Author: Blazingcatfur

Ontario reports more than 1,400 new COVID-19 cases today, 11 deaths

Ontario continues to see a spike in new COVID-19 cases with more than 1,400 infections confirmed over the past 24 hours, the highest single-day total since May 23.

Provincial health officials logged 1,453 new cases today, up from 1,290 on Thursday and 1,031 one week ago.

The seven-day rolling average of new infections has jumped to 1,115, up from 866 last Friday.

Face-mask litter increased 9,000 % in 11 countries in 2020, including Canada: U.K. study

The full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the environment will take years to fully understand, but a new study from the University of Portsmouth in the U.K. is giving a first look at just how much litter stemmed from the first wave.

Published Thursday in the journal Nature Sustainability, the study “Increased personal protective equipment litter as a result of COVID measures,” compared and analyzed data from the “COVID-19 Government Response Tracker” from Oxford University and the litter collection app “Litterati,” both open-source databases.

The Public Health Agency of Canada struggled to keep track of whether travellers ordered to stay in quarantine hotels actually did so, according to a new report from the auditor general.

Auditor General Karen Hogan tabled four reports this afternoon in the House of Commons looking at COVID-19 measures. One of the reports examines enforcement of quarantine hotel stays and testing requirements from July 1, 2020 to the end of June 2021.

At the start of the year — in addition to the already required 14-day quarantine period — the government introduced new rules for incoming travellers meant to limit the spread of COVID-19 and its variants.

In Canada if you do the right thing, or rather what the government tells you is the right thing, you get fucked over. The guy who has cut my hair for nearly 20 years may be closing up shop. He played by the covid rules and locked down his shop. He refused under the table “home” business etc. Meanwhile everyone else was making bank doing home visits or even in one case he knows of opening up a full fledged mini-salon in their home.

He’s trying to make it work but the costs of employing staff and rent for a storefront shop etc are currently insurmountable. Changed consumer habits make it doubtful he’ll see business rebound. Walk in traffic is way down from pre-pandemic days and ongoing covid restrictions mean that the events people used to get a cut for occur at nowhere near past levels. Finally people just like the convenience of a cut at home. A bad time for the traditional barber shop.