COVID-19 update for Nov. 15: 1,270 new cases, 16 deaths over three days | B.C. proposes zones around hospitals and schools in response to protests |…

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Here's your daily update with everything you need to know on the novel coronavirus situation in B.C.

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Heres your daily update with everything you need to know on the novel coronavirus situation in B.C. for Nov. 15, 2021.

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Well provide summaries of whats going on in B.C. right here so you can get the latest news at a glance. This page will be updated regularly throughout the day, with developments added as they happen.

Check back here for more updates throughout the day. You can also get the latest COVID-19 news delivered to your inbox weeknights at 7 p.m. by subscribing to our newsletter here.

As of the latest figures given on Nov. 15:

Total number of confirmed cases: 213,020 (3,837 active) New cases since Nov. 12: 1,270 Total deaths: 2,273 (16 additional deaths) Hospitalized cases: 376 (down by 8) Intensive care: 116 (down by 8) Total vaccinations: 4,203,257 received first dose; 4,021,455 second doses Recovered from acute infection: 206,665 Long-term care and assisted-living homes, and acute care facilities currently affected: 23

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Sixteen more deaths from COVID-19 have been reported in B.C. over the past three days, bringing the total number of people who have died of the virus to 2,273.

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Of the 16 deaths, eight were in the Island Health region, three in Northern Health, two each in Vancouver Coastal Health and Interior Health and one in Fraser Health.

Over the three-day reporting period, there were also 1,270 positive COVID-19 tests: 502 from Nov. 12-13, 387 from Nov. 13-14 and 381 from Nov. 14-15.

Fraser Health continued to have the most number of new cases with 417, followed by 275 in Interior Health, 274 in Northern Health, 183 in Island Health and 121 in Vancouver Coastal Health.

No new health-care facility outbreaks were reported, and those at Mission Memorial Hospital and Cherington Place (Fraser Health) were declared over.

As of Monday, 90.7% of people in B.C. aged 12+ had received at their first COVID-19 vaccine dose, and 86.8% had received a second shot.

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The B.C. government has introduced legislation that it says would prevent disruptive behaviour from affecting schools and health-care facilities.

The Ministry of the Attorney General says the legislation would establish 20-metre zones around hospitals, schools and COVID-19 vaccination and test centres, making it an offence to impede access to the facilities and their services.

The ministry says in a statement on Monday that it would also be an offence to act in a way that could cause service users or providers to be concerned for their physical or mental safety within the access zones.

Premier John Horgan says in the statement that people protesting COVID-19 rules in recent months have blocked access to health-care facilities and schools, and while everyone has a right to protest, such interference is unacceptable.

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Attorney General David Eby says the act developed in partnership with the Ministry of Public Safety would give police the power to make arrests, with potential imprisonment of up to six months, or to issue violation tickets of up to $2,000.

The legislation, which has yet to be passed, would be in place until July 1, 2023, though the province says it may be repealed earlier if its no longer required.

The Canadian Press

Employees in the core federal public sector who have not been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 will be put on unpaid leave today, unless they were already granted an accommodation.

The policy could potentially leave more than 1,000 workers without pay and unable to access employment insurance benefits.

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As of Nov. 3, the vast majority about 95 per cent of federal public servants were reported to be fully vaccinated.

Of the 267,222employees who declared their status, a little over 3,150 have requested some kind of accommodation so they can work without a full slate of vaccines.

The government said 1,255 workers reported that they are completely unvaccinated, which represents about 0.5 per cent of employees whove declared their vaccine status.

There are 7,284 workers with only one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine. They have been given 10 weeks after their first dose to receive their second shot before they are also put on unpaid leave.

The government said it would accommodate employees who cannot be vaccinated for health, religious, or other reasons protected under the Human Rights Act, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned at the outset of the policy that exemptions and accommodations would be difficult to obtain.

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The Treasury Board Secretariat has not yet released how many unvaccinated or partially vaccinated employees have received some kind of accommodation, such as the opportunity to work from home.

Several federal public sector unions have said they plan to file grievances if they feel an employees human rights were not respected.

The largest federal union, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, has encouraged members to be vaccinated if possible.

Canadian Press

Employees in key sectors including health care and education should be fired if they refuse to be vaccinated against COVID-19, a majority of Canadians believe, according to a new poll.

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A majority of Canadians believe airline employees, schoolteachers, first responders, medical professionals, restaurant employees, construction workers and people who work for small businesses should lose their job if they refuse to get vaccinated, Angus Reid Institute said in a statement Monday. In Quebec (65%) and Ontario (71%), support for dismissal of unwilling medical professionals is considerable, despite their provincial governments respective decisions.

The pollsters findings arrived as many organizations grapple with this issue.

Of those who participated in Angus Reids poll, 71% favoured and 27% were against firing unvaccinated on-board airline employees, with 27% opposed.

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The poll found 69% of Canadians were in favour of canning unvaccinated school teachers, police, paramedics, firefighters and medical professionals, with 28% opposed.

Canadians supported giving unvaxxed restaurant employees the pink slip, with 64% in favour and 32% against the action.

