Re: Coronavirus
 

Pretty hefty fines. The fines are lower in BC, and uniform across the province, BC except for a short period of time never did region specific rules, and we never had one of these color coded systems Ontario seems to have.

$230 violation ticket:
for not wearing a mask in public settings unless exempt.
Are a passenger on a party bus or limousine
Encourage other people to attend a gathering and/or Refuse to leave or disperse from the event or gathering when directed to do so by an enforcement officer.
Do not vacate a licensed premise by 11:00 pm. (bars) and/or Engage in abusive behaviour towards a restaurant or bar employee.

$2,300 fines for:
people who operate a party bus or limousine anywhere in the province.
to owners, operators and event organizers who host an event or gathering, unless the event or gathering unless the event has an exemption.
A nightclub does not cease to operate as a nightclub
Background music or other background sounds, such as from televisions is louder than the volume of normal conversation.
Liquor is served outside the hours of 11:00 am to 10:00 pm


Tickets can be issued by police, community safety unit, liquor and cannabis inspectors, gaming inspectors and conservation officers.

Repeat offenders or cases of egregious contraventions of the health order, police can recommended criminal charges, if convicted the penalty is $2,000 fines and/or up to 6 months in jail.

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/s...lation-tickets

Re: Coronavirus
 

Whole of south east of England and all of London lockdown as from midnight.........No Christmas meetings for anyone in tier 4. This after Boris promising Christmas would be saved, i'm sure there are a lot of rather piised off people right now.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/135239...celled-london/

Re: Coronavirus
 

I have a lot of family (and friends) in the areas that are now in Tier 4 :( Christmas is pretty much ruined for many, sadly some have already spent money on food and gifts to celebrate with family they can no longer see... one or two are going to have a very very lonely christmas as they are not allowed to see their families. :cry_smile:

Re: Coronavirus
 

[Crocodile Dundee voice]That's not a hefty fine. *This* is a hefty fine...[/Crocodile Dundee voice]

"Victoria Police can issue on-the-spot fines of up to $1,652 for individuals and up to $9,913 for businesses for:

• refusing or failing to comply with the emergency directions
• refusing or failing to comply with a public health risk power direction
• refusing or failing to comply with the Public Health Directions to provide information.

Fines of up to $20,000 for individuals and $100,000 for businesses are possible through the court system.

People who do not wear a face mask when required and do not have a lawful reason can be fined $200."

And those are the *current* fines, dialed back by roughly 2/3rds from the "state of emergency" ones of 2 - 5 months ago.

Re: Coronavirus
 

Looks like this new strain of COVID is hammering parts of England right now. So much so that other countries have banned incoming flights from the UK.

https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-...-says-12168124

Re: Coronavirus
 

Sky were also covering the big exit from London, trains packed no social distancing. Just found out a relative passed on Friday, now not close and one of those in normal times I would have thought about going to the Funeral but now not an issue.

Re: Coronavirus
 

Yeah I saw that. Shandy drinking southerners taking the new strain home to their parents in other regions for Christmas. Recipe for disaster.

Re: Coronavirus
 

There was an interview on Sky and I think one was from Bristol and the other Leeds going home for Christmas.

Re: Coronavirus
 

It's these international flights from the UK that I worry about, especially the ones landing in YVR.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...af3a98073d.png

Re: Coronavirus
 

If anybody thinks they will be able to stop the new strain from entering well no chance.

Re: Coronavirus
 

I wouldn't be surprised if the new strain is already here and in the US and contributing to the explosive spread California is seeing.

Re: Coronavirus
 

There have been loads of infected people flying into Toronto these past few months. I don’t think they have banned flights from my country during the last 10 months.

Re: Coronavirus
 

Canada has never banned flights, they have only placed restrictions on people entering, but the exemptions make the swiss cheese holes pretty big.

