Coronavirus: B.C. wineries prepared to reopen across the province

COLOMBO (News 1st); Director-General of Health Services, Dr. Asela Gunawardena said the directive to stop wearing the face mask would be considered as the final decision regarding the easing of existing COVID-19 restrictions.Before removing the mask people should get the booster Jab, the target group is 14.1 million Sri Lankans, he said.Furthermore, he stated that giving the Booster dose to 14.1 million people would confirm that people have some form of immunity against COVID-19.However, he said the final decision on doing away with the face mask will be made based on the recommendation of the World Health Organization, measures adopted overseas, and the scientific evidence.If the immunization of all the people in the country reaches the desired level following adequate administration of the COVID-19 booster dose, authorities are prepared to do away with the current health regulations including the face mask rule, Health Services Director General Dr.

COLOMBO (News 1st); Sri Lanka had advised its citizens to avoid all non-essential travel to Ukraine, due to the current situation surrounding tensions between world powers in the region.The Government of Sri Lanka is closely monitoring the situation in Ukraine in the context of recent developments.The Sri Lanka Embassy in Ankara, concurrently accredited to Kyiv, is in close contact with the over forty Sri Lankan nationals, including fourteen students, residing in Ukraine, with a view to ensuring their safety and welfare.While six of the fourteen Sri Lankan students in Ukraine have left the country temporarily, the Sri Lanka Embassy in Ankara is in close communication with the eight remaining students.The Foreign Ministry requests all Sri Lankan nationals in Ukraine to exercise vigilance and to be in contact with the Sri Lanka Embassy in Ankara.The Ministry also advises all Sri Lankan nationals to avoid non-essential travel to Ukraine at present.

COVID-19 will be lifted early next month.“On Saturday, Feb. 26, the government will announce a final decision about proceeding to Phase 2 of our plan to lift almost all restrictions on March 1,” Kenney tweeted Monday evening, saying it will be a “prudent decision based on the latest data.”The premier wrote there is “encouraging data” showing a “steep drop” in the Omicron variant wave of the pandemic.

PHILADELPHIA - A new safe space for North Philadelphia teens held its soft opening on Monday in hopes to provide an educational alternative for youths often swallowed up by the city's scourge of crime. The center occupies a storefront on the 2200 block of North Broad Street and is open to youths between 12-17-years-old, according to the non-profit group Frontline Dads. "We want to provide some hope, we want to provide an oasis of light for people to point to and say ‘this is a place I can go and be supported’," Executive Director Ruben Jones said. The center, which will be open until 7 p.m.

John Mayer‘s touring drummer has reportedly tested positive for COVID-19, resulting in the musician withdrawing from Mayer’s concert in New York last night (February 21).Taking to Twitter, Mayer – sharing a monochrome image of himself facing an empty arena – wrote: “This afternoon, our drummer tested positive for COVID-19. We all wish him a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing you all at the show.”This afternoon, our drummer tested positive for COVID-19. Tonight's concert @TheGarden will go on as scheduled, with a very special presentation.

Despite a high COVID-19 infection rate, England is about to ditch the last of its COVID-19 restrictions, in a bid to start living with the virus for good. Redmond Shannon looks at what measures are disappearing, the strategy going forward, and why the rest of the United Kingdom is divided on England’s plan.

After nearly two years of shutting out most tourists due to COVID-19 restrictions, Australia has reopened its borders to fully vaccinated, international travellers.

A 62-year-old man was caught in the crossfire of a shooting Monday night in Southwest Philadelphia, according to police. It's believed that the man had just parked to visit family when he was struck.

This could be the last week that many Albertans will need to wear masks during the COVID-19 pandemic as the province prepares to enter the next stage of its plan to ease public health measures.

Thrift Store on Berry Road has become a victim of the pandemic and will close by the end of April.“The past two years have been really tough,” said Joy Haxton, Lake Country Food Bank, executive director.“The issue that we had with COVID was the number of people we could have in the store and that’s made it really difficult. I think we’ve had the store closed for 12 months over the last two years.” The Great Backyard Bird Count is on again Since the thrift store opened eight years ago it has had a huge impact on the community and surrounding area.

The sun is setting on one of the sources of revenue for the Lake Country Food Bank, their thrift store has become a victim of the pandemic and will be closing by the end of April.

