A federal judge in Louisiana issued a nationwide preliminary injunction Tuesday towards President Biden’sCOVID-19 vaccine mandate for wellness treatment staff.
Judge Terry A. Doughty in the U.S. District Court Western District of Louisiana dominated in favor of a ask for from Republican Louisiana Attorney Common Jeff Landry to block an crisis regulation issued Nov. 4 by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Companies that expected vaccines for almost each individual entire-time personnel, element-time worker, volunteer, and contractor functioning at a large assortment of health care amenities receiving Medicaid or Medicaid funding.
Louisiana was joined in the lawsuit by attorneys normal in 13 other states.
FILE – In this March 2, 2021, file picture, pharmacy technician Hollie Maloney loads a syringe with Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine at the Portland Expo in Portland, Maine. ((AP Picture/Robert F. Bukaty, File))
OSHA SUSPENDS ENFORCEMENT OF COVID-19 VACCINE MANDATE FOR Significant Firms
Doughty argued in his ruling that the Biden administration does not have the constitutional authority to go around Congress by issuing such a mandate.
“If the executive department is authorized to usurp the electrical power of the legislative department to make rules, two of the 3 powers conferred by our Constitution would be in the identical arms,” he wrote. “If human mother nature and record train everything, it is that civil liberties deal with grave dangers when governments proclaim indefinite states of crisis.
“For the duration of a pandemic these as this a single, it is even additional crucial to safeguard the separation of powers established forth in our Constitution to steer clear of erosion of our liberties,” he added.
Noting that the scenario “will in the long run be determined by a higher court than this one,” Doughty wrote, “Nonetheless, it is vital to maintain the standing quo in this scenario. The liberty interests of the unvaccinated requires nothing a lot less.”
Judge BLOCKS BIDEN VACCINE MANDATE FOR Well being Treatment Employees IN 10 STATES
Landry praised the ruling, indicating in a assertion: “I applaud Choose Doughty for recognizing that Louisiana is most likely to be successful on the deserves and for delivering however one more victory for the health care freedom of Us residents. While Joe Biden villainizes our health care heroes with his ‘jab or job’ edicts, I will continue to stand up to the President’s bully ways and struggle for liberty.”
President Joe Biden speaks about the overall economy and his infrastructure agenda in the Point out Eating Place of the White House, in Washington, Monday, July 19th, 2021. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) (AP Photograph/Andrew Harnik)
“Whilst our combat is considerably from in excess of, I am delighted the Courtroom granted preliminary reduction from the President’s unconstitutional and immoral assault on not only our health care employees but also the accessibility to health care solutions for our lousy and aged,” Landry ongoing. “I will see this situation via to the end – preventing each individual move of the way to stop the federal authorities from imposing clinical tyranny on our citizens and turning final year’s healthcare heroes into this year’s unemployed.”
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Doughty’s ruling echoes just one from U.S. District Judge Matthew Schelp, who issued a 32-web page buy on Monday blocking the Biden administration from implementing their vaccine mandate on wellbeing treatment staff in 10 states.
President Biden speaks about COVID-19 vaccinations in Elk Grove Village, Ill. 10 states are filing a lawsuit over the administration’s rule requiring overall health treatment employees to be vaccinated.
Susan Walsh/AP
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Susan Walsh/AP
President Biden speaks about COVID-19 vaccinations in Elk Grove Village, Sick. 10 states are submitting a lawsuit more than the administration’s rule demanding wellbeing treatment personnel to be vaccinated.
Susan Walsh/AP
A group of 10 states has filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration and its prerequisite that wellbeing care workers in the U.S. to be vaccinated against COVID-19, declaring the mandate is “unconstitutional and unlawful.”
Led by Missouri Lawyer General Eric Schmitt and Nebraska Attorney Common Doug Peterson, the 10 states say the required nationwide vaccine need will guide to shortages of wellness treatment personnel and could threaten the work opportunities of “hundreds of thousands of overall health care personnel” who risked their lives for the duration of the starting stages of the pandemic.
In addition to Missouri and Nebraska, lawyers typical from Arkansas, Kansas, Iowa, Wyoming, Alaska, South Dakota, North Dakota and New Hampshire also joined the lawsuit.
“Regrettably, with this latest mandate from the Biden Administration, final year’s healthcare heroes are turning into this year’s unemployed. Necessitating health care personnel to get a vaccination or encounter termination is unconstitutional and illegal, and could exacerbate healthcare staffing shortages to the stage of collapse, primarily in Missouri’s rural regions,” Schmitt said in a news launch.
