Ontario reported a single-day record of 3,328 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday and 56 new deaths related to the illness.

The figure marks the first time the province has reported more than 3,000 cases in a single day, and the third consecutive day Ontario has recorded a record-breaking case count.

Source: Ontario reports record high 3,328 new COVID-19 cases, 56 new deaths | CBC News

The wave in question measured 22.4 metres (73.5ft), the highest ever surfed by a woman, the first to be measured and verified by Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and a couple of feet greater than the one surfed by her nearest rival. It is also the biggest wave measured this year, surfed by man or woman.

Gabeira, who broke her own previous Guinness world record of 68ft, attributes her achievement to what she calls “taking a critical line”. In short, she takes her board to the fiercest and tallest part of the wave, “where the most powerful energy is, where it is actually breaking”. This, she says, is how “you put value into your wave”.

The peaks surfed by Gabeira are classed as size XXL by the World Surf League (there is no XXXL). Hawaii and California once drew the big-wave community, but Gabeira believes that the small Portuguese fishing village of Nazaré, where she lives and works, is home to “the most incredible big waves in the world … The speeds are incredible. You are going so fast and the wave is building behind you; it’s a lot of water moving, an incredible feeling, and you’re very, very present, which has always been my favourite part of the sport. To feel connection with a very powerful force.”

Source: ‘I’m fascinated by power, force and bravery’: the woman who surfed the biggest recorded wave of 2020 | Surfing | The Guardian

Other participants’ lifestyle changes have not been quite as drastic but have still had a profound impact. Max, 17, the assembly’s youngest member, who also asked for his full name not to be used, became a pescatarian after learning how meat-eating was having a negative effect on the planet – despite the jibes of his school mates. “My friends thought it was stupid at first, but over time they’ve got used to it,” he said. “I just saw how much carbon dioxide was released from each type of meat and I thought, ‘Wow, this is something I need to think about a lot more’.”

Charley Winter, 26, from Northamptonshire, works in PR and used to jetset around the world on about six holidays a year to indulge her love of travelling – but when the pandemic is over, she doesn’t plan on going back to normal. “It needs to change. If it does negatively impact me I understand that and I’m willing to make changes in my life for the better,” she said, adding she plans to rethink how many flights she takes and go on more UK-based holidays in the future.

Although some participants said it was too early to gauge the impact of the Climate Assembly report, many were pleased with how it had been received by the government and said they felt the recently announced 10-point green plan mirrored some of their suggestions.

Source: ‘It’s awakened me’: UK climate assembly participants hail a life-changing event | Climate change | The Guardian

By Wednesday evening only 332 people had received the vaccine according to health ministry officials. The ministry has said the aim is to vaccinate 1 million elderly and at-risk people in January, requiring more than 31,200 vaccinations every day.

The health minister, Olivier Véran, admitted France was vaccinating more slowly than other countries and suggested this was a deliberate policy to enable an information campaign – rather than the result of a lack of vaccines or a logistical failure.

“We have the same number of vaccine doses as our German neighbours, we have the same aims and we will have the same results,” Véran told French television. “It’s taking a while to get off the ground … I don’t confuse speed with haste,” he added.

The president, Emmanuel Macron, and ministers have promised the vaccine will not be obligatory and officials have assured the public there will be no list compiled of those who refuse to have the Covid-19 jab.

However, Macron said people should be guided by “reason and science”. “The vaccine is not obligatory. Have confidence in our scientists and doctors,” he said.

Source: Covid: France ‘pandering to anti-vaxxers’ with slow vaccine rollout | France | The Guardian

At 9:56 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 13, my phone rang. “Lisa Agredano,” it read. Relief washed over me. She hadn’t been responding to messages. Then I heard Manny’s voice.

“My mom died last night.”

Manny lived in Lawndale with his mother and his grandfather, Manuel, the man he was named after. Five days after losing his mother to the coronavirus, the soft-spoken Lawndale High School sophomore lost his 83-year-old grandfather to it, too.

Source: Ode to a teacher felled by COVID-19 and the boy she left behind – Los Angeles Times

At St. Elizabeth Community Hospital in Tehama County, fewer than half of the 700 hospital workers eligible for the vaccine were willing to take the shot when it was first offered. At Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, one in five frontline nurses and doctors have declined the shot. Roughly 20% to 40% of L.A. County’s frontline workers who were offered the vaccine did the same, according to county public health officials.

So many frontline workers in Riverside County have refused the vaccine — an estimated 50% — that hospital and public officials met to strategize how best to distribute the unused doses, Public Health Director Kim Saruwatari said.

Source: Some healthcare workers refuse to take COVID-19 vaccine – Los Angeles Times

Vietnamese Americans accounted for 28% of coronavirus cases among Asian Americans in Santa Clara County between June 1 and Dec. 3, yet they make up 19% of the population of Asian Americans in the county, according to slides Cody presented at a Board of Supervisors meeting earlier this month.

Filipino Americans, 13% of the Asian American population in the county, accounted for 21% of such cases during the same time period.

Source: COVID besieges Filipino, Vietnamese Americans in Bay Area – Los Angeles Times

(Vaccination should be not be voluntary – not sorry!)  Source: Ohio Gov: 60 percent of nursing home staff elected not to take COVID-19 vaccine | TheHill

(When will other 7,500,000 get vaccinated?) Source: De Blasio says New York City on pace to hit 1 million vaccinations by end of January | TheHill

Source: Covid rule-breakers ‘have blood on their hands’ – BBC News