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Federal COVID-19 announcements Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had a press conference jam-packed with news on Thursday, with three major announcements related to the COVID-19 pandemic. First, he said, the Canadian government had a deal to purchase 2.9 million pediatric doses of COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer, in anticipation of Health Canada approving the vaccine for kids aged five to 11. Health Canada has received the application from Pfizer but is still examining whether to approve it. You can read the full story from Global News' Amanda Connolly. Second, Trudeau said, Canadians can now download a proof-of-vaccination document that can be used for international travel. Warnings against all non-essential international travel were dropped later Thursday. Here's more on the announcement, and more on how to obtain and use your proof-of-vaccination document. And finally, officials announced the end of Canada's longstanding COVID-19 wage subsidy program, to be replaced by other, stricter, help for struggling Canadian businesses. Here are the details, from Global News' Aaron D'Andrea. 
Loosening up Ontario will lift capacity limits on restaurants and gyms starting Monday, Premier Doug Ford announced this week, and has plans to gradually open things up over the next few months. Ontario joins other provinces like Quebec and B.C. that have recently announced that they're loosening restrictions introduced to help slow the spread of COVID-19, especially in venues where proof of vaccination is required to enter. While case counts are dropping across Canada and vaccination rates are high, experts have mixed opinions about loosening measures that currently appear to be working. "If you're just on the point of starting to step down on the curve, that's too early. You would need to make sure that it continues in that trend because further reopening can spin you back up into exponential growth," said Dr. Susy Hota, medical director of infection prevention and control for Toronto's University Health Network. Read the full story from Global News health reporter Leslie Young. 
Q: My paternal grandmother died of cancer at the age of 69. I was told she had abdominal tumours. My father, her only child, died of esophageal cancer a few years ago. Should I be seeking any testing outside of the usually recommended cancer screenings? "Based on the information provided, it does not seem that this person is at high risk of carrying an inherited genetic mutation," said Dr. Raymond Kim, medical director of the familial cancer clinic and cancer early detection at Toronto's Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. "The person's family tree does not seem to follow a similar cancer pattern seen in gene carrier families." "We would want to confirm the type of cancers in the relatives. For example, unless the esophageal cancer was an unusual type, or occurred very early in life, it is not likely to be familial. At this time, I would not recommend genetic testing. Regular cancer screenings should suffice." The Princess Margaret Cancer Centre has an information sheet about cancer genetic testing on its website (note, this is a pdf file.) | 
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