He says his business office has been tough the Biden administration’s “unlawful edicts” and this is the newest.
“This scenario illustrates why the police electricity around obligatory vaccination has usually been the province of — and however adequately belongs to — the States,” the lawyers standard argued in their lawsuit.
The 58-website page lawsuit argues the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Companies vaccine mandate is intruding on states’ law enforcement power, stating it’s a violation of a number of acts and rights, which include the Administrative Treatments Act, the Social Security Act, the Tenth Modification and federalism.
“By disregarding the specifics on the floor and unreasonably dismissing concerns about workforce shortages, the CMS vaccine mandate jeopardizes the healthcare passions of rural People,” the lawsuit claims.
In September, President Biden unveiled a collection of techniques to overcome the surge of COVID-19 situations in the country, announcing that 17 million health treatment workers at hospitals and elsewhere that acquire Medicare or Medicaid funding would have to be vaccinated.
Final week, CMS issued an interim last rule requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for well being treatment employees in most configurations — this sort of as hospitals and wellbeing techniques — that participate in the Medicare and Medicaid applications.
The new necessities, which went into effect Nov. 5, will implement to about 76,000 providers.
The U.S. Supreme Court has turned down an unexpected emergency enchantment from Maine wellness treatment personnel to halt a COVID-19 vaccine mandate that took effect Friday.
Health and fitness care workers at hospitals and nursing residences in the course of the point out chance shedding their work if they are not vaccinated and spiritual exemptions are not getting available.
Supreme Court docket Justice nominee Neil Gorsuch listens as he is requested a issue by Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March 22, 2017, all through his affirmation listening to just before the Senate Judiciary Committee. (AP Image/Susan Walsh) (AP)
Three justices – Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito – signed on to a dissent composed by Gorsuch, who proposed they would have adhered to the ask for from Maine health care personnel.
“This circumstance presents an vital constitutional issue, a significant error, and an irreparable damage,” Gorsuch wrote. “Exactly where lots of other States have adopted spiritual exemptions, Maine has charted a different program. There, health care staff who have served on the entrance line of a pandemic for the past 18 months are now being fired and their procedures shuttered. All for adhering to their constitutionally protected religious beliefs.”
Seated from still left to ideal: Justices Samuel A. Alito, Jr. and Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. and Justices Stephen G. Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor. Standing from remaining to ideal: Justices Brett M. Kavanaugh, Elena Kagan, Neil M. Gorsuch,and Amy Coney Barrett. (Photograph by Fred Schilling, Selection of the Supreme Court of the United States) (Supreme Court of the United States)
“Their plight is deserving of our focus,” Gorsuch added. “I would grant relief.”
In a assertion agreeing with the court’s unwillingness to contain alone in the make any difference, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who was joined by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, explained the court has “discretionary judgment” on whether or not to just take emergency appeals like this and claimed the court docket was becoming requested to “grant incredible relief.”
Supreme Court docket nominee Amy Coney Barrett is sworn in for the duration of a confirmation hearing in advance of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Monday, Oct. 12, 2020, on Capitol Hill. (AP Photograph/Patrick Semansky, Pool) (AP)
Democratic Gov. Janet Mills ordered Maine’s vaccine prerequisite. A federal judge in Maine declined to prevent the mandate, concluding that a lawsuit was unlikely to do well. The Oct. 13 choice prompted a flurry of appeals that landed, for a next time, in the Supreme Courtroom.
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The Liberty Counsel, which filed the lawsuit, claimed to be symbolizing far more than 2,000 wellness care employees who do not want to be forcibly vaccinated.
In August, Barrett denied an charm from learners at Indiana University to block the school’s vaccine mandate.
As the most recent Delta variant wave of the coronavirus pandemic appears to be tapering off in most of North Carolina, carceral facilities are even now suffering from outbreaks.
At least three folks in diverse county jails have died owing to the coronavirus in the past month, in accordance to weekly outbreak reports from the North Carolina Department of Health and fitness and Human Companies.
Two of all those fatalities ended up of jail staff members members, in accordance to the stories.
Gov. Roy Cooper has expected personnel at the point out-operate prisons to possibly deliver proof of vaccination or endure weekly tests in purchase to really encourage staff vaccinations as component of an government buy.
