As a number of provinces outline plans for relaxing restrictions and reopening their economies, Canada’s parliamentary budget officer warns the federal deficit for the year could hit $252.1 billion as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Those numbers are based on the nearly $146 billion in spending measures the government has undertaken in response to the pandemic, the decline in the country’s gross domestic product, and the price of oil remaining well below previous expectations.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau defended the government’s spending in his daily COVID-19 press briefing Thursday, saying Canada needs to invest now to make sure an economic recovery will be possible, “as quickly as possible.”
“Canadians are strong and resilient people, and our economy was in great shape before going into this,” Trudeau said. “There will be a time after this is all done … where we will have to make next decisions on how that recovery looks, but right now our focus is on getting through this as a country.”
A sign on a closed theatre encourages local residents in High River, Alta., amid the worldwide COVID-19 flu pandemic. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press)
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney announced a three-stage plan to reopen Alberta’s economy Thursday. The plan will begin next week with the resumption of some non-urgent surgeries and office reopenings for service providers such as dentists, physiotherapists, speech and respiratory therapists.
Provided there is no surge in infection rates, the province will move to Stage 1 of its relaunch May 14, when some retail stores and businesses will be able to reopen. Those will include clothing and furniture stores, hair salons and barber shops, museums and galleries, and restaurants and bars, as long as they maintain only 50 per cent capacity.
“A full return to normal won’t come until there is an effective vaccine or treatment, or until the virus is no longer here to threaten us,” Kenney said in a news conference from Edmonton.
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney announced a 3-stage plan to reopen Alberta amid the COVID-19 pandemic. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press)
Access to provincial parks and public lands will also be reopened using a phased-in approach. Alberta Parks’ online reservations will be available May 14 to book site visits beginning June 1.
Physical distancing guidelines will be maintained and gatherings will be limited to 15 or fewer people. Arts and culture festivals, major sporting events, and concerts, movie theatres, theatres, swimming pools, recreation centres, arenas, spas, gyms and nightclubs will all remain closed.
Stage 2, which has no firm date attached, would see things like the potential reopening of kindergarten to Grade 12 schools, and access to more personal services, such as artificial tanning, manicures, pedicures, waxing and massage. Theatres could also reopen under specific restrictions and larger gatherings would be permitted.
Stage 3 would see the return of arts and culture festivals, nightclubs, gyms and pools, and non-essential travel.
Earlier in the day, Dr. Janice Fitzgerald, Newfoundland and Labrador’s chief medical officer of health, unveiled a five-stage plan for relaxing public health restrictions in that province.
The plan comes as the province marks the fourth straight day with no new COVID-19 cases. The only immediate rule change is the expansion of the household “bubble” — the immediate group that people live and interact with under public health restrictions. Now, households can pick a second household to spend time with.
Fitzgerald’s update came on the same day as Ontario Premier Doug Ford offered further guidance to businesses on how they should go about reopening. In a news briefing, Ford said he was “laser-focused” on reopening the province’s economy, as the infection curve in Ontario is flattening.
Manitoba unveiled its own phased plan for reopening some sectors of the economy on Wednesday. Prince Edward Island and Quebec have also offered glimpses of what the coming months might hold.
Also on Thursday, Nunavut reported its first confirmed case of COVID-19, according to a media release. In the release, Nunavut’s chief public health officer, Dr. Michael Patterson, wrote that such news “was only a matter of time” and that the individual is currently in isolation and doing well.
“We ask people not to place any blame, not to shame and to support communities and each other as we overcome COVID-19 in Nunavut,” Premier Joe Savikataaq was quoted as saying in the release.
WATCH | Nunavut confirms first COVID-19 case in the territory:
As of 8:00 p.m. ET on Thursday, there were 53,236 confirmed and presumptive coronavirus cases in Canada, with 21,437 of the cases considered resolved or recovered. The CBC tally puts coronavirus-related deaths at 3,279 in Canada and another two deaths of Canadians abroad.
The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. The Public Health Agency of Canada says the risk varies between and within communities, “but given the increasing number of cases in Canada, the risk to Canadians is considered high.”
Read on for a look at what’s happening in Canada, the U.S. and around the world.
A meat processing plant in Alberta that is at the centre of a COVID-19 outbreak is set to reopen on May 4 with one shift, a decision the union for workers at the High River facility has described as “incredibly concerning.” The Cargill plant has been linked to more than 1,200 cases. Read more about what’s happening in Alberta.
