Opinion | Covid is playing change agent for both better and worse

Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson said during a press conference Friday that the decision to eliminate all COVID-19 restrictions by mid-March was based on modelling data and encouraging hospitalization trends. She added that the government “does not make decisions that are this important to Manitobans based on protests,” referring to the anti-mandate protests taking place outside the legislative building, as well as near the Canada-U.S.

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Philadelphia police and the FBI are working to find a person responsible for four robberies at the same Prudential Bank branch.  PHILADELPHIA - The FBI and the Philadelphia Police Department’s Violent Crimes Task Force is asking for the public’s help to identify a person who has robbed a Prudential Bank branch four times. According to police, the person robbed the Prudential Bank branch on 1722 Broad Street on Jan. 4, Jan.

In its weekly coronavirus update, the Province of Saskatchewan said there were 384 COVID-19 patients in hospital as of Wednesday, of which 206 were incidental infections.

Jeremy Giambi #7 of the Oakland Athletics gives a high five during a game against the Chicago White Sox at the Network Associates Coliseum in Oakland, California. The Athletics defeated the White Sox.

PHOENIX - An hours-long barricade situation in south Phoenix left nine police officers injured, one woman critically injured and the suspected gunman dead early Friday morning, officials said.The incident began after a woman had reportedly been shot in a home near 54th Avenue and Elwood just after 2 a.m. on Feb.

coronavirus pandemic is in large part to blame for the national surge in violent crime — not guns, an expert told Fox News Digital."We have crime because we have people," said Amy Swearer, a legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. "Crime is a very complex subject."From the early 1990s through 2019, there was a national decline in violent crime, but the pendulum swung back in 2020, she said.RELATED: Stats show crime is spiking in Los Angeles"We’ve seen across the nation unprecedented spikes in homicide rates and other types of violent crime," she said.Within two weeks two women were killed in unprovoked attacks by homeless men in Los Angeles.

PHILADELPHIA - Friday is the deadline for all Philadelphia police officers to get their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine or have submitted an exemption request. Officers who are not vaccinated by Friday, Feb. 11, will be required to wear two masks or wear an N95 and participate in daily testing.

NEW DELHI :

Quebec opposition parties call for end of COVID-19 state of emergency Of the 2,214 patients, 164 are in intensive care — a drop of nine since Thursday.The province confirmed another 2,662 new COVID-19 infections, with 23,935 tests carried out on Wednesday at screening facilities.Daily caseloads, however, are not representative of the situation as testing continues to be reserved for priority groups. Quebec’s National Assembly responds to threats of violence: ‘It is unacceptable’ Quebecers have registered the results of 76.472 rapid tests on the new government website, including 59,388 positive results.Meanwhile, 30,651 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine were administered for a total of more than 18.1 million shots given out since the inoculation campaign began in December 2020.The confirmed caseload since the start of the health crisis has reached 894,613 while recoveries stand at 844,373.In a news release published earlier Friday, Health Minister Christian Dubé unveiled a new self-assessment tool online to help Quebecers know which isolation rules to follow depending on their situation.The tool is currently available in French only, but written guidelines are available in English on the Quebec government website, including new rules for those who contracted the virus on or after Dec.

The integration

Tracy and Timothy Ferriter have been arrested and charged with abusing their teenage son by the Jupiter police. (Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office) JUPITER, Fla. - A Florida couple has been charged with aggravated child abuse after they allegedly forced their 13-year-old adopted son to live in an 8’x8’ box located in their garage, officials said.Jupiter police arrested Tracy and Timothy Ferriter after investigators said the child was forced to live in the structure for five years, since he was first adopted. WPTV reports that the teen was able to attend school, but was locked up the rest of the day while at home, police said.

Premier Doug Ford says he is declaring a state of emergency in Ontario and will enact emergency orders to end the protests that have crippled Ottawa for the last two weeks and have recently blocked the land border crossing in Windsor.

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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM :

As a care worker in Salford , Yemi Opere often finds himself working overtime just to make ends meet.

KRESGEVILLE, Pa. - A late-night house fire claimed the lives of five people in Pennsylvania, authorities said.The victims are an adult female and four children, Monroe County Coroner Tom Yanac said.The fire broke out late Thursday night in the ranch-style home on Brook Road in Polk Township.

The Department of Health has been notified of a further 6,618 PCR-confirmed cases of Covid-19.