But for the state’s close to 100 county-run jails, also known as detention centers, there is no this kind of protocol. Not like the point out-operate prisons, vaccination charges among workers and people incarcerated in North Carolina’s county jails stay largely unknown. A new investigation by the internet site Officer Down Memorial Page, notes that COVID-19 has been the primary lead to of death for regulation enforcement given that 2020.
Deficiency of oversight in jails
Not like prisons, which see a much more static inhabitants, jails are deeply entwined with the group, said John Hart, the associate director of partnerships and neighborhood network at the Vera Institute of Justice’s Restoring Promise team, which advocates for fairness for incarcerated men and women.
Persons can be jailed from anywhere from a pair of several hours to months or extended. Lots of men and women in jails have not been convicted of a criminal offense — in 2015, pretrial detainees produced up 82 percent of North Carolina’s jail population.
“You have folks coming in and out far more swiftly than jail,” Hart stated. “These are men and women likely into the group, into their people and then coming again out.”
North Carolina’s jail program answers to the point out, but county jails tumble under the jurisdiction of personal sheriffs, which means unique jails may stick to unique procedures. The identical is correct when it comes to vaccination.
“Outbreaks in correctional and detention amenities are normally hard to manage supplied the issue to bodily distance, minimal space for isolation or quarantine, and minimal tests and individual protecting products sources,” the CDC claims in its recommendation. “COVID-19 outbreaks in correctional and detention amenities could also guide to local community transmission outdoors of the facility.”
Having said that, these tips are not enforceable.
The North Carolina Sheriffs’ Affiliation has a large, vivid crimson backlink on its website’s homepage titled “COVID-19 Information Supplied to Sheriffs,” but the affiliation itself does not have any medical employees, mentioned spokesperson Eddie Caldwell. All the direction for COVID-19 protocols for sheriffs comes directly from the CDC web-site.
When requested if the association has accomplished an details campaign on vaccinations, Caldwell stated “there’s general public details campaigns on vaccinations all around the place.” He gave Cooper’s general public vaccine advocacy as an case in point.
“There’s in all probability not any individual that is not conscious that vaccines are greatly available,” Caldwell said.
Jails are expected by condition law to have a medical prepare permitted by their county’s clinical director and board of commissioners, Caldwell explained.
“Every jail is liable for furnishing professional medical treatment to inmates, pursuant to that healthcare approach,” Caldwell mentioned. “And so which is in which a jail and the sheriff get their course and steering for medical concerns.”
Transylvania County Detention Centre, where by one particular team member, Sgt. Donald Ramey, contracted COVID-19 and afterwards died, delivers vaccinations to both equally workers and these incarcerated at the jail, stated Capt. Jeremy Queen in an email.
Staff members are not needed to be vaccinated, he observed.
Madison County Detention Heart, wherever a single detainee died of COVID-19, and Vance County Detention Centre, wherever 1 team member died of COVID-19, in accordance to the NCDHHS outbreak report, did not reply to requests for remark from NC Well being Information.
In addition to incarcerated people, staff members also go in and out of detention centers. That implies if any human being heading by means of the revolving door of their county jail is sick with COVID-19, there is a prospect they could spread it to other individuals there.
It is for this cause that some public health industry experts termed on President Joe Biden to need jail and prison workers to get vaccinated in an opinion piece in The Atlantic, right after Biden announced that nursing properties would be needed to vaccinate their workers from COVID-19.
“Every community staff who is billed with guarding susceptible populations must unquestionably be mandated to get a vaccine in get to continue to keep their work,” said Eric Reinhart, a single of the article’s authors, in an job interview with NC Health and fitness Information. “It is aspect of their task to safeguard people.”
“It’s not just about protecting the general public and incarcerated. It’s defending themselves as well,” explained Reinhart, who is the lead wellness and justice systems researcher at Knowledge and Evidence for Justice Reform at the Planet Bank.
Correctional environments are generally inherently challenging and antagonistic environments. Though there is a electricity dynamic and distrust amongst incarcerated people today and staff members, some team may possibly also distrust their management, Hart claimed.
“There is anxiety both of those shorter time period and prolonged time period, that [staff] have had prior to the pandemic,” reported the Vera Institute’s Hart, “… the distrust that was there pre-pandemic is undoubtedly there.”
Hart has seen some staff stop previously understaffed services across the region thanks to vaccine demands and others keep off on receiving it since they are afraid.