WATCH | Fort McMurray tries to manage devastating flood during pandemic:
Some COVID-19 restrictions for physical distancing have had to be removed in Fort McMurray as it tries to mitigate further damage from a devastating flood that has forced more than 13,000 people from their homes. 1:53
Manitoba is going to start easing some of its COVID-19-related restrictions starting on Monday by allowing dentists, physiotherapists, retail stores, hair salons and restaurant patios to open at no more than 50 per cent capacity. Campgrounds, museums, libraries and art galleries will also be allowed to reopen, and all will have to maintain physical distancing and comply with public health restrictions. Read more about what’s happening in Manitoba.
At his daily briefing on Thursday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced 65 new safety guidelines for businesses as the province prepares for a gradual reopening. “We’re on the path to reopening the economy because we see that curve is flattening,” Ford said. “I’m laser focused on opening things up as quickly as we can.” The province reported 459 additional cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, a figure consistent with new daily case counts seen throughout much of April. Read more about what’s happening in Ontario.
The death rate from COVID-19 in Quebec will remain very high for the foreseeable future, Premier François Legault warned Thursday, even as he sought to address criticism of his government’s plan to ease pandemic restrictions in the coming weeks. Of the 98 new deaths recorded in the past 24 hours in the province, 92 have been of seniors in care. Read more about what’s happening in Quebec.
WATCH | It’s time to be more disciplined than ever, Legault says
Quebec Premier François Legault says despite plans to reopen Montreal, he won’t hesitate to delay it if people don’t behave appropriately. 1:02
New Brunswick reported no new cases for the 12th day in a row. Still, Premier Blaine Higgs extended emergency measures for another two weeks, with some revisions. Read more about what’s happening in N.B.
WATCH | How New Brunswick avoided a potential COVID-19 catastrophe:
New Brunswick is home to Canada’s oldest and unhealthiest population, but has so far come through the COVID-19 pandemic with few hospitalizations and no deaths. 2:01
Health officials have identified 12 new cases of COVID-19 in Nova Scotia, bringing the province’s total to 947, while the number of deaths remains at 28. Most of the deaths have occurred at the Northwood long-term care facility in Halifax. The home is facing the most significant outbreak of any facility in the province, with 208 residents and 73 staff infected as of Wednesday. Read more about what’s happening in N.S.
Prince Edward Island’s premier is reminding people that the first phase of reopening that begins this week doesn’t mean a return to normal.“All of us, we have had to make painful and disruptive adjustments to our lives. I wish I could tell you that that would end on May 1, but that wouldn’t be the truth,” Dennis King said. Read more about what’s happening in P.E.I, including how the virus’s spread is ensuring tourists won’t be coming to the Island anytime soon.
WATCH | COVID-19 could be more severe in people with asthma:
People with asthma aren’t at higher risk of getting COVID-19, but an infection could result in more severe symptoms. 0:52
Newfoundland and Labrador unveiled the provincial government’s five-stage plan for relaxing public health restrictions Thursday, including benchmarks that need to be met as the province progresses from present conditions — what it calls Level 5 — to living with COVID-19, which is Level 1. The first step was announcing the expansion of the household “bubble” — the immediate group that people live and interact with under public health restrictions. Now, households can pick a second household to spend time with. Read more about what’s happening in N.L.
Nunavut reported its first case of COVID-19 on Thursday, with the individual reportedly in isolation and otherwise good health.The Northwest Territories has released a broad overview of how it plans to handle reopening amid COVID-19. The plan, which begins with a “response” stage, then a “recovery” stage, before moving to “resiliency,” had few specifics, sparking concern from the opposition. Read more about what’s happening across the North.
What’s happening in the U.S.
From Reuters and The Associated Press, updated at 7:00 p.m. ET
Confirmed infections globally have reached about 3.2 million, including one million in the U.S., according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. The true numbers of deaths and infections is likely much higher because of limited testing, differences in counting the dead and concealment by some governments.
Volunteers prepare groceries to be given out at a drive-thru Three Square Food Bank emergency food distribution site at Boulder Station Hotel & Casino in Nevada Wednesday in response to an increase in demand amid the coronavirus pandemic. (David Becker/AFP/Getty Images)
Government figures released Thursday showed that 3.8 million laid-off workers applied for jobless benefits in the U.S. last week, raising the total to about 30.3 million in the six weeks since the outbreak forced the shutdown of factories and other businesses from coast to coast.
The U.S. unemployment rate for April is due late next week, and economists have said it could range as high as 20 per cent — a level last seen during the Depression.
Later Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said U.S. state and local governments could need close to $1 trillion US in aid over several years to cope with the aftermath of the pandemic, as lawmakers began plotting more coronavirus relief legislation.