Manitoba won’t be influenced by dropped COVID-19 restrictions in other provinces, Atwal says Neighbouring Saskatchewan and Alberta have already made moves to eliminate many restrictions in their provinces. On Wednesday, Dr.

COVID on Friday, with 435 in intensive care units as figures continue to trend downwards.This is down by 68 hospitalizations and a decrease of 10 in ICUs since the previous day. Last Friday, there were 2,634 hospitalizations with 517 in ICU.The province recently began distinguishing between those who were admitted to hospital directly because of COVID, and those who were admitted for other reasons but tested positive for the virus.Of the 1,829 people in hospital with COVID-19, 54 per cent of them were admitted because of the virus, while 46 per cent were admitted for other reasons but tested positive for COVID-19.Of the 435 people in ICUs with the virus, around 80 per cent were admitted because of COVID, while around 20 per cent were admitted for other reasons.

Mumbai, taking the cumulative tally to 10,53,413, said the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Friday. 

BENGALURU :

Wells Fargo continues to make disconcerting claims about Wendy Williams’ health.

Kate Middleton is giving viewers a look into how she reads her bedtime stories to her three children — Prince George, 8, Princess Charlotte, 6, and Prince Louis, 3.The 40-year-old Duchess of Cambridge took part in a special on-camera reading of the children's book,, on the BBC's show. The wife of Prince William participated in the reading as part of Children's Mental Health Week. On Friday, released a clip from the episode, showing Kate signing off. In the video, the duchess is sitting on a blanket in a white printed turtleneck sweater and jeans as a crackling fire goes next to her. «Wow, what an encouraging tale,» she says.

Toys of the Beijing 2022 mascot, panda Bing Dwen Dwen, are seen during a flower ceremony fat the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. (Photo by Sergei BobylevTASS via Getty Images) Police are punishing Chinese traders for cashing in by reselling scarce dolls of Olympics mascot Bing Dwen Dwen at up to 10 times retail price.Buyers stood in line overnight in freezing weather and emptied store shelves after the Winter Games opened Feb.

Hillary Clinton, former U.S. secretary of state, speaks virtually during the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore, on Friday, Nov.

In Ipsos polling exclusive to Global News, nearly half of Canadians say while they may not agree with everything that is being said, protesters’ frustration is legitimate and worthy of sympathy. A slim majority think the opposite.

The trucker convoy protest movement against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and restrictions that has paralyzed the Canadian capital and spilled over to key Canada-U.S. border crossings has the sympathy of many Canadians, according to a new poll.

Wordle game displayed on a phone screen and The New York Times logo displayed in the background are seen in this illustration photo. (Photo illustration by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images) NEW YORK - Puzzle fans looking for their fix of gray, yellow and (hopefully) green squares are finding that Wordle has moved, a few weeks after its purchase by the New York Times.Users logging on Thursday and Friday are beginning to be redirected from the familiar plain white website and instead winding up on a similar page hosted by the Times.

DETROIT - The truck blockade by Canadians protesting the country’s COVID-19 restrictions is tightening the screws on the auto industry, forcing Ford, Toyota and General Motors to shut down plants or otherwise curtail production on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border.The bumper-to-bumper demonstration entered its fourth day Thursday at the Ambassador Bridge connecting Windsor, Ontario, to Detroit, disrupting the flow of auto parts and other products back and forth across the border.The bridge is the busiest U.S.-Canadian border crossing, carrying 25% of all trade between the two countries.RELATED: 'I understand why, but it makes it harder on us': Canadian trucker talks lost time, moneyFord said its Windsor, Ontario, engine plant reopened Thursday after being shut down on Wednesday because of a lack of parts. But the factory and the company’s assembly plant in Oakville, Ontario, near Toronto, are operating at reduced capacity, the automaker said."This interruption on the Detroit-Windsor bridge hurts customers, auto workers, suppliers, communities and companies on both sides of the border," Ford said in a statement.

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SpaceX owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk poses on the red carpet of the Axel Springer Award 2020 on December 01, 2020 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Britta Pedersen-Pool/Getty Images) SpaceX’s Elon Musk said Thursday that the first orbital flight of his towering Starship — the world's most powerful rocket ever built — could come in another month or two.While he anticipates failures, he’s confident Starship will reach orbit by the end of this year.Musk provided his first major Starship update in more than two years while standing alongside the 390-foot (119-meter) rocket at SpaceX's Texas spaceport.

