Today’s Coronavirus News: More Canadians Are Turning To Virtual Health Care; California reports record 585 deaths in one day; Manitoba MP loses Cabinet posts after trip to Greece

• 7 h 00: More Canadians have access to virtual healthcare services like Telus Health, raising alarm bells for some doctors
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• 9 p.m. (Friday): MP Niki Ashton, Canada’s last hot water politician to travel abroad

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The last coronavirus news from Canada and around the world on Saturday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.

9h: California started the new year by reporting a record 585 coronavirus deaths in a single day.

The State Department of Public Health said on Friday that more than 47,000 new confirmed cases had been reported, bringing the total to more than 2.29 million.

State hospitals ended the year on the brink of disaster, a health official said as the pandemic pushed death and disease to frightening levels and some medical centers scrambled to provide care. oxygen to seriously ill people.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office announced Friday that California will begin working with the US Army Corps of Engineers to assess and modernize obsolete oxygen delivery systems at six Los Angeles area hospitals.

California this week became the third state to surpass 25,000 deaths from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.

7 h 00: As the global economy collapsed and global auto sales plunged during the COVID-19 pandemic, Guelph auto parts maker Linamar felt full of cash.

So much so that at the end of the third quarter, it announced that it was doubling its dividend, from six cents per share, to 12 cents. The move meant that Linamar would now pay its shareholders nearly $ 8 million every three months.

Raising the dividend after seeing profits rise at the same time as sales fall generally seems like a reasonable move. But the dividend increase comes at a time when Linamar is also receiving a federal wage subsidy. In the first three quarters of the year, Linamar collected $ 108.1 million in the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (SCAR), while paying a total of $ 15.7 million in dividends.

Getting taxpayer money into the pockets of shareholders is not what SCAR was supposed to accomplish. But, say economists and accounting experts, that’s exactly what happened, both with Linamar and a host of other Canadian companies.

Read the full story here from Josh Rubin and Amir Barnea.

7 h 00: Amber Goss wanted to be the first in line when a primary care clinic in her town began accepting new patients.

At 8 am, Goss was ready. The website was not. At 8:01 am, it had crashed. It was down all day.

“I had kind of ‘Oh well, it’s 2020’ moment,” she said. “I was surprised how long the website has been down. But when I thought about it, I thought to myself, “This is a clinic website, not a site designed for high traffic. “”

The incident highlighted a reality across Canada today: Five million Canadians, like Goss, do not have a family doctor – but that doesn’t mean they are being left behind.

These patients, and others, are increasingly willing to meet their doctors and other healthcare providers online, as they have interacted with their banks and travel booking services for more than a decade.

As physicians and individual clinics get up to speed on how to deliver virtual visits for the first time, one of Canada’s largest telecommunications companies has taken steps to fill the void, working with a company British technology company with the noble goal of using technology to make healthcare accessible to all people.

Read Alex McKeen’s full story here.

7 h 00: Love knows no boundaries – even during a global pandemic. At least that was not the case for Frederick Paul and Florence Harvey.

High school sweethearts first met seven decades ago in Wandsworth, Newfoundland, when a young man Frederick flashed his porch light before going to bed every night.

The two “downhomers” went on to marry other people and start families for more than five decades.

Frederick, 84, lost his first wife, Helen, to multiple health issues that ended in dementia in 2019. Florence, 81, lost her first husband, Len, to cancer in 2017.

But time passed and hearts healed.

In February, on Valentine’s Day, to be exact, Florence contacted Frédéric by phone to give him her support, after hearing the news of his wife’s death.

Read Sean Durack’s full story here.

7 h 00: A lot has happened in the business world while we were all locked up this year. How much attention did you pay?

Take the David Olive Business Quiz here.

6h45: South Korea will extend strict distancing rules for another two weeks to suppress a viral resurgence, as it has confirmed its first cases of a seemingly more contagious variant of COVID-19.

Health Minister Kwon Deok-cheol said on Saturday that the second-highest level of distancing rules, called “# Tier-2.5”, will remain in place in the greater Seoul area until January 17. areas until then.

South Korea reported 824 new cases, bringing the national total to 62,593 with 942 deaths. This is the first time the country’s daily total has fallen below 800 since December 28.

6h45: Australia’s leading medical group said the NSW state government has put the rest of the country at risk with its decision not to go ‘hard and early’ in its response to the COVID outbreak. 19 on the beaches of northern Sydney, suspected has also caused new cases in neighboring Victoria.

Victoria registered 10 new local cases on Saturday, bringing the number of active cases in the state to 29. Testing has linked Melbourne’s novel coronavirus cluster to the New South Wales outbreak.

Australian Medical Association vice-president Chris Moy said the NSW government was ‘playing the game’ by relying heavily on its contact tracing system instead of imposing a lockdown quick to stop the spread in Sydney.

“#They put themselves in danger and put the rest of the country in danger,” Moy told Fairfax Media. “#I can totally understand why Victoria reacted (by) closing the border very quickly, because they are very worried about it.

6.30 am: The Dutch government said on Saturday it would start vaccinating thousands of frontline health workers as soon as possible to ease pressure on hospitals hit by coronavirus-related staff shortages.

The announcement marked a sharp change in the policy to start vaccinations on January 8 that had drawn criticism for leaving the Netherlands behind compared to other countries that have already started.

“#The worrying situation in acute care is in part due to the illness of healthcare workers, often related to corona,” the government said in a statement. “#Acute care staff will therefore be part of the first group eligible for vaccination.”

The Netherlands is in the midst of a tough five-week lockdown imposed as infection rates skyrocket across the country. In recent days, infection rates have declined slightly; On Friday, 8,215 people tested positive for COVID-19.

Friday 9 p.m .: A prominent member of the federal New Democrats has lost his cabinet critical posts after traveling to Greece despite widespread travel restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19.

The party released a statement saying Manitoba MP Niki Ashton recently traveled to Greece to visit a critically ill family member.

Ashton is on a growing list of Canadian politicians in hot water this week to travel abroad during the pandemic.

Click here for more on Friday coverage.

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