WHAT TO KNOW
Global COVID-19 cases have reached 5,751,558, up from 5,643,983 at 3:30 p.m. yesterday. Canada now reports 87,481 cases, up from 86,614 cases of COVID-19 yesterday. Ontario reports 26,483 cases, up from 26,191 cases yesterday.
The growth rate of new cases in the province continues to remain under 2%, with 292 (1.1%) new cases reported since yesterday. Of the province’s total cases, 20,372 have been resolved (76.9%) and there have been 2,155 deaths (8.1%). The province has now completed 644,547 tests and reports 11,817 tests are currently under investigation. More information here.
The City of Toronto has shared a breakdown by postal code of all COVID-19 cases here.
A province-by-province breakdown of Canada’s COVID-19 case count can be found here.
FEDERAL
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a global search for therapies to treat, diagnose, mitigate or prevent the infection. Before new therapies can be made available to Canadians, they must be shown to be safe and effective, and clinical trials are a critical part of that process.
To date, Health Canada has approved 37 clinical trials for potential COVID-19 therapies and vaccines. To accelerate these efforts, the Honourable Patty Hajdu, Minister of Health, has authorized the following change for a more flexible process for clinical trials related to COVID-19, without compromising the safety of participants or the reliability of trials’ findings:
- Allow a wider range of health professionals, such as nurse practitioners, to be involved in running clinical trials. Under current regulations, only physicians and dentists can conduct clinical trials for drugs;
- Allow a wider range of investigators, such as physicians, to be involved in running clinical trials for medical devices. Under current regulations, only manufacturers can conduct clinical trials for medical devices;
- Reduce the burden associated with labelling and record-keeping requirements for clinical trials involving drugs that are already marketed for other indications and are being studied to treat COVID-19;
- Enable multiple-stream clinical trials to continue even when one stream has been stopped; and
- Enable more clinical trials by allowing trials where direct interaction with the participant is not feasible, for example when participants who live in remote locations are unable to travel.
More information here.
Responding to questions from reporters this morning about whether Canada would follow in New Zealand’s foot steps on a 4-day work week to help boost Canada’s travel and tourism sector, the Prime Minister said he wasn’t ruling anything out. More information here.
Prime Minister Trudeau also told reporters today that there are 45,000 job postings on the federal job bank for young people looking for work. More information here.
PROVINCIAL
The Ontario government continues to protect the health and safety of the public during the COVID-19 outbreak by extending all emergency orders in force under s.7.0.2 (4) of the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act until June 9, 2020. More information here.
Following yesterday’s report by the Canadian Armed Forces, the Ontario government announced it is taking additional immediate action at high-risk long-term care homes.
The Ministry of Long-Term Care has deployed long-term care inspection teams to conduct comprehensive, detailed inspections at high-risk long-term care homes over the next 21 days. At the same time, the Ministry of Long-Term Care has started the process of appointing temporary management at Eatonville Care Centre, Hawthorne Place Care Centre, Altamont Care Community, Orchard Villa, and Camilla Care Community. Further, the recently announced independent commission into Ontario’s long-term care system will now begin its work in July 2020. More information here.
TORONTO
The City of Toronto encourages the public to plan ahead for essential trips this weekend as the City will actively manage traffic which will be impacted by important expressway maintenance, roadway construction and safe physical activity options for residents.
This weekend, the Gardiner Expressway will be fully closed from Highway 427 to the Don Valley Parkway for annual maintenance and improvement activities, the intersection of Richmond Street East and Church Street is fully closed for construction, and there will be closures in place for people to practise physical distancing while being physically active on Bayview Avenue and Lake Shore Boulevard East. More information here.
Today, Mayor John Tory announced that the City of Toronto has received authorization from the Province of Ontario to open another licensed child care centre to provide care for the children of essential and critical service workers. Like the first seven centres, this new centre is in an existing City-run licensed child care facility and staffed by City of Toronto child care workers.
The new child care centre is now open and is located at Blake Street Early Learning & Child Care Centre, 84 Blake St. in the East York community. Emergency child care services are reserved exclusively for children of essential and critical service workers identified in the Province of Ontario’s “List of Workers Eligible for Emergency Child Care,” who have no other alternatives. The safest option for families is to have children remain at home, if possible. More information here.
INTERNATIONAL
| Country | Total cases at 3:30 p.m. | Total cases yesterday at 3:30 p.m. | Increase from previous | Active Cases (Increase decrease) | Cases per million | Total recovered | Total deaths |
| Global | 5,751,558 | 5,643,983 | 107,575 | 2,923,075 | 738 | 2,473,120 | 355,363 |
| United States | 1,740,474 | 1,715,297 | 25,177 | 1,155,529 | 5,261 | 483,203 | 101,742 |
| Brazil | 396,166 | 377,780 | 18,386 | 212,827 | 1,865 | 158,593 | 24,746 |
| Russia | 370,680 | 362,342 | 8,338 | 224,504 | 2,540 | 142,208 | 3,968 |
| Spain | 283,849 | 283,339 | 510 | 59,264 | 6,071 | 196,958 | 27,118 |
| United Kingdom | 267,240 | 265,227 | 2,013 | — | 3,939 | — | 37,460 |
| Italy | 231,139 | 230,555 | 584 | 50,966 | 3,822 | 147,101 | 33,072 |
| Germany | 181,821 | 181,203 | 618 | 10,488 | 2,171 | 162,800 | 8,533 |
| India | 158,086 | 150,762 | 7,324 | 85,803 | 115 | 67,749 | 4,534 |
| Iran | 141,591 | 139,511 | 2,080 | 22,851 | 1,688 | 111,176 | 7,564 |
| Peru | 129,751 | 123,979 | 5,772 | 73,057 | 3,941 | 52,906 | 3,788 |
| Canada | 87,481 | 86,614 | 867 | 34,649 | 2,320 | 46,072 | 6,760 |
| China | 82,993 | 82,992 | 1 | 79 | 58 | 78,280 | 4,634 |
| Chile | 82,289 | 77,961 | 4,328 | 47,908 | 4,308 | 33,540 | 841 |
| Saudi Arabia | 78,541 | 76,726 | 1,815 | 27,094 | 2,260 | 51,022 | 425 |
| Australia | 7,139 | 7,133 | 6 | 470 | 280 | 6,566 | 103 |