Protests inspired by the Truckers Convoy that is heavily impacting the country’s capital are spreading to other cities and countries.
Here in the Waterloo Region, hundreds gathered in Uptown Waterloo on Saturday. There were protests against the vaccine mandate as well as counter-protestors showing support for public health measures and speaking against hate.
The region is slowly reopening amid a few snowstorms and Monday was a big milestone to many students that headed back to classrooms, some of them, for the first time as in-person learning resumes at the University of Waterloo and across the province. The return to in-person learning has had mixed responses from students.
Most classes have been online since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and some classes will continue to be online until Feb. 28.
St. Mary’s Hospital is one of the few hospitals in the province to get a limited number of doses of the new COVID-19 treatment drug, an oral antiviral medication called Paxlovid. It will only be available by prescription only for those at greatest risk of severe illness.
Paxlovid is taken for five days and treatment needs to start within the first five days of symptoms appearing.
Six courses have been prescribed so far to patients in Ayr, Cambridge, Guelph and Port Rowan in Norfolk County.
As of Feb. 2, Waterloo health officials have confirmed 39,207 total cases of COVID-19, and approximately 1,175 cases are considered active, including 47 active outbreaks. There have been 377 COVID-related deaths in the region.
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