John Mayer is about to perform the second of two sold-out shows at New York City’s Madison Square Garden as part of his Sob Rock Tour, but the second show is likely going to be a lot different than the first.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Billy Ray Macon Sr. has accomplished a lot in his 80 years of living.

The booster rollout continues with more than 27,770 booster doses administered across the motu yesterday.

(Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office) PALM SPRINGS, Fla. - A Florida woman stands accused of killing her husband and stabbing his body 140 times, officials said.The Palm Springs Police Department said the body of Melvin Weller, 62, was found by the woman's son, Ricardo Anthony Green, 41, who reported it to police, CBS 46 reported. The woman, Joan Burke, 61, was subsequently arrested and charged with his death, officials said.Blood was on the walls, cabinets, and kitchen counters of the home, police said, ABC 27 reported.Burke, who was initially arrested on Feb.

COVID-19: Quebec opposition says it’s time to end state of emergency The Barreau du Québec said Monday it’s time the government explain why it still needs emergency powers.“Does the current situation require keeping the state of emergency?” Catherine Claveau, head of the bar association, wrote in a statement. “Are the measures that will be maintained during the deconfinement plan justified? To answer these questions, the government must provide clear justifications for maintaining some ‘exceptional rules.”’Over the past two years, the Quebec government has used emergency powers to impose curfews, ban private gatherings and close businesses such as restaurants, bars and gyms.

The blaring horns and snarled streets of the so-called “Freedom Convoy” blockade in Ottawa are no more, but on Monday Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggested the work to heal the pandemic divisions in the country that the convoy exposed must now begin.

Ontario says it is providing more stand-alone HEPA filter units for schools and child-care centres to offer more children greater protection against COVID-19.A Monday statement says up to 40,000 more air purifiers will be made available to school boards and up to 9,000 will go to child-care settings.Education Minister Stephen Lecce says ventilation improvements are a critical priority, after the government previously announced that it would provide 73,000 of the filters and other ventilation devices.

GLYNN COUNTY, Ga. - Federal prosecutors and defense attorneys for the men convicted of killing Ahmaud Arbery wrapped their closing remarks in the federal hate crimes trial on Monday in Brunswick, Georgia.The jury received the case at about 3 p.m. on Monday and deliberated almost three hours before court went in recess for the day. Deliberations are set to restart at 9 a.m.

Boris johnson today (February 21) said that the response to the pandemic would be "vaccine led" as he announced that all lockdown restrictions will be ending by Thursday. Speaking after he announced all remaining Covid restrictions will be axed, the PM said there "may be significant resurgences" and "it's very possible that those will be worse than Omicron".Whitty said at a Downing Street press conference that new strains were to be expected and while some "will just disappear" others could escape vaccines and result in a fresh wave in hospitalisations.Prof Whitty said: “Some of those new variants will just disappear, but some of them will cause us significant problems and they could be either more vaccine escaping but as severe as Omicron, but the net effect would be actually more people end up in hospital because a lot of our protection is from vaccination, or it could be more intrinsically severe, because Omicron came from a much earlier variant.”He added we “could certainly end up with something which is more likely to lead to hospitalisations than Omicron”, adding that winters are expected to be “tricky” even in the absence of significant new variants due to the combination of Covid, flu and other respiratory problems.The Chief Medical Officer also urged Brits who test positive for Covid to self-isolate, even though they will no longer be forced to do so under law.“As we look at the next weeks, we still have high rates of Omicron and I would urge people in terms of public health advice, and this is very much the Government’s position, that people should still if they have Covid try to prevent other people getting it and that means self-isolating," he said.

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. - Three people and two dogs were found dead inside a Florida home after a roommate returned home Sunday evening, police said.The roommate who discovered the horrific scene called emergency services, who said each victim had gunshot wounds, WFLX reported.MORE NEWS: Florida woman allegedly stabbed husband 140 times, fractured skull with meat cleaver: police saidPort St.

FILE - Members of the Police and the Mexican Army patrol the center of Playa Del Carmen. (Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)Two men were killed and a third was injured Saturday night after members of suspected rival drug cartels opened fire at a popular Mexican beach resort, officials say. Shots were reported around 8:30 p.m.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggested on Monday that while protests surrounding Parliament Hill in Ottawa have mostly dispersed and the horns are no longer sounding, the work to heal the pandemic divisions in the country that the convoy exposed must now begin.

