Riverside Health Care in conjunction with the Northwestern Public Health Unit has declared COVID-19 Outbreaks at La Verendrye General Hospital and Rainycrest Long Term Care Home affecting patients and residents. To further enhance our team’s ongoing efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19, additional precautions are being taken including, but […]

By Jordan Omstead
THE CANADIAN PRESS

TORONTO – Municipal leaders in small Ontario communities are sounding the alarm over the temporary closures of hospital emergency rooms, saying action is needed to ensure local residents and visitors to those areas can get the care they need. Hospitals have cited critical staff shortages for the closures and organizations […]

By Holly McKenzie-Sutter
THE CANADIAN PRESS

Ontario is likely in another wave of COVID-19 driven by the highly infectious BA.5 Omicron subvariant of the virus, Ontario’s expert pandemic advisers say. The Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table group’s findings shared on Twitter Wednesday note that wastewater signals, test positivity and hospitalizations from the virus are rising, while […]

By Holly McKenzie-Sutter
THE CANADIAN PRESS

Ontario’s opposition parties are calling on the provincial government to share its plan for expanded fourth COVID-19 vaccine doses. Interim New Democrat Leader Peter Tabuns said Monday that details on the plan are needed now that a federal immunization panel is recommending the shots and Quebec has moved ahead with […]

By Daniel Adam
Staff Writer
dadam@fortfrances.com

The Northwestern Health Unit (NWHU) held its final media session of the summer last week, touching on multiple topics including monkeypox. There were no reported local cases at the time, said Dr. Kit Young Hoon, the NWHU’s medical officer of health. “Monkeypox spreads much less easily than COVID-19, and spreads […]

By Howard Fendrich
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Matteo Berrettini, last year’s runner-up at Wimbledon, dropped out of the grass-court Grand Slam tournament hours before he was scheduled to play his first-round match Tuesday, saying that he tested positive for COVID-19. The All England Club announced Berrettini’s withdrawal, and he posted about it on Instagram, saying that he […]

THE CANADIAN PRESS

A senior adviser to the director general at the World Health Organization says G7 leaders must make ending the COVID-19 pandemic a critical part of their summit in Germany or they risk losing economic growth and unleashing more civil unrest. Dr. Bruce Aylward says in an interview that if getting […]

By Daniel Adam
Staff Writer
dadam@fortfrances.com

Some local voices are joining a growing chorus of Canadian border town mayors, who are calling on the federal government to scrap the ArriveCAN app. After Ottawa announced the loosening of vaccination requirements and travel restrictions, many question the app’s purpose. “With all the restrictions begin lifted, you wonder if […]

By Stephen Wade
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

TOKYO (AP) – The final price tag for last year’s COVID-delayed Tokyo Olympics was put at $13 billion (1.4 trillion Japanese yen), the organizing committee said Tuesday in its final act before it is dissolved at the end of the month. The cost was twice what was forecast in 2013 […]