5907157

 

[otto]

What a mess we have with vaccine distribution!

"An Ottawa retirement home manager has been suspended after accusations that he allowed his wife to receive a dose of a COVID-19 vaccine intended for a front-line worker.
...

The letter, written anonymously by the staff member for fear of losing their job, said some front-line staff members at the home were offered leftover doses of the Moderna vaccine that were originally intended for residents on Feb. 7.

However, the letter goes on to say a housekeeper was bumped "so that the general manager's wife, that is retired and lives at home, could get the vaccine."

It said the wife shouldn't have even been in the building because of current COVID-19 restrictions, and described the situation as an "abuse of power."
...

The union has filed a grievance against the home for failing to maintain a safe workplace by allowing an unauthorized person to enter the home and for "diverting vaccination from workers who were entitled to receive it."
​

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-retirement-home-manager-suspended-accusations-1.5908032

 

[Tadpole12]

Ontario reports 1,072 new COVID-19 cases, 41 more deaths


Coronavirus: Durham Region expected to be part of Ontario’s provincial reopening

"before this Lockdown began Durham was in the 'red zone'"


Quebec mulls COVID-19 checkpoints at Ontario border as March break looms


Ontario Newsroom | Salle de presse de l'Ontario

Ontario Helping Keep Seniors Safe and Connected During COVID-19