COVID-19

The science advisory table is advising public health units or neighbourhoods where new COVID-19 cases are near 35 per 100,000 people per week and where there is sustained exponential growth, to carry out weekly voluntary screening of unvaccinated or partially vaccinated people in elementary schools.

Vaccinating children is nothing new to pharmacies. Pharmacies have experience with flu shots, but the number of individuals looking for vaccinations against COVID-19 sees new patients, fears, and hesitancies.

Acting chief medical officer of health Dr. Catherine Elliott says that the two people with the newest variant of concern have "mild illness'' and are recovering at home.

A new app encourages data sovereignty in Indigenous communities by allowing them to collect and own their own health and social data.

Doctors Manitoba, which represents 4,000 physicians across the province, says the backlog of surgeries and diagnostic tests has grown to more than 52,000 cases.

Some Ontario workplaces offer rapid tests for their employees, and children in publicly funded schools are being sent home for the December break with a kit of five rapid tests each.

A petition demanding free rapid antigen tests for all residents has garnered thousands of signatures and doctors and pharmacists are pushing for more tests on Twitter.

A release says the threats were related to provincial public health rules requiring everyone older than five to wear a mask in public indoor settings.