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Prague protest draws thousands against vaccine mandate. ...

Papers being checked for the second time tonight for being outside past curfew in Montreal, Quebec. ...

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s (D) office backtracked on Monday after the governor announced the state would provide millions of dollars in support to counties complying with her mask rules, as well as state inspectors to conduct “spot checks” for coronavirus mandate compliance in businesses across the state. “I want to focus on the counties doing the right thing, and that have been our allies in making sure that we ensure that people are compliant with our protocols related to masks,” Hochul said on Monday.

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced new COVID mitigations Tuesday, including a vaccine requirement for indoor dining at restaurants for patrons and workers. People going out to eat will have to bring in more than just their masks and wallets starting January 3. The city of Chicago will start requiring customers and restaurant workers to also provide proof of vaccination or proof of a negative COVID test. This new mitigation effort is aimed at stemming the spread of the omicron variant, which the CDC now says is responsible for 73% of all new COVID cases. "I think it'll make...

When Washington state representative Jim Walsh went to his office in Olympia on Tuesday, he found himself on the outside looking in. His ID badge, which acts as a keycard for state government buildings, didn’t work. It wasn’t a mistake or technical glitch. The rules committee for the House made an “interim rule” banning entry to anyone who doesn’t present their Covid-19 injection papers, including elected officials. Walsh, who has opposed Governor Jay Inslee’s vaccine mandates, was furious that the governing body he was elected to work in and represent his constituents was not only failing to counter the Governor,...

People in France will now need to show a health pass to enjoy usually routine activities such as sipping a coffee in a café or traveling on an intercity train, in a plan championed by President Emmanuel Macron to squeeze COVID-19 infections and encourage vaccination. The government is pressing ahead with the extension of an already-existing health pass for venues including cafés, restaurants and intercity travel, despite four weekends of angry protests that saw almost a quarter of a million rally nationwide on Saturday. Macron, who has expressed exasperation with the protests, hopes that the plan will help ramp up...

Everyone entering Germany has to have proof of full vaccination, recovery from COVID or a negative test. Here’s what the situation looks like at the borders. Germany’s new rules requiring every unvaccinated person returning from abroad to have proof of a recent negative coronavirus test came into force this weekend. And although many travelers were prepared, some people weren’t able to show proof of being fully vaccinated, recovery from COVID-19 within the last six months or a negative test. During spot checks at the A3 near Passau, Bavaria, on Sunday, for instance, 110 people were unable to present proof. At...

German politicians were deeply divided Sunday over a warning by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chief of staff that restrictions for unvaccinated people may be necessary if COVID-19 infection numbers reach new heights in the coming months. Chief of staff Helge Braun told the newspaper Bild am Sonntag that he doesn’t expect another coronavirus-related lockdown in Germany. But Braun said that unvaccinated people may be barred from entering venues like restaurants, movie theatres or sports stadiums “because the residual risk is too high.” Braun said getting vaccinated is important to protect against severe disease and because “vaccinated people will definitely have more...

German Health Minister Jens Spahn is planning compulsory coronavirus tests for travelers entering the country, regardless of where they travel from, Funke Media Group reported on Tuesday. The ministry is aiming for “an expansion of test requirements upon entry as quickly as possible,” according to a document seen by the media group. The goal is to curb the recent rapid rise in infections, especially with the highly contagious delta variant. Currently, air passengers and people entering from high-risk areas are obliged to provide a negative test or proof that they have been fully vaccinated or have recovered from an infection....

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s top aide warned on Sunday that unvaccinated people will have fewer freedoms than those who have decided to get the coronavirus jab. Helge Braun, the outgoing leader’s chief of staff, told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper that they may find themselves being denied entry to bars, cinemas or sporting events. The onset of a fourth wave of the virus “would not be without consequences,” the 48-year-old official told the Sunday edition of the popular tabloid. “If we have a high rate of infection despite our testing procedures then the unvaccinated will have to reduce their contacts,”...

Emmanuel Macron has been a little on the quiet side lately, but don’t worry, he’s been cooking up some classic end times fare for you. Today comes the news that France will now make mandatory the EU Digital Covid Certificate, known as the ‘health pass’, in all public venues. Blink your eyes and this will be common practice throughout the entire European Union, that’s how fast everything is moving. FROM VARIETY: The key measure announced by Emmanuel Macron will make the EU Digital Covid Certificate — commonly called “health pass” — mandatory in all cultural venues, including cinemas, theaters and...

