COVID-19 is retaining its grip
COVID-19 numbers in the Yukon have taken another leap.
COVID-19 numbers in the Yukon have taken another leap.
On Thursday afternoon, the government reported a total of 52 cases, nine of which were new. On Wednesday, public health officials had declared no new cases for the first time in weeks.
The new cases were not broken down into communities. Nor was there any indication if any of them involve the Omicron strain.
There were no new public exposure notices for schools or daycares.
On Wednesday afternoon, Whitehorse was reported to have 22 cases. Old Crow had 15, while Teslin had three and Tagish two.
Old Crow had not had a new case in the two previous days, according to the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation council.
The government figures showed Dawson City with two cases, but that was contradicted by local figures reflecting seven cases (see story, p. 3). Haines Junction and Beaver Creek had one case each.
A public exposure notice has been issued for the Learning Tree Daycare in Whitehorse for the preschool Group, pre-kindergarten group and toddler group. The notice covers Dec. 13-14.
See commentaries.
Comments (35)
Up 10 Down 36
Sheepchaser on Jan 2, 2022 at 12:08 pm
@ Nathan Living,
No, I don’t think you have the right to refuse a vaccine on principle. Any principle. Legit medical exemption, sure. Any sort of faith-based argument is irrelevant though. Faith is to make a virtue of not thinking. So no, no one should face risk and harm at the whims of someone else’s ‘well, it’s just what I believe’. I don’t care if it’s religious or political faith… or tribalism, or grievance, or denial.
The modern world can and has moved on from the age or superstition. To do so is only reasonable. Canada’s legal balance is defined by ‘reasonable’. Get used to it.
If that makes anyone want to get violent, they are weak beyond measure. Be a man: pick up a book, not a gun. Learn something.
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Mike Grieco on Jan 1, 2022 at 8:02 pm
Happy Healthy New Year, everyone......
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AdmiralA$$ on Dec 31, 2021 at 8:28 am
@TheHammmer
Contrived statements from contrived people. If you even believed what you typed what exactly does it say about the person who can't read enough to comment on the article. Just has to scour the comment section for someone to pick on. Also missed the critical reading part where my comment was just laughing at this contrived article, not anger towards it. Second time now you have had to comment to me with still absolutely nothing to say.
Life advice from a bar fly who can barely read and has to write contrived comments to people he knows nothing about. Why is this the epitome of the losers who live here. Go back to the breakfast club the people there might take your grand words of wisdom.
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Dave on Dec 30, 2021 at 7:16 pm
Scientific math studies have shown that when humanity is faced with a (hypothetical) zombie invasion - that the zombies always take over the world.
Because they're so extremely infectious. In the same way Omicron will prevail.
In time, the virus will become part of us. Just like all the bacteria and viruses that live in our body already.
Up 23 Down 10
Nathan Living on Dec 30, 2021 at 5:39 pm
@Sheepchaser
Interesting comments but who is wanting an armed insurrection?
And democracy is like 4 wolves and a sheep deciding what to have for dinner. It's pretty obvious who wins even when democracy is in place.
Without strong principles supported by policy or law democracy is the will of the majority against the will of the minority. In many cases democracy is essentially a form of forced compliance. Sure it's not like communism or fascism or an armed militia taking control with a wildly paranoid viewpoint but to the people being controlled or made to be subservient it certainly feels that way.
Before you say it, of course Canada is a great place to live; or is it really? I do think some people should be able to not be vaccinated based upon principle. And this may seem like hyperbole but I see many cases where the public interest is devastating for people who are the sheep in the sheep-wolf form of twisted democracy.
In Yukon and Canada I know its not so bad a situation to even think of comparing our situation to Poland in 1939. But are we really that far away from a twisted tale of vilifying and dehumanizing some people and taking them out through hatred, discrimination, lack of compassion, and more.
The term the "final solution" was developed in Canada by the way and it is associated with our Canadian holocaust. And it happened not so long ago.
