The latest developments on COVID-19 in Canada

The latest news on the COVID-19 global pandemic (all times Eastern):

9 p.m.

Ontario is allowing licensed restaurants and bars to sell alcohol at a lower price with a food order during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The government says the minimum price for 29 millilitres of whiskey, gin, rum and other spirits will be temporarily reduced to $1.34 from $2 for takeout and delivery orders.

The measure will be revoked on Jan. 1, 2021, matching the duration of the temporary ability for bars and restaurants to sell alcohol with food for takeout and delivery.

The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario also has temporarily removed the requirement for cideries to have five acres or planted fruit in order to qualify for a store.

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6:25 p.m.

Eight new COVID-19 cases have been reported in British Columbia, while the provincial death toll has increased by four to 121.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says 2,232 people have tested positive for COVID-19 and 1,472 have recovered.

Premier John Horgan will release details on Wednesday on how the province will go about lifting pandemic restrictions.

Henry says people shouldn’t be planning play dates yet because there is a lot of work to do. She adds research has shown that moving too quickly can undo all the hard work that has been done.

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6:20 p.m.

The Yukon government says its modelling shows that it would have seen around 2,500 cases of COVID-19 if it had not put pandemic restrictions in place.

The territory has had 11 cases of the illness, and all of those people have recovered.

Dr. Brendan Hanley, the territory’s chief medical health officer, says officials have traced all the contacts of those who had COVID-19 and there are no active cases of the virus in Yukon.

The government’s modelling also says about 150 people would have been in hospital without the restrictions.

None of the 11 people who were infected needed to go to hospital.

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6:05 p.m.

Canada is recording its second COVID-19 death among its prison inmate population.

Correctional Service Canada said today an inmate from the Federal Training Centre facility in Laval Que., Montreal’s northern suburb, died of complications related to COVID-19 on Sunday.

Another federal inmate, detained at Mission Medium Institution in B.C., died of COVID-19 on April 15.

Mission Institution is experiencing the largest prison outbreak in Canada, with at least 133 inmates and staff testing positive for COVID-19.

5:50 p.m.

Alberta is reporting 57 new cases of COVID-19 and two additional deaths.

That brings the total number of cases in the province to 5,893.

The government says 106 people have died and 3,219 have recovered.

3:55 p.m.

Health officials say almost all of the newest cases of COVID-19 in Saskatchewan are from a remote northern community experiencing an outbreak.

The province says 18 of the 20 cases announced today are from in and around La Loche, a Dene village 600 kilometres northwest of Saskatoon.

Saskatchewan has 487 total cases with 310 people having recovered.

The death toll remains at six.

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3 p.m.

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Dwight Ball says 90 staff members at Eastern Health were in contact with a patient who has tested positive for COVID-19 this past weekend.

He says all the staff are now in self-isolation and have been tested for the virus.

Ball says all the results that have come back so far are negative.

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2:05 p.m.

Manitoba is reporting one new COVID-19 case, bringing the total to 282 — 271 confirmed, 11 probable.

The province is also reporting the death of a man in his 70s, bringing the total of deaths to seven.

Health officials say they are also dealing with a small cluster of five cases at an unnamed workplace in the Prairie Mountain health region, and say the workplace is not related to health care.

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1:33 p.m.

New Brunswick is reporting one new case of COVID-19 Tuesday, the first new case in more than two weeks.

There have now been 119 positive cases in the province, and 118 of them have recovered.

Dr. Jennifer Russell, New Brunswick’s chief medical officer of health, says the latest case involves a person aged 30-39 in the Fredericton region.

It’s not known yet if the latest case is travel-related or community transmission.

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1:15 p.m.

Quebec is announcing 118 new COVID-19 deaths compared with the prior day, for a total of 2,398.

The province is also recording another 794 positive cases of COVID-19, for a