“Time is of the essence due to the fact staffing numbers are impacting the performance,” Hart stated.
Not to mention jails have been a driver of COVID-19 spread in the state’s prisons.
The North Carolina Division of Community Protection introduced a new settlement on Oct. 1 with the North Carolina Sheriffs’ Affiliation enabling transfer of all thoroughly vaccinated folks from jails to prisons, but requiring unvaccinated detainees in jails with a COVID-19 outbreak to quarantine for 14 days before transfer and test detrimental prior to transfer.
“For extra than 4 months, the bulk of active instances of COVID-19 in the jail inhabitants have been discovered in those people arriving from county jails and detention amenities,” DPS mentioned in the announcement.
NC sheriff incentivizes vaccination
Mecklenburg Sheriff Gary McFadden is routinely accountable for the lives of a lot more than 2,000 men and women from personnel to men and women incarcerated at the Mecklenburg County Detention Heart.
One way he’s attempting to shield them is with wristbands.
In a push to get staff members customers vaccinated commencing May 19, McFadden carried out a coverage that vaccinated employees of the Mecklenburg Sheriff’s Business would don an “MCSO vaccinated” wristband, so everyone would know who is vaccinated. These without having wristbands have to get examined for COVID weekly.
Vaccinated employees at the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Workplace wear “MSCO Vaccinated” wristbands. Image courtesy Mecklenburg Sheriff’s Business office.
He said that in two months of utilizing the coverage, the office’s vaccination numbers increased by about 200 folks. Now, he said over 70 per cent of his place of work is vaccinated.
The wristbands also had an unintended effect in the group — they made neighborhood customers experience safer when they observed deputies exhibiting that they were being vaccinated, McFadden reported.
Even when the Mecklenburg County Detention Center’s COVID-19 quantities skyrocketed, in an outbreak that has sickened 389 people considering that the stop of August, no staff member or resident has died, according to the NCDHHS outbreak report.
“COVID has been the most deadliest killer for legislation enforcement this year more than any other thing,” McFadden mentioned. “We have to recognize that this is not a political issue.”
McFadden mentioned he retains vaccination town halls both of those for persons incarcerated in the jail and jail personnel to find out about the vaccines. Vaccination is not required, but it is encouraged.
To his information, McFadden claimed he is the only sheriff in the condition and perhaps the place to roll out a vaccination incentive using wristbands, but he stated he’d share his thoughts with “anybody.”
“You can be your personal judge, and you can be your have sheriff, your possess political particular person,” McFadden said. “I need to guard my employees, I want to secure my citizens, and I have to have to secure myself. And so the very best way I know how is to dress in masks and get vaccinated.”
Watch this page throughout the day for updates on COVID-19 in Edmonton
Author of the article:
Postmedia News
Publishing date:
Oct 04, 2021 • 4 hours ago • 7 minute read • 11 Comments
An e-scooter rider wears a COVID-19 masks while traveling in downtown Edmonton, on Thursday, Sept. 16, 2021. Photo by Ian KucerakPhoto by Ian Kucerak /Postmedia
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COVID-19 news happens rapidly, we have created this file to keep you up-to-date on all the latest stories and information on the outbreak in and around Edmonton.
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Share your COVID-19 stories
As Alberta grapples with a fourth wave of COVID-19 at the start of another school year, we’re looking to hear your stories on this evolving situation.
Have you or a loved one had a surgery rescheduled or cancelled in recent weeks?
Are you someone who has decided to get vaccinated after previously being skeptical of the vaccines?
Have you changed your mind about sending your children back to school in person?
Have you enrolled your children in a private school due to COVID-19?
Are you a frontline health-care worker seeing new strains on the health system? Send us your stories via email at [email protected]
5:42 p.m.
Government reports 4,037 new cases, 21 more deaths over last three days
Alberta is reporting 21 more deaths over the past three days. The province’s death toll is now at 2,752.
There are 4,037 new cases. On Friday, Alberta Health reported 1,629 new cases. On Saturday, there were 1,282 new cases. On Sunday, there were 1,126 new cases.
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2:38 p.m.
Edmonton Public Schools implementing COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all employees
Anna Junker
Empty classroom at an Edmonton school. File photo.Postmedia, file
Edmonton Public Schools is requiring all employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Supt. Darrel Robertson said Monday the division is implementing the vaccine mandate in order to provide a safe learning and working environment, especially because children under 12 cannot yet be immunized.