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks at Germanna Community College in Culpeper, Virginia, on Feb. 10, 2022.

The University of Regina Cougars Women’s Hockey team picked up two key victories last weekend against the Manitoba Bisons, thanks in no small part to the play of winger Lilla Carpenter-Boesch.

Maharashtra in the last 24 hours, the Hindustan Times reported on Friday.

Dustin Lynch’s album "Blue in the Sky" has finally dropped. The country star announced the surprise follow-up to "Tullahoma" in a tweet on Jan. 19 – about a year after releasing the project that included a duo of No.

Two fake companies that fraudulently took £180,000 from Covid-19 financial assistance schemes have been shut down.

Check here all that WHO said on long COVID. Live Q&A on #COVID19 and Omicron sub-variant BA.2 with Dr @mvankerkhove and @DrAbdiMahamud. #AskWHO https://t.co/NVQMa8HHk7

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Barbara Corbo, a former Mercy Career & Technical High School teacher, was accused of engaging in "sexual contact" with a student.  PHILADELPHIA - A former Philadelphia teacher has been charged after being accused of sexually assaulting a student, according to police. On Saturday, Dec. 11, 2021, Philadelphia police arrested 30-year-old Barbara Corbo on the 800 block of Kelly Drive in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania. Corbo taught at Mercy Career & Technical High School in Philadelphia.

Covid lockdown was introduced, which means by now most of us are used to testing ourselves to see if we have been infected with the virus.Many people may now associate the phrase ‘positive result’ with a confirmed case of the infectious virus that has caused the pandemic.But, that was not always the case.This was clear when a woman messaged a friend with a picture of her pregnancy test - which gave a positive result.Having snapped a photo of the white stick portraying two red lines, the women wrote “positive” with a neutral face emoji.However, there was a bit of a modern day mix-up.Just like how lateral flow tests show two red lines for a positive result, the friend thought they tested for Covid - not for being pregnant.The confused friend replied: “Damn, I hope you feel better.”Along with a prayer emoji, they added: “Quarantine.”Stunned at the response, the pregnant woman slammed: “Are you stupid?”A screenshot of the text was posted to Facebook by user Amber Lee Clark which has now racked up thousands of likes and 33,000 shares.People were left in stitches at the confusion so tagged their mates with laughing emojis whilst they poked fun at the mix-up.One person chuckled: “I hope she takes all the necessary precautions that the CDC has lined out. Don’t need that s*** spreading”Another added: “Name your kid Covid.”Whilst a third user related: “Remember when I sent you my Covid results and you thought I was pregnant?”Someone else shared: “I laughed too hard at this.” Get all the biggest Lifestyle news straight to your inbox. Sign up for the free Daily Star Hot Topics newsletter

Patty Hajdu says the number of COVID-19 infections in First Nations communities has begun to decline, bringing hope that the worst of the Omicron wave has passed.Hajdu says she understands why Indigenous leaders are sounding an alarm that progress could be lost in regions where provincial governments are rapidly moving to lift public health orders.“Indigenous leaders obviously are concerned,” Hajdu said during a news conference Thursday. High anxiety levels expected in Canadians wary of COVID restrictions lifting - experts Daily active case counts in Indigenous communities have declined 13.2 per cent from last week.

East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow MP, Dr Lisa Cameron, attended a drop in event in the Houses of Parliament to mark Children’s Mental Health Week 2022.

Taking lateral flow tests regularly continues to be an important part of Scotland's fight against the spread of Covid.

Philadelphia police detectives are investigating a carjacking where an Uber driver was shot on Thursday night.  PHILADELPHIA - Investigators with the Philadelphia Police Department are investigating after an Uber driver was carjacked and shot around 11:34 p.m.

PHILADELPHIA - Authorities in Delaware County responded to a gruesome scene Friday morning after they say a man murdered his girlfriend and attempted to decapitate her. Officers responded to the Willow Apartments on the 400 block of Springfield Road in Clifton Heights around 4 a.m. Friday morning.Law enforcement sources tell FOX 29’s Steve Keeley that police found the man using a machete in an attempt to decapitate the victim. The suspect was taken into custody at the scene and the victim was pronounced dead.

Former President Donald Trump speaks during the 'Save America' rally at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds on January 29, 2022 in Conroe, Texas. Trump's visit was his first Texas MAGA rally since 2019.