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Global deaths from COVID-19 have surpassed 203,000 and reported cases worldwide are approaching three million, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland.
Confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 in Canada rose Saturday to 45,354, and the number of deaths hit 2,555 deaths, not including two deaths abroad, according to a CBC News tally.
Despite the ongoing coronavirus carnage, provinces such as New Brunswick and Saskatchewan are moving ahead with plans to cautiously begin reopening their locked-down economies.
Ontario and Quebec are both expected to unveil their initial plans this week.
However, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who talked to the premiers on Friday about their recovery strategies, stressed Saturday that none of them hinge on people being immune to catching COVID-19 more than once.
He said it is too soon to talk about so called “immunity passports” for Canadians who’ve been infected with the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, because the science is still unclear about whether those who have recovered from the illness are protected from catching the virus again.
Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, said the federal government has set up an immunity task force that will investigate how people’s immune systems are responding to COVID-19.
“The idea of … generating natural immunity is actually not something that should be undertaken,” Tam said Saturday, urging people to be “extremely cautious” about the concept.
WATCH | Tam says it’s ‘premature’ to consider immunity passports:
Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam said that without a clear understanding of immunity tests for COVID-19, it’s too early to think about issuing passes for those who might be protected. 0:53
Trudeau said the focus remains on preventing the spread of the virus through physical distancing and personal protective equipment.
He is not scheduled to speak today.
In Toronto Saturday, dozens of protesters rallied on the grounds of the Ontario legislature, defying physical distancing rules and demanding an immediate end to the COVID-19 lockdown — some even calling the pandemic a hoax.
Ontario protesters are selfish ‘yahoos,’ Ford says
Ontario Premier Doug Ford was quick with a strong rebuke, calling the demonstrators a “reckless” and “selfish” bunch of “yahoos,” who were breaking the law and putting others, including health-care workers, in jeopardy.
Ford said Friday that his government will offer some details early next week about its reopening plans.
A protester demands the removal of the provincial COVID-19 restrictions outside the Ontario legislature in Toronto on Saturday. (Chris Helgren/Reuters)
Meanwhile, Health Canada cautioned on Saturday against the use of malaria drugs, hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, to prevent or treat COVID-19.
The Canadian health department said the two drugs may cause serious side effects, including serious heart rhythm problems. It advised use of the two drugs only if prescribed by a doctor.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration also cautioned against the use of malaria drugs in COVID-19 patients on Friday. U.S. President Donald Trump had repeatedly promoted hydroxychloroquine as a potential “game changer” in the fight against the virus.
At his regular news conference at Rideau Cottage on Saturday, Trudeau said any plans to reopen the economy will be based on science, data and expert advice.
Trudeau said Canada shouldn’t be reopening any sector without a plan to protect workers, which hinges on adequate supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE). He says planeloads of PPE are expected in the coming weeks, and domestic production will be on line soon.
WATCH | Trudeau details joint guidelines to reopen economy:
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau discussed how Canada’s provinces are working on a jointly-drafted set of guidelines to establish principles for reopening the country’s economy. 0:42
In addition to multiphase plans unveiled by New Brunswick and Saskatchewan this week, the federal government has circulated a set of draft guidelines that could form the basis of the joint document. The federal guidelines were prepared largely by the Public Health Agency of Canada and include feedback from provincial medical officers.
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer has called for a national plan, expressing concern about a “possible patchwork approach across the country.”
$62.5M for fish and seafood sector
Also Saturday, Trudeau announced $62.5 million to support fish and seafood processors.
The prime minister said the money will help processors buy PPEs, adapt to new health protocols and support physical distancing.
WATCH | Trudeau says new funds will help industry adapt to COVID-19 challenges:
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says that new funds for Canada’s fish and seafood processors will help them adapt to challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. 0:58
Read on for a look at what’s happening in Canada, the United States and around the world.
Here’s a look at what’s happening in the provinces and territories
British Columbia reported two new deaths on Saturday, including the province’s first death related to COVID-19 in a First Nations community. B.C. also reported 95 new cases. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said part of the reason for the dramatic spike in cases is additional testing related to outbreaks at a federal prison and a poultry processing plant. Read more about what’s happening in B.C.
In Alberta, Premier Jason Kenney warned the government cannot save every business, with the province likely to hit a deficit of around $20 billion. The province reported 216 new cases on Saturday, for a total of 4,233. The death toll increased by one to 73. Read more about what’s happening in Alberta.
Saskatchewan is reporting that seven of its eight new COVID-19 cases are in the province’s far north. In total, there were 349 cases in Saskatchewan on Saturday, and four people have died. Read more about what’s happening in Saskatchewan.
WATCH | See how Saskatchewan plans to handle a phased reopening:
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe unveiled the province’s plan to start easing COVID-19 restrictions starting in May. 2:03
Manitoba is set to ramp up surgeriesafter a month of postponements due to COVID-19. The number of COVID-19 cases continues to be low enough that health officials say they can pivot some of the system’s resources back toward surgeries. The province reported four new cases on Saturday, bringing the total number of cases to 267. Read more about what’s happening in Manitoba.
Ontario’s premier says front-line workers, including people working at shelters and long-term care homes, will receive a raise of $4 per hour for the next four months as they help in the fight against COVID-19. Ford says eligible workers will also receive an extra payment of $250 per month if they work more than 100 hours in a month. The provincial government says 350,000 workers will be eligible for the pay premium. Read more about what’s happening in Ontario.
Demonstrators gather during a protest to end the shutdown due to COVID-19 at Queen’s Park in Toronto on Saturday. (Tijana Martin/The Canadian Press)
Quebec Public Health Director Dr. Horacio Arruda has changed his guidance on masks, now recommending people wear them if they anticipate being in a situation where distancing isn’t possible. He said people should closely follow guidelines the government released yesterday for masks, including washing hands before putting one on and removing them. Arruda said people could make their own masks, as long as they are clean and have at least two layers of fabric. Read more about what’s happening in Quebec.
A paramedic opens the doors of an ambulance outside Notre-Dame-des-Anges seniors residence in Montreal on Saturday. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)
New Brunswick has gone a week without any new cases of COVID-19. Only four people remain hospitalized, with none in intensive care. The province has already begun relaxing its lockdown, with outings allowed at golf courses, parks and beaches, as long as physical distancing remains in place.Read more about what’s happening in N.B.
The driving range at Carman Creek Golf Course in Fredericton was busy on Saturday. (Gary Moore/CBC)
Nova Scotia is reporting six more deaths related to COVID-19, bringing the total to 22. Five deaths occurred at the Northwood long-term care home in Halifax Regional Municipality, while a man in his 80s with underlying medical conditions died in the Western Zone of the province. He was not a resident of a long-term care home. The province is reporting 15 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the provincial total to 865 confirmed cases. Read more about what’s happening in N.S.
Prince Edward Island is working on a plan to begin easing COVID-19 restrictions in May, but gatherings with people outside of one’s household still are not permitted for now, said Dr. Heather Morrison, P.E.I.’s chief public health officer. More details on P.E.I.’s plan to ease restrictions are expected in the coming week, said Premier Dennis King. P.E.I. has not reported a new case of COVID-19 since April 15. Read more about what’s happening on P.E.I.
Newfoundland and Labrador announced one new case on Saturday, after going a full week without any new COVID-19 cases. Five people are in hospital, including two people in intensive care. Read more about what’s happening in N.L.
The Northwest Territories government is putting $5.1 million toward child-care support for health-care workers, front-line staff and essential workers responding to COVID-19. Read more about what’s happening across the North.
Here’s a look at what’s happening in the U.S.
Hawaii extended its stay-at-home order until the end of May, and California police closed a park because it got too crowded as U.S. states took divergent paths on when to reopen their economies and communities.
Even as aides develop plans to shift President Trump’s public emphasis from the virus to addressing the economic crisis it has caused, Dr. Anthony Fauci at the U.S. National Institutes of Health warned against moving too quickly.
“You hear a lot about the need and the desire to get back to normal. That’s understandable,” he said. “If we don’t get control of it, we will never get back to normal. I know we will, but we’ve got to do it correctly.”
Hawaii Gov. David Ige extended both the stay-at-home order and a mandatory quarantine for visitors through May 31. He warned of undoing progress if public places open up too early.
“This was not an easy decision. I know this has been difficult for everyone. Businesses need to reopen. People want to end this self-isolation, and we want to return to normal,” he said in a statement.
A spring heat wave drove an uptick of people to California beaches, golf courses and trails. Police in Pacific Grove, about 135 kilometres south of San Francisco, said they had to close the picturesque Lovers Point Park and Beach because of a lack of physical distancing.
Officers on horseback patrolled closed Los Angeles beaches, trails and playgrounds to enforce distancing rules.
Georgia and Oklahoma allowed salons, spas and barbershops to reopen, while Alaska cleared the way for restaurants to resume dine-in service and retail shops and other businesses to open their doors, all with limitations. Some Alaska municipalities chose to keep stricter rules.
Russ Anderson, who owns four tattoo studios in south Georgia, said he “couldn’t get up out of my chair quick enough” when restrictions were lifted. His main shop served 50 or 60 customers Friday when it reopened, with customers and tattoo artists wearing masks, he said.
But Shawn Gingrich, CEO and founder of Lion’s Den Fitness, decided his Atlanta gym would remain closed for now.
“We’ve sacrificed so much already,” he said. “I feel like if we do this too soon, we’ll see a spike in cases, and we’re back to square one.”
People enjoy the beach amid the coronavirus pandemic in Huntington Beach, Calif., on Saturday. (Apu Gomes/AFP via Getty Images)
In Texas, Allison Scott said most customers of her women’s clothing store in a Dallas shopping mall seem to feel more comfortable having their purchases shipped.
“I want to be open more than anything, but I don’t think that society is ready to come out either,” she said.
According to researchers at Johns Hopkins University, reported cases in the U.S. will soon surpass 940,000 and the death toll will hit 54,000.
A survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found Americans overwhelmingly support stay-at-home measures and other efforts to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Here’s a look at what’s happening around the world
Australia‘s government launched a controversial coronavirus tracing app on Sunday and promised to legislate privacy protections around it as authorities try to get the country and the economy back onto more normal footing.
The app, which is based on Singapore’s TraceTogether software, uses Bluetooth signals to log when people have been close to one another. It has been criticized by civil liberties groups as an invasion of privacy.
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson will return to work Monday, two weeks after he was discharged from a London hospital where he was treated for COVID-19.
Johnson, 55, spent a week at St Thomas’ Hospital, including three nights in intensive care, where he was given oxygen and watched around the clock by medical staff.
After he was released April 12, he recorded a video message thanking staff at the hospital for saving his life.
Johnson has not been seen in public since then, as he recovered at the prime minister’s country retreat outside London.
A man walks past graffiti in London on Saturday. (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
The Chinese city of Wuhan, where the pandemic began, now has no remaining cases in its hospitals, a health official told reporters on Sunday.
The novel coronavirus is believed to have originated in a wet market in Wuhan and first emerged in late December before spreading quickly worldwide.
The city had reported 46,452 cases, 56 per cent of the national total. It saw 3,869 fatalities, or 84 per cent of China’s total.
The focus in China has since shifted to the northeast border province of Heilongjiang, which has seen large numbers of imported COVID-19 cases entering from Russia.
A resident talks with other people outside a makeshift barricade, which was built to control entry and exit to a residential compound on Saturday in Wuhan, China. (Getty Images)
Spain has reported its lowest daily death count for coronavirus infections in five weeks as its strict lockdown restrictions begin to pay dividends.
Spanish health authorities said Sunday that 288 people died from COVID-19 in the previous 24 hours, taking the total to 23,190 since the start of the outbreak. It is the first time the daily death toll has fallen below 300 fatalities since March 20.
Shrieks of joy rang out in the country’s streets Sunday as children were allowed to leave their homes for the first time in six weeks.
A woman and three children pose for a photo in Valencia, Spain, on Sunday. (Jose Jordan/AFP via Getty Images)
Animals at two mink farms in the Netherlands have tested positive for COVID-19.
The Dutch Ministry of Agriculture said Sunday that some staff at the two farms had earlier displayed symptoms of the disease “so it is assumed that these are human-to-animal infections.”
As a precaution, authorities are closing roads within 400 metres of the affected farms in North Brabant, which is the Dutch region the hardest hit by the coronavirus.
The minks are not the first animals infected with the virus. The findings come after positive tests in two pet cats in New York state and in some tigers and lions at the Bronx Zoo, adding to a small number of confirmed cases of the virus in animals worldwide.
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.
