Health

Health Canada authorizes Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine

OTTAWA - Health Canada says the COVID-19 vaccine from U.S. biotech firm Moderna is safe for use in Canada. The vaccine is the second to be greenlit in Canada, following the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine on ...

Dec 23, 2020

First COVID-19 vaccinations occur on Vancouver Island, nine new cases announced

NANAIMO - Efforts to vaccinate frontline health care workers in Island Health have officially begun.The first of 1,950 doses of the approved Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was administered to Dena Scriven, a...

Dec 22, 2020

2020 now tied for second deadliest year in Nanaimo throughout overdose epidemic

NANAIMO - 2020 is now tied for the second most fatal year in Nanaimo for overdoses. Data from the BC Coroners Service on Monday, Dec. 21 showed 37 people fatally overdosed in Nanaimo by the end of Nov...

Dec 21, 2020

2nd COVID-19 vaccine authorized in US preparing to ship out

OLIVE BRANCH, Miss. - Workers on Sunday began packaging shipments of the second COVID-19 vaccine authorized in the U.S., a desperately needed boost to efforts to bring the coronavirus pandemic under c...

Dec 20, 2020

CP NewsAlert: Canada passes 500,000 COVID-19 cases following Saskatchewan report

Canada has surpassed 500,000 cases of COVID-19 as infections continue to surge in several provinces.Saskatchewan pushed the country over the grim threshold today, with 252 new cases reported.Earlier i...

Dec 19, 2020

Island Health ends best week in a month, five new COVID-19 cases

NANAIMO - Island Health has concluded its best week in the COVID-19 pandemic in over a month.Five new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in Island Health on Friday, Dec. 18, part of 624 across the provi...

Alex Rawnsley Dec 18, 2020

Moderna ends frozen requirements for vaccine, easing logistics of shipping

OTTAWA - American biotech firm Moderna says its COVID-19 vaccine can now be shipped locally without it needing to be frozen at all. The messenger RNA vaccine from the Massachusetts-based company is on...

Dec 18, 2020

Top Stories of 2020: Major tent encampment sprawls downtown, forcibly displaced in rainy winter

NANAIMO - A large tent encampment in Nanaimo captured headlines for the second time in two years. Up to 100 people lived at the Wesley St. encampment, directly behind the City of Nanaimo's Services an...

Dec 17, 2020

Construction of delayed ICU for critically ill patients at NRGH expected in new year

NANAIMO - Staff at Nanaimo Hospital are excited construction will soon begin for a new Intensive Care Unit helping patients with life-threatening illnesses or injuries. A Ministry of Health statement ...

Dec 17, 2020

Advocates share fear of worsening overdose crisis in 2021, want national safe supply

VANCOUVER - With overdose deaths rising across Canada, advocates for drug users are calling for the implementation of a national safe supply program as part of an effort to save lives. Failing to do s...

Dec 17, 2020