COVID-19 the latest: One employee dead, 23 infected at Vaughan dairy plant
The latest novel coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Saturday (this file will be updated throughout the day). Web links to longer stories if available.
2:26 p.m.: Canadians working aboard two cruise ships who have been prevented from coming ashore due to COVID-19 concerns are finally being allowed to return home.
Princess Cruises says in an emailed statement that 19 Canadians on the Koningsdam disembarked in Los Angeles on Friday, and that they would be flown or driven home by the company.
The cruise line says another 53 Canadians are scheduled to leave the Emerald Princess in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Saturday and would head to Miami where they would board a chartered flight to Toronto.
1:42 p.m.: Health officials in Newfoundland and Labrador are reporting no new cases of COVID-19.
The total number of confirmed cases remains at 261, the majority of which are in the province's eastern region.
Four people remain in hospital, two in intensive care - and 244 people have recovered.
The province has reported a total of three deaths related to the viral infection.
1:15 p.m. Ontario will be reopening 520 provincial parks and conservation reserves on Monday, with the remaining 115 parks opening on Friday.
Please take note that access will be limited for now," Premier Doug Ford said at his Saturday briefing. Camping, playgrounds and beaches will continue to be closed. Public health measures must be followed at all times, including practising physical distancing, avoiding social gatherings and staying home if you're sick."
12:25 p.m.: Quebec's public health institute says deaths could spike in the greater Montreal area if physical distancing measures designed to limit the spread of COVID-19 are lifted.
New projections posted to the institute's website show deaths could rise to 150 a day by July in the city and its surrounding regions, now the epicentre of the virus in Canada.
The institute, which worked with experts from Laval University, says new cases could soar to 10,000 a day by June amid a potential rapid increase" in hospitalizations.
Montreal has recorded 18,435 cases of COVID-19 and 1,727 deaths, making it by far the hardest-hit part of the country. On top of viral outbreaks in long-term care homes, several other parts of the greater Montreal area are witnessing sustained community transmission.
12 p.m.: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada will not pay the full price for medical masks that do not live up to medical standards.
About eight million of 11 million N95 respirators shipped to the government from China through a Montreal-based supplier failed to meet specifications, federal officials said Friday.
Trudeau says the discovery speaks to the government's rigorous verification system" overseen by the Public Health Agency of Canada.
The prime minister did not name the price the government will pay for the sub-standard respirators, which are used to protect against the COVID-19 virus.
11 a.m.: Ontario's regional health units are reporting another 53 deaths from COVID-19 amid case growth that remains relatively flat despite a sharp increase in testing, according to the Star's latest count.
As of 11 a.m. Saturday, Ontario's regional health units are reporting a total of 20,969 confirmed or probable cases of COVID-19, including 1,649 deaths.
The 423 new cases reported provincewide since the same time Friday morning was a down from the increase the morning prior, even as the province also reported by far its largest total of completed tests in a day, up nearly 3,000 to 19,227.
Earlier this week, Premier Doug Ford expressed anger that testing rates had not passed a target of 16,000 a day, and the reported totals have grown steadily since.
Saturday's flat rate differed with past days when high rates of completed tests were followed by spikes in new cases.
The overall trend continues to see slower daily growth in new cases. The jump of 423 new cases represents a 2.1 per cent jump in 24 hours, a daily rate that is down sharply from the rapid, growth the province saw in March.
In that month, the province saw an average daily growth of nearly 20 per cent, a rate that doubled Ontario's case count about every four days. In April, that rate slowed to an average of 6.5 per cent daily growth, or a doubling time of around 11 days. So far in May, the average has fallen to less than 2.5 per cent, a rate that would double the case count in about a month.
Ontario's public health units continue to report large numbers of new deaths each day; as the rate of new cases has fallen in recent weeks, the trend in the daily count of new deaths has continued to rise slowly.
Because many health units publish tallies to their websites before reporting to Public Health Ontario, the Star's count is more current than the data the province puts out each morning.
Earlier Saturday, the province said 1,016 patients are now hospitalized with COVID-19, including 203 in intensive care, of whom 158 are on a ventilator - numbers that have fluctuated but remained largely flat in recent weeks. The province also says more than 14,000 patients who have tested positive for the coronavirus have now recovered from the disease - about two-thirds of the total infected.
The province says its data is accurate to 4 p.m. the previous day. The province also cautions its latest count of total deaths - 1,599 - may be incomplete or out of date due to delays in the reporting system, saying that in the event of a discrepancy, data reported by (the health units) should be considered the most up to date."
The Star's count, includes some patients reported as probable" COVID-19 cases, meaning they have symptoms and contacts or travel history that indicate they very likely have the disease, but have not yet received a positive lab test.
10:20 a.m.: Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez says loosening the nearly two-month lockdown will be for naught if people don't obey social distancing rules.
He reminded Spaniards on Saturday, two days before 51% of the nation of 47 million will be allowed to sit at outdoor cafes, the virus has not disappeared."
On Monday, many regions not as hard hit by the virus will permit gatherings of up to 10 people and reopen churches, theatres, outdoor markets and other establishments with limits on occupancy.
Madrid and Barcelona will stay under stricter confinement. Two-meter social distancing rules remain in effect.
9:05 a.m.: The Maldives, an Indian Ocean archipelago nation with one of the world's most congested capitals, has seen a rapid rise in coronavirus cases over the past few weeks.