“It was a really creepy feeling,” says data protection activist Leena Simon, describing the moment when she last visited the citizens’ service center at her local town hall and they wanted to take her fingerprints. She was instructed to press the index fingers of both hands on the glass surface of a scanner. The idea was that the resulting fingerprints would be included in her new passport. However, she used a trick that she’s not willing to share to spoil the scan. Leena is a member of a German organization called Digitalcourage, which is committed to privacy and digital rights....

WELLINGTON, June 28 (Reuters) - New Zealand is considering making masks compulsory at high alert levels as well as compulsory scanning of QR codes to boost contact tracing in efforts to reduce the risk of coronavirus spreading, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday. New Zealand halted quarantine-free travel with neighbouring Australia last week as an outbreak of the highly contagious Delta variant triggered a lockdown in Sydney and renewed restrictions elsewhere. read more It also extended the COVID-19 alert level 2 in the capital Wellington until Tuesday, as authorities said there was still a risk that an Australian tourist...

Germany no longer classifies some regions, including the United States, Canada and Austria, as areas of a high coronavirus risk, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases said on Friday. The RKI listed 19 countries and regions that are “no longer considered risk areas” thanks to their low coronavirus infection rates. Countries that have been removed from the travel risk list include Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Cyprus, Kosovo, Lebanon, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Ukraine and the US. Some regions in Portugal, Norway, Croatia, Greece and Switzerland are also no longer considered risk regions by Germany....

The regional government of the Andalusia region, the Junta de Andalucía, has announced that it will begin to issue the European green vaccination certificate, or ‘COVID Passport’ from this Monday (June 7) onwards. The president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juanma Moreno, made the announcement during the presentation of what will be the new hospital in Seville, a project into which the regional government has invested 11.5 million euros. "Andalusians will be the 1st Europeans to have a vaccination certificate with European validation," said Moreno, indicating that the first to receive the certificates will be those aged over 65 who...

I would love a COVID-19 vaccine passport. After more than a year in full or partial quarantine, I’m so happy to be vaccinated I want to get the words “FULLY” and “VAXXED” tattooed on my butt and run naked through the streets. (Don’t worry, I won’t. America has suffered enough.) Unfortunately … sorry, that’s a side effect of the Pfizer vaccine … unfortunately, vaccine pride is not as prevalent as it should be, and a sizable swath of the population prefers to poo-poo the one thing that can lead us out of a pandemic that has killed more than 550,000...

The European Commission proposed Thursday that EU nations join forces to develop and deploy COVID-19 drugs across the 27-nation bloc. In addition to the vaccine contracts already secured through a similar joint procurement, the EU’s executive arm said it will set up a portfolio of 10 potential COVID-19 treatments, with the aim of authorizing three new ones to treat COVID-19 by October. So far, the antiviral medicine remdesivir is the only drug authorized across the EU for treating coronavirus patients. “Vaccinations save lives, but they cannot yet eradicate COVID-19. We need a strong push on treatments to limit the need...

Hajdu said Canada will likely be able to fast-forward its own vaccine passport program by adapting an existing app. “From our perspective we have a bit of a head start in terms of entry into Canada in that we have ArriveCAN, the app that allows for digital proof of testing, for example, now, and a variety of other documents that people have to submit to enter Canada,” Hajdu said. “We’ll be working with our international partners to make sure that whatever the world lands on, Canadians will have documents in the appropriate format.” The free ArriveCAN app was introduced in...

Governor Jay Inslee says you could expect to see more places asking for your vaccination card for entry. The governor said Thursday that he will make announcements on places in Washington that will have vaccination requirements by mid-May, which could include some cruises, sporting events, performing arts and school graduations. .... Gov. Inslee says he is in full support of private companies and nonprofits that want to have vaccine requirements. He says more colleges and universities are likely to add them, and he expressed his support of those efforts as well.

The Department of Homeland Security has pushed back the Real ID deadline until 2023. Originally, air travelers were going to need to have a Real ID by October 1, 2020, in order to board a domestic flight. Last year, the Trump Administration bumped that deadline out a year to October 1, 2021. Now, it’s been bumped out all the way until May 3, 2023...