Coronavirus (COVID-19) National News

OTTAWA — Canadians received an early Christmas present on Wednesday as Health Canada declared a new COVID-19 vaccine from U.S.

The agency is urging people to stop using supplies purchased from the company and dispose of them.

One of his earliest memories is sitting next to Hartley on the sofa as she rubbed his back, her hands so tender that Doroshenko can still feel their touch at age 52.

"Vaccination access should be based on one thing: vulnerability," NDP health critic Don Davies said. "When we see Indigenous communities who are vulnerable all across this country and experiencing outbreaks at the highest levels in this country, then we must respond."

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency authorization for the Moderna vaccine late last week, becoming the first country to approve it.

Nearly one in four respondents was close to someone who had died of COVID-19.

The first vaccinations in Calgary and Edmonton were given Dec. 15 to health-care workers. 

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau huddled with members of his cabinet on Sunday as federal opposition leaders called for a travel ban on the United Kingdom to prevent the spread of a new, more contagious strain of COVID-19.

Reports from Britain and South Africa of new coronavirus strains that seem to spread more easily are causing alarm, but virus experts say it’s unclear if that’s the case or whether they pose any concern for vaccines or cause more severe disease.

OTTAWA — Canada's top public health officer has been a model of stoicism through the first year of COVID-19, but Dr. Theresa Tam still got a little choked up last week when the first Canadians were inoculated with a COVID-19 vaccine.