Canadians across the country mark Remembrance Day
Today Canadians will remember and honour the sacrifice of men and women in uniform who gave their lives in service of the country's values and principles.
The U.S. could soon see more than 200,000 new cases of COVID-19 every day as the Delta variant spreads at a rapid pace, particularly among unvaccinated people, the director of the National Institutes of Health predicted.
"I will be surprised if we don't cross 200,000 cases a day in the next couple of weeks, and that's heartbreaking considering we never thought we would be back in that space again," Dr. Francis Collins said on Fox News Sunday.
"That was January, February, that shouldn't be August. But here we are with the Delta variant, which is so contagious, and this heartbreaking situation where 90 million people are still unvaccinated, who are sitting ducks for this virus, and that's the mess we're in."
That mark is still a ways off. As of Saturday, the U.S. has averaged about 129,000 daily new cases over the last 7 days, a number that has risen every day since July 5, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The country last averaged over 200,000 cases per day in January, before the COVID-19 vaccines were widely available.
Then as now, the alarming uptick has stretched health resources thin as many hospitals struggle to meet the demand of those who need crucial medical care.
"The system is breaking," CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner told CNN's Jim Acosta on Saturday.
"It's not just the beds. Many hospitals can find beds in places like parking structures or cafeterias. But it's qualified people to staff those beds. And the United States is critically short on ICU nurses, so finding the qualified staff to take care of critically ill patients becomes increasingly hard," said Reiner, a professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University.
Because older people have much higher vaccination rates -- over have had at least one shot -- this surge has particularly hit younger populations.
The rate of new hospitalizations among people in their 30s increased by nearly 300% over the past month, according to an analysis of from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. New COVID-19 hospital admissions among people in their 30s are now the highest since the pandemic began, according to the data.
Health experts say the solution is to vaccinate as many people as possible, because the vaccines provide good protection against severe disease. As of Sunday, 50.6% of the total US population was fully vaccinated. That's 59.2% of those eligible to receive a vaccination, CDC data shows.
"We are going to have to continue to get people vaccinated so that right now, even in states in which you have a good relative proportion of people vaccinated, you have to get the overwhelming proportion of people vaccinating," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday.
More vaccine shots will also be available for some already-vaccinated people.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday authorized an to be administered to people with compromised immune systems, who may not have an adequate immune response to the vaccine.
Vaccine advisers to the CDC voted unanimously to recommend the additional dose for some immunocompromised people on Friday. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky quickly endorsed the vote, which means people can get these third doses right away.
Booster shots may also be made available for others soon, such as elderly people, those in nursing homes or even the general population. Some officials are concerned that the Delta variant may be able to evade some of the vaccine's protection.
"There is a concern that the vaccine may start to wane in its effectiveness over months, and Delta is a nasty one for us to try to deal with," Collins said. "The combination of those two means we may need boosters, maybe beginning first with health care providers, as well as people in nursing homes and then gradually moving forward."
Fauci said the vaccines still provide strong protection, but officials are studying the issue to determine if such boosters are needed.
"So if it turns out, as the data come in, we see we do need to give an additional dose to people in nursing homes, actually, or people who are elderly, we will be absolutely prepared to do that very quickly," Fauci said.
As mask mandates in schools become a contentious topic in districts across the South, experts want Americans to know the safest way students should mask up.
CNN medical analyst Dr. Leana Wen said returning to schools safely is possible.
"Quality of masks really matters," she told CNN's Pamela Brown Saturday. "Don't send your child to school with a cloth face covering. Use as least a three-ply surgical mask and, ideally, an N95 or KN95 if your child is old enough and can tolerate it."
Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, echoed that sentiment.
"Mask with the most highly efficient and effective means you have. These are the N95 masks," he told CNN.
He added that while the US had a supply shortage of those masks during the pandemic's onset, there's now an abundance of them.
"Use them. And when you use them, please don't wear them under your nose ... That's nothing more than a chin diaper. And it doesn't provide you any protection," he said.
Osterholm said COVID-19 is largely transmitted by aerosols, which are tiny particles in the air. He explained that if you can smell the smoke of a cigarette from 20 feet way while masked, then you need a higher quality mask for optimal safety.
Today Canadians will remember and honour the sacrifice of men and women in uniform who gave their lives in service of the country's values and principles.
Two nephews of the beloved Harry R. Hamilton share stories about his life and legacy.
Canada has announced changes to their visitor visa policies, effectively ending the automatic issuance of 10-year multiple-entry visas, according to new rules outlined by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump says that Tom Homan, his former acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement director, will serve as "border czar" in his incoming administration.
If Earth's astronomical observatories were to pick up a signal from outer space, it would need an all-hands-on-deck effort to decipher the extraterrestrial message. A father-daughter team of citizen scientists recently deciphered the message. Its meaning, however, remains a mystery.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court鈥檚 2022 Dobbs decision eliminated the federal right to abortion, miscarriage management has become trickier and in some cases, deadlier.
The union representing some 1,200 dockworkers at the Port of Montreal has overwhelmingly rejected a deal with their employers association.
Rod Ashby was desperate to find his wife Kim Ashby after their newly built home in Elk Park, North Carolina, was swept away by Hurricane Helene鈥檚 floodwaters in late September and she went missing.
It was the first time that Canadian UN peacekeeper Michelle Angela Hamelin said she came up against the raw emotion of a people so exasperated with their country's predicament.
A congestion crisis, a traffic nightmare, or unrelenting gridlock -- whatever you call it, most agree that Toronto has a congestion problem. To alleviate some of the gridlock, the Ontario government has announced it plans to remove bike lanes from three major roadways.
For the second year in a row, the 鈥楪ift-a-Family鈥 campaign is hoping to make the holidays happier for children and families in need throughout Barrie.
Some of the most prolific photographers behind CTV Skywatch Pics of the Day use the medium for fun, therapy, and connection.
A young family from Codroy Valley, N.L., is happy to be on land and resting with their newborn daughter, Miley, after an overwhelming, yet exciting experience at sea.
As Connor Nijsse prepared to remove some old drywall during his garage renovation, he feared the worst.
A group of women in Chester, N.S., has been busy on the weekends making quilts 鈥 not for themselves, but for those in need.
A Vancouver artist whose streetside singing led to a chance encounter with one of the world's biggest musicians is encouraging aspiring performers to try their hand at busking.
Ten-thousand hand-knit poppies were taken from the Sanctuary Arts Centre and displayed on the fence surrounding the Dartmouth Cenotaph on Monday.
A Vancouver man is saying goodbye to his nine-to-five and embarking on a road trip from the Canadian Arctic to Antarctica.