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Juniper Jackson on Dec 30, 2021 at 4:07 pm
Sheepchaser: Your comment is so well said. I totally agree. But, I have food on the table, (no steaks) and a roof, my children are all adults and safe. I have nothing extra, but I have enough. The food banks have tripled over the last 5 years, and the users doubled. The homeless and poverty stricken children increasing. The cost of social programs skyrocketed. People living on their credit cards trying to maintain a standard of living. People say, live with it..you don't need 'things'. Well..I don't live in some little 2 pony village, or Granville Street. I WANT my computer, I WANT my kindle. I have worked for 63 years. Never on SA, collected UI once. last year. I am entitled to the life I want. Not the life someone else thinks i should have. Would I talk you to death over my view? yes. Would I pick up a weapon? Of course not, I'd shoot myself in the foot. But, that being said, there are a lot of people in a soup kitchen with their kids, that are not me. They are the ones I am afraid of.
Up 21 Down 21
Roy on Dec 30, 2021 at 2:37 pm
I suspect people whose lives peaked in high school and who have been bored ever since see covid as something they can rally against and feel like part of the team (of 5%). It can be a real ego boost and endorphin rush to rebel against the mainstream. Unfortunately in North America a lot of them are ending these fantasies in a coffin - all the while denying what’s happening and their role in their own demise.
The wish for a revolution or the downfall of society is just even more fantasy where they get to use their aggressive nature to find the success they’ve failed to find in reality (and at this point, short of winning the lottery, have zero chance of finding).
It’s amusing to watch these “gravy seals” cosplay and comment on the internet as they prep for the revolution. Meanwhile the adults (ie 95% of society) are left feeling embarrassed for them.
Up 31 Down 17
Sheepchaser on Dec 30, 2021 at 11:00 am
It’s always interesting to read posts about welcoming armed revolution. What kind of society do you think guns and willful ignorance will bring you? Having spent time in failed states and conflict zones, I can’t comprehend a person wishing that kind of apocalyptic suffering and death on themselves and their neighbours.
One has to ask… How isolated are you? What made you so angry? Are you a well adjusted human with family, friends and a fulfilling existence? Are you just so alone and have been for so long that your abilities around compassion, empathy and reason have evaporated? Is that isolation the fault of society and government or is your personality so unforgivably disgusting that everyone turns their back on you eventually?
I’ll grant you that the government has no right to police the way you think. That said, I’m very glad of the police that are willing to deal with these sociopaths and protect ‘us’ from ‘them’.
Democracy is an institution of compromise. Compromise means no single stakeholder gets everything they want. Everyone departs the decision-making process a bit pissed-off. Not everyone is friends after. All that is normal.
What’s not normal is taking advantage of all the privileges of modern life in the Yukon: roads, healthcare, fresh groceries, etc… while simultaneously wishing it all into the oblivion of civil war.
It is shameful.
Up 20 Down 3
Rob on Dec 29, 2021 at 5:17 pm
Dallas you haven’t got any brighter since the ol’ Faro days I see.
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DMZ on Dec 29, 2021 at 1:16 pm
@drum, The polio vaccine was brought forward in different circumstances. Children were the most susceptible, I think, and the results were visible. People didn't have to be persuaded that it would be life-changing. Life-improving. For many summers, kids had to stay inside and avoid certain places. The vaccine was developed over a few years. People cried when it was announced that the vaccine worked.
The polio mass vaccination program reflected the urgency, whereas the covid vaccine was rolled out at a snails pace, when compared against the restrictions that officials imposed on the public. I mean, I still find it puzzling that health officials took Christmas off and waited two weeks after the vaccine arrived here to start the rollout. Of course, they also limited access to the vaccine, for a couple of months.
But I think the biggest difference is the target that they seem to have set for the covid vaccine -- 100 percent. Before covid, you would hear that a certain percentage of people would never accept a vaccine, but a vaccine would be effective if it reached the two-thirds or so that didn't object. To reach 100 percent, they seemed to have decided that a strategy is necessary that singles out the increasingly small percentage that are set against it, and let's face it, virtually encourages the rest of us to throw stones at them. Time will tell if that strategy is worth it.
Personally, I think a strategy that relied on eight billion moving parts to acquiesce in order to reach some undefined point was flawed to begin with. But what do I know.
Up 14 Down 25
Disappointed on Dec 29, 2021 at 10:40 am
Tinfoil hat anyone? We have plenty to go around.
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TheHammer on Dec 28, 2021 at 10:00 pm
Admiral A$$ @ you've already lost your grip on reality. Whatever the news you seem to see it as a massive challenge for getting your knickers in a knot. The fearless Admiral charting the waves of the cyber seas, oblivious of the reality; cyber space is psyche on stage.
