British Columbia’s New COVID-19 Restrictions Disrupt Construction Projects
CALGARY, Alberta – Restrictions imposed by British Columbia to fight the spread of COVID-19 infections after the holiday break have disrupted work at construction sites of a Rio Tinto hydropower project and BC Hydro’s Site C dam.
A total of five major industrial projects in remote northwestern Canada have been affected as the provincial government last week ordered them to stagger the return of their workers after the Christmas holiday break.
BC Hydro’s Site C dam, Rio Tinto’s Kemano T2 hydropower project, the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, TC Energy’s Coastal GasLink pipeline and the Royal Dutch Shell-led LNG Canada project are named in the order.
Counting down this year s good news
Staff nurse Rachel Lewis administers the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to emergency room nurse David Conway at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City on Monday, Dec. 14, 2020. Conway, who works with COVID-19 patients on a daily basis, was the first individual in Iowa to receive the vaccine. (Andy Abeyta/The Gazette)
Washington senior Deon Harrison applauds as he listens to a speaker at the Cedar Rapids Community School District’s Black Student Unions Cookout at the African American Museum of Iowa in southeast Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020. The event, sponsored by the district and Advocates for Social Justice, brought together black student organizations from the city’s schools. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)
The moment was not expected. But neither was it difficult to interpret.
A week ago, the first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were administered across the country, including in Iowa. It was a seminal moment in the ninth month of the ongoing pandemic.
The #COVID19 vaccine is being administered today in Iowa. Here, the @gazettedotcom s @VanessaMiller12 documents the first shot. https://t.co/UaNBhLqsOO socially distance/wear a mask (@ErinDMurphy) December 14, 2020
The first shot in Iowa was documented by a few journalists, including Vanessa Miller and Andy Abeyta of The Gazette. At 9:39 a.m. Dec. 14, Miller tweeted a five-second video of David Conway, an emergency room nurse at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, receiving the historic shot.
Marshall County’s COVID-19 death total reached 53 this week with three more recorded.
Iowa has 3,354 deaths since the start of the pandemic including 234 in the last week and 97 since yesterday.
The Iowa Department of Public Health COVID-19 dashboard is showing conflicting data on the cumulative total of cases. Summary statistics displays 262,209 and 277,297 positive cases.
Hospitalizations and infection spread are beginning to slow across the state with Iowa’s positivity rate in the past 14 days dropping to 13.7 percent. Marshall County’s rate dropped from 11.8 percent to 9 percent this week.
There are 746 hospitalized patients including 95 admitted in the last 24 hours. This includes 146 patients in intensive care and 87 on ventilators. It is the third consecutive week hospitalizations have declined, but the number of severe cases persists.
The U.S. might have more doses of Pfizer-BioNTech s COVID-19 vaccine than it thought.
While each vial is supposed to hold five doses of the first vaccine authorized for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration, Politico was first to report on Wednesday that pharmacists have discovered some vials may have extra doses, potentially adding to the country s supply. The amount of vaccine remaining in the multidose vial after removal of 5 doses can vary, depending on the type of needles and syringes used, a Pfizer spokesperson told USA TODAY in a statement. At this time, we cannot provide a recommendation on the use of the remaining amount of vaccine from each vial. Vaccinators need to consult their institution’s policies for the use of multidose vials.