NACI guidance on 4th COVID vaccine dose expected, Ontario health minister says

PHILADELPHIA – Pascal Siakam scored 23 points, Precious Achiuwa had 17 and the Toronto Raptors forced a return home for Game 6 in their Eastern Conference first-round series against Philadelphia, beating the 76ers 103-88 on Monday night.Yo, Canada! Once holding a 3-0 series lead, the 76ers are headed back north.The Raptors have won two straight in the series and jumped all over injured Sixers center Joel Embiid and ineffective James Harden to make Thursday night's game a necessity.Embiid had 20 points and 11 rebounds playing with a thumb injury. Harden scored 15 points on 4-of-11 shooting.Police say surveillance video shows from Apr. 16 shows 41-year-old Eric Pope being escorted out of Tabu Lounge and Sports bar in Center City around 1 a.m.

Philadelphia police are investigating a shooting that left one man in critical condition Monday night.  PHILADELPHIA - The Philadelphia Police Department says it is investigating a shooting in Germantown that left one man in critical condition late Monday night. According to Chief Inspector Scott Small, officers with the 39th District responded to the 5300 block of Newhall Street just after 11:30 p.m.Small says officers found a male lying on the sidewalk with gunshot wounds to the chest and leg. ___MORE LOCAL HEADLINESHe was bleeding heavily while in and out of consciousness, according to authorities. Police in Philadelphia say a man is in critical condition after being shot in Germantown Monday night.  According to Small, officers picked him up and transported him to Einstein Hospital for treatment. The victim, an unidentified male believed to be in his 20s or 30s, is in critical condition, Small says. Authorities also say the man is currently a John Doe. Police say they found seven spent shell casings and one live round at the scene. Small says the spent shell casings were found very close to where the victim collapsed, meaning the shooter or shooters may have been standing in close proximity to the victim at the time of the shooting.AdvertisementSeveral one-dollar bills were also found on the scene and police believe it is possible that the motive was a robbery. 

fourth wave) is likely to begin from June end, but things have started a month ahead. According to them, it is likely to peak after June and may go one till September and October," said Sudhakar. 

PHILADELPHIA - A cloudy Tuesday morning will turn into an evening of showers across the Philadelphia area.Rain is forecasted to hold off until later today, with scattered showers starting around lunch.Temperatures will remain higher today hitting 70degrees  as a cold front arrives later this week.Download the FOX 29 Weather Authority app for the latest forecast.Expect to wake up to colder temperatures on Thursday and Friday with lows in the 30s. However, some calm is expected over the weekend with some sun for the first day of May.TUESDAY: Clouds.

CHESWICK, PA - JUNE 07: GenOns Cheswick Power Station along the Allegheny River still burns coal, producing 637 megawatts of electricity for the region on June 7, 2021 about 15 miles northeast of Pittsburgh in Cheswick, Pennsylvania. Scientists from HARRISBURG, Pa. - Coal-related interests sued on Monday to block the centerpiece of Gov.

MESA, Ariz. - A Mesa woman was robbed at gunpoint right outside on her driveway, and now she and the police are on the hunt for the suspect after he was caught on security video.It was a terrifying experience, to say the least, but Claudette Jones is one tough 84-year-old woman. The robbery was over in almost a blink of an eye, and luckily, her security camera caught the whole ordeal on camera."It was such a surprise, and he did it so fast, just so fast," Jones said.

fourth wave comes it will be a total surprise to me. Therefore I cannot guess anything about it. The probability of a fourth wave is extremely low. Our best defence against the ill effects of a wave is very high coverage of vaccination," news agency ANI quoted John as saying.

COLOMBO (News 1st); The remains of those who died in the Sainthamaruthu Explosion on the 26th of April 2019 will be exhumed on Wednesday (27).The remains will be exhumed to carry out DNA tests to determine if Sarah Jasmine alias Pulasthini Mahendran was among the 17 people who died in the suicide bombing.Sri Lanka Police said that on the 26th of April 2019 Zaharan Hashim’s brother Mohamed Rilwan detonated a suicide vest killing 17 people including children.However, DNA tests at the time did not confirm the presence of Sarah Jasmine at the scene.Detectives have decided to once again exhume the remains, after two previous occasions also showed a negative result, to determine the presence of DNA belonging to Sarah Jasmine alias Pulasthini Mahendran.