Also Thursday, world equity benchmarks saw their best month in 11 years as a rebound in oil prices, expectations of more government stimulus, and encouraging early results from a COVID-19 treatment trial helped ease the pain of February and March.
WATCH | Excitement, caution follows upbeat news about trial of antiviral drug for COVID-19:
‘We were looking for a win,’ said Dr. Isaac Bogoch, but he tempered that optimism by pointing out the need to have a look at all the data and determine how remdesivir can be used. 7:28
Meanwhile, California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday ordered all state beaches closed after people flocked to the seashore in a few locations last weekend. The governor said he hopes the order won’t last very long. But he said he felt he had to do it to protect public health.
An Orange County official, where one of the state beaches is located, called it “an overreaction,” as residents have been following physical distancing guidelines. Some beaches under county jurisdiction have already been closed during the crisis.
What’s happening around the world
From The Associated Press and Reuters, updated at 3:30 p.m. ET
Spain recorded its lowest daily coronavirus death tally in six weeks on Thursday, but data showing the economy shrank by the widest margin on record in the first three months of the year laid bare the heavy cost of measures to control the outbreak. The death toll stood Thursday at about 24,500 after an increase of 268 in the last 24 hours, or 57 less than the increase the day before. The caseload is officially more than 213,000, although Spain is not counting untested infections or those that are becoming known through antibody tests, which mostly identify patients after they have passed the COVID-19 disease.
Staff direct traffic as key workers arrive for a test for COVID-19 at a drive-in testing centre at Glasgow Airport on Wednesday. (Andrew Milligan/AFP/ Getty Images)
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Britain was now past the peak of its coronavirus outbreak and promised to set out a lockdown exit strategy next week, despite rising deaths and criticism of his government’s response. The government has been criticized for failing to catch most cases of COVID-19 and now says wide-scale testing will be key to controlling the virus and easing a nationwide lockdown. Earlier this month it vowed to perform 100,000 tests a day by April 30. The number has been climbing steadily, but the highest daily total reached so far is 52,000.
In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel says authorities will allow religious services to resume and let museums, zoos, galleries and playgrounds reopen as part of the gradual loosening of the pandemic lockdown. Merkel said after meeting with governors of Germany’s 16 states that it was important to remain “disciplined” to ensure successful efforts to curb the coronavirus outbreak aren’t undone.
She acknowledged the impact that the lockdown measures have had on the economy and social life, but said officials wanted to wait until next week before considering lifting restrictions on kindergartens and most schools.
General view of a drive-in coronavirus testing facility in Berlin on Thursday. (John MacDougall/AFP/Getty Images)
Denmark, the first country outside Asia to ease its lockdown, said the spread of COVID-19 has not accelerated since the gradual loosening of restrictions began in mid-April.
COVID-19 appeared to come late to Russia, compared with North America and Europe, but now, it’s striking with a vengeance, the damage compounded by the lack of personal protective equipment for hospital workers. The country surged past 100,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with approximately 1,000 reported deaths. Those are extremely low numbers compared with the experience of western Europe. Still, many doctors — even those sympathetic to the government — have told CBC News part of the challenge is that Russia’s tests return an unusually large number of false negative results. On Thursday, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin told President Vladimir Putin that he had been diagnosed with the coronavirus.
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to extend the ongoing coronavirus state of emergency beyond its scheduled end on May 6. Abe said Thursday that hospitals are still overburdened and medical workers are under severe pressure to deal with the still-rising number of patients. Abe said he will consult with experts to decide how long the measures should be extended. Local officials and medical experts have called for another month’s extension nationwide. Japan still had more than 200 new cases overnight, bringing a national total to some 14,000 cases, with 415 deaths.
South Korea reported no new domestic cases. The national tally stood at 10,765, while the death toll rose by one to 247.
Indonesia’s confirmed COVID-19 cases have surpassed 10,000. The government reported nearly 350 new cases, bringing the country’s total to over 10,000 with almost 800 deaths as of Thursday. The country also reported there are more than 1,500 patients who have recovered.
A medical worker wears a protective suit after checking the homeless in Jakarta after Indonesian authorities prepared the sports halls for homeless people to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. (Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana/Reuters)
Total reported coronavirus cases in Brazil soared to 78,162, with 449 deaths in the last 24 hours.
The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says coronavirus cases across the continent have increased 37 per cent in the past week. Africa now has more than 36,000 cases, including more than 1,500 deaths.