“Our custodial staff, maintenance, support, teachers, exempt staff, our volunteers that come into the school, essentially all adults that are coming in school to spend time and work with kids, or around kids, will be captured in this mandatory vaccination regulation,” Robertson said.
All employees will have to declare their vaccination status by mid-October. Those who are not fully vaccinated and have not received an exemption from the division will be required to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test every 72 hours.
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From late October to Dec. 17, the division will coordinate and pay for testing through a third-party provider. Following Dec. 17, any employee who remains unvaccinated will have to cover the cost of the test at their own expense.
The mandate will be in place for all 215 schools along with any other buildings that the division operates.
More to come.
11:21 a.m.
Unvaccinated, Edmonton Oilers Forward, Josh Archibald is out indefinitely due to inflamed heart muscle following Contracting COVID-19 this summer
Jim Matheson
The Edmonton Oilers Josh Archibald (15) battles the Vancouver Canucks’ Nate Schmidt (88) during third period NHL action at Rogers Place, in Edmonton Saturday May 8, 2021. The Oilers won 4-3.Photo by David Bloom /Postmedia
After doctors in Edmonton discovered Josh Archibald had contracted Covid this summer, they did more tests and have found damage to his heart muscle.
The unvaccinated Edmonton Oilers forward was in his 14-day quarantine after travelling from the U.S., when he started to not feel well. He skated briefly but not with the any of the groups after they hit the ice Sept. 23 for practices/scrimmages.
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Archibald, 28, went for a battery of medical tests and they discovered he had Covid antibodies and myocarditis. Myocarditis is the same ailment that Oilers third goalie from last season Alex Stalock was felled with last fall in Minnesota. He, too, had come down with Covid, which affected his heart.
Myocarditis, which can lead to cardiac arrest and possible death with the heart rate increasing through exertion, has been found to be an after-effect of Covid in athletes pushing their training before camps.
Read more.
7:52 a.m.
Study suggests Pfizer/BioNTech antibodies disappear in many by seven months
National Post
A vial and syringe are seen in front of a displayed Pfizer logo in this illustration taken Jan. 11, 2021.Photo by Dado Ruvic /REUTERS
Six months after receiving the second dose of the two-shot vaccine from Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE, many recipients no longer have vaccine-induced antibodies that can immediately neutralize worrisome variants of the coronavirus, a new study suggests.
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Researchers analyzed blood samples from 46 healthy, mostly young or middle-aged adults after receipt of the two doses and again six months after the second dose.
“Our study shows vaccination with the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine induces high levels of neutralizing antibodies against the original vaccine strain, but these levels drop by nearly 10-fold by seven months” after the initial dose, Bali Pulendran of Stanford University and Mehul Suthar of Emory University said by email.
In roughly half of all subjects, neutralizing antibodies that can block infection against coronavirus variants such as Delta, Beta, and Mu were undetectable at six months after the second dose, their team reported on Thursday on bioRxiv ahead of peer review.
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Military nurses expected to help fight Alberta’s COVID-19 by Monday: federal minister
Lisa Johnson
File photo.PNimg
Up to eight critical care nurses from the Canadian Armed Forces are expected to be in Alberta hospitals by Monday to help deal with the fourth wave of COVID-19.
“We are always ready to help Canadians across the country during difficult times, and this pandemic has been no different. The Canadian Armed Forces, Canadian Red Cross, and health professionals have stepped up time and again over the past 19 months to answer the call to protect people, and I want to thank all those on the front lines who continue to keep Canadians safe,” Blair said in the release.
The Canadian Red Cross is planning to provide up to 20 medical professionals, some with ICU experience, to help or relieve staff working in hospitals in the province, and is finalizing its plan with Alberta Health Services to send its personnel where they are needed.
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Read more
Saturday
Why would some Albertans take Johnson & Johnson, but not another COVID-19 vaccine?
Jason Herring, Calgary
A Johnson & Johnson Janssen COVID-19 vaccine.Photo by KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images
Could the Johnson & Johnson vaccine help boost COVID-19 immunization rates in Alberta’s remote regions?
That’s what Premier Jason Kenney is betting on now, as his government requests an inventory of the single-shot vaccines from the federal government in a bid to bolster vaccine uptake in rural areas of the province.