A smaller majority 55% backed the firing of unvaxxed trades people and construction workers, compared to 38% who were opposed, and 53% would let go people working for small local businesses who are not vaccinated, although a full 41% would not.

Angus Reid said support for giving unvaccinated workers the boot was strongest in Ontario, B.C., and Atlantic Canada, while Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Quebec were less impressed with the idea.

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Toronto Sun

In a now deleted TikTok video that went viral last week, osteopathic doctor Carrie Madej claimed that a bath containing certain non-harmful ingredients will detoxx the vaxx for those who received the vaccine under mandates.

The Georgia-based doctor suggests a bath of baking soda and epsom salts, saying the bath will provide a radiation detox to extract the radiation she believes is active in the vaccine; benonite clay will remove the poison and the cleaning agent borax will take the nanotechnologies out of you.

According to Madejs website , she is practicing the truth in Jesus through medicine, where a link to a religious exemption form for the vaccine is readily downloadable. In a seminar she gave just weeks ago, she claims that COVID-19 injections are a gateway to transhumanism.

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Anti-vaccination rhetoric is rampant within online communities. Though her vaccine-removal method is unique, Madej is one of many anti-vax influencers that encourage the spread of misinformation. These communities discuss their qualms with being forced to get the jab due to societal pressure or work mandates.

Virologist Angela Rasmussen, an adjunct professor at the University of Saskatchewan, was quick to debunk Madejs myth. Once youre injected, the lifesaving vaccination process has already begun. You cant unring a bell, Rasmussen told NBC News . Its just not physically possible.

Cupping therapy is another self-administered remedial alternative to Dr. Madejs bath concoction. This ancient form of medicine involves creating a suction to the skin in order to accelerate the removal of the vax content.

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The transaction process for the mRNA vaccine is fairly quick. Basically, by the time you get out to your car, sorry, the magic has already started, Rasmussen said.

The spread of such misinformation running amok on social media has caused concern among experts, however, they remain confident that vaccine mandates are successful.

I think it is actually a good sign that these How to undo your vaccine videos are taking off, Rasmussen said. It suggests that a lot of those people who previously were saying vaccines are terrible and I will never do it are, actually, doing it.

Postmedia News

Austria is placing millions of people not fully vaccinated against the coronavirus in lockdown as of Monday to deal with a surge in infections to record levels and the growing strain on intensive-care units, the government said on Sunday.

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Europe is the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic again, prompting some governments to consider re-imposing unpopular lockdowns. Austria has one of the continents highest infection rates, with a seven-day incidence of 815 per 100,000 people.

Austria is the first European country to reinstate the same restrictions on daily movements that applied during national lockdowns before vaccines were rolled out, though this time they only affect a minority of the population.

Reuters

Tending bar at the Colony Bar on Granville street was a stable job for Vancouverite Maggie DeVito, until it wasnt.

Once youre in for a long enough time, you kind of know what shifts youre getting and what youre going to be making, said DeVito, an eight-year veteran of the hospitality sector.So, it was, like, quite a blindside to me when everything got shut down in March 2020, she said.

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It wasnt an industry that I had ever imagined that was going to happen to.

Now, in the COVID-19 pandemics upending of the workforce, DeVito is among those who have left a less-secure job with better prospects in other fields web development in her case which is putting a strain on employers now, and not just in hospitality.

In some circles, this trend is referred to as the great resignation. That suggests workers are quitting jobs they dislike in droves seeking better security and better conditions.

Read more HERE.

Derrick Penner

Two new descendants of Delta circulating in Canada that appear to have a survival edge they seem slightly more spreadable tell us SARS-CoV-2 may still have plenty more room to continue adapting to humans, scientists say.

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Its hard to say what the ceiling is, said Jesse Shapiro, an associate professor in the department of microbiology and immunology at Montreals McGill University.

It will keep climbing to find a peak of adaptation. But we dont really know how close to the peak we are.

The two Delta sub-lineages, dubbed AY.25 and AY.27, were first detected in Canada in the spring. Cases have been detected in every province except Prince Edward Island, with the highest numbers in Western Canada. AY.25 isbecoming the predominant circulating strain in Saskatchewan. In Ontario, AY.25 accounted for 31 per cent of 1,670 confirmed cases of COVID-19 sequenced over a recent four-week period.

All told, more than 38,000 genomic sequences of samples from across Canada have beendeposited in a global data portalthats tracking the spread of SARS-CoV-2 variants.

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Sharon Kirkey

On Friday, British Columbia reported 992 new cases of COVID-19 and 23 more deaths, raising the death toll in the province to 2,257.

The Health Ministry says 4,265 infections are active across B.C. with 384 people in hospital, including 124 in intensive care.

Fraser Health has the highest number of active infections with 1,575, followed by Interior Health with 862, Northern Health with 645, Island Health with 614 and 510 in the Vancouver Coastal health region.

There are 25 health-care facilities with active COVID-19 outbreaks, including new outbreaks at Abbotsford Regional Hospital and Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops.

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COVID-19 update for Nov. 15: 1,270 new cases, 16 deaths over three days | B.C. proposes zones around hospitals and schools in response to protests |...