Top Stories – Dec 15 – One Year Anniversary

It has been one year since the first covid vaccines arrived in BC and more than 4.2 Million of us have had the jab. The province says 88-1/2 percent of people 12 and over have had 2 doses, while about 590-thousand have gone for their booster. The BC Centre for Disease Control says those who have not been vaccinated are 56 times more likely to end up in critical care due to COVID-19 than people who have received two vaccine doses.

The discovery of unmarked graves at a former residential school in the Interior and the countrywide awakening it set off have been chosen as Canada’s news story of the year by editors across the country. While 38 chose the unmarked graves, 31 picked the rollout of the covid vaccine and 13 chose climate change.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says Taylor Fresh Foods is recalling its Maple Bourbon Chopped Salad Kit due to a possible salmonella contamination. It was sold in 315 gram packages with a best before date of December 11. BC was among the provinces where the kit was sold.

More than 98 percent of Kelowna employees have met the city’s vaccination policy requirements. Those who are unvaccinated or have chosen not to confirm their vaccination status were put on unpaid leave yesterday. The city says if they receive full vaccination within the next three months, they will be allowed to return to work.

After days of new covid cases around 350, yesterday it jumped to 519 in BC. There were 145 in Interior Health, the most of any region, after being in double digits lately. The number of people in hospital in the region remains steady around 34, with 25 of those people in critical care. Nine Million doses of vaccine have been put in BC arms.

Three provincial privacy watchdogs, including BC have ordered facial recognition company Clearview A-I to stop collecting, using and disclosing images of people without consent. The U.S. firm has also been told to delete images and biometric data collected without permission from individuals. They said the company’s scraping of billions of images of people from across the internet was a clear breach of Canadians’ privacy rights.

There are still a couple of weeks left in the year and Central Okanagan Search and Rescue just had its 100th call out. Last year’s record of 84 searches was 50% above a typical year. Before Covid, they typically averaged between 50 and 60 call outs. COSAR has been around since 1954.

The first 3 cases of the Omicron variant have been confirmed in Interior Health as part of 44 in all of BC. Those who have tested positive for the covid variant are between the ages of five and 72 – none have been hospitalized. 20 of the cases have recent travel histories, such as travel to Nigeria, South Africa, Germany, Portugal, and the U-S.

About 17-hundred people in BC who tried to get a vaccine passport when they hadn’t been vaccinated will be getting a letter from the province advising them to get it done. They tried to upload false info into the registry and could be reported to law enforcement for fraud. Health Minister Adrian Dix says there are systems in place to prevent fraud when people submit vaccine records.

Sports

The Canucks’ winning streak improved to 5 games as they took on Columbus last night. Bo Horvat scored with 59 seconds left to give Vancouver its first lead of the night and a 5-4 win. The Canucks came back from a 3 goal deficit for the first time in 5 years. Next up is a road game tomorrow in San José.

The BCHL has announced the two rosters for the league’s 2022 Top Prospects Game January 14 at the South Okanagan Events Centre in Penticton. Two West Kelowna Warriors are on the Interior team – Felix Trudeau and Tyson Jugnauth.

The Kelowna Rockets losing streak ended at 4 games as Pavel Novak scored in overtime to give the locals a 5-4 win against Victoria. Their final game before the Christmas is Saturday at Prospera Place when Kamloops comes to town.

Minnesota Wild general manager Bill Guerin was named GM of the 2022 U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team. He said 55 NHL players are being considered for the team, but as Covid cases rise, NHL participation isn’t confirmed yet.

Last night’s game between the Hurricanes and Wild was postponed due to four more Hurricanes players testing positive for covid, bringing the team total to 6. Fifteen players entered the league’s protocol yesterday including Bruins forward Brad Marchand, who recently played in Vancouver. The Canucks added Luke Schenn and Juho Lammikko to the league’s list.

And a day after beating the Cardinals, L-A Rams’ Odell Beckham Jr. tested positive for covid. The Rams have closed their training facility and entered the NFL’s intensive protocols.