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Friday
MLAs would have to vote to require vaccinations inside the legislature’s chamber: Speaker
Speaker of the Legislative Nathan Cooper.Photo by David Bloom /Postmedia, file
Alberta’s Speaker of the legislature says he does not have the power to unilaterally impose a vaccine mandate on MLAs in the legislature but that the elected officials could vote to create one he would be responsible for enforcing.Questions around the vaccination status of those in the legislature come as the NDP pushes for vaccine rules in the building and calls for Premier Jason Kenney to boot out unvaccinated MLAs from his caucus.
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Letter of the day
NDP and UCP battle over Alberta’s K-6 Draft Curriculum. (Cartoon by Malcolm Mayes)Malcolm Mayes
Make sure to include the entire UCP caucus when it comes to blame for the fourth wave burning through Alberta. Rather than working together on solutions, several UCP MLAs including the speaker and deputy speaker attend the Free Alberta Strategy meeting. Their whole existence is to blame the federal government for all our ills, as 600-plus million dollars of federal aid targeted for Alberta goes unspent.
They are more concerned about cancelling the RCMP and getting their hands on my CPP and EI to “invest” in their questionable schemes than manage the pandemic making us a laughingstock.They are more concerned about cancelling the RCMP and getting their hands on my CPP and EI to “invest” in their questionable schemes than manage the pandemic making us a laughingstock.
Perry Assaly, Edmonton
Read more letters to the editor
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Watch this page throughout the day for updates on COVID-19 in Edmonton
Author of the article:
Postmedia News
Publishing date:
Oct 04, 2021 • 4 hours ago • 7 minute read • 11 Comments
An e-scooter rider wears a COVID-19 masks while traveling in downtown Edmonton, on Thursday, Sept. 16, 2021. Photo by Ian KucerakPhoto by Ian Kucerak /Postmedia
Article content
COVID-19 news happens rapidly, we have created this file to keep you up-to-date on all the latest stories and information on the outbreak in and around Edmonton.
Advertisement
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
Article content
What’s happening now
Advertisement
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
Article content
Share your COVID-19 stories
As Alberta grapples with a fourth wave of COVID-19 at the start of another school year, we’re looking to hear your stories on this evolving situation.
Have you or a loved one had a surgery rescheduled or cancelled in recent weeks?
Are you someone who has decided to get vaccinated after previously being skeptical of the vaccines?
Have you changed your mind about sending your children back to school in person?
Have you enrolled your children in a private school due to COVID-19?
Are you a frontline health-care worker seeing new strains on the health system? Send us your stories via email at [email protected]
5:42 p.m.
Government reports 4,037 new cases, 21 more deaths over last three days
Alberta is reporting 21 more deaths over the past three days. The province’s death toll is now at 2,752.
There are 4,037 new cases. On Friday, Alberta Health reported 1,629 new cases. On Saturday, there were 1,282 new cases. On Sunday, there were 1,126 new cases.
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Article content
2:38 p.m.
Edmonton Public Schools implementing COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all employees
Anna Junker
Empty classroom at an Edmonton school. File photo.Postmedia, file
Edmonton Public Schools is requiring all employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Supt. Darrel Robertson said Monday the division is implementing the vaccine mandate in order to provide a safe learning and working environment, especially because children under 12 cannot yet be immunized.
“Our custodial staff, maintenance, support, teachers, exempt staff, our volunteers that come into the school, essentially all adults that are coming in school to spend time and work with kids, or around kids, will be captured in this mandatory vaccination regulation,” Robertson said.
All employees will have to declare their vaccination status by mid-October. Those who are not fully vaccinated and have not received an exemption from the division will be required to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test every 72 hours.
Advertisement
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Article content
From late October to Dec. 17, the division will coordinate and pay for testing through a third-party provider. Following Dec. 17, any employee who remains unvaccinated will have to cover the cost of the test at their own expense.
The mandate will be in place for all 215 schools along with any other buildings that the division operates.
More to come.
11:21 a.m.
Unvaccinated, Edmonton Oilers Forward, Josh Archibald is out indefinitely due to inflamed heart muscle following Contracting COVID-19 this summer
Jim Matheson
The Edmonton Oilers Josh Archibald (15) battles the Vancouver Canucks’ Nate Schmidt (88) during third period NHL action at Rogers Place, in Edmonton Saturday May 8, 2021. The Oilers won 4-3.Photo by David Bloom /Postmedia
After doctors in Edmonton discovered Josh Archibald had contracted Covid this summer, they did more tests and have found damage to his heart muscle.