Re: Coronavirus
 

Getting vaccinated is extremely cool.
Oct. 28, 1956, backstage at “The Ed Sullivan Show,” the 21-year-old Elvis Presley—the smooth-faced, pouting, swivel-hipped hero of American youth—extended his left arm. In went the needle. Off went the flashbulbs. A polio star was born.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...85daaabe5.jpeg

Re: Coronavirus
 

Exactly, this new strain may already be alive and well in other regions (or similarly a similar mutation creating a similar but not identical transmission rate is almost certainly prevalent somewhere else) - the difference being now that this "new strain" gave the government the excuse/reasoning to tighten restrictions Boris has previously been saying wouldn't happen - Despite anyone with half a brain knowing its being getting out of hand here since the end of the lockdown in early December.

Re: Coronavirus
 

Virus's mutate and adapt, it's nothing new.. there are over 200 variations/mutations of Covid 19**. This adaptation / mutation is to allow it to spread more easily, however, there is nothing showing that it is more virulent in it's effect on people (i.e. it's not having any worse effect than the usual variety - people aren't getting more seriously ill than the more common variety), nor that it's causing more deaths. It's been in the UK since September! More hype to feed the hysteria that is boris.
There are similar mutations elsewhere in the world already :)

**Correction - as of July 2020 apparently there were a total of 1,234 mutations (and doubtless more since)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s10038-020-0808-9

Re: Coronavirus
 

Most of Ontario will be locked down for 28 days from Christmas Eve...Northern Ontario for 14 days. Senior schools closed until 21 Jan...elementary schools until 11 Jan. Ford is expected to give further details tomorrow.

https://globalnews.ca/news/7534030/o..._9LYSpWtqEZMEE

Re: Coronavirus
 

Maybe a new variant in South Africa as well, but the study hasn't been peer reviewed, appears severity is no worse, but it spreads faster and test swabs have higher viral load. Appears to be a different variant than UK one.

"Scientists are examining this particular variant closely because it includes several changes in the part of the virus that allows it to attach to human cells, which is a key target for antibody therapies and vaccines."

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/19/w...s-variant.html

The new variant is named 501.V2.

Re: Coronavirus
 

The words Boris and hysteria go together very well, the man's all over the place.

It's good that the new variant doesn't seem to be more deadly, although of course with more people contracting the virus there will inevitably be more hospitalisations and deaths.

Re: Coronavirus
 

As of midnight tonight Canada has banned flights from the UK.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/can...irus-1.5849598

Re: Coronavirus
 

all flights from the UK suspended. Pretty awful for anyone emigrating right now.

Re: Coronavirus
 

Wow...the US will follow.

Re: Coronavirus
 

I don't quite understand how it is more transmissible. If people are wearing a mask AND social distancing, what is there to worry about?

There is quite a decent wiki article about it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VUI_%E2%80%93_202012/01

Re: Coronavirus
 

COVID-19 Public Exposures
Flights impacted by covid into YVR... though none from the UK :)

Other airports > https://www.canada.ca/en/public-heal...atherings.html

Re: Coronavirus
 

Huh?
The screenshot you quoted me on has an exposure into YVR from LHR.
Flight AC855 on Dec 10th. Rows 35-42.

Re: Coronavirus
 

Ha ha not according to this story, Trump is UK's only friend it says. :o
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/135340...vid-19-strain/

Re: Coronavirus
 

The US likely wont halt flights, but I wont be surprised if they go to USC and Green Card holders only and deny entry for everyone else.

Re: Coronavirus
 

If mask wearing and distancing merely reduces the chances of infection, rather than guarantees it - even ignoring where people are not doing it as they should - and because there are occasions where 6'/2m isn't enough, then for a version of it that is up to 70% more transmissible, masks are going to be a bit less effective and 6'/2m less likely to be as safe a distance than for the original version.

Re: Coronavirus
 

Woops - thanks, and apologies - not sure how I missed that! I stand corrected! :o

I was looking at the link I gave you - not your post.. and yes, there is one (10th December) hidden amongst the others.
More worrying are all the flights across Canada! (pdf opens in new tab, no download) http://www.bccdc.ca/Health-Info-Site...es-Current.pdf

Re: Coronavirus
 

so they may only let USC’s and perhaps PRs enter the US...