Trucks wait in a line on the road to enter Uganda in Malaba, a city in western Kenya, on Wednesday. All truck drivers must take a test for COVID-19 and wait 24 hours to get the result. The driver must stay inside the truck and is only allowed to get off to unload at the destination. (Brian Ongoro/AFP/Getty Images)
While the continent’s capacity to test for the virus is growing, shortages of test kits remain across Africa. That means more cases could be out there. But the head of policy with the Africa CDC, Benjamin Djoudalbaye, tells reporters that the virus “is not something you can hide.”
In South Africa, which has the most cases in Africa with more than 5,300, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize says that authorities are “very hopeful we have averted the first storm.”
The country has been praised for testing assertively and will slightly loosen a five-week lockdown on Friday.
WATCH | Dr. Theresa Tam on WHO response to COVID-19, reopening Canada:
Part 3 of 3 of Rosemary Barton’s exclusive interview with Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam on the WHO’s response to COVID-19, reopening Canada and the personal stresses that come with her job. 11:55
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. syphilis epidemic slowed dramatically last year, gonorrhea cases fell and chlamydia cases remained below prepandemic levels, according to federal data released Tuesday.
The numbers represented some good news about sexually transmitted diseases, which experienced some alarming increases in past years due to declining condom use, inadequate sex education, and reduced testing and treatment when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
Last year, cases of the most infectious stages of syphilis fell 10% from the year before — the first substantial decline in more than two decades. Gonorrhea cases dropped 7%, marking a second straight year of decline and bringing the number below what it was in 2019.
“I’m encouraged, and it’s been a long time since I felt that way” about the nation’s epidemic of sexually transmitted infections, said the CDC’s Dr. Jonathan Mermin. “Something is working.”
More than 2.4 million cases of syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia were diagnosed and reported last year — 1.6 million cases of chlamydia, 600,000 of gonorrhea, and more than 209,000 of syphilis.
Syphilis is a particular concern. For centuries, it was a common but feared infection that could deform the body and end in death. New cases plummeted in the U.S. starting in the 1940s when infection-fighting antibiotics became widely available, and they trended down for a half century after that. By 2002, however, cases began rising again, with men who have sex with other men being disproportionately affected.
The new report found cases of syphilis in their early, most infectious stages dropped 13% among gay and bisexual men. It was the first such drop since the agency began reporting data for that group in the mid-2000s.
However, there was a 12% increase in the rate of cases of unknown- or later-stage syphilis — a reflection of people infected years ago.
Cases of syphilis in newborns, passed on from infected mothers, also rose. There were nearly 4,000 cases, including 279 stillbirths and infant deaths.
“This means pregnant women are not being tested often enough,” said Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, a professor of medicine at the University of Southern California.
What caused some of the STD trends to improve? Several experts say one contributor is the growing use of an antibiotic as a “morning-after pill.” Studies have shown that taking doxycycline within 72 hours of unprotected sex cuts the risk of developing syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia.
In June, the CDC started recommending doxycycline as a morning-after pill, specifically for gay and bisexual men and transgender women who recently had an STD diagnosis. But health departments and organizations in some cities had been giving the pills to people for a couple years.
Some experts believe that the 2022 mpox outbreak — which mainly hit gay and bisexual men — may have had a lingering effect on sexual behavior in 2023, or at least on people’s willingness to get tested when strange sores appeared.
Another factor may have been an increase in the number of health workers testing people for infections, doing contact tracing and connecting people to treatment. Congress gave $1.2 billion to expand the workforce over five years, including $600 million to states, cities and territories that get STD prevention funding from CDC.
Last year had the “most activity with that funding throughout the U.S.,” said David Harvey, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors.
However, Congress ended the funds early as a part of last year’s debt ceiling deal, cutting off $400 million. Some people already have lost their jobs, said a spokeswoman for Harvey’s organization.
Still, Harvey said he had reasons for optimism, including the growing use of doxycycline and a push for at-home STD test kits.
Also, there are reasons to think the next presidential administration could get behind STD prevention. In 2019, then-President Donald Trump announced a campaign to “eliminate” the U.S. HIV epidemic by 2030. (Federal health officials later clarified that the actual goal was a huge reduction in new infections — fewer than 3,000 a year.)
There were nearly 32,000 new HIV infections in 2022, the CDC estimates. But a boost in public health funding for HIV could also also help bring down other sexually transmitted infections, experts said.
“When the government puts in resources, puts in money, we see declines in STDs,” Klausner said.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists can’t know precisely when a volcano is about to erupt, but they can sometimes pick up telltale signs.
That happened two years ago with the world’s largest active volcano. About two months before Mauna Loa spewed rivers of glowing orange molten lava, geologists detected small earthquakes nearby and other signs, and they warned residents on Hawaii‘s Big Island.
Now a study of the volcano’s lava confirms their timeline for when the molten rock below was on the move.