The unvaccinated Edmonton Oilers forward was in his 14-day quarantine after travelling from the U.S., when he started to not feel well. He skated briefly but not with the any of the groups after they hit the ice Sept. 23 for practices/scrimmages.
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Archibald, 28, went for a battery of medical tests and they discovered he had Covid antibodies and myocarditis. Myocarditis is the same ailment that Oilers third goalie from last season Alex Stalock was felled with last fall in Minnesota. He, too, had come down with Covid, which affected his heart.
Myocarditis, which can lead to cardiac arrest and possible death with the heart rate increasing through exertion, has been found to be an after-effect of Covid in athletes pushing their training before camps.
Read more.
7:52 a.m.
Study suggests Pfizer/BioNTech antibodies disappear in many by seven months
National Post
A vial and syringe are seen in front of a displayed Pfizer logo in this illustration taken Jan. 11, 2021.Photo by Dado Ruvic /REUTERS
Six months after receiving the second dose of the two-shot vaccine from Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE, many recipients no longer have vaccine-induced antibodies that can immediately neutralize worrisome variants of the coronavirus, a new study suggests.
Advertisement
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Article content
Researchers analyzed blood samples from 46 healthy, mostly young or middle-aged adults after receipt of the two doses and again six months after the second dose.
“Our study shows vaccination with the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine induces high levels of neutralizing antibodies against the original vaccine strain, but these levels drop by nearly 10-fold by seven months” after the initial dose, Bali Pulendran of Stanford University and Mehul Suthar of Emory University said by email.
In roughly half of all subjects, neutralizing antibodies that can block infection against coronavirus variants such as Delta, Beta, and Mu were undetectable at six months after the second dose, their team reported on Thursday on bioRxiv ahead of peer review.
Advertisement
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Military nurses expected to help fight Alberta’s COVID-19 by Monday: federal minister
Lisa Johnson
File photo.PNimg
Up to eight critical care nurses from the Canadian Armed Forces are expected to be in Alberta hospitals by Monday to help deal with the fourth wave of COVID-19.
“We are always ready to help Canadians across the country during difficult times, and this pandemic has been no different. The Canadian Armed Forces, Canadian Red Cross, and health professionals have stepped up time and again over the past 19 months to answer the call to protect people, and I want to thank all those on the front lines who continue to keep Canadians safe,” Blair said in the release.
The Canadian Red Cross is planning to provide up to 20 medical professionals, some with ICU experience, to help or relieve staff working in hospitals in the province, and is finalizing its plan with Alberta Health Services to send its personnel where they are needed.
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Read more
Saturday
Why would some Albertans take Johnson & Johnson, but not another COVID-19 vaccine?
Jason Herring, Calgary
A Johnson & Johnson Janssen COVID-19 vaccine.Photo by KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images
Could the Johnson & Johnson vaccine help boost COVID-19 immunization rates in Alberta’s remote regions?
That’s what Premier Jason Kenney is betting on now, as his government requests an inventory of the single-shot vaccines from the federal government in a bid to bolster vaccine uptake in rural areas of the province.
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Friday
MLAs would have to vote to require vaccinations inside the legislature’s chamber: Speaker
Speaker of the Legislative Nathan Cooper.Photo by David Bloom /Postmedia, file
Alberta’s Speaker of the legislature says he does not have the power to unilaterally impose a vaccine mandate on MLAs in the legislature but that the elected officials could vote to create one he would be responsible for enforcing.Questions around the vaccination status of those in the legislature come as the NDP pushes for vaccine rules in the building and calls for Premier Jason Kenney to boot out unvaccinated MLAs from his caucus.
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Letter of the day
NDP and UCP battle over Alberta’s K-6 Draft Curriculum. (Cartoon by Malcolm Mayes)Malcolm Mayes
Make sure to include the entire UCP caucus when it comes to blame for the fourth wave burning through Alberta. Rather than working together on solutions, several UCP MLAs including the speaker and deputy speaker attend the Free Alberta Strategy meeting. Their whole existence is to blame the federal government for all our ills, as 600-plus million dollars of federal aid targeted for Alberta goes unspent.
They are more concerned about cancelling the RCMP and getting their hands on my CPP and EI to “invest” in their questionable schemes than manage the pandemic making us a laughingstock.They are more concerned about cancelling the RCMP and getting their hands on my CPP and EI to “invest” in their questionable schemes than manage the pandemic making us a laughingstock.
Perry Assaly, Edmonton
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