Ontario reports a new high in testing numbers as province extends emergency orders to June 19; Second migrant worker dies in Windsor
The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Friday (this file will be updated throughout the day). Web links to longer stories if available.
1:49 p.m.: The federal government is investing $1.1 million to support national disability organizations to help them reach out to people amid COVID-19.
Disability Inclusion Minister Carla Qualtrough says in a statement the additional funds will be used to enhance communications and engagement activities of those organizations.
The issue was one raised as key by an advisory panel that has been briefing the government since April.
The additional funds come as National AccessAbility Week, highlighting the contributions of Canadians with disabilities, wraps up today.
During the week, the federal government announced $6.4 million over three years for up to 16 organizations across Canada.
On Friday, Ottawa announced a $548 million program to send cheques for between $100 and $600 to Canadians with disabilities.
11:30 a.m.: As of 11 a.m. Saturday, Ontario's regional public health units are reporting a total of 31,596 confirmed and probable cases, including 2,430 deaths.
As has been the case in recent days, the jump of 419 cases in the last 24 hours came overwhelmingly in the GTA health units of Toronto and Peel Region, with 198 and 97 new cases announced Friday afternoon, respectively.
According to a provincial database of cases, about 75 per cent of the 3,848 Ontarians with an active case of COVID-19 reside in the GTA, with nearly 85 per cent of those in living in Toronto or Peel.
Meanwhile, the 11 fatal cases reported in the province since Wednesday morning was in line with a recent falling trend. The rate of deaths is down considerably since peaking at more than 90 deaths in a day earlier this month, about two weeks after the daily case totals hit a first peak in mid-April.
Earlier Saturday, the province reported that testing labs had completed more than 23,000 tests, the most in any day since the beginning of the pandemic.
Premier Doug Ford, who has called for widespread testing as a key part of Ontario's response to the pandemic, faced criticism last month after the labs reported daily totals far below target for 10 straight days.
The province also reported 673 patients are now hospitalized with COVID-19, including 117 in intensive care, of whom 97 are on a ventilator - numbers that have fallen sharply since early May.
The province says its data is accurate to 4 p.m. the previous day. The province also cautions its latest count of total deaths - 2,407 - 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.
10:30 a.m.: The federal NDP health critic says he is greatly concerned that there is no tracking of COVID-19 infections in long-haul truckers who are travelling back and forth across the United States border.
I think Canadians should be not only concerned but alarmed," said Don Davies, member of Parliament for Vancouver Kingsway.
The Public Health Agency of Canada does not collect information on long-haul truckers. The department deferred questions on COVID-19 cases in the industry to provinces and territories.
The majority of provinces, however, are not looking at infections in long-haul truckers, even though the drivers are among the few Canadians crossing into areas in the United States hard hit by the pandemic. The border between the two countries closed to most travellers in March. It is still open to people and businesses providing essential services.
As of Friday, there almost two million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. and more than 108,000 deaths.
Davies said truck drivers crossing the border should be tested and data should be collected at a federal level so as to know the risks involved in fully reopening the economy.
That's important not only for the health and safety of the truckers and their families, but for the community at large."
Health officials in Manitoba said Friday that two new cases in the province have been linked to a long-haul trucker and a close contact. Two other Manitoba cases were linked last week to truckers who took multiple routes through the U.S. A cluster of at least 10 cases last month was also linked to a trucking company in the province.
10 a.m.: The Windsor region is reporting the death of a second migrant worker from COVID-19.
Windsor Regional Hospital says a 24-year-old man was first admitted to a different hospital on Monday, and died at their facility Friday.
The hospital says they have contacted the man's family in Mexico.
A news release also says that local hospitals and health organizations will jointly conduct a mass swabbing" for COVID-19 of 8,000 migrant workers in Windsor-Essex starting on Tuesday.
Another temporary foreign worker in the Windsor area who came to Canada in February and tested positive for the virus on May 21 died last weekend.
Approximately 20,000 migrant workers come to Ontario each year to work on farms and in greenhouses - many of them from Mexico, Guatemala and the Caribbean - and this year have been required to self-isolate for 14 days upon arrival.
Outbreaks that have affected dozens of migrant workers have been reported in Chatham-Kent, Windsor-Essex, Niagara Region and Elgin County.
9:30 a.m.: The British government faced criticism Saturday for another sudden change in its advice on face coverings that has left those running hospitals in England scrambling to work out how they will be able to meet the new requirements.