Re: Coronavirus
 

Seems at least at YVR people are indeed not travelling much by air this holiday season, YVR showing traffic down 85% to 90%.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...cent-1.5849655

Re: Coronavirus
 

That's massive for Christmas week.

Re: Coronavirus
 

Significant. The massive reduction by airlines, massive reduction of passengers, has led YVR to halt their fairly large airport improvement project they broke ground on in 2018 to help conserve cash, once demand rises again and revenue starts to return, they will eventually finish it. ground transportation center, new parkade, central utilities building, as well as a geo-thermal heating and cooling system.

The Pier D International Terminal Expansion was nearly done, so they did continue that one to complete it.

YVR went from massive growth and not having enough gates at peak times especially in international and US departure gates, to a ghost town. Crazy fast decline.

Most recent monthly stats I could find is for September which were released in November, September 2020 saw a 84.6% decline in passengers vs 2019.

• Domestic:
  • 2019: 1,136,494
  • 2020: 287,531 (-74.7%)
• US transborder:
  • 2019: 529,152
  • 2020: 20,776 (-96.1%)
• Asia Pacific:
  • 2019: 374,264
  • 2020: 32,909 (-91.2%)
• Europe:
  • 2019: 221,492
  • 2020: 12,313 (-94.4%)
• Miscellaneous:
  • 2019: 41,994
  • 2020: 1,885 (-95.5%)

6.4 million passengers through YVR Jan 1 to Sept 30, 2020 down from 20.3 million same period in 2019.


24 flights between Dec 6 and 16 with possible COVID exposure.

https://bc.ctvnews.ca/24-flights-add...ures-1.5238679

Re: Coronavirus
 

Boris Johnson is quite correctly getting absolute pelters in the sensible parts of the UK media for his jingo-bluster-flip-flop style of "leadership". Kier Starmer hit the nail on the head when he said that Johnson cares more about being popular than he cares about making difficult decisions.

What I can't get my head around is that if London is put into Tier 4, why did they (i) not do it immediately instead of saying "from midnight tomorrow", and (ii) allow trains and planes out of London to keep running? It's a recipe for disaster, just because they don't want to make tough decisions.

Re: Coronavirus
 

Parkside Extendicare in Regina turned into a hell-hole and there was nothing the familes of the residents could do. After seeing what happened early on in Quebec and Ontario maybe the management had time to bolster their staffing or improve conditions, and maybe not. There will probably be an inquiry at some point.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saska...d-19-1.5840770
My best friend's mother died in there an hour and a half ago and of course he couldn't be there. I'd known her for almost 50 years and she was the sweetest, kindest woman you're ever likely to meet. She just tested positive less than 2 weeks ago.
The father of a co-worker was in there until about 3 months ago, when she was able to get him a space in a nursing home out of town. I think she saved his life.

Re: Coronavirus
 

I forget where I read this and it was sometime ago but they were saying that the incidents in Care Homes were going to keep the Lawyers very busy in futures years.

Re: Coronavirus
 

So sorry to read of the loss of your best friends mother, it must have been a huge blow to you as well as him, having known her for so many years. :(

One of the care homes in Hamilton has been hit so hard that they have made the decision to 'hand it over' to Hamilton Health Sciences and draft in nurses and doctors.. it's a disaster.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamil...-hhs-1.5843815

Re: Coronavirus
 

The whole of Ontario is going into Lockdown for a minimum of 28 days starting at 12:01am on Boxing Day - north of Sydbury, a little earlier.
https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/5...and-save-lives

Re: Coronavirus
 

Well at least they were nice enough to let folk have one last booze up on Christmas day.

Re: Coronavirus
 

I could've sworn I heard yesterday on CBC radio it was from Christmas Eve. :unsure:
Here it is.
Ontario to implement provincewide lockdown on Christmas Eve, sources say
Obviously sources weren't so reliable