Canada hit another grim milestone in the COVID-19 crisis today, with the number of deaths exceeding 3,000. As of early evening, there were 3,133 deaths, and 51,597 cases.
The news came just after Manitoba became the latest province to release details on how it plans to lift COVID-19 restrictions and restart some sectors of the economy, with Premier Brian Pallister saying people will be dealing with a new normal as officials try to prevent a “COVID comeback.”
Pallister said some restrictions will be lifted beginning May 4. Non-urgent health care, ranging from dentistry and physiotherapy to elective surgery, will be allowed to operate again. Rules around outdoor recreation will also be loosened, though physical distancing will still be important, the premier said.
Some retail businesses — including clothing stores, restaurant patios and hair salons — will also be allowed to reopen.
“We must remain vigilant, and we must remain committed — we do not want a COVID comeback.”
In all cases, Pallister said, businesses will need to follow public health guidelines and ensure a safe experience for both staff and customers.
WATCH | Manitoba premier details reopening plans:
Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister outlines the province’s reopening plan which is set to begin May 4. 1:18
Pallister said health officials may look at the cap on group gatherings, but he cautioned that large-scale events like festivals and concerts aren’t likely anytime soon.
As for schools, Pallister said Manitoba is in the “early days” of the COVID-19 recovery and the presence of a large number of kids in a school makes social distancing a challenge. The province “isn’t entertaining” the idea of opening schools at this time, he said.
The second phase, which would include more personal services and indoor dining rooms, doesn’t have a firm date attached, but the province said it would be no sooner than June 1.
Members of the Canadian Armed Forces take part in a training session before deploying to seniors residences Wednesday in Montreal. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press)
Pallister’s move came a day after Quebec announced that some businesses in the hard-hit province will be reopening in May, with Premier François Legault saying the challenge is to “gradually restart the economy without restarting the pandemic.”
Canada has more than 50,000 confirmed and presumptive coronavirus cases, with more than 3,000 COVID-19-related deaths, according to a CBC News tally based on provincial data, local health information and CBC’s reporting. Quebec accounts for 26,594 of the cases and 1,761 deaths.
Legault outlined a plan that would allow some retail, construction and manufacturing operations to resume at some point next month. But the premier emphasized that the reopening of some businesses doesn’t mean that people should be congregating in groups or ignoring public health guidelines.
He also stressed the importance of continuing to protect the vulnerable, particularly those living in the province’s long-term care homes, which have seen devastating and deadly outbreaks.
At their daily briefing Wednesday, federal health officials stressed that the virus is still spreading, and that people need to keep following the guidelines for lowering the risk, such as physical distancing and hand washing.
Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam also urged workplaces to have “good plans” for when they start to reopen and employees return.
WATCH | ‘We need to do better,’ says Dr. Theresa Tam:
Canada’s chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam says the COVID-19 virus has pointed out deficiencies in workplaces’ health and safety practices. 1:38
Prince Edward Island, which has just 27 cases (with 24 considered recovered) also outlined its initial reopening plan on Tuesday. The small province is taking a phased approach — and like Saskatchewan and Quebec, it has attached specific dates to some early stages.
On May 1, P.E.I. will allow non-urgent health care to resume, a move that covers everything from cancer screenings to optometrist visits. There will also be some loosening of social restrictions, as non-related groups of up to five people will be allowed to visit — provided they are outside and at least two metres apart.
Phase 2, which allows small indoor and slightly larger outdoor gatherings, as well as more business openings, is set for May 22. Phase 3, which allows even larger gatherings and reopens some personal services, recreation facilities and restaurants in a limited way, is set for June 12. There’s no date attached to Phase 4, which the province describes as the “new normal” for P.E.I.
“We need to be cautious, we need to be careful and we need to be methodical,” P.E.I. Premier Dennis King said. “There are no programs to bring people back from the dead.”
“Some of this we’re going to have to make final decisions as we get closer to them, based on how well we do,” Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said Tuesday. “But I do hope that we will be able to begin reopening aspects of social and economic life that have currently been suspended in the month of May.”
Ontario’s recently revealed plan has a detailed framework outlining what needs to happen before restrictions can be lifted, but Premier Doug Ford has repeatedly described the plan as a roadmap, not a calendar.
WHO defends its response
The novel coronavirus, which was first reported in China in late 2019, causes an illness called COVID-19. Health officials have said most people who contract the virus experience mild to moderate symptoms, but have cautioned that older people and those with underlying health issues face a greater risk of severe illness or death.
There are no proven treatments or vaccines for the virus, though teams of researchers around the world are frantically working to find answers.
The chief of the World Health Organization on Wednesday defended the agency’s response to the coronavirus in a news briefing, saying it had acted “quickly and decisively.”