“Volcanoes are tricky because we don’t get to watch directly what’s happening inside – we have to look for other signs,” said Erik Klemetti Gonzalez, a volcano expert at Denison University, who was not involved in the study.
Upswelling ground and increased earthquake activity near the volcano resulted from magma rising from lower levels of Earth’s crust to fill chambers beneath the volcano, said Kendra Lynn, a research geologist at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory and co-author of a new study in Nature Communications.
When pressure was high enough, the magma broke through brittle surface rock and became lava – and the eruption began in late November 2022. Later, researchers collected samples of volcanic rock for analysis.
The chemical makeup of certain crystals within the lava indicated that around 70 days before the eruption, large quantities of molten rock had moved from around 1.9 miles (3 kilometers) to 3 miles (5 kilometers) under the summit to a mile (2 kilometers) or less beneath, the study found. This matched the timeline the geologists had observed with other signs.
The last time Mauna Loa erupted was in 1984. Most of the U.S. volcanoes that scientists consider to be active are found in Hawaii, Alaska and the West Coast.
Worldwide, around 585 volcanoes are considered active.
Scientists can’t predict eruptions, but they can make a “forecast,” said Ben Andrews, who heads the global volcano program at the Smithsonian Institution and who was not involved in the study.
Andrews compared volcano forecasts to weather forecasts – informed “probabilities” that an event will occur. And better data about the past behavior of specific volcanos can help researchers finetune forecasts of future activity, experts say.
(asterisk)We can look for similar patterns in the future and expect that there’s a higher probability of conditions for an eruption happening,” said Klemetti Gonzalez.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Waymo on Tuesday opened its robotaxi service to anyone who wants a ride around Los Angeles, marking another milestone in the evolution of self-driving car technology since the company began as a secret project at Google 15 years ago.
The expansion comes eight months after Waymo began offering rides in Los Angeles to a limited group of passengers chosen from a waiting list that had ballooned to more than 300,000 people. Now, anyone with the Waymo One smartphone app will be able to request a ride around an 80-square-mile (129-square-kilometer) territory spanning the second largest U.S. city.
After Waymo received approval from California regulators to charge for rides 15 months ago, the company initially chose to launch its operations in San Francisco before offering a limited service in Los Angeles.
Before deciding to compete against conventional ride-hailing pioneers Uber and Lyft in California, Waymo unleashed its robotaxis in Phoenix in 2020 and has been steadily extending the reach of its service in that Arizona city ever since.
Driverless rides are proving to be more than just a novelty. Waymo says it now transports more than 50,000 weekly passengers in its robotaxis, a volume of business numbers that helped the company recently raise $5.6 billion from its corporate parent Alphabet and a list of other investors that included venture capital firm Andreesen Horowitz and financial management firm T. Rowe Price.
“Our service has matured quickly and our riders are embracing the many benefits of fully autonomous driving,” Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana said in a blog post.
Despite its inroads, Waymo is still believed to be losing money. Although Alphabet doesn’t disclose Waymo’s financial results, the robotaxi is a major part of an “Other Bets” division that had suffered an operating loss of $3.3 billion through the first nine months of this year, down from a setback of $4.2 billion at the same time last year.
But Waymo has come a long way since Google began working on self-driving cars in 2009 as part of project “Chauffeur.” Since its 2016 spinoff from Google, Waymo has established itself as the clear leader in a robotaxi industry that’s getting more congested.
Electric auto pioneer Tesla is aiming to launch a rival “Cybercab” service by 2026, although its CEO Elon Musk said he hopes the company can get the required regulatory clearances to operate in Texas and California by next year.
Tesla’s projected timeline for competing against Waymo has been met with skepticism because Musk has made unfulfilled promises about the company’s self-driving car technology for nearly a decade.
Meanwhile, Waymo’s robotaxis have driven more than 20 million fully autonomous miles and provided more than 2 million rides to passengers without encountering a serious accident that resulted in its operations being sidelined.
That safety record is a stark contrast to one of its early rivals, Cruise, a robotaxi service owned by General Motors. Cruise’s California license was suspended last year after one of its driverless cars in San Francisco dragged a jaywalking pedestrian who had been struck by a different car driven by a human.
Cruise is now trying to rebound by joining forces with Uber to make some of its services available next year in U.S. cities that still haven’t been announced. But Waymo also has forged a similar alliance with Uber to dispatch its robotaxi in Atlanta and Austin, Texas next year.
Another robotaxi service, Amazon’s Zoox, is hoping to begin offering driverless rides to the general public in Las Vegas at some point next year before also launching in San Francisco.