In an address to the House of Commons today, Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a plan for "living with COVID," phasing out free testing for most people and removing requirements to self-isolate after testing positive.

The Prime Minister has announced that British workers should "learn from Germany" and not go to work if they are feeling ill.

PHILADELPHIA - A woman is fighting for her life after she was shot multiple times in the West Oak Lane section of the city. The shooting happened inside a home on the 100 block of Mayland Street at approximately 3:18 p.m.Police say the 56-year-old woman was shot multiple times throughout her body. Police took her to a local hospital where she was listed in critical condition. An arrest was made and a weapon was recovered, according to authorities.A motive for the shooting was not revealed. ___DOWNLOAD: FOX 29 NEWS APP | FOX 29 WEATHER AUTHORITY APPSUBSCRIBE: Good Day Digest Newsletter | FOX 29 Philly on YouTubeAdvertisementFOLLOW: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

In this photo illustration, The Facebook and Instagram logos on the screen of an iPhone on March 9, 2021, in Kirchheim unter Teck, Germany. (Photo by Tom Weller/DeFodi Images via Getty Images) MAGNOLIA, De. - Three suspected Delaware porch pirates are facing a long list of charges after authorities said one of them was identified by community members through a social media post. The Delaware State Police investigated numerous package thefts from homes in the Houston, Felton, Harrington, and Magnolia sections of Kent County over the past several months. The thieves also swiped decorations from front lawns, police said.Investigators in early February asked for the public's help in identifying a possible suspect through a social media post, according to police.MORE LOCAL HEADLINESPolice on Friday arrested Lawrence Evans, 43, and Dawn Shockley, 37, at a home on Riley Drive in Magnolia.

Lower percentages of US children visited an emergency department (ED) for any indication amid the COVID-19 pandemic, while adolescent girls accounted for the largest hikes in visits for mental illness, according to two Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) studies published late last week in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).For both studies, the researchers mined pediatric ED visit data in the

announced this week it will cancel $415 million in federal student loans by nearly 16,000 borrowers allegedly misled by for-profit colleges.The borrowers, who attended DeVry University, ITT Technical Institute, Westwood College and the Minnesota School of Business/Globe University, will receive the relief through a legal provision known as borrower defense, which allows individuals to discharge some or all of their student loan debt if their school misled them or otherwise engaged in other misconduct. "The department remains committed to giving borrowers discharges when the evidence shows their college violated the law and standards," Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement Wednesday.The department found that between 2008 and 2015, DeVry University, a for-profit university headquartered in Illinois, repeatedly misled students by claiming that 90% of its graduates actively seeking employment landed a job in their field of study within six months of graduation. The job placement level was actually closer to 58%, according to the department.The department has so far identified about 1,800 borrowers who will be eligible for more than $71 million in discharges because they "relied upon DeVry's misrepresentation in deciding to enroll." The number of borrowers who qualify for discharge is expected to grow as the department continues to review outstanding claims from former students.

PHILADELPHIA - A man is making a recovery after he was shot twice while driving in North Philadelphia. The incident happened at approximately 12:15 p.m. near 17th Street and Olney Avenue. Police say a 23-year-old man was shot once in the back and suffered a graze wound to the head.

PHILADELPHIA - The spike in gun violence during the pandemic has unnerved residents, elected officials and community leaders alike, but the concern is growing over firearms described as ghosts."Ghost guns are essentially a firearm that comes in two separate parts with a couple of screws to drill the gun together and you have a firearm in just a few minutes," Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro told FOX 29.Shapiro is concerned about the growing threat because ghost guns are untraceable and sold online in kits that do not require a criminal background check to purchase.For him, the main point of the issue is that people with criminal backgrounds, who cannot own a gun legally, can obtain one this way. Ghost guns do not have serial numbers etched on them that provide the gun's make, model and history.Critics argue ghost guns flow in the underground stream of crime guns and vanish when subjected to the tracking and tracing investigators use to combat gun crime."Typically, people are buying them at gun shows by the duffle bags, taking them back to a facility, putting them together and selling them on the streets," Shapiro said.The numbers show a startling rise in ghost guns, also referred to as privately made firearms.MORE LOCAL HEADLINESThe Philadelphia Police Department reported recovering 95 ghost guns in 2019 and 250 in 2020.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - California authorities are trying to capture Hank the Tank, a massive black bear estimated to weigh at least 500 pounds. They say he’s responsible for breaking into several homes in the South Lake Tahoe area.South Lake Tahoe Police said the latest incident with Hank happened Friday morning when he broke into a home on Catalina Drive in the Tahoe Keys area. Officers banged on the exterior of the home until Hank moved outside through the back door. RELATED: Frederick buzzing over black bear sighting"This bear did not break into a garage where trash was kept that he was sniffing out," authorities posted on their Facebook page.

