Wiikwemkoong closes schools following positive case
Public Health Sudbury & Districts say there was one case of COVID-19 over the weekend and Wiikwemkoong Chief Duke Peltier revealed it is in their community.
He says the person is self-isolating and all contact tracing has been carried out.
He adds even though the risk is low, the First Nation has also closed all its schools until January 7th, encouraging students to access virtual learning options.
Peltier adds in-person community programming has also been cancelled to protect the larger community.
Making history with the vaccine
A long-time personal support worker became the first person in Ontario to receive the Pfizer vaccine yesterday.
Anita Quidangen has worked at the same long-term care home in Toronto for more than 30 years.
The arrival of COVID-19 vaccines this month seems to have prompted more Canadians to indicate they will get inoculated.
An Angus Reid survey shows 48 percent of those asked are willing to get their shot immediately.
That’s up sharply from the 40 percent recorded a month ago.
Another 31 percent are now saying they’d be willing to be vaccinated after a while.
However, 14 percent indicate they have no plans to get the shot.
Canadians 65 and older are most likely to say they’ll be inoculated.
The lowest rate is in the 35-to-44 age bracket.
Keep following measures
Provincial health officials are warning that, despite the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines, we’ll still need to follow public health rules for some time to come.
Ontario’s Associate chief medical officer of health, Doctor Barbara Yaffe says the vaccine has only proven to be effective against becoming ill, not against being infected.
That means those who are vaccinated could still be spreading the coronavirus.
Yaffe adds it’ll be some time before we reach “herd immunity,” where enough people are vaccinated that the threat of the virus spreading drops dramatically.
She doesn’t expect that before next summer when between 70 and 80 percent of the population should be inoculated.