Canada’s health minister says even as several provinces and sectors engage in a “cautious reopening,” people need to understand that the coronavirus outbreak is “not over.” Her message came as the number of COVID-19 cases in Canada exceeded 60,000.
Patty Hajdu said Monday that “the new normal will have to include new ways of living, new ways of working, that will protect us in this unique and difficult time.”
The number of known coronavirus cases around the world has topped 3.5 million, according to a tracking tool maintained by Johns Hopkins University, with nearly 250,000 recorded COVID-19-related deaths.
As of 7:30 p.m. ET, Canada accounted for 60,772 presumptive and confirmed coronavirus cases. Provinces and territories listed 26,030 cases as recovered or resolved. A tally maintained by CBC News based on provincial health data, regional health information and CBC’s reporting lists 3,981 coronavirus-related deaths in Canada, with two known COVID-19-linked deaths of Canadians abroad.
As provinces slowly begin to reopen their economies from pandemic lockdowns, Health Minister Patty Hajdu says Canadians need to remember that ‘it’s not over’ yet. 1:36
Governments around the world have been scrambling to try and slow the spread of the virus, build up health systems and sort out how to conduct testing on a large scale. In some areas — including provinces across Canada — those same governments are also looking forward to how they will exit the lockdowns put in place to respond to the pandemic.
Several provinces are taking some steps toward what many officials have called the “new” normal.
Ontario took its first steps Monday with the reopening of some businesses, including lawn care and landscaping, garden centres for curbside pickup, automatic and self-serve car washes, auto dealerships by appointment, and many construction projects.
In Quebec, the hardest hit province in terms of numbers of cases and deaths, Premier François Legault announced Monday the province will delay the planned reopening of retail stores and other non-essential businesses in the greater Montreal area by one week, to May 18. Construction and manufacturing sectors across Quebec will reopen, as scheduled, on May 11, as will non-essential businesses outside the Montreal region.
Quebec Premier François Legault says the province is pushing back the reopening of non-essential businesses in the Montreal area until May 18. 1:19
In most of Saskatchewan, non-urgent medical offices are allowed to reopen and rules around some outdoor activities — including fishing and boating — are being loosened. But one owner of a physiotherapy clinic told CBC Saskatchewan she’s got mixed emotions about opening up.
“It’s very apparent that there is a huge need that’s getting missed,” said Alison Matsyk, who is a physiotherapist and owner of Stapleford Health and Rehab Centre. “The nervousness part comes with, ‘What’s it going to be like? What’s our risk?'”
Newfoundland and Labrador recently followed New Brunswick’s lead and allowed families to come together in “bubbles” made up of two households. But on Monday, Health Minister John Haggie told CBC Radio’s St. John’s Morning Show that some of what he was hearing on social media after the first weekend of “bubble” families was a “a little bit worrying.”
Haggie said he is concerned people are moving too quickly, and urged them to slow down, just “nudge [the door] open gently.”
Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, said Monday that even as things begin to reopen, people will have to keep practising physical distancing and cough etiquette, and stay home at the first sign of symptoms. Working while sick, for example, can no longer be allowed, Tam said, noting that this will be a challenge and require support from workplaces and governments.
Workplaces will be dramatically different, if and when everyone returns to work, says one expert, but there could be some advantages. 5:49
The novel virus, for which there is no proven treatment or vaccine, first emerged in China and has since spread around the world. Public health officials have cautioned that actual infection numbers could be much higher, as recorded numbers don’t account for people who haven’t been tested or cases still under investigation.
Contact tracing
There is also increased discussion and debate around contact tracing. Ontario’s premier is calling for a national strategy. Doug Ford says he spoke with Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland on Monday about the matter and planned to make the case to his provincial counterparts this week.
Contact tracing is a labour-intensive containment strategy in which each person diagnosed with COVID-19 is not only isolated but questioned about any behaviour that might have caused anyone in their social circle to also be infected. It is widely regarded as a key step to containing future waves or outbreaks as COVID-19 restrictions are eased.
A spokesperson for Freeland, Katherine Cuplinskas, said the deputy prime minister agrees that a “united approach” to contact tracing “will be key to a safe, prudent economic reopening.”
Global push for a vaccine
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took part Monday in an international pledging conference sponsored by the European Union to raise more than $11 billion for long-term COVID-19 vaccine research. Ottawa had already promised $859 million for the effort.