The Geneva-based UN body has faced mounting criticism in recent weeks, especially from top donor the United States, which has cut off funding.
“From the beginning, the WHO has acted quickly and decisively to respond to warn the world,” WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said after giving a timeline of what the body knew in the lead-up to declaring COVID-19 a global emergency on Jan. 30.
WATCH | ‘We sounded the alarm early and we sounded it often’:
The World Health Organization continues to explain its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, saying it has kept the world informed in multiple ways. 5:33
As of 9:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday, there were nearly 3.2 million known cases of the coronavirus around the world, with more than 227,000 deaths, according to a case-tracking tool maintained by Johns Hopkins University.
Read on for a look at what’s happening in the provinces and territories, the U.S. and around the world.
Ontario is expanding eligibility for child care in the province. Education Minister Steven Lecce says along with front-line health-care workers, people who work in grocery stores and pharmacies, retirement homes, as well as truckers and other essential workers, may now access child care. Read more about what’s happening in Ontario.
Quebec is getting another 400 soldiers to help out in the province’s overburdened long-term care homes. The soldiers are in addition to those who have been working in the province since April 20. More than 60 per cent of the province’s deaths have occurred in care homes, where absences and illnesses due to COVID-19 have worsened pre-existing understaffing issues. Read more about what’s happening in Quebec, including a warning from the Montreal mayor that the summer will not be what people are used to.
New Brunswick announced an 11th day of no new cases on Wednesday. But Dr. Jennifer Russell, chief medical officer of health, said the province is far from the end of the crisis. She encouraged more people to wear a mask when out in the community, saying in time, it will become more normalized. Read more about what’s happening in N.B.
Prince Edward Island reported no new cases again on Wednesday, after reporting one on Tuesday, the first since mid-April.The province has extended the state of emergency in the province until the end of May, but some public health restrictions will start being lifted as of May 1. Read more about what’s happening in P.E.I, including full details around its newly released reopening plan.
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
Newfoundland and Labrador reported no new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, leaving the provincial total at 258. Dr. Janice Fitzgerald, chief medical officer of health, announced two new orders including one requiring assisted living facilities for seniors to take steps to protect their residents, and another restricting visitors to the province. Read more about what’s happening in N.L
From The Associated Press and Reuters, updated at 6:00 p.m. ET
U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday the federal government will not be extending its coronavirus social distancing guidelines once they expire tomorrow, and his son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, predicted that by July, the country will be “really rocking again.”
The U.S.death toll has surpassed 60,000 in less than three months, higher than the number of Americans killed in the Vietnam War over almost two decades.
Kushner described the administration’s response to the pandemic as “a great success story.”
Trump also mentioned at the briefing the hopeful preliminary results of a key clinical trial of the antiviral drug remdesivir that showed it helped certain patients recover more quickly from COVID-19.
The number of known U.S. coronavirus infections has now passed the one million mark. The actual count is believed to be higher, with state public health officials cautioning that shortages of trained workers and materials mean they have limited testing capacity, resulting in an incomplete picture of the spread of the virus.
Customers eat lunch next to a table closed for physical distancing at Bad Daddy’s Burger Bar in Smyrna, Ga., on the day restaurants and theatres were allowed to reopen to the public as part of the state’s phased reopening of businesses and restaurants during the coronavirus pandemic. (Elijah Nouvelage/Reuters)
The U.S. economy shrank at a 4.8 per cent annual rate last quarter as the coronavirus pandemic shut down much of the country and began triggering a recession that will end the longest expansion on record.
It was the sharpest fall since the economy shrank at an 8.4 per cent annual rate in the fourth quarter of 2008 in the depths of the Great Recession.
Widespread business shutdowns have caused roughly 30 million workers to lose jobs over the past month and a half. As layoffs mount, retail sales are sinking, along with manufacturing, construction, home sales and consumer confidence.
The Federal Reserve signaled Wednesday that it will keep its key short-term interest rate near zero for the foreseeable future as part of its extraordinary efforts to bolster the economy.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says Florida’s restaurants and retail stores will be allowed to reopen Monday at 25 per cent capacity, if the local government allows it. The governor specifically excluded hard-hit, heavily populated Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, saying their businesses will begin Phase 1 when it is safer.
The governor also will allow hospitals and surgical centres to restart nonessential, elective procedures — but only if they have sufficient medical supplies and agree to help nursing homes and assisted-living facilities prevent and respond to coronavirus outbreaks. Parks, golf courses and other outdoor recreation areas already began reopening in some counties Wednesday.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio oversaw the dispersal of a large, tightly packed Hasidic Jewish funeral and lashed out at the mourners who had gathered in defiance of physical distancing rules. Critics accused de Blasio of singling out Orthodox Jews for censure when other New Yorkers have also violated guidelines intended to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The mayor defended his actions and said the number of daily deaths is still “disgustingly high.” New York reported 330 new COVID-19 deaths Wednesday, continuing a trend of daily fatalities decreasing slowly over the past three weeks.
What’s happening around the world
From The Associated Press and Reuters, updated at 6:30 p.m. ET
With 325 new confirmed deaths from coronavirus, Spain on Wednesday saw a slight rebound in fatalities for a total of 24,275 since the beginning of the pandemic. Infections stand at over 212,000, although the Health Ministry’s figure only includes the cases confirmed by the most reliable laboratory tests that are not being conducted massively. Authorities want to come out from a near total freeze of social and economic life in stages and at different speeds depending on how its provinces and islands respond to the health crisis.
A child wearing a protective mask runs on a pathway, after restrictions were partially lifted for children, following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in El Masnou, Spain, on Wednesday. (Albert Gea/Reuters)
The coronavirus pandemic will plunge Germany’s economy into its deepest recession since the Second World War, Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said on Wednesday as the government cut its economic growth forecast for this year. “We’re facing major challenges, both economically and politically,” Altmaier told reporters in Berlin, presenting the government’s updated growth forecast for Europe’s largest economy.
Teachers prepare placards with hygiene rules for schoolchildren at Schloss-Schule elementary school during the coronavirus crisis on Wednesday in Heppenheim, Germany. (Alex Grimm/Getty Images)
Russia’s nationwide tally of confirmed coronavirus cases neared the 100,000 mark on Wednesday after 5,841 new cases of the virus were registered overnight along with a record daily rise in the death toll. More than 1,000 cases have been found among workers building a liquefied natural gas facility in the far northern Murmansk region.
WATCH | Russians impoverished by COVID-19 pandemic with little help from Kremlin:
Millions of Russians have become impoverished during the COVID-19 pandemic and the Kremlin is offering little financial support even though it has billions in the coffers. 2:04
Sweden‘s southern city of Lund says it is spreading stinking chicken manure on the grounds of a central park to discourage a public celebration there on Thursday. It’s traditionally a big festive day among Swedish students and youth.
People drink and eat at an outdoor restaurant in Stockholm on Sunday. Sweden has kept large parts of society open for normal life to continue while observing some public health advice, although this has also attracted criticism. (Jessica Gow/TT News Agency/The Associated Press)
Sweden has maintained a relatively relaxed approach to public restrictions amid the coronavirus outbreak. But the government is strongly urging citizens to practise proper social distancing. Sweden, with a population of about 10 million, has reported 19,621 coronavirus cases and 2,355 deaths.
In Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Wednesday announced an easing of population movement restrictions outside Budapest, which has reported the most cases of coronavirus infections, saying shops will be allowed to reopen without time limits. However, the wearing of masks will be mandatory in shops and on public transport.
Public health officials in India have shelved their plan to administer hydroxychloroquine or HCQ, an untested anti-malarial, to thousands in Mumbai’s crowded slums as a way of preventing infections in healthy people. Health officials in Mumbai said that the plan to “conduct a test” was still on the cards but had not yet been approved by the Indian government.
The United Nations humanitarian chief says there have been 44 cases of COVID-19 and four deaths in Syria. Mark Lowcock told the UN Security Council that a health-care system decimated by nine years of war can’t be expected “to cope with a crisis that is challenging even the wealthiest nations.” He says “testing capacity remains very limited,” and measures aimed at containing the spread of COVID-19 are already hurting the most vulnerable.
South Korean infectious disease experts have downplayed concerns that patients could get reinfected with the new coronavirus after fully recovering. While hundreds in South Korea have tested positive again after their release from hospitals, Oh Myoung-don, who heads the country’s central clinical committee on new infectious diseases, told a news conference on Wednesday there was a “high possibility” that such test results were flawed.
South Korean job seekers take an exam conducted outdoors amid physical distancing measures to avoid the spread of COVID-19 in Seoul over the weekend. (Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters)
Sri Lanka will reimpose a 24-hour countrywide curfew as part of the country’s stringent measures designed to contain the spread of the coronavirus, effective Thursday night and continuing until May 4. The government’s decision to go for a blanket curfew across the island comes after a surge of confirmed cases in the last three days. There are now 630 COVID-19 cases in Sri Lanka, including seven deaths.
WATCH | Vaccine development aided by intense global focus, says Toronto respirologist:
‘This is an effort like no other we’ve ever seen,’ says Dr. Samir Gupta, who believes that could help shorten the vaccine development cycle. 1:30
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.
