Five years ago, the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic of the novel coronavirus, setting off a series of policies that transformed Canadians' lives for years. The WHO's declaration followed months of warning signs about the dangers of COVID-19, including mass lockdowns in China and Italy, and served a...

TORONTO - Doctors who were thrust into national fame when COVID-19 hit five years ago say they try to focus on positive feedback from the public rather than the angry backlash and threats of violence they faced. British Columbia public health chief Dr. Bonnie Henry still has a security detail to this day because of thr...

TORONTO - There had been warning signs for months. There were the reports of dangerous flu-like symptoms in Asia. News of the lockdown that kept tens of millions of people inside their homes in China. Here at home, the growing ubiquity of blue surgical masks. The advice to sing "Happy Birthday" while washing ...

MONTREAL - Michael Hale still recalls the moment COVID-19 upended his world. "I can feel this pit in my stomach even as I recount that day," said the CEO of Northern Vision Development, which owns seven hotels and eight restaurants and bars in the Yukon. Hale and a half-dozen colleagues were gathered around a...

VANCOUVER - British Columbia is seeing "peaking influenza activity" even as other respiratory illnesses such as RSV and COVID-19 are in decline, and health officials are reminding people to get vaccinated. The BC Centre for Disease Control says influenza A infections remain high and continue to increase, with...

TORONTO - Alcohol-related deaths rose about 18 per cent during the pandemic, according to a study that points to the harm of making liquor more available at a time of increased vulnerability. Researchers with the Public Health Agency of Canada compared alcohol-related deaths and hospitalizations before and after the pa...

VANCOUVER - Premier David Eby says protecting British Columbians from the potential impact of U.S. tariffs will be taken as seriously as the relief response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He says every decision being taken by his ministers, including plans for next month's budget, will be made through the lens of a "po...

VANCOUVER - Premier David Eby says protecting British Columbians from the potential impact of U.S. tariffs will be taken as seriously as the relief response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He says every decision being taken by his ministers, including plans for next month's budget, will be made through the lens of a "po...

EDMONTON - The organization representing Alberta physicians is calling out a government panel's COVID-19 report as "anti-science." Dr. Shelley Duggan, head of the Alberta Medical Association, says the report sows distrust by going against proven preventive health measures while promoting fringe methods. She s...

VANCOUVER - In early 2020, Lili Wu was already "armed to the teeth" whenever she ventured to public places near her home in Port Coquitlam, B.C. - face mask, sanitizer, protective eyewear and gloves. It was more than a month before the World Health Organization's March declaration of a global pandemic that in...

VANCOUVER - In early 2020, Lili Wu was already "armed to the teeth" whenever she ventured to public places near her home in Port Coquitlam, B.C. - face mask, sanitizer, protective eyewear and gloves. It was more than a month before the World Health Organization's March declaration of a global pandemic that in...

TORONTO - The Public Health Agency of Canada says federal funding for COVID-19 vaccines will stop this year and the provinces and territories will be responsible for buying them, as well as determining the timing of the vaccinations. The agency published the information online on Friday, along with the National Advisor...

VANCOUVER - New data shared by British Columbia's Centre for Disease Control shows the province has one of the worst flu rates in Canada, as a holiday-season spike in respiratory illnesses continues. But the data also shows the province has one of the lowest COVID-19 test positivity rates in the country, at about half ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Former Ohio Health Director Amy Acton, who became a household name in the state in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, is running for governor. Acton, 58, a physician and public health expert who stood alongside Republican Gov. Mike DeWine for months during his daily coronavirus briefings, sa...

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Former Ohio Health Director Amy Acton, who became a household name in the state in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, is running for governor. Acton, 58, a physician and public health expert who stood alongside Republican Gov. Mike DeWine for months during his daily coronavirus briefings, sa...

OTTAWA - The auditor general says the small business loan program the federal government rolled out during the COVID-19 pandemic wasn't managed in a cost-effective way. Auditor general Karen Hogan says the Canada Emergency Business Account program wasn't managed with "due regard for value for money." The prog...

VANCOUVER - British Columbia's Conservative leader says comparing the Nuremberg trials or Nazi Germany to public health measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic is unacceptable and "deeply disrespectful to the memory of those who suffered" in the Holocaust. That's after video surfaced of Rustad saying his pa...

TORONTO - The Public Health Agency of Canada says it is not providing Novavax's COVID-19 vaccine this respiratory virus season, citing low demand. It says the manufacturer requires a minimum order of its updated protein-based vaccine, called Nuvaxovid, which far exceeds the uptake by Canadians last year. The agency say...

OTTAWA - The federal Liberals are creating a new agency to beef up Canada's ability to handle rapidly spreading infectious diseases and protect from future pandemics. Health Emergency Readiness Canada is tasked with boosting Canada's life-sciences sector and ensuring Canadians get faster access to vaccines, medical the...

Pfizer Canada says Health Canada has approved its updated COVID-19 vaccine that protects against one of the most recently circulating variants of the virus. The Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine, called Comirnaty, targets the KP.2 subvariant of Omicron, replacing the previous version which targeted the XBB.1.5 Omicron subva...

Health Canada has authorized Novavax's updated COVID-19 vaccine that protects against currently circulating variants of the virus. The mRNA vaccine, called Nuvaxovid, has been reformulated to target the JN.1 subvariant of Omicron. It will replace the previous version of the protein-based vaccine, which targeted the XBB...

TORONTO - Health Canada has authorized Moderna's updated COVID-19 vaccine that protects against currently circulating variants of the virus. The mRNA vaccine, called Spikevax, has been reformulated to target the KP.2 subvariant of Omicron. It will replace the previous version of the vaccine that was released a year ago...