When asked why Canada didn’t offer new money on Monday, Trudeau said the event was only the beginning of the effort to find, manufacture and distribute a vaccine to fight the pandemic.
The United States has refused to contribute to the global effort.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he’s encouraging all countries to pull together to fight the pandemic as the U.S. steers clear of a vaccine pledging conference. 1:13
Read on for a look at what’s happening in Canada, the U.S. and around the world.
Here’s what’s happening in the provinces and territories
Manitoba reported no new cases Monday, as it lifted some COVID-19–related restrictions. Manitobans can now visit everything from hair salons to museums to restaurant patios (with fewer seats than normal) provided everyone is following public health rules. Read more about what’s happening in Manitoba.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford says the province is now exceeding its goal of 16,000 COVID-19 tests per day, and that more services are ‘getting close’ to opening up. 2:52
Health-care workers are shown at a mobile COVID-19 test clinic in the Montreal neighbourhood of Saint-Michel on Sunday. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)
Prince Edward Island Premier Dennis King says the first weekend of Phase 1 reopening went well. “I drove around a bit, I saw a lot of people fishing on the banks of the streams and ponds and they were all distanced more than what they would have needed to be,” he said Monday.Read more about what’s happening on P.E.I.
Additional support has been brought in to some long-term care homes facing COVID-19 outbreaks. David Common talks to staff and the health-care workers brought in for support to hear what’s happening inside. 3:18
Newfoundland and Labrador recorded a third straight day with no new COVID-19 cases Monday, making it seven days without new cases in the past eight. The province plans to move to alert Level 4 on May 11, meaning a relaxation of some public health measures to allow more social and business activities. The province has reported a total of 259 cases, with three deaths. Read more about what’s happening in N.L.
Several U.S. states on Monday planned to ease more restrictions on businesses even as President Donald Trump acknowledged that as many as 100,000 Americans could die in the pandemic, exceeding recent White House projections.
In Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine was allowing construction and manufacturing to reopen, and letting office workers return. Retail shops and many consumer services are due to resume operations on May 12.
To reopen, businesses must meet state requirements that workers wear face coverings and stay at least two metres apart, and employers sanitize their workplaces. DeWine has urged as many workers as possible to work from home.
A food server wearing a protective face mask waits on customers at the Parkshore Grill restaurant Monday, May 4, 2020, in St. Petersburg, Fla. Several restaurants are reopening with a 25 per cent capacity as part of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ plan to stop the spread of the coronavirus. (Chris O’Meara/The Associated Press)
About half of all U.S. states have lifted shutdowns, at least partially, as the number of new cases of the COVID-19 illness has begun to decline or level off in many places, though infections are still rising in others.
Health experts have warned of a possible resurgence of the virus if states rush to restart their battered economies too early and without a widespread testing and tracing network in place.
COVID-19 has infected more than 1.1 million people in the U.S. and killed more than 68,000, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
As recently as Friday, the president had said he hoped fewer than 100,000 Americans would die and earlier in the week had talked of 60,000 to 70,000 deaths.
As of last week, the University of Washington’s IHME predictive model, often cited by White House officials and state public health authorities, projected a first wave of 72,400 COVID-19 deaths in the U.S.
A person gets his temperature checked before being allowed into a Mt. Sinai Hospital building on May 4, 2020 in New York City. Mt. Sinai reports that the surge in COVID-19 hospital admissions is reaching manageable levels. (Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)
Scott Gottlieb, a former Food and Drug Administration commissioner, said on Sunday the country was seeing a “mixed bag” of results from mitigation efforts.
He said about 20 states had experienced a rising number of new cases including Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, North Carolina Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. Virginia reported a record number of deaths on Sunday, up 44 for a total of 660.
“We expected that we would start seeing more significant declines in new cases and deaths around the nation at this point. And we’re just not seeing that,” he said on CBS’s Face the Nation. “If we don’t snuff this out more and you have this slow burn of infection, it can ignite at any time.”
Here’s a look at what’s happening around the world
From The Associated Press and Reuters, updated at 3:30 p.m. ET
The World Health Organization (WHO) says it has received no evidence or data from the U.S. government to back up claims by President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that they have seen evidence that the coronavirus have originated at a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
“From our perspective, this remains speculative,” WHO emergencies chief Dr. Michael Ryan said. “But like any evidence-based organization, we would be very willing to receive any information that purports to the origin of the virus.”
Ryan reiterated that the evidence and advice that the UN health agency has received suggest that the novel coronavirus is of natural origin.