COLOMBO (News 1st); The International Monetary Fund says it will lend funds to Sri Lanka if it makes progress toward debt sustainability.“We at the IMF are very concerned about Sri Lanka and trying to work on finding as faster as a possible solution for the country. The most important issue is to find a credible and coherent macroeconomic strategy that addresses the key risks in the country,” said Anna-Marie Gulde Wolf, the Acting Director (Asia and Pacific Department) of the International Monetary Fund.She said that this would include on the fiscal side, a revenue-based consolidation strategy that increases the country’s ability to raise revenue and address most critical spending needs.She stressed that the monetary policy has to be tightened to keep inflation in check.“We see a need for a flexible exchange rate.

COLOMBO (News 1st); His Holiness Pope Francis, and Archbishop of Colombo His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith presided over Holy Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica to show solidarity to all those who suffered as a result of the Easter Sunday Bombings of 2019.The Catholic Bishops Conference in Sri Lanka has decided to join His Holiness the Pope in commemoration the people who died and were injured.Families of the victims and those who were injured had accompanied His Eminence to the Vatican..

(Reuters) – S&P Global Ratings cut Sri Lanka’s rating as an issuer of foreign currency debt to ‘selective default’ after the South Asian country missed sovereign bond interest payments, S&P said on Monday.The bonds which had missed payments, maturing in 2023 and 2028, were cut to ‘default’ and the overall rating could be further cut to ‘D’ on confirmation of the non-payment after a 30-day grace period.S&P said it does not expect the government to make payments during that period.Sri Lanka’s economic meltdown tracks its roots to 2019, when President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s government approved a large tax cut that depleted the treasury coffers even more than expected.The weight of COVID-19 further weighed on revenues while the cost of imports sky-rocketed, and the situation deteriorated to the point of large-scale civil unrest on the streets.Earlier this month Sri Lanka suspended its debt service payments and approached the International Monetary Fund.Over the weekend, the IMF said it held “fruitful technical discussions” with Sri Lanka on its loan request, while the World Bank said it was preparing an emergency aid package.Sri Lanka has about $14 billion on foreign bonds outstanding plus $26 billion in local currency debt, according to Refinitiv data.“The negative outlook on our ‘CCC-‘ long-term local currency sovereign rating on Sri Lanka reflects the high risk that the government could restructure its local currency debt amid the country’s economic, external and fiscal pressures,” S&P said in a statement.The Sri Lankan stock market was shut half an hour into trading on Monday, after shares tumbled nearly 10% in their first session since the central bank doubled its interest rates two weeks ago to tame inflation.

COLOMBO (News 1st); The Fort Magistrate’s Court on Monday (25) imposed a new travel ban on Ex-Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka Ajith Nivard Cabraal, and this ban will be in effect until the end of the trial, over the case filed over the misappropriation of state funds.Further, summons were issued on Cabraal to appear at the Fort Magistrate’s Court to appear in the court on the 7th of June, and Cabraal was also ordered to surrender his passport to the court as well.

COLOMBO (News 1st); Former Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Chandima Weerakkody has called for the dissolution of the current Government and go for an election that will be funded by an organization that is capable of supporting such a process.“I am not saying to use the funds of the state for an election. Afghanistan’s election was held by the European Commission.

DCGI has also given emergency approval to Bharat Biotech's Covaxin for children between the age group of 6-12 on Tuesday. The drug regulator has also granted emergency use authorisation for Biological E's Covid-19 vaccine Corbevax for those aged five to 12 years.

BENGALURU: Cardinal Health, a global healthcare distribution company, has launched a new global capability centre (GCC) in Bengaluru which will be a hub for IT, augmented intelligence, product software engineering and business process management. It plans to hire 650 people for this centre by the end of this year.

PTI report.

Punjab can learn from Delhi where a lot of work was done in these fields, according to PTI report.

MADISON, Wis. - Sarah Shulze, a runner on the University of Wisconsin's track and cross country teams and former student-athlete in Ventura County, has died. She was 21.Shulze's family announced on April 15 that she died by suicide two days earlier."Sarah took her own life," the family said.

