Skip to main content
Latest headlines:

How many coronavirus cases are there in Canada, by province, and worldwide? The latest maps and charts

5 p.m. EDT

Alberta retailers, restaurants prepare for Thursday reopening

Alberta retailers and restaurants can reopen starting Thursday, but a spokesman for the food-service industry says expect a staggered start.

Mark von Schellwitz with Restaurants Canada says owners he has talked to are still crunching the numbers on when and how they can resume services given it has to be at half capacity.

The province’s guidelines stipulate tables must be at least two metres apart and have no more than six people per table.

Von Schellwitz says the 11,000 restaurants in Alberta also need help dealing with bigger issues, including rent relief and access to operating capital.

Opposition NDP Leader Rachel Notley says the province should provide grants to small businesses to keep them afloat as they ride out the pandemic.

Restaurants, retailers, hair stylists and barbers, and daycares are being given the go-ahead to reopen, because COVID-19 case numbers and hospitalizations suggest Alberta has flattened the curve on infections.

- Canadian Press


4:30 p.m. EDT

Manitoba premier offers more summer-job money, defends hydro job cuts

Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister offered millions of dollars more for summer jobs Tuesday while defending job cuts at Crown-owned Manitoba Hydro.

Pallister said the government will spend up to $10-million for this year’s Green Team program, which gives money to community groups, municipalities and provincial parks to hire young people over the summer for environmental work.

It is almost double last year’s $5.5-million and is aimed at ensuring young people can get work despite COVID-19’s economic fallout, Pallister said.

“We know that the private sector is struggling right now ... so it’s important that we, through our government programs, up our game,” he said.

The announcement came one day after Manitoba Hydro said it plans to temporarily lay off 600 to 700 employees for a four-month period as part of government-wide cost-cutting to deal with the pandemic’s fiscal impact.

Crown corporations, universities and other public bodies were told by the Progressive Conservative government last month to map out three scenarios for reducing labour costs from May through August — by 10, 20 and 30 per cent.

The temporary layoffs at Manitoba Hydro work out to more than 10 per cent of the full-time equivalent positions listed in the utility’s last annual report.

Pallister said the temporary job cuts at the Crown utility are justified because there is less work being done. Some construction projects have been scaled back during the pandemic and door-to-door meter readings in residential areas have been suspended.

- Canadian Press


4 p.m. EDT

Nova Scotia cautions ‘sustained’ improvement needed before restrictions lifted

Nova Scotia’s top doctor cautioned that the Atlantic province hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic needs to see more improvement before it can consider easing restrictions.

Chief medical officer of health, Dr. Robert Strang, dampened down expectations Tuesday despite reporting the province’s second consecutive day with only one new case of the disease.

“We have had a few good days in the past week with low numbers. and that is good news,” Strang said. “But I want to caution ... we are in a long-term situation, and we need to have sustained changes before we can make definitive conclusions.”

Nova Scotia is the only province in Canada not to have presented a plan to ease social and physical distancing rules and to reopen its economy. To date, the only change has been an reopening of parks and trails so people can exercise.

Tuesday’s new case brought the province’s total to 1,020, including 864 people who have recovered. No new deaths were reported, leaving the total at 48, including 42 at the Northwood long-term care facility in Halifax.

Strang said the province needs to see a trend of little to no cases for at least two weeks before it can begin a recovery strategy.

Three licensed long-term care homes and unlicensed seniors’ facilities still have active cases of COVID-19. The vast majority are at the Northwood facility, where 157 residents and eight staff are infected.

One other facility has one staff member with an active case of COVID-19 and another facility has one resident with an active case.

Strang said it is going to take “some time” before the outbreak at Northwood can be considered to be winding down because of the large numbers of people who have been infected.

Still, he said the long-term care facility is being looked at separately in terms of the overall outbreak in the province.

“We continue to look at our community-based cases as the key indicator to informing the timing of our recovery plan,” Strang said.

To date, Nova Scotia has had 34,204 negative test results.

- Canadian Press


2:15 p.m. EDT

Ontario union says many hospital workers not eligible for pandemic pay premium

A union representing thousands of hospital workers says many of its members are not eligible for the province’s pandemic pay premium.

The president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions says maintenance staff, dietary workers and ward clerks are excluded.

Michael Hurley says those workers work in spaces where they could be exposed to the virus.

He says the funding to pay workers has also yet not flowed to hospitals.The province announced last month that hospital workers would earn a $4 hourly premium and a $250 monthly lump sum.

Health Minister Christine Elliott says the province could still expand the pay premium to other workers.

- Canadian Press


1:50 p.m. EDT

Details of Ontario’s reopening coming Thursday, Ford says

Premier Doug Ford says he will be announcing details on the first stage of Ontario’s reopening plan on Thursday.

