Health

THE BACKGROUND: After beginning 2022 by hosting a Winter Olympics inside a COVID bubble , China faced a tough year.

TORONTO — The flu season may have peaked in Ontario, and that should relieve some pressure on children's hospitals in the near future, the province's top doctor said Thursday. Chief medical officer of health Dr.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is once more making some free COVID-19 tests available to all U.S. households as it releases its contingency plans with coronavirus cases ticking upward this winter.

Virtual-care clinics may be adding pressure to the overwhelmed health-care system, the Ontario Medical Association said Thursday, even as some patients and doctors say they are vital alternatives to an otherwise necessary visit to an emergency room.

VICTORIA — Sensitive personal health records of British Columbia residents, from mental health to sexually transmitted disease histories, are "disturbingly" vulnerable to leaks, the provincial privacy watchdog says.

HALIFAX — The planned redevelopment of a sprawling Halifax hospital complex is being reworked to add hundreds more beds and new facilities, the Nova Scotia government announced Thursday.

WHITINGHAM, Vt.

TORONTO — The Ontario government is expanding eligibility for the COVID-19 bivalent booster vaccine to children aged five to 11. The province says kids in that age group will be eligible for a bivalent dose starting Dec. 21.

BEIJING (AP) — A week after China dramatically eased some of the world's strictest COVID-19 containment measures, uncertainty remained Thursday over the direction of the pandemic in the world's most populous nation.

LONDON (AP) — Thousands of nurses walked off their jobs in England on Thursday, escalating a wave of industrial unrest in the U.K.