OC Transpo reducing bus service on Thursday in response to forecasted snowstorm
Local
CTV: OC Transpo is reducing bus service and parking “many articulated buses” on Thursday in anticipation of the winter storm expected to hit Ottawa with up to 40 centimetres of snow.
Environment Canada issued a winter storm warning for the nation’s capital, and the city declared a “Significant Weather Event.”
OC Transpo is implementing a severe storm schedule for buses on Thursday, according to Transit Services general manager, Renée Amilcar.
Amilcar says bus service will follow a “reduced schedule in order to provide safer and more reliable service during the winter storm and to allow the entire network to recover more quickly.”
O-Train Line 1, Line 2, Line 4 and Para Transpo service will not be reduced.
National
CBC: Influenza is “widespread” in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.
While cases of COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus are decreasing, Canada’s winter respiratory virus season is in full swing, officials say.
About one out of every three tests sent for influenza in Quebec currently comes back positive, reflecting the intensity of the flu season, according to Dr. Jesse Papenburg, an infectious disease specialist at Montreal Children’s Hospital and an associate professor of pediatrics at McGill University.
“My recommendations for families is, it’s not too late to get vaccinated,” says Papenburg.
International
CTV: If Hamas does not free hostages this weekend, “all hell will break loose,” said Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, on Wednesday.
“If Hamas stops releasing the hostages, then there is no deal and there is war,” said Katz during a visit to a military command center.
Hamas said on Saturday it would delay the next hostage release, accusing Israel of not following through on commitments under the truce, including the delivery of tents and other aid.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to resume fighting if Hamas does not follow through and called for troops to be strengthened around Gaza.
Mahmoud Merdawi, a Hamas official, said there were “positive signals” the three hostages will be released on Saturday, but the group had not yet received a commitment from Israel that it would stick to the deal.
Israeli officials had no immediate comment, but the country says it is fulfilling its obligations under the deal, which went into effect on Jan. 19 and paused the 16-month war in Gaza.