In his daily briefing Tuesday, Ford teased “good news” coming, saying the people of Ontario have followed all the protocols.

He says he will have news Thursday about reopening more low-risk workplaces, seasonal businesses and essential services.

This week, retail stores were allowed to reopen for curbside pick-up and delivery, while hardware stores and garden centres have been allowed to reopen to in-store customers.

Stage one in the province’s reopening framework includes allowing for more people at certain events such as funerals and having hospitals resume some non-urgent surgeries.

Ontario reported 361 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday and 56 more deaths.

- Canadian Press


12:30 p.m. EDT

Canada gives $790-million to help vaccinate in more vulnerable countries

International Development Minister Karina Gould says Canada will put $790 million toward vaccinating the world’s more vulnerable populations through the Global Alliance for Vaccine Innovation.

The funding will also support the global distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine, if an effective one is discovered.

Gould has promised $600 million over four years to help GAVI provide routine immunizations to children all over the world, and administer a potential COVID-19 vaccine.

It is Canada’s biggest-ever pledge to GAVI, $100 million more than a multi-year promise in 2016.

Gould also pledged $190 million over four years to support GAVI’s strategy to eradicate polio.

In a press release, Gould says COVID-19 has demonstrated that viruses don’t know borders and Canada’s health-care system relies on the health of people all over the globe.

- Canadian Press


11:55 a.m. EDT

Trudeau promises ‘stronger measures’ for screening at Canada-U.S. border

Justin Trudeau says Canada will need stronger screening measures to deal with an anticipated increase in the number of people entering the country from the United States.

But the Prime Minister is not saying whether he expects the Canada-U.S. border to reopen when a mutual ban on non-essential travel expires next week.

Trudeau says the federal government plans to be “very, very careful” in dealing with an increase in cross-border traffic as businesses reopen and restrictions on personal mobility are slowly eased in both countries.

Some provincial premiers, however – most notably Ontario’s Doug Ford – have made it clear they don’t want to allow U.S. visitors for fear of spreading the virus, which is rampant south of the border.

Also Tuesday, Canada’s chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam advised extreme caution when it comes to reopening the border.

Tam says Canada needs to see what happens when it eases its own public health measures to contain the virus before allowing foreign travel again.

It will also depend on the international epidemiology.

She says Canada should be looking carefully at the United States’ COVID-19 situation before allowing cross-border travel.

Canada and the U.S. negotiated a partial closure of the border in March that has impeded vacationers and cross-border shoppers while allowing essential workers, trade and commerce to continue to move in both directions.

That deal, which has already been extended once, is set to expire May 21.

- Canadian Press


10:30 a.m. EDT

Canadian prisoner files lawsuit over safety of inmates

A prisoner and several human rights organizations have filed a constitutional challenge against the federal government over the safety of inmates during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sean Johnston and the organizations that include the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the Canadian Prison Law Association are trying to compel the government to take proactive steps to ensure prisoners’ safety.

They say they’d like to see the timely release of federal prisoners, especially for older inmates or those who have underlying health conditions.

The suit alleges Correctional Service Canada cannot keep prisoners safe because it cannot ensure the proper physical distancing measures without reducing the prison population.

Johnston is serving a life sentence in an Ontario prison for murder and says many inmates remain in cells with bunkbeds.

As of Monday, more than 200 federal prisoners have tested positive for COVID-19 and two inmates have died of the disease.

-The Canadian Press


10:30 a.m. EDT

Ontario reports slower growth in COVID cases

Ontario is reporting 361 new cases of COVID-19 today, and 56 more deaths.

That brings the province to a total of 20,907 cases, including 1,725 deaths and 15,391 cases that have been resolved.

The new cases represent an increase of 1.8 per cent over the previous day.

Hospitalizations, the number of people in intensive care and those on ventilator all dropped slightly.

-The Canadian Press


10:15 a.m. EDT

Ontario’s nurses say COVID-19 pandemic highlights need for sweeping reforms

The organization representing Ontario’s nurses says the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for sweeping reforms to the province’s health-care system.

The Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario is updating its previous calls for change in part by incorporating lessons learned from the deadly outbreak that’s killed at least 1,600 people in the province so far.

The Association says the health-care system is too focused on hospitals and should instead concentrate on providing comprehensive primary care for all.

It sets out 13 recommendations in a report dubbed ECCO 3.0.

Those recommendations include a call to integrate long-term care homes in Ontario’s regional health teams to ensure they don’t fall through the cracks of the health-care system.

Other recommendations include extending primary care into settings like homeless shelters, modernizing staffing and housing models in congregate care settings, and expanding primary care to include addiction and mental health services.