“If that data and evidence is available, then it will be for the United States government to decide whether and when it can be shared,” Ryan told reporters in Geneva. “But it’s difficult for WHO to operate in an information vacuum in that specific regard.”
The World Health Organization says that as countries reopen services, they need to assess how much of the coronavirus is in circulation and weigh it against the increased risk raised by social gatherings. 3:15
In Italy, The number of people currently positive for coronavirus has dropped to below 100,000. As Europe’s hardest-hit country began a gradual reopening from a two-month-long lockdown on Monday, Italy registered the lowest number of new positives since the day the lockdown took effect, at 1,221, bringing the total of coronavirus cases to 211,938 since the first case of domestic transmission of the virus was detected on Feb. 21.
The CBC’s Megan Williams reports from Rome while riding her bike on the day millions of Italians go back to work. 3:59
Russia reported a steady rise in the number of infections Monday, fuelling concerns the nation’s hospitals could be overwhelmed. The country’s coronavirus response centre reported 10,581 new cases for a total of 145,268, as well as 76 more deaths, bringing the death toll to 1,356. Authorities say that broader testing has contributed to a surge.
A medical worker wearing protective equipment sprays disinfectant at his ambulance after delivering a patient suspected of being infected with the coronavirus to the Pokrovskaya hospital in St.Petersburg, Russia, Monday, May 4, 2020. (Dmitri Lovetsky/The Associated Press)
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has recovered from COVID-19, is widely expected to announce a further extension to its lockdown as the U.K.’s coronavirus-related death toll heads toward becoming Europe’s highest. The U.K. has 28,446 deaths, second in the continent to Italy. Jonathan Van-Tam, the country’s deputy chief medical officer, said at the government’s daily briefing on Monday that the number of positive cases in the country remains too high.
British officials have been criticized for taking too long to take action against the COVID-19 pandemic, and now the U.K. is on the verge of having the deadliest outbreak in Europe. 6:04
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced Monday that he will extend Japan’s coronavirus state of emergency by about a month. Abe said the number of new cases has not declined enough and hospitals remain overburdened. Japan has more than 15,000 cases with 510 deaths.Abe asked people to voluntarily reduce social interactions by up to 80 per cent, but stopped short of asking businesses to close. Tokyo and several other prefectures have asked nightclubs, fitness centres, museums and other non-essential businesses to shut.
An employee works to set up a medical facility to accommodate COVID-19 patients with mild symptoms at the Nippon Foundation Para Arena in Tokyo May 4. (Behrouz Mehri/AFP via Getty Images)
Bangladesh has extended its nationwide lockdown by nearly two weeks to May 16. The extension came as the South Asian nation crossed the 10,000 mark of infections. The lockdown affects almost all public and private offices and businesses. Essential services as well as garment factories and pharmaceutical and other export-oriented manufacturing units are also operating.
India has relaxed some lockdown restrictions as the pace of infections has slightly accelerated. On Monday, some economic activities resumed after a near-total five-week halt. Normal life, albeit with masks, social distancing and stringent hygiene standards, has started to return in low-risk areas, while constraints on movement and work continues elsewhere. India has about 42,500 confirmed cases, including 1,373 deaths, and has tested more than a million samples. Still, at 758 tests per million, it is among the countries with the lowest portion of their population tested.
Men wearing personal protective equipment ride in the back of a vehicle along a street during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in New Delhi on Monday. (Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images)
Nigeria began easing restrictions on Monday in its capital Abuja and in largest city Lagos, heralding the reopening of Africa’s biggest economy after more than four weeks of lockdowns. The country has confirmed 2,558 infections and 87 deaths since recording its first case at the end of February, a much lower toll than those seen in COVID-19 hotspots in Europe and the United States.
Rwanda, Namibia and Zimbabwe also began loosening their lockdowns on Monday.
A public transport staff member offers hand sanitizer to a passenger who is about to board a bus in Lagos, Nigeria on Monday, the first day of the easing of lockdown measures imposed during the coronavirus outbreak. (Temilade Adelaja/Reuters)
Chile’s health ministry said on Monday that the world’s top copper producer has 20,643 confirmed cases, 980 more than the previous day, and 10 new deaths, taking the total number of fatalities to 270. Chile, one of South America’s most developed countries, has won praise for its handling of the coronavirus outbreak, conducting more than 200,000 tests, shutting down schools and businesses soon after the first case was confirmed at the start of March and operating rolling quarantines.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
