Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Deena Hinshaw made a series of announcements last week regarding the western Canadian province’s COVID-19 strategy. On July 29, the Alberta government rescinded mandatory isolation periods for those that have come into contact with an individual who is known to have COVID-19. Starting Aug 16, isolation periods following a positive [...]

US President Joe Biden announced a new measure on Thursday requiring all federal workers and on-site contractors to verify that they received the COVID-19 vaccine. Unvaccinated federal employees will face mandatory masking, weekly testing, and travel restrictions. The White House’s new policy reflects concern over the Delta variant, which is increasing the rate of infection [...]

The French parliament approved a bill on Monday that mandates COVID-19 vaccines for healthcare workers and requires those seeking access to certain social venues to carry a health pass showing proof of vaccination against COVID-19 or a recent negative test. These restricted social venues include high contamination risk department stores and shopping centers, restaurants, locations [...]

The US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced Monday that all medical facility employees will be required to be vaccinated against COVID-19, becoming the first federal agency to issue a mandate. VA Secretary Denis McDonough stated, “We’re mandating vaccines for Title 38 employees because it’s the best way to keep Veterans safe, especially as the [...]

Pope Francis said Monday during the Pre-Summit of the UN Food Systems Summit that the existence of hunger in a world that produces enough food for everyone is “a crime that violates basic human rights.” Earlier in July, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said that the COVID-19 pandemic “pushed” an additional 124 million people into extreme [...]