READING, Pa. - Police in Reading are investigating a fatal double shooting of two men that occurred on Sunday. Officers from the Reading Police Department responded to the area area of the 200 block of West Greenwich Street shortly after 7 a.m. for the report of a shooting. When officers arrived on the scene, they located two men with gunshot wounds.

POLK TOWNSHIP, Pa. - A man involved in a drug-related robbery that ended with the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old boy in eastern Pennsylvania will now spend several decades in prison.Anthony Mitchell, 19, of Kunkletown, pleaded guilty Friday to third-degree murder, according to the Monroe County prosecutor’s office. He was then sentenced to 38 1/2 to 77 years in prison.Mitchell was among three people who stole $120 worth of marijuana in November 2020 from three teenagers who were sitting in a car in a Polk Township cul-de-sac, authorities have said.

novel coronavirus.Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said the staff member holds multiple roles at the school, including teaching, but that there was no documented contact with children.

COVID-19 pandemic.In addition, all waterfront parking lots will return to regular operation within a week. The boardwalk reopened last month.The West Beach parking lot will remain closed for now.[ Sign up for our Health IQ newsletter for the latest coronavirus updates ]“We are hoping that with the reopening of the White Rock Pier and a return to normal with parking, people will behave responsibly and safely and follow the guidance of our provincial health officer, Dr.

COVID-19 precautions have been put in place to operate during the province’s second phase of reopening.“I got a call from two officials,” he said.“One at the liquor branch and one at VIHA (Vancouver Island Health Authority). Both of them said that I was good to open, I just had to read the eight-page document,” he said.[ Sign up for our Health IQ newsletter for the latest coronavirus updates ]Barkovic says he is reducing the club’s capacity from 200 people to just 50 and says dancing will be kept close to the tables that are being built on the dancefloor.

COVID-19 pandemic.Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said Tuesday that four or five workers at a fast-food restaurant tested positive for COVID-19.

novel coronavirus pandemic.A day earlier, officials announced 36 new cases of COVID-19 over a three-day span, bringing the province’s total to 2,745 cases. About 87 per cent of these patients have recovered so far.There were no new deaths, leaving B.C.’s death toll at 168.

Be kind, be calm and be safe (first two round results: 96%, 94%) versus stand together in our pandemic, while staying apart (92%, 70%). Two Dr.

[ Sign up for our Health IQ newsletter for the latest coronavirus updates ]Canadian cities have been seen as long shots due to the 14 day quarantine requirements for visitors entering Canada from outside the country. Deputy NHL Commissioner Bill Daley said players and team personnel would not come to a city where they were required to quarantine in a hotel room for 14 days.Vancouver is one of 10 finalist cities vying to act as NHL hubs.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry reports 10 new cases of COVID-19 and no additional deaths on Tuesday, June 9. There have been 2,669 confirmed cases of the disease in British Columbia since the coronavirus outbreak began in March.

COVID-19 cases in the Fraser Health region serves as a crucial reminder of the risks associated with expanding our social circles during the novel coronavirus pandemic.“That is a warning sign to us all,” Dr.

COVID-19 pandemic on Tuesday afternoon.On Monday, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry announced 30 cases of COVID-19 in B.C.

novel coronavirus in a 24-hour period.Health officials released a joint statement Friday in place of a live briefing, where they also confirmed a single death at a long-term care home. The number of active cases the province is tracking has now dipped below 200, standing at 194 on Friday.Of those cases, 21 patients were in hospital, five of them in intensive care.B.C.

Public health officials are once again warning if British Columbians stop practicing physical-distancing and return to normal social interactions, the number of COVID-19 cases will surge into a second wave.