-The Canadian Press


Open this photo in gallery:

Bryan Adams appears as a witness at a Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage in Ottawa in this 2018 file photo.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

9:30 a.m. EDT

Bryan Adams faces backlash over social media posts

Singer Bryan Adams is facing backlash over social media posts on the novel coronavirus that some critics are calling racist.

On Twitter and Instagram, Adams blamed the global pandemic on “(expletive) bat eating, wet market animal selling, virus making greedy bastards.”

He said his message to those people is to “go vegan,” which is a diet he’s had for decades.

Adams also decried the impact of the virus on the world, noting the cancellation of a series of shows he was set to play in England.

The tweet appears to have since been deleted while the Instagram post was still up this morning, though it seems comments have been closed.

Many on social media condemned Adams’s comments as racist, saying he was contributing to anti-Chinese rhetoric surrounding the virus.

Others accused the rocker of losing sight of the true victims of a pandemic that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives worldwide.

“It is not my intention to ‘go at’ or ‘cancel’ anyone, but to identify posts like this that condone and enable acts of hate and racism. It runs counter to everything I love about Canada,” Chinese-Canadian actor Simu Liu wrote on Twitter.

“I hope Bryan does better for the millions who look up to him like I do. #BummerOf69.”

-The Canadian Press


4 a.m. EDT

Ottawa and Washington discuss cross-border traffic

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland says Ottawa and Washington are working on plans to deal with an increase in cross-border traffic as states and provinces begin reopening.

There’s currently a Canada-U.S. ban on non-essential travel, which is set to expire next week.

British Columbia is allowing a partial reopening of its economy starting May 19, right after the Victoria Day long weekend.

The mayor of the provincial capital says the city wants to lend some support by spicing up the downtown core.

Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps said Monday the recipe for a successful restaurant recovery during the COVID-19 pandemic could involve adding outdoor patios, parking lots, sidewalks and even streets to allow for physical distancing.

Vancouver’s council is also preparing to debate the issue today.

Ontario, one of the provinces hardest hit by COVID-19, is expected to extend its state of emergency to June 2, as retail stores were allowed to partly reopen.

The provincial legislature will sit today, while also holding question period again.

-The Canadian Press


4 a.m. EDT

Being out in public is stressful in pandemic era, new survey suggests

As restrictions to prevent the spread of COVID-19 persist, a new survey suggests more than half of Canadians find it stressful to venture out in public.

In a web survey conducted by polling firm Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies, 57 per cent of respondents said leaving their home for a public space caused anxiety.

While the figures were relatively consistent across the country, they reached a high of 64 per cent in Ontario and a low of 48 per cent in Alberta.

In comparison, 64 per cent of American respondents said they found it somewhat or very stressful to go out in public during the pandemic.

The survey was conducted May 8 to 11 among 1,526 Canadians and 1,004 Americans, 18 or older, who were randomly recruited from an online panel.

Since polls created from Internet panels are not random samples, however, the survey can’t be assigned a margin of error.

-The Canadian Press


4 a.m. EDT

Archaic paper records submitted by fax hold up real-time COVID-19 data

Health research experts say the archaic way Canada records deaths means the country could be missing out on data important to addressing the COVID-19 crisis.

When someone dies in Canada, a doctor typically fills out a death certificate on paper and faxes it to the provincial body responsible for processing those statistics.

That means it can take several years to get verified data about the number of people who die in a given year.

Laura Rosella, an associate professor of public health at the University of Toronto, says the system is not set up for immediate feedback about mortality.

That makes it difficult to find out if there’s been an increase in the overall number of deaths since COVID-19 struck, and use the data to inform immediate actions.

Chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam says Canada had already been trying to improve the process for overdose deaths, and plans to try to use the same methods to get more timely access to COVID-19 data.

-The Canadian Press


2:30 a.m. EDT

Aid for food processors may be months away

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada says it is still finalizing the details on who will qualify and the requirements for the $77.5-million Emergency Processing Fund intended to help food processors adapt to COVID-19 protocols, including gaining access to more protective equipment for workers.

The fund announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last week is also supposed to help upgrade and reopen shuttered meat facilities that have had to close after becoming infected by COVID-19.

But processors may not be able to access the funding for months, with the department saying aid will be distributed no later than September 30th.

Meat-processing company Cargill has been forced to temporarily close two of its Canadian plants due to COVID-19 outbreaks.

The company says it has installed transparent shields between workers’ stations where possible, supplied protective gear, and put on shuttle buses modified for safety so workers don’t have to carpool.

-The Canadian Press


Our Morning Update and Evening Update newsletters are written by Globe editors, giving you a concise summary of the day’s most important headlines. Sign up today.

Follow related authors and topics

Authors and topics you follow will be added to your personal news feed in Following.

Interact with The Globe