The latest news on the COVID-19 global pandemic (all times Eastern):
3:55 p.m.
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says British Columbia can’t follow the same pandemic response plans as other jurisdictions like Sweden and New Zealand because of its proximity to the United States.
Over the course of the pandemic, Henry says the dramatic increases in COVID-19 infections across the border, especially in Washington state, “dramatically” affected how B.C. has responded.
She says B.C. must continue to be thoughtful in how it reopens the economy and details of the plan will be released next week.
The province recorded 26 news cases today, bringing the total to 2,171.
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2:40 p.m.
Nova Scotia is reporting two more deaths related to COVID-19 at the Northwood long-term care home in Halifax.
That brings the death toll in the province to 31.
Of the 323 active cases of COVID-19 in Nova Scotia, 202 are at Northwood, the largest non-profit care home in Atlantic Canada.
Four new cases have been reported in the province, bringing the total to 963.
Of those, 609 have recovered.
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1:25 p.m.
Newfoundland and Labrador has no new cases of COVID-19 today.
The case count remains at 259.
Of the 259 cases, 241 are in the Eastern Health area, which includes St. John’s.
There are just 18 cases in the rest of the province.
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1:20 p.m.
New Brunswick says all people in the province who were with sick with COVID-19 have recovered as of today.
It has now been two weeks since the province reported fresh COVID-19 cases.
It says all 118 people who had the virus are now testing negative.
Dr. Jennifer Russell, chief medical officer of health, said that despite the positive milestone, she is urging the province’s citizens to continue practising physical distancing and to stay home as much as possible.
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1:15 p.m.
Quebec is reporting 114 new deaths linked to COVID-19 today, bringing the death toll to 2,136.
The province’s Health Department says in a statement that an additional 1,008 confirmed cases have been reported in the past 24 hours, bringing the number of those infected to 29,656.
Of those cases, 1,738 have required hospitalization, with 222 people in intensive care.
Quebec has announced plans to gradually reopen daycares, elementary schools, retail businesses, construction and manufacturing gradually during the month of May.
Authorities are staggering opening dates between the rest of the province and greater Montreal, which has been heavily hit by COVID-19 cases and deaths.
The province also wants to ramp up testing to 14,000 tests per day in anticipation of the gradual resumption of activities.
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12:15 p.m.
Quebec’s lottery corporation says it will begin reopening some lottery terminals on Monday after shutting them down due to fears surrounding the novel coronavirus.
Loto-Quebec announced on March 20 that it would suspend sales of lottery products at retailers and in kiosks and disconnected its network of sales terminals, pivoting sales online only.
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10:40 a.m.
Ontario is reporting 511 new cases of COVID-19 and 55 new deaths.
The Ministry of Health says there are 17,119 confirmed cases of the virus and the death toll is now at 1,176.
The province has marked 11,390 of the cases as resolved.
The Canadian Press