Five years ago, the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic of the novel coronavirus, setting off a series of policies that transformed Canadians' lives for years. The WHO's declaration followed months of warning signs about the dangers of COVID-19, including mass lockdowns in China and Italy, and served a...

TORONTO - Doctors who were thrust into national fame when COVID-19 hit five years ago say they try to focus on positive feedback from the public rather than the angry backlash and threats of violence they faced. British Columbia public health chief Dr. Bonnie Henry still has a security detail to this day because of thr...

There had been warning signs for months. There were the reports of dangerous flu-like symptoms in Asia. News of the lockdown that kept tens of millions of people inside their homes in China. Here at home, the growing ubiquity of blue surgical masks. The advice to sing "Happy Birthday" while washing your hands...

VANCOUVER - Premier David Eby says protecting British Columbians from the potential impact of U.S. tariffs will be taken as seriously as the relief response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He says every decision being taken by his ministers, including plans for next month's budget, will be made through the lens of a "po...

EDMONTON - The organization representing Alberta physicians is calling out a government panel's COVID-19 report as "anti-science." Dr. Shelley Duggan, head of the Alberta Medical Association, says the report sows distrust by going against proven preventive health measures while promoting fringe methods. She s...

VANCOUVER - In early 2020, Lili Wu was already "armed to the teeth" whenever she ventured to public places near her home in Port Coquitlam, B.C. - face mask, sanitizer, protective eyewear and gloves. It was more than a month before the World Health Organization's March declaration of a global pandemic that in...

TORONTO - The Public Health Agency of Canada says federal funding for COVID-19 vaccines will stop this year and the provinces and territories will be responsible for buying them, as well as determining the timing of the vaccinations. The agency published the information online on Friday, along with the National Advisor...

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Former Ohio Health Director Amy Acton, who became a household name in the state in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, is running for governor. Acton, 58, a physician and public health expert who stood alongside Republican Gov. Mike DeWine for months during his daily coronavirus briefings, sa...

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Former Ohio Health Director Amy Acton, who became a household name in the state in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, is running for governor. Acton, 58, a physician and public health expert who stood alongside Republican Gov. Mike DeWine for months during his daily coronavirus briefings, sa...

OTTAWA - The auditor general says the small business loan program the federal government rolled out during the COVID-19 pandemic wasn't managed in a cost-effective way. Auditor general Karen Hogan says the Canada Emergency Business Account program wasn't managed with "due regard for value for money." The prog...

VANCOUVER - A Federal Court judge has dismissed an appeal by a "deeply religious" British Columbia health executive who said he was wrongfully denied employment insurance after being fired three years ago for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Darold Sturgeon was fired as executive director of medical affa...

QUÉBEC - Quebec's anti-corruption unit released its annual report today, saying the past 12 months were busy. The unit, know as UPAC, says 19 people were charged in criminal cases and 18 people were convicted during the 12 months ending March 31, 2024, while 265 individuals or companies were fined. The number of...

TORONTO - An expert panel of doctors and researchers say Canada needs to learn from the COVID-19 pandemic and take action before the next health emergency strikes. One of the six experts, Dr. Fahad Razak, says most scientists believe it's "only a matter of time" before another global health crisis hits. The p...

VANCOUVER - British Columbia's Conservative leader says comparing the Nuremberg trials or Nazi Germany to public health measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic is unacceptable and "deeply disrespectful to the memory of those who suffered" in the Holocaust. That's after video surfaced of Rustad saying his pa...

TORONTO - The Public Health Agency of Canada says it is not providing Novavax's COVID-19 vaccine this respiratory virus season, citing low demand. It says the manufacturer requires a minimum order of its updated protein-based vaccine, called Nuvaxovid, which far exceeds the uptake by Canadians last year. The agency say...

OTTAWA - The federal Liberals are creating a new agency to beef up Canada's ability to handle rapidly spreading infectious diseases and protect from future pandemics. Health Emergency Readiness Canada is tasked with boosting Canada's life-sciences sector and ensuring Canadians get faster access to vaccines, medical the...

Pfizer Canada says Health Canada has approved its updated COVID-19 vaccine that protects against one of the most recently circulating variants of the virus. The Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine, called Comirnaty, targets the KP.2 subvariant of Omicron, replacing the previous version which targeted the XBB.1.5 Omicron subva...

Health Canada has authorized Novavax's updated COVID-19 vaccine that protects against currently circulating variants of the virus. The mRNA vaccine, called Nuvaxovid, has been reformulated to target the JN.1 subvariant of Omicron. It will replace the previous version of the protein-based vaccine, which targeted the XBB...

TORONTO - Health Canada has authorized Moderna's updated COVID-19 vaccine that protects against currently circulating variants of the virus. The mRNA vaccine, called Spikevax, has been reformulated to target the KP.2 subvariant of Omicron. It will replace the previous version of the vaccine that was released a year ago...

The Public Health Agency of Canada says it asked provinces to get rid of existing COVID-19 vaccines to avoid confusion with new formulations that will have the same drug identification number. Health Canada says it is reviewing updated COVID-19 vaccines that essentially modify the current shot to target a more recent s...

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A Seattle woman who attempted to bribe a Minnesota juror with a bag of $120,000 in cash in exchange for an acquittal in one of the country's largest COVID-19-related fraud cases changed her plea to guilty in federal court Thursday. Ladan Mohamed Ali, 31, was accused of tracking a juror to her home an...

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A Seattle woman pleads guilty to attempting to bribe a Minnesota juror with a bag of $120,000 in cash in exchange for an acquittal in one of the country's largest COVID-19-related fraud cases in federal court Thursday. Ladan Mohamed Ali, 31, was accused of tracking a juror to her home and dropping of...

British Columbia says its current supply of COVID-19 vaccines will remain available until new formulations are approved, unlike other provinces that say they're following instructions from the Public Health Agency of Canada to remove and destroy existing doses. A spokesman for the provincial health officer says B.C. re...

TORONTO - Toronto Public Health says the number of whooping cough cases are more than double the pre-pandemic average. The public health agency is reporting 99 cases in Toronto so far this year compared to the pre-pandemic five-year average of 38. Whooping cough, also known as pertussis, is a cyclical disease that occa...

OTTAWA - The Bank of Canada has named three experts that will assess its internal review of the central bank's policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The experts are Pablo Hernández de Cos, former governor of the Bank of Spain, Kristin J. Forbes, a former member of the Bank of England's monetary policy commit...

A jury is set to begin deliberating today the fate of two men accused of conspiring to kill police at the Coutts, Alta., blockade in 2022. The panel has been hearing testimony for seven weeks in Court of King's Bench in the case of Anthony Olienick and Chris Carbert. The two were charged after police seized guns, ammun...

MONTREAL - More than two years after Quebec lifted most of its COVID-era public health measures, the province has only recouped a little over one-third of the $68 million it issued in pandemic-related fines. Quebec had some of the strictest public health measures in the country during the pandemic and was the only prov...

VICTORIA - British Columbia's top doctor says she is ending the public health emergency declared in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says any remaining restrictions, including the vaccination requirement for health-care workers, are being rescinded. Henry says ...