Today’s coronavirus news: Survey suggests staff worried about bias against on-site workers if they work remotely

The latest coronavirus news in Canada and around the world Wednesday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.

8:31 Ghosts and Goblins may cross the White House off their trick or treatment routes this year.

President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will be in Europe for Halloween and will not be in the White House to help distribute candy and other goodies.

Instead, the Pennsylvania Avenue side of the White House will be lit in orange to celebrate the spooky holiday, said First Lady spokesperson Michael LaRosa.

This is the Bidens’ first Halloween at the White House.

6:10 am: A new poll by tech company Cisco suggests that nearly half of Canadian workers fear being viewed less favorably if they work remotely in a hybrid workplace.

The survey, which Cisco conducted with pollster Angus Reid, found that 46% of Canadians believed in-person workers might have more opportunities for career growth than someone working remotely.

However, 77 percent of those surveyed said flexibility is a key factor that will be part of their decisions to stay or leave a business.

Shannon Leininger, president of Cisco Canada, said the results show how important it is for employers to form a workplace culture that supports both remote and in-person workers.

She said teams need to come together to define what hybrid working in their office really means, as the work model differs from workplace to workplace.

Leninger also said managers need to determine what their desks will look like in a hybrid workspace and whether desks will be replaced with larger collaboration and meeting areas.

5h55: Space travel has returned to the headlines thanks to a recent boom in private flights aboard William Shatner, whose career was built on fictitious trips to the stars. But while some herald a new golden age of space, some pundits are hopeful that as the industry boldly goes where it hasn’t gone before, not everyone involved will forget. the meaning that space technology can have for our health here at home.

The lessons learned among the stars could even, they say, help detect and track the next pandemic.

At least that’s the argument made by a group of space experts, including several Canadians, in an article for Nature Medicine last month, in which they argue that current space technology is already helping to monitor and mitigate. COVID-19, and could be useful for the next pandemic.

Read the full story of Alex Boyd from The Star.

5:46 am: The Chinese capital is experiencing its worst Covid epidemic in more than eight months, fueled by tourists returning from the northern provinces where the fall colors were in full bloom.

Beijing has reported around 20 infections so far in the latest outbreak, which was initially linked to a couple of retired Shanghai university professors who took a road trip through the country’s scenic northwest in the beginning. October. A second couple from Beijing were so determined to have fun when they got back that they ignored the lingering fevers and ultimately exposed hundreds of people to the virus.

The latest rash was partly triggered by the second couple who failed to report to Beijing health officials in a timely manner and played mahjong with friends despite having high fevers. The initial cluster of Covid infections turned into a nationwide epidemic in less than a week.

5:44 am: The Bank of Canada is due to announce this morning what will happen to its key interest rate and provide an updated forecast for the national economy.

The bank’s target for the overnight rate has been 0.25% since the start of the pandemic, and Gov. Tiff Macklem has said increases will not come until later next year, when the economy will be over. sufficiently cured of COVID-19.

Earlier this month, Macklem suggested the economy would not recover as quickly over this period as previously thought due to global supply chain issues that have become more persistent than expected, alongside higher inflation rates.

This could be reflected in the Bank’s Quarterly Monetary Policy Report, which presents the Bank of Canada’s forecast for the economy and the pace of inflation over the next year.

Economists don’t expect the bank to raise rates this week, but wait for the central bank to announce a decline in bond purchases as part of its quantitative easing program.

5:41 am: The Brazilian Senate commission on Tuesday recommended that President Jair Bolsonaro be the subject of a series of criminal indictments for actions and omissions linked to the second highest death toll from COVID-19 in the world.

The 7-to-4 vote was the culmination of a six-month committee inquiry into the government’s handling of the pandemic. He officially endorsed a report calling on prosecutors to try Bolsonaro on charges ranging from quackery and incitement to crime to abuse of public funds and crimes against humanity, and in so doing, holds him accountable for many. of the more than 600,000 deaths from COVID-19 in Brazil.

The president has denied wrongdoing, and the decision whether or not to lay most of the charges will rest with Attorney General Augusto Aras, a person appointed by Bolsonaro who is widely seen as protecting him. The allegation of crimes against humanity should be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court.

Senator Omar Aziz, chairman of the inquiry, said he would deliver the recommendation to the attorney general on Wednesday morning. Aras’s office said the report will be carefully reviewed upon receipt.

5:42 am: The German parliament will not extend the “epidemic situation of national significance” when it expires next month, but will keep certain measures in place to control the spread of the coronavirus, lawmakers said on Wednesday.

Prominent members of the country’s parliament, or Bundestag, said that although coronavirus infections had risen again recently, they saw no need to prolong the ‘epidemic situation’ which was first declared in March 2020 and which has been extended several times since then. They said the situation had fundamentally changed due to the fact that around two-thirds of the population had been vaccinated against the virus.

The declaration of a health emergency had allowed federal and state governments to order key coronavirus measures without the approval of national and regional parliaments.

“There will be no more school closures, closures or curfews,” said Dirk Wiese, deputy leader of the parliamentary group of center-left Social Democrats. He added that the pandemic still needed to be handled responsibly, but restrictions on civil rights needed to be relaxed again.

5:41 am: Vietnam began immunizing children on Wednesday as part of an effort to reopen schools after more than six months of closure due to COVID-19.

About 1,500 adolescents aged 16 to 17 in Ho Chi Minh City, southern Vietnam, were among the first to receive injections before the vaccination program was rolled out nationwide in November, a indicated the Ministry of Health on its website.

During the first phase, Vietnam only approved the Pfizer vaccine for children. Parents or guardians must sign a consent form for their children to be vaccinated, according to the report.

“Childhood immunization safety is the top priority,” Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long said at a meeting Tuesday before the launch.

Last week, the ministry approved immunizations for children between the ages of 12 and 17, with older adolescents in more populous cities given priority for first doses. There are approximately 14 million Vietnamese children in this age group.

5:40 am: An increase in random assaults highlighted by Vancouver police could indicate more serious problems that could be magnified by the pandemic, experts say.

Vancouver Police said in a series of social media posts last week that there were 1,555 “unprovoked assaults by strangers” involving 1,705 victims reported between September 1, 2020 and August 31, 2020. year.

“The majority of the victims were just going about their business: shopping, walking or visiting our city,” one article said.

Const. Tania Visintin said an assault is defined as random when there is no relationship between the victim and the suspect, and no event led to the attack.

“Which means there was no verbal communication or physical interaction,” she said. “It’s completely random. Out of the blue. “

Police began to notice the increase when officers compared their notes at morning meetings to discuss the night’s events, Visintin said.

“We need to collect this data,” she said. “And that way we know how we can use our resources to make the city safe. “

Experts say there could be various reasons for the increase in random assaults, including the COVID-19 pandemic.