On Friday, as the World Health Organization broadened its recommendations for the use of masks, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said all hospital staff in England will have to wear surgical face masks from June 15 while visitors and outpatients will need to don some sort of face covering.
His announcement came a day after the government said face coverings, which can be made from any fabric, would be mandatory on public transport in England, from the same date to coincide with the planned reopening of nonessential shops such as department stores and electronic retailers.
9 a.m.: Ontario is extending its emergency orders for another 10 days, including banning people from dining in bars and restaurants, and gathering in groups larger than five.
The orders had been set to expire June 9, but the province announced today that they are being extended until June 19.
They include the closure of child care centres, though Premier Doug Ford has said that a phased reopening plan for them will be announced early next week.
Extending the emergency orders also means the continued closure of bars and restaurants except for take-out and delivery, libraries except for curbside pick-up or delivery, and theatres.
It also means that Ontarians looking to use playgrounds, or beat the heat at public pools and splash pads are out of luck until at least June 19.
The province recently extended its state of emergency until June 30.
8:30 a.m.: Across Toronto, many neighbourhoods known for their independent, distinctive character are at risk of seeing local institutions close, businesses owners and analysts say.
The Star reached out to the city's 83 business improvement associations through the Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas, and focused in on regions where there were reports of long-standing family-run institutions that could be shut forever.
Read the full story from the Star's Rosa Saba.
7:28 a.m.: Indonesia reported nearly 1,000 new cases of the coronavirus on Saturday, a new single-day high for the country that brought its total caseload past 30,000, as the government unveiled an enhanced stimulus package worth $47.6 billion to anchor the virus-battered economy.
The health ministry said there were 993 newly infected people over the past 24 hours. Indonesia has confirmed 30,514 cases, including 1,801 deaths, the most in Southeast Asia.
Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said a 677.2 trillion rupiah ($47.6 billion) stimulus package aims to strengthen the health care system, direct more spending toward social protection to boost consumption, and provide incentives to rescue Indonesian businesses from bankruptcy and workers from layoffs.
The package is bigger than the one worth 641.17 trillion rupiah initially allocated in late April.
We are hoping that this stimulus can maintain our economic growth at above zero per cent," Indrawati said at a live-streamed news conference.
She said Indonesia's GDP growth could be lower than the government's protection of 2.3 per cent this year. In the worst-case scenario, the government expects the economy to contract 0.4 per cent, she added.
7:28 a.m.: China's capital lowered its emergency response level for the coronavirus pandemic to the second-lowest level on Saturday. The move lifts most restrictions on people travelling to Beijing from Wuhan and surrounding Hubei province, where the virus first appeared late last year.
They will no longer face 14-day mandatory quarantines and other forms of monitoring, and those currently in such situations will be allowed to return to their normal lives. Beijing residential compounds will not be required to conduct temperature checks and masks no longer must be worn for outdoor activities.
Kindergartens will reopen and other grades still suspended will restart classes. Beijing has reported no new cases of local transmission in at least 50 days and as many as 90 days in some districts.
7:28 a.m.: India surpassed Italy as the sixth worst-hit by the coronavirus pandemic after another biggest single-day spike in confirmed infections. The Health Ministry reported 9,887 new cases on Saturday, bringing the total to 236,657.
Most of the new cases are in rural areas following the return of hundreds of thousands of migrant workers who left cities and towns after the lockdown in late March. The lockdown is now largely being enforced in high-risk areas while authorities have partially restored train services and domestic flights and allowed shops and manufacturing to reopen.
Shopping malls and religious places are due to open on Monday with restrictions to avoid large gatherings.
4 a.m.: At daybreak on Saturday, Charles Shay stood lonesome without any fellow veteran on the very same beach where he waded ashore 76 years ago, part of one of the most epic battles in military historic that came to be known as D-Day and turned the tide of World War II.
Compared to last year, when many tens of thousands came to the northern French beaches of Normandy to cheer the dwindling number of veterans and celebrate three-quarters of a century of liberation from Nazi oppression, the coronavirus lockdown turned this year's remembrance into one of the eeriest ever.
I am very sad now," said Shay, who was a 19-year-old U.S. Army medic when he landed on Omaha Beach under horrific machine-gun fire and shells. Because of the virus, nobody can be here. I would like to see more of us here," he told The Associated Press.
Normally, 95-year-old Shay would be meeting other survivors of the 1944 battle and celebrating with locals and dignitaries alike, all not far from his home close to the beaches that defined his life.
This year, I am one of the very few that is probably here," he said, adding that other U.S. veterans could not fly in because of the pandemic.
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