Up 41 Down 18
……… on Dec 28, 2021 at 9:30 pm
Hey Roy. Do you know what the most interesting thing about that sad pathetic petition was? The fact that it was scanned, made digital and made public by the government after they received it. That tells me that they were worried enough about it that they felt the need to publicly identify everybody who signed it. I’ve never seen that done with a petition before. It’s almost like they knew that now they’ve created an “us and them” mentality that all they have to do is point the finger and the fearful peasants will break out the torches and pitchforks.
How sharp is your pitchfork Roy?
Up 31 Down 10
Ben on Dec 28, 2021 at 8:19 pm
@ Drum
No Drum, my friend, governments don’t dangle fear over people when people get their kids vaccinated against polio. I’m sure you felt like you’d pulled an ace with that comment, but it’s a terrible argument. Ultimately what compels people to vaccinate their kids against polio is risk (not necessarily fear but risk) vs reward, and risk does have some grounding in fear. People evaluate the risk and decide if they want to vaccinate their kids, and with polio the vaccine is established and effective at stopping the spread of polio. This is in contrast to the COVID vaccine, which appears to give individual benefits but doesn’t seem to control spread. Despite that, there are lots of folks who decide not to vaccinate kids against polio.
We don’t see Catherine Elliott on a podium every day talking about polio, giving case counts for polio, talking about what new version of polio currently exists, and which version of polio will be forcing itself into their home next month; that’s an official working to play upon and perpetuate fear. Consider this “Omicron is coming, fasten your seatbelts”….it’s all theatrics, and it’s done for a reason. Governments require validation by a population, and what could be more validating than a scared population, looking to them for protection and advice over something that the government scared them with…. it’s genius, a creation of great beauty really.
Up 31 Down 18
bonanzajoe on Dec 28, 2021 at 4:30 pm
Roy, good luck under the "New Age" one world government. You sound like you are completely re-programmed. You must watch a lot of CBC.
Up 29 Down 18
bonanzajoe on Dec 28, 2021 at 4:22 pm
Politico: Name me just one pandemic that has been completely cured? Treatments have been created, but no cure. As Franklin D Roosevelt once said, "that the only thing we have to fear is...fear itself". If you want to go through life being afraid of a little virus, then I guess all I have to say, it I feel sorry for you. But please, don't try to intimidate the rest of us.
Up 46 Down 21
Admiral A$$ on Dec 27, 2021 at 4:38 pm
Gee almost lost my state of perpetual fear. Good thing the news is here to save the day. Just about took my mask off for a moment. Phew, feeling better scared. Wonder if I can go get some opid now and lose myself in a dream.
Up 31 Down 25
Nathan Living on Dec 27, 2021 at 2:57 pm
I may have covid.
Do they have rapid testing available at Walmart or Canadian Tire? Was thinking of swinging by those stores before grocery shopping.
Up 62 Down 34
Douglas James Martens on Dec 27, 2021 at 9:16 am
I don't know about "covid loosening it's grip", but i do know that some of our mighty overlords sure do need to get a grip and realize this turkey is DONE.
If we do not just get back out there and do what we all have to do, not paying attention to their wunnerful joy killing mandates, we will soon discover that hunger and homelessness have a much more powerful grip on us than any unseen invisible, arguably non-existent threat for which we can find a scary new greek alphabet name.
Next up: OOga BOOga virus.
Up 60 Down 29
North_of_60 on Dec 26, 2021 at 8:54 pm
If you got three smallpox vaccinations in nine months and still caught smallpox then you would have every reason to be expecting answers to your questions not ongoing equivocation and misdirection. Because that's not how real vaccines are supposed to work.
This LIBgov has apparently forgotten the First Rule of Holes:
"If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging".
Up 53 Down 65
Roy on Dec 26, 2021 at 3:05 pm
@ Dallas
You think the hospital is closed on Christmas day? You think they put covid testing aside until the holidays are over? You think people are not tracking the cases in the Yukon every day including the holidays?
At some point the 5% of people in the Yukon who can't stop screaming about communism and fascism and words they didn't bother to learn in history class are going to realize they are the loud and angry minority. Face it. The world is moving on without you.
The sad pathetic petition the YP and "Jonas the manchild" tried to pull off barely got any signatures and they had to resort to putting names down multiple times, putting names down from out of territory people, and it even had the name of a white supremacist mass murderer from New Zealand on it. It was reported in the Star.
Thoughts and prayers as this post triggers you - the truth has a habit of doing that.
