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Good evening, here are the coronavirus updates you need to know tonight.

Top headlines:

  1. In a controversial move, Britain is expected to approve challenge trials – tested on volunteers – for a vaccine candidate
  2. Trump and Biden to face off over pandemic, economic recovery in tonight’s presidential debate
  3. Office vacancies spike in Toronto, Vancouver as pandemic fuels work-from-home migration

As of 7:30 p.m. ET, there have been at least 156,856 cases reported in Canada. In the last week 10,193 new cases were announced, 34 per cent more than the previous week.

There have also been at least 133,598 recoveries and 9,290 deaths. Today, 12 deaths were reported, compared to 10 yesterday.

Open this photo in gallery:

new deaths canada sept. 29The Globe and Mail

Worldwide, there have been at least 33,353,615 cases confirmed and 1,001,646 deaths reported.

Sources: Canada data is compiled from government websites, Johns Hopkins and COVID-19 Canada Open Data Working Group; international data is from Johns Hopkins University.


Coronavirus explainers: Coronavirus in maps and charts Lockdown rules and reopening Mask-wearing rules Back to school guide Essential resources


Photo of the day

Open this photo in gallery:

In the debate hall in Cleveland, signs direct attendees to leave seats empty to allow for physical distancing ahead of the first U.S. presidential debate. Donald Trump and Joe Biden square off tonight at 9 p.m. ET.JONATHAN ERNST/Reuters


Number of the day

100

Roughly 100 students at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ont., were referred for investigation under the school’s code of conduct following parties in residence over the weekend. The university recently took a sterner tone in response to large gatherings after an outbreak led to dozens of infected students.


Coronavirus in Canada

  • Starting Oct. 5 in Ontario, only staff and essential caregivers will be able to permitted to visit long-term care homes in the Greater Toronto Area and Ottawa, Premier Doug Ford said today. The province reported 554 new cases and four new deaths today, mostly in Toronto, nearby Peel Region and Ottawa.
  • Quebec will adopt COVID-19 Alert, the federal exposure notification app. The province reported 799 new cases and seven more deaths today, with the most cases coming from Montreal and Quebec City, where shutdown measures were reintroduced yesterday.
  • In Alberta, Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary postponed dozens of operations on Monday and restricted all but essential visitors after the largest outbreak of COVID-19 at a hospital in Canada spread to five units, killing four people and sickening another 53.
  • Saskatchewan will be the third province to hold a pandemic-era election.

In Ottawa, Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Officer projected this year’s federal deficit will be $328.5-billion, smaller than the Liberal government’s current outlook. The projection is based on government announcements up to Sept. 1.

  • In July, the government released a “fiscal snapshot” that projected a deficit of $343.2-billion for 2020-21, but has since announced billions more in spending.
  • The PBO says the smaller figure is attributed to different assumptions – notably, the watchdog estimates stronger economic growth and a less of an impact on tax revenue.
  • The PBO says as long as pandemic spending ends as planned, finances are sustainable, but “barely.”

The federal government has yet to release a 2020 budget, meaning no official projections for Ottawa’s bottom line beyond the current year have been released since the onset of the pandemic. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has promised to release a fiscal update this fall.

Still in Ottawa, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced an additional commitment of $400-million in humanitarian aid to combat the pandemic globally. Elsewhere, the government also published new guidance for companies developing rapid COVID-19 tests.

COVID-19 and food insecurity: Food insecurity is hurting Canadians' physical and mental health, social life, and ability to find work.


Coronavirus around the world

  • U.S. President Donald Trump announced a plan to buy and distribute 150 million rapid coronavirus tests to states, tribes and other jurisdictions in the coming months. Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said the tests would be a “drop in the bucket" of what is needed.
  • This week Britain is expected to become the first country to approve challenge trials for a COVID-19 vaccine candidate. Such trials, which involve vaccinating volunteers and then infecting them with the coronavirus, can shave months off the time it takes to produce a vaccine, advocates say.
  • Russia plans to share preliminary results of its COVID-19 vaccine trial based on the first six weeks of monitoring participants, raising the tempo in an already frenzied global race to end the pandemic.

Coronavirus and business

In Toronto and Vancouver, the tightest office markets in Canada, vacancies increased for the second consecutive quarter. Office vacancies are now double prepandemic levels.

  • In downtown Toronto, subleases more than doubled over the past three months, sending the office vacancy rate to 4.7 per cent in the third quarter, from 2.7 per cent in the second.
  • In downtown Vancouver, sublease space rose 30 per cent, pushing the office vacancy rate to 4.6 per cent, from 3.3 per cent. (Sublease space is included in the overall vacancy rate.)
  • Across the country, the vacancy rate reached 12 per cent in the third quarter compared with 11 per cent in the second.

Also today: Vancouver-based online course platform Thinkific has had a surge in demand and has raised $22-million to fund a hiring spree.

And: Looking ahead to the pandemic autumn, what’s the No. 1 thing people should be doing to prepare their personal finances?


Globe opinion

  • Robyn Urback: “Provincial leaders and public-health officers have started pleading with people to cut back on risky activities as the second wave of COVID-19 sweeps across the country. They have not, however, actually provided the public with information – that is, data ostensibly collected through contact tracing – on what constitutes a risky activity, beyond the obvious.”
  • Globe Editorial: “Alberta Premier Jason Kenney wasn’t happy with the federal government’s Throne Speech last week, and it was easy to see why. Ottawa did nothing to dig him out of the hole he and his government dug for themselves with their 2019 budget – a hole that has been deepened, and then some, by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

More reporting


Information centre

Sources: Canada data are compiled from government websites, Johns Hopkins University and COVID-19 Canada Open Data Working Group; international data are from Johns Hopkins.

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