www.theasianstar.com
Vol 20 - Issue 49
Business owners warned to prepare for mass sickness at work as Omicron takes control B.C. businesses have been warned to prepare for as many as a third of their workforce to be sick on any given day, as the highly transmissible COVID-19 Omicron variant takes over across the province. On Tuesday, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said business owners should reactivate their COVID safety plans to prevent business closures due to a lack of staff, but wouldn’t make that an order. “Given the rate of transmission, the short incubation period and the high number of people who are getting ill, we need now all businesses to put contingency plans in place to keep businesses operating when staff are off ill,” said Henry, as she reported 2,542 new cases of the disease over the past day, with 80 per cent of all cases in B.C. now the Omicron variant. “At this point, given the number of people getting sick every day, we need to reactivate those COVID-19 safety plans. We need to anticipate that as many as a third of your workforce at any one time may become ill with COVID-19, and they may not be able to come to work. We need to adapt businesses so we can operate at these reduced numbers. “It’s not about public health orders and us telling you what to do. This is about activating all of those layers of Continued on page 6
Saturday, December 8, 2022 Rising Omicron wave brings a grim sense of Déjà Vu Just months after Delta fueled hospital failures and funeral pyres, India’s leaders again offer a mixed message: Their political rallies are packed even as they order curfews and work closures. When the Omicron coronavirus variant spread through India late in December, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged the nation to be vigilant and follow medical guidelines. Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of the capital region of Delhi, swiftly introduced night curfews, shut down movie theaters, and slashed restaurants and public transport to half capacity. Continued on page 6
Tel:604-591-5423 This wave could be tough but shorter, says Dr. Bonnie Henry ‘I do think this is the tipping point’ Omicron is presenting as a milder upper respiratory illness and is harder to detect, as it can initially seem more like a cold or flu. The same late-November weekend the World Health Organization declared Omicron a variant of concern, it had already infected members of a University of Victoria men’s rugby team on the pitch of a Kingston, Ont. university campus. At least four players would bring the variant home to Vancouver Island, and for a while, Island Health would find itself in the unusual and unenviable position of leading the province in daily case Continued on page 8
Vancouver experiences coldest weather recorded
Winter storm brings up to 30 cm of snow to South Coast as extreme cold weather grips north
BC is typically known for its mild winters, but December gifted the west coast record-breaking plunge in temperatures. Vancouver experienced a daily low of -15.3°C on December 27. According to The Weather Network, this is the coldest temperature the city has recorded in 52 years. The Weather Network says this is a big departure from seasonal norms,
Weather agency advises postponing non-essential travel in Metro Vancouver; wind chill as low as -45 C in north. Environment Canada has issued a slew of weather alerts for British Columbia as coastal and interior communities brace for heavy snowfall and frigid temperatures continue to create dangerous conditions in central and northern areas of the province.
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The world’s largest trade bloc launched without India The new Asian regional trade pact, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP, becomes effective as of today. The RCEP is the world’s biggest free trade agreement, larger than the EU, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, the EU, the Mercosur trade bloc in South America, and the recent US-Mexico-Canada Free Trade Agreement. RCEP includes all the ASEAN countries (Thailand, Continued on page 7
Govt ask Starlink to refund its pre-orders prior to start business in India Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet venture has told its members that the Indian govt has asked the company to refund all its pre-orders until it receives licences to operate in the country. “As has always been the case, you can receive a refund at any time,” the company said in an email to one of its customers. Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing a copy of the email which it had seen. Starlink, a division of Musk’s SpaceX aerospace company, has already Continued on page 8