Up 33 Down 23
Crunch on Dec 25, 2021 at 10:53 pm
Did you happen to see that idiot on National TV? I'm now at home as 3 people on my staff have tested positive and I'm isolating as that is the responsible thing to do. Omnicron is here. Remember the Orwell interview of 1949? Stearn look of confidence and fear. Big Brother is watching you.
Up 64 Down 32
Juniper Jackson on Dec 25, 2021 at 7:06 pm
I guess the fear and lockdowns are working as expected! Handley predicted 7,000 Yukoners would die from covid.
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/past-seasons.html These stats are for the common, everyday flu. You know, the ones we get the flu vaccines for. Just take a look.
I think, again, I speak only for myself. That when this virus came out, all governments jumped the gun, that inane politician was just as scared as everyone else. No one knew anything about it and they erred on the side of caution. I don't think there was any first world order attack going on. But, as information came out, and more and more people were thinking for themselves.. the governments world wide knew they made a mistake, but, they didn't know how to get out of it.
Weasels like Trudeau soon saw the opportunity to push personal agendas, and it became advantageous to government to keep this ball rolling. Dictatorship being the end goal of every party. I don't know how it's all going to end, but my feeling is, politician's are not going to see when people have had enough, when they feel their back is to the wall, no job, moving in with friends or folks, not enough food on the table..it's not going to end well.
Up 80 Down 29
You are the virus and I am the cure on Dec 25, 2021 at 2:54 pm
Covid does not have a grip. This personification of the virus is irresponsible and misleading. Change the headline: Despite COVID’s Loss of Steam Governments Everywhere Will Not Loosen It’s Stranglehold on the Public…
Covid is not a self-determining virus however the government is…
Up 39 Down 33
Dallas on Dec 25, 2021 at 2:35 pm
Watching the news…. apparently the territory is working on Christmas Day, the news says the territory is testing and reporting 7 new cases of the new covid variant, now I know this is bs, can’t wait for the revolution to begin.
Up 58 Down 15
drum on Dec 25, 2021 at 12:29 pm
Did the government keep its citizens in fear when encouraging everyone to get a shot to protect them from polio? We got our kids vaccinated against diseases that killed in the past..
Up 51 Down 35
Matthew on Dec 25, 2021 at 11:20 am
Hey @Politico did you know on avg doctors misdiagnosis kills 24,000/year!? Right now, covid has killed 15,000/ year, so which is more deadly? Please reference a 2004 CBC article if you want to know more and I'm not talking out of my a** like these career politicians!
Up 73 Down 34
Matthew on Dec 25, 2021 at 7:03 am
Have fun dividing society! So, I guess we can't blame non vax anymore can we? Speaking of, can we get a list where the Liberals are taking vacation right now?
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Bob penso on Dec 25, 2021 at 3:18 am
I still don't understand why people haven't followed the money....so obvious.
Up 70 Down 30
Bob penso on Dec 25, 2021 at 3:17 am
This is our new normal. People believe the government is our parents...people think they don't have a political agenda...people trust the media...so welcome to our future.
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North_of_60 on Dec 24, 2021 at 6:33 pm
The new 'cases' are Omicron; it is a cold. That's what the data tells us. Only a lunatic psychopath would want to shutdown society or put any measures in place at all to fight a cold. It's what the data shows. Period.
The data also shows those vaxes are a waste of time costing taxpayers billions... including pushing them for this common cold AND doing so with little children who's immune system doesn't require help nor are they 'spreaders'.
We're done with their never-ending BS; their "restrictions" will be ignored and they will become irrelevant to our lives.
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Snowball II on Dec 24, 2021 at 5:14 pm
Those people who can fly are to blame. You can't blame the ones who said no to the shots.
The forth shot is coming, you people call boosters.
Up 66 Down 83
Politico on Dec 24, 2021 at 4:41 pm
@ Ben - With 30,140 deaths in Canada, over 800,000 in the US and 5,369,162 World Wide maybe if some people had a little more fear the world could end this pandemic. How many more need to die before deniers take it seriously?
Up 48 Down 37
bonanzajoe on Dec 24, 2021 at 3:56 pm
Ben. And as long as the Sheeple keep letting them ruin their lives.
Up 112 Down 53
Ben on Dec 24, 2021 at 2:27 pm
It’ll keep retaining it’s grip as long as the media and government keep people in a never ending state of fear.