Victoria Beckham has detailed the interesting health treatments she recently underwent during a relaxing spa holiday. The 48 year old, who recently returned from Miami with her family, is known for living an ultra-healthy lifestyle, and has previously shown fans a glimpse of her gruelling workouts and strict diet online. Most recently, the former Spice Girl headed to Northern Italy where she stayed at The Palace Merano, a luxurious spa located in the mountains.

The number of people who have died with Covid-19 since the virus was first recorded in Ireland has passed 7,000.

Ontarians say will help them determine how to cast their ballots in the upcoming provincial election, a new Ipsos poll has found.The survey, conducted exclusively for Global News between April 13 and 14, had each respondent identify their three most important issues ahead of the election.The survey found that Ontario voters said health care, the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, lowering taxes, helping with day-to-day expenses, and making housing more affordable were the top five issues that will determine how they vote on election day. Key promises in the Ontario NDP’s 2022 election platform A total of 31 per cent of respondents chose health care as a top-three issue, while 25 per cent said the handling of COVID-19 was one of the top three issues that would determine how they would vote.Meanwhile, 24 per cent said lowering taxes was a top-three issue.

Coronation Street fans were left thinking the worst when it became clear George Shuttleworth was hiding something from Eileen Grimshaw. The funeral director, played by actor Tony Maudsley in the ITV soap, has been refusing to stay over at his girlfriend's house or let her pay him a visit at his.

Tony Staggs reeled in a 50-pound lake sturgeon at the Lake of the Ozarks. (Missouri Dept. of Conservation) An angler in Missouri recently reeled in something you don't see every day — a lake sturgeon.Troy Staggs caught the elusive fish, according to the Missouri Dept.

Beijing has launched mass coronavirus testing for nearly all its 21 million residents, as fears grew that the Chinese capital may be placed under a strict lockdown like Shanghai.

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, on Tuesday reported 31 fresh Covid-19 infections in the campus, with the total tally touching 111.

The National Health Authority (NHA) has revised the draft Health Data Management (HDM) policy with the objective to protect individuals’ personal data.

COVID is at higher risk for heart issues—clots, inflammation, arrhythmias—a risk that **persists even in relatively healthy people** long after the illness has passed, tweeted Eric Feigl-Ding.

COLOMBO (News 1st); Cement prices were increased with effect from midnight on Monday (25).The price of a bag of imported cement was increased by Rs.500/-, and the new price of a bag of imported Cement is Rs. 2,850/-.The price of a bag of local cement has also been increased by Rs.400/- from midnight yesterday.

COLOMBO (News 1st); China has said it does not prefer debt restructuring, but is ready to offer another loan to settle existing loans, says Cabinet Spokesperson & Minister Nalaka Godahewa on Tuesday (26).Addressing the weekly Cabinet Media Briefing said given the present crisis in Sri Lanka, the country needs around US $ 4 Billion to over come the crisis.“China’s position is that since it has offered loans to many countries, permitting debt restructuring for one country, it would affect the others. Therefore, they have proposed for another loan to settle the existing loans.

Premier John Horgan’s future after he used some inappropriate language in the B.C. legislature on Monday.Following a question from BC Liberal MLA Trevor Halford about the family doctor shortage, Horgan was heckled relentlessly by the opposition.“They don’t want an answer, Honourable Speaker, because they are part of the problem.

The Satanic Temple has filed a lawsuit against a Pennsylvanian elementary school after the school board voted to deny the establishment of the After School Satan club.Northern Elementary School in York, Pa., is being sued on the grounds of constitutional violation. The Satanic Temple intends to prove the school board discriminated against the temple by barring the creation of the After School Satan club, despite other organizations being allowed to operate their own programs.Mathew Kezhaya, the general counsel for The Satanic Temple, told ABC the litigation could take up to two years to complete — potentially longer if the case were moved to the U.S.

(Reuters) – Sri Lanka must tighten monetary policy, raise tax and adopt flexible exchange rates to address its debt crisis, a senior International Monetary Fund (IMF) official said on Tuesday.The country of 22 million people has requested loans from the IMF as it struggles to pay for imports amid crushing debt and a sharp drop in foreign exchange reserves that has fueled soaring inflation.“We’ve had very good, fruitful, technical discussions on preparations for the negotiations with authorities over the past weekend and couple of days before,” said Anne-Marie Gulde-Wolf, acting director of the IMF’s Asia and Pacific Department, speaking at an online news conference.Sri Lankan Finance Minister Ali Sabry was in Washington last week to talk to the IMF, the World Bank, India and others about financing help for his country, which has suspended payments on portions of its $51 billion in external debt.“The requirement for fund lending will be progress toward debt sustainability,” Gulde-Wolf said, calling on Sri Lanka for measures to increase tax revenues to address critical spending needs.“Monetary policy has to be tightened to keep inflation in check,” she said. “We see a need for flexible exchange rates.”Gulde-Wolf did not reply to a question on the total value for any IMF package, nor the estimated timing of a conclusion to the negotiations with Sri Lanka.

Covid-19, according to news agency PTI report. 

With the new infections, the total cases in the country have gone up to 43,06,02,569 including 15,636 active cases. The active cases account for 0.04% of the total cases

LOWER MERION, Pa. - A volunteer Lower Merion firefighter is back doing what he loves after recovering from an accident on I-76 last summer.Sam Shaffer, 18, is back with the Lower Merion High School's men’s lacrosse team as he makes his debut back on the field this week after recovering from severe injuries caused by an accident that seriously injured one of his colleagues and killed another. Back on July 24, around 3 a.m., emergency crews responded to a crash involving two vehicles in the westbound lanes of I-76 in Lower Merion Township.At 3:23 a.m., authorities say Jacquelyn Walker, 63, was operating a Jeep Grand Cherokee in the right lane as she approached the scene of the crash. They say she then crossed over the rumble strips on the side of the highway and plowed into the crash scene, injuring Shaffer and his friend, Alex Fischer and killing firefighter, Tom Royds. RELATED:Shaffer was flown from the scene of the accident to Penn Presbyterian where he spent about a week with a brain bleed, fractured eye socket, broken leg, and a torn ACL and MCL. Now, Shaffer is back in both uniforms, and he says he owes it all to his family and his never-give-up attitude. "It feels great finally getting back out with the family, the team, firefighting again, it feels great," he said.

PHILADELPHIA - Pascal Siakam scored 23 points, Precious Achiuwa had 17 and the Toronto Raptors forced a return home for Game 6 in their Eastern Conference first-round series against Philadelphia, beating the 76ers 103-88 on Monday night.Yo, Canada! Once holding a 3-0 series lead, the 76ers are headed back north.The Raptors have won two straight in the series and jumped all over injured Sixers center Joel Embiid and ineffective James Harden to make Thursday night's game a necessity.Embiid had 20 points and 11 rebounds playing with a thumb injury. Harden scored 15 points on 4-of-11 shooting.Sixers coach Doc Rivers is dragging the weight of ignominious NBA history with him through customs.

CHIPPEWA FALLS, Wis. (FOX 9) - The Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin police chief is warning residents to be vigilant after a 10-year-old girl was found dead on Monday.The body of 10-year-old Iliana "Lily" Peters was found Monday morning in a wooded area near a trail in Chippewa Falls.

CHERRY HILL, N.J. - Days after New Jersey opened the market on recreational marijuana, some dispensaries have needed to make adjustments to manage the high demand between customers and medical marijuana patients.New Jersey joined 18 other states - plus the District of Columbia - last Thursday when it officially allowed recreational cannabis sales. Thirty-seven states have allowed for medical marijuana, including Pennsylvania and Delaware.In the early days of recreational marijuana in New Jersey, the state is trying to figure out how customers and patients can coexist.

ANI reported.

LOS ANGELES - On March 30, the sun released one of the strongest types of solar flares — known as an X-class flare — prompting organizations like The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to sound the alarm on the arrival of a "cannibal" coronal mass ejection (CME).While "cannibal" sounds like a scary word, it’s simply a frenzy of fast-moving solar eruptions that group together in the same region of space triggering a powerful geomagnetic storm.While the solar storm caused no Hollywood-style destruction, its most visible effect was instead a colorful show of the aurora borealis that could be visible at latitudes farther south than usual.Though the energy of this storm was harmlessly absorbed by Earth’s magnetic field, large solar storms do have the potential to wreak havoc.Here’s everything you need to know to survive a potentially devastating coronal mass ejection. In order to understand what a CME is, it's important to understand the solar cycle. Every 11 years, the sun completes a solar cycle in which mass amounts of radiation and plasma are emitted in the form of solar storms. During this cycle, large eruptions of immense energy containing the power of several nuclear bombs explode from the surface of the sun, ripple through space and inevitably strike Earth.

Today we are reporting 6,380 community cases, 508 hospitalisations and four deaths.

COVID-19 working in a high-risk setting for close to two years, a Hamilton doctor says he feels fortunate to have been vaccinated when the affliction caught up with him in March.Dr. Sunjay Sharma couldn’t believe it when his rapid antigen test turned up positive on the 10th after having followed prevention protocols for years and dodging the affliction during some of the pandemic’s darkest days.“I got home that evening and I wasn’t feeling well.

COVID-19 vaccine today.First Nations, Inuit and Metis individuals and their non-Indigenous household members aged 18 and above are also eligible to start booking those shots today.Fourth doses are being offered at a recommended interval of five months after the initial booster shot.Residents can book appointments through the provincial vaccine portal, public health units with separate booking systems, Indigenous-led vaccination clinics and some pharmacies. Ontario expands 4th COVID dose eligibility to 60+ and First Nations starting April 7 Fourth doses are already available to long-term care and retirement home residents and immunocompromised people in Ontario.Health Minister Christine Elliott says a fourth dose provides an extra layer of protection against Omicron and the BA.2 variant.The rollout comes as hospitalizations are increasing _ up 40 per cent week over week _ and wastewater surveillance suggests COVID-19 activity is nearly the same as it was at the peak of the fifth wave in January.It also comes as administration of third doses has slowed.

Ontario’s Minister of Health says the province will be offering fourth dose boosters to age groups lower than NACI recommends. While saying more details will be revealed on Wednesday, Christine Elliott was once again forced to defend her government’s management of the latest pandemic wave.

Ontario’s health minister says there is no need to reimpose a widespread mask mandate in the province despite evidence of increased COVID-19 spread, alluding to advice from the province’s chief medical officer and other medical advisers.Christine Elliott made the remarks while speaking to reporters at Queen’s Park on Tuesday.She acknowledged that while there has been an increase in hospitalizations and other COVID-19 numbers, that was expected as the province opened up. Ontario COVID update: 1,091 people in hospital, 173 in intensive care “It’s not unanticipated that this would happen,” Elliott said.“This is something that when you’re opening up the province to the degree that we have, and with the transmissibility of this virus, that we expected to see the numbers increase.

COVID-19 drug.Immunocompromised adults and older COVID-19 patients who are unvaccinated are eligible to receive Paxlovid but concerns have been raised about difficulty accessing the drug.Health Minister Christine Elliott says Paxlovid was initially distributed through 26 sites and the province intends to distribute it from more locations now that supply has increased.She says pharmacies may be involved in the rollout of the drug at some point, along with other potential sites. No need to reimpose mask mandate despite increasing COVID figures: Ontario health minister Elliott says the province is also planning to expand its education program about the drug so individuals may learn that they are eligible.Her comments came as Ontario reported 1,091 people in hospital with COVID-19 on Tuesday, nearly 40 per cent higher than a week ago.There were 790 people in hospital with COVID-19 last Tuesday.The province also reported 173 COVID-19 patients in intensive care today, compared with 165 a week ago.There were six new COVID-19 deaths logged today and three that the province says occurred more than a week ago have been added to the total count.

Ontario’s health minister says the province plans to soon make fourth doses of COVID-19 vaccines available to residents aged 60 and older.Christine Elliott says the province will announce a plan tomorrow for expanding eligibility for fourth doses.Fourth doses in Ontario are already available to long-term care and retirement home residents as well as those who are immunocompromised.

Ontario’s health minister said the provincial government is “staying the course” on it’s decision to life the mandatory masking mandate, despite experts saying the province is now experiencing the sixth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.Christine Elliott made the remarks during a funding announcement at North York General Hospital on Thursday.The minister was asked whether there have been talks about potentially reinstating the mandatory mask mandate which was lifted earlier this month.“We’re staying the course, we don’t anticipate that we’ll need to move back to mandatory masking,” she said. “Except in certain locations where it is mandatory, most of it is discretionary.”Elliott said people should be “patient” and “kind” with one another, noting that some may feel more comfortable to continue wearing a mask in public settings.