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BARRIE, ONT. -- A COVID-19 variant has been identified in six swab tests done at Roberta Place in Barrie, Ont., where an outbreak has claimed at least 19 lives. Since the health unit declared an outbreak at the long-term facility, cases have exploded, with 122 residents, 69 staff, and two visitors testing positive for COVID-19. Source

A director at the Headwaters Health Care Centre (HHCC) in Orangeville, Ont. has retired after having a family member vaccinated during a clinic intended for hospital staff, physicians and local healthcare workers. The "unfortunate incident" happened during a vaccination clinic held by Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health on Jan. Source

TORONTO -- The inauguration of U.S. President Joe Biden doesn’t just mark the end of Donald Trump’s presidency but it also signals a new direction in the effort to end the COVID-19 pandemic in America. To political and health experts critical of Trump’s response, the twice-impeached president’s pandemic action plan was one of inaction that led the country to world-leader status in deaths and infections. Source

A city councillor in southern Ontario says her office received two racist, threatening voice messages from a Hamilton man days after the attack at the U.S. Capitol that killed five people. Hamilton city councillor Nrinder Nann (Ward 3) revealed details of the hateful messages during a council meeting on Wednesday — the same day Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were sworn in as U.S. Source

In one of the inauguration's most talked about moments, poet Amanda Gorman summoned images dire and triumphant Wednesday as she called out to the world "even as we grieved, we grew." The 22-year-old Gorman referenced everything from Biblical scripture to the musical Hamilton, and at times echoed the oratory of John F. Source

U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris broke the barrier Wednesday that has kept men at the top ranks of American power for more than two centuries when she took the oath to hold the nation's second-highest office. Harris was sworn in as the first female vice-president — and the first Black person and person of South Asian descent to hold the position — in front of the U.S. Source

Here is the full text of the inaugural address, delivered by U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday. Chief Justice Roberts, Vice-President Harris. Speaker Pelosi, Leader Schumer, Leader McConnell, Vice President Pence, and my distinguished guests, my fellow Americans, this is America's day. Source

SASKATOON -- Nearly three years after losing his son Evan in the Humboldt Broncos bus crash, Scott Thomas has written a letter in support of the semi-driver who was responsible, Jaskirat Singh Sidhu. Sidhu drove through a stop sign near Tisdale, Sask. Source

TORONTO -- Joe Biden and Kamala Harris took their oaths of office as they were sworn in as the next president and vice-president of the United States in a historic ceremony that wasn't attended by former U.S. Source

KINGSTON, ONT. -- Correctional Service Canada (CSC) is in the process of vaccinating federal inmates it deems the most vulnerable at six Kingston-area prisons, CTV News Ottawa confirms. Earlier this month, CTV News Ottawa first reported that 600 federal inmates across the country would be receiving the Moderna vaccine as part of the federal government’s plan to vaccinate those who are older and more medically vulnerable to the virus. Source