Health officials predict that more than 77,000 people - or a fourth of those currently living in the country - could become infected, with more than 5,000 possibly needing intensive care treatment.
Official figures updated Saturday showed 766 cases, including 743 that are still active. A vast majority of the patients are residents of Male, the capital. Three people have died so far.
8:35 a.m.: Canada has backed an American-led effort to allow Taiwan to be granted observer status at the World Health Organization because of its early success in containing COVID-19.
The move is politically sensitive because China considers Taiwan a breakaway province and views any overture of support as meddling in its internal affairs, and because Canada is in its own dispute with China over what it calls the arbitrary" imprisonment of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor.
Taiwan is also squarely in the centre of the Trump administration's dispute with China and the WHO. The U.S. has temporarily halted funding to the organization over its allegedly inadequate assessment of COVID-19's early threat when the novel coronavirus was breaking out in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
8 a.m.: The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has forced people to stay at home as physical distancing measures are enforced across the country. Some have termed this virus the great equalizer" as it can indiscriminately infect anyone, but the impact it inflicts on people is far from equal. Just as families' makeup and socio-economic statuses are different, the stakes can be much different when it comes to living in the era of COVID-19.
Beyond the financial burdens, Abby Ayoola and Wayne Williams are finding that raising their five children in isolation is no easy feat.
Williams qualifies for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and the family gets government emergency child benefits for kids under 12. That help is a light in the storm, leaving the family with a little less to worry about than some others.
But their life is most definitely upside down - and a struggle.
7:30 a.m.: This week, Premier Doug Ford stepped back a bit from last month's urgings that people must avoid any kind of travel, including to second homes and cottages around the province.
With the approaching Victoria Day weekend - considered the unofficial start to summer - Ford held a conference call with about 200 mayors in cottage country to tailor the messaging about the coronavirus crisis in Ontario's recreational playgrounds.
On Lake Huron and in Muskoka, residents largely recognize they can't stop city-folk from heading to their cottages - but that doesn't mean the stay home" sentiment has disappeared.
7:15 a.m.: South Korea's capital has shut down more than 2,100 nightclubs, hostess bars and discos after dozens of coronavirus infections were linked to club goers who went out last weekend as the country relaxed social distancing guidelines.
The measures imposed Saturday by Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon came after the national government urged entertainment venues around the nation to close or otherwise enforce anti-virus measures, including distancing, temperature checks, keeping customer lists and requiring employees to wear masks.
South Korea's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or KCDC, said earlier in the day that 18 new cases were reported in the 24 hours to midnight Friday, all but one of them linked to a 29-year-old man who visited three clubs in Seoul's Itaewon district last Saturday before testing positive days later.
2:08 a.m.: Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi on Saturday approved amendments to the country's state of emergency that grant him and security agencies additional powers, which the government says are needed to combat the coronavirus outbreak.
An international rights group condemned the amendments, saying the government has used the global pandemic to expand, not reform, Egypt's abusive Emergency Law."
The new amendments allow the president to to take measures to contain the virus, such as suspending classes at schools and universities and quarantining those returning from abroad. But they also include expanded powers to ban public and private meetings, protests, celebrations and other forms of assembly.
1:15 a.m.: An employee at a Saputo Dairy Products facility in Vaughan has died after contracting COVID-19, according to York Region Public Health.
The health authority confirmed that 23 other workers have also tested positive for the novel coronavirus at the dairy distribution plant.
Six of the confirmed cases, including the deceased, are York Region residents, according to a media release. York Region Public Health is following up with close contacts of the infected employees.
Saputo Dairy Products Canada, located near Highway 7 and Highway 427, is not open to the public and does not produce food, according to a York Region media release.
Read the full story here.
10:27 p.m.: Roy Horn, who mesmerized Las Vegas audiences for decades as half of the famed illusionist team Siegfried & Roy, died on Friday of complications of COVID-19, according to his publicist, Dave Kirvin. He was 75.
The German-born performers' long-running production ended on Oct. 3, 2003, when Horn was mauled by a 400-pound white tiger who lunged at his throat and dragged him offstage before a stunned, sold-out crowd of 1,500 at MGM's Mirage hotel-casino.
Read more here.
5.58 p.m. There are 66,407 confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 in Canada, including 4,568 deaths, and 30,192 resolved, according to The Canadian Press.
This breaks down as follows (note: the Star does its own count for Ontario, which can be seen under the entry at 5 p.m.):
- Quebec: 36,150 confirmed (including 2,725 deaths, 8,928 resolved)
- Ontario: 19,598 confirmed (including 1,540 deaths, 13,990 resolved)
- Alberta: 6,098 confirmed (including 115 deaths, 4,020 resolved)
- British Columbia: 2,288 confirmed (including 126 deaths, 1,512 resolved)
- Nova Scotia: 1,008 confirmed (including 46 deaths, 722 resolved)
- Saskatchewan: 544 confirmed (including six deaths, 355 resolved)
- Manitoba: 273 confirmed (including seven deaths, 247 resolved), 11 presumptive
- Newfoundland and Labrador: 261 confirmed (including three deaths, 244 resolved)
- New Brunswick: 120 confirmed (including 118 resolved)
- Prince Edward Island: 27 confirmed (including 27 resolved)
- Repatriated Canadians account for 13 confirmed cases, all of which have been resolved
- Yukon: 11 confirmed, all of which have been resolved
- Northwest Territories: five confirmed, all of which have been resolved
- Nunavut reports no confirmed cases.