COVID-19 Update: 112 deaths in Alberta over five days | Canada surpasses 15,000 deaths | Demand soars for animal adoptions
Alberta #Alberta
With news on COVID-19 happening rapidly, we’ve created this page to bring you our latest stories and information on the outbreak in and around Calgary.
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My COVID Story: How have you been impacted by coronavirus?
Postmedia is looking to speak with people who may have been impacted by the growing second wave of COVID-19 here in Alberta. Do you have a child or teen who caught COVID-19? Are you a front-line worker? Have you been immunized? Send us an email at reply@calgaryherald.com to tell us your experience, or send us a message via this form .
Read our ongoing coverage of personal stories arising from the pandemic.
COVID-19 threw a wrench into the judicial system, but Calgary courts adapted 
In a democracy, justice must be swift to be true.
Our right to be tried in a timely fashion is even entrenched in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms which says “any person charged with an offence has the right … to be tried within a reasonable time.”
And the Supreme Court has made clear any breach of this right won’t be tolerated and even those accused of the most heinous crimes may be let free if their rights aren’t ensured.
Of course when the nation’s top court set specific timelines for cases to be completed, it said discrete, exceptional circumstances could extend what would normally be a justifiable time period.
But not even the top judges in the country could have foreseen the worldwide pandemic which brought our judicial system to its knees in 2020. COVID-19 presented an unimaginable challenge to the Calgary court system, but through sometimes drastic measures and imaginative innovation, it pulled through.
Read more .
112 Albertans die from COVID-19 over holidays, as province surpasses 1,000 deaths 
More than 1,000 Albertans have died from COVID-19 since it spread to the province nine months ago, as Alberta records another 112 who passed away over the Christmas holidays.
While sending condolences to the many people who lost friends and family members since the last update on Dec. 23, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, announced Monday that 112 Albertans lost their lives to the disease, bringing the death toll to 1,002.
“Losing someone is never easy but it is made even more difficult with the public health restrictions in place,” Hinshaw said during Monday’s press conference.
“There are safe ways to help you mourn and you are not alone. We are not alone in this reality in Alberta either. Around the world and across our country, people are mourning the loss of their loved ones.”
Read more .
Hinshaw gives COVID-19 update: 112 deaths over five days
Here are some numbers from today’s update:
Canada surpasses 15,000 deaths related to COVID-19 with 37 new deaths in Quebec 
Canada has surpassed 15,000 deaths related to COVID-19. The grim milestone was reached with the reporting of 37 new deaths in Quebec.
A total of 15,001 Canadians have now died from COVID-19 since the pandemic began earlier this year.
The news comes after a contagious new strain of the virus was found in two more parts of the country on Sunday.
Read more.
Animal adoption demand up since March as Calgarians seek companionship during COVID-19 
About a week after the province’s first COVID-19 restrictions came down, Calgarian Meagan Cloutier quickly realized there’s only so much phone and video calls can accomplish for a social person like herself to stave off feelings of loneliness and boredom.
Cloutier, a University of Calgary student who lives alone, decided to start the process of adopting a pet, looking for the kind of companionship only four-legged friends can bring. And she wasn’t alone.
Over the course of the last nine months, thousands of Calgarians have decided to welcome a furry family member into their home. But demand across some of the city’s rescue organizations has them struggling to keep up.
Read more .
‘The value of your elders’: Alberta First Nation relies on youth to spread COVID-19 message 
A First Nation in Alberta is turning to its youth to help spread the message to older members about the dangers of COVID-19.
Three reserves in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains make up the Stoney Nakoda First Nation, where there have been only a couple of outbreaks of the novel coronavirus since the pandemic began.
CEO Ryan Robb said the First Nation, including Morley about 70 kilometres west of Calgary, has faced a difficult challenge. Stoney remains the first language for an overwhelming majority of members, regardless of their age.
“They have an extremely high language retention, even though we’re very, very close to a major city,” said Robb in an interview. “Quite quickly we realized we needed to get our information out in Stoney as well as English.”
Robb said a lot of messaging is being delivered in schools to get young people onside over fear of harming their grandparents.
Read more.
Gold’s Gym members frustrated as billing continues through closure 
Members of a Calgary gym chain say they’re upset as charges to their accounts continue despite the closure of Alberta gyms amid a second wave of COVID-19 infections.
Some clients of Gold’s Gym, which has two locations in Calgary with a third slated to open in early 2021, took to the chain’s social media accounts to complain after the gym closed down Dec. 13 in accordance with public-health orders but continued to bill members.
Read more .
How Calgary’s musicians and songwriters rose above COVID to make 2020 a stellar year 
In Calgary, artists responded directly or indirectly to the pandemic and the lockdowns with creativity and focus, whether it be in the themes they tackled or how their recording process was altered.
If there was any silver lining to the sudden shutdown of live music, it was that it gave songwriters considerable breathing room when it came to creating new material.
Read more.
COVID-19 developments from around the globe on Monday 
Britain reported 41,385 new COVID-19 cases on Monday , a daily record, as a rapidly spreading variant of the coronavirus increases infection rates and the holiday weekend impacted the reporting of some new cases.
A Chinese court on Monday handed down a four-year jail term to a citizen-journalist who reported from the central city of Wuhan at the peak of last year’s coronavirus outbreak on the grounds of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” her lawyer said.
Germany’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign has been overshadowed by a mishap in the north where eight workers in an elderly care home received an overdose.
Japan on Monday started banning non-resident foreign nationals from entering following the detection of a new, highly infectious coronavirus variant linked to a rapid rise in infections in Britain.
First U.K. COVID-19 variant case detected in B.C. 
British Columbia health officials are reporting the province’s first known case of the U.K. COVID-19 variant.
The affected individual returned from the U.K. on Dec. 15 to their home in the Island Health authority.
The person tested positive four days later after developing symptoms during their quarantine.
Read more .
‘A free-for-all’: Online classes make it easier for students to cheat on tests, teachers say 
It took less than a month for students attending virtual school to devise new ways to cheat.
From texting friends on the sly to downloading apps that spit out answers, educators say the pandemic-induced move to an online classroom has offered up a wealth of tech-driven workarounds to actually doing the work.
Read more .
Visit restrictions contributed to depression among care home residents: doctor 
Isobel Mackenzie, the advocate for seniors in British Columbia, said the unintended consequences of tightened visiting policies have contributed to a spike in loneliness and depression for residents, as revealed in a survey by her office. About 15,000 residents, families and members of the public participated in the survey this summer.
The findings released last month show a seven per cent rate of increase in antipsychotic use, and a three per cent jump in antidepressant use between March and September for residents who have struggled to cope without adequate contact with their family caregivers.
“What they talked about is: ‘I need more help. I want somebody to help me to the toilet. I want somebody to help me eat. I want somebody who’s going to sit and listen to me,”‘ Mackenzie said.
The lack of an association that represents residents and their families at the 300 care homes in B.C. means they don’t have a voice in policy discussions between the government, care-home operators and unions for staff, she said.
Read more .
Alberta logs ‘estimated’ 500 COVID-19 cases; dip result of testing decline over Christmas 
On Sunday, Alberta reported roughly 500 new cases of COVID-19 from Dec. 26, the province’s lowest daily value since late October.
However, the drop in detected infections is the result of fewer Albertans getting tested for the virus over Christmas, according to the province’s top doctor.
“Please note: fewer people were tested Dec. 25 so fewer tests were processed and reported on Dec. 26,” Alberta chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw said on Twitter Sunday.
The estimated 500 new cases came from about 6,900 tests, representing about a 7.2 per cent positivity rate — the highest reported in Alberta in more than a week.
Read more .
Alberta’s youth parliament marks 101st year but COVID-19 alters it to online 
For the last century Alberta youth have used this time of year to claim the province’s legislature and try their hand at what it might be like to govern.
The Tuxis Youth Parliament of Alberta, the longest-running youth parliament in Canada, will look a little different this year, as COVID-19 has forced participants to move online. But Matthew Boonstra, this year’s “premier,” says it’s still a chance for youth to have open debate on issues that impact their lives and try to understand different perspectives.
“Lots of times we reach consensus on things, and sometimes we don’t, but that’s fine. The important thing is that we respect each other’s opinions. We don’t try to put each other down or judge each other and we really do care about just having that healthy discussion,” he said.
Read more .
Manitoba reports 28 new COVID deaths in first update since Christmas Eve 
Manitoba is reporting 28 new COVID-19 deaths in its first pandemic update since Christmas Eve, as well as 524 new cases of the virus.
The province says one of the deaths was a woman in her 30s from the Winnipeg health region.
The rest were in their 60s or older, and many of the cases were linked to outbreaks at seniors’ lodges and care facilities.
Read more .
‘Wonder Woman’ box office hits a pandemic high in cinema, streaming showdown 
With two-thirds of North American theaters closed, Warner Bros. opted for an unusual arrangement, making “WW84” available at the same time to U.S. customers of AT&T’s HBO Max streaming service.
Millions watched the film on HBO Max, the company said in a statement, but it did not specify how long they tuned in. Total viewing hours on the platform tripled on Friday compared with a typical day in the previous month, the statement said.
The movie “exceeded our expectations across all of our key viewing and subscriber metrics in its first 24 hours on the service,” said Andy Forsell, executive vice president and general manager of WarnerMedia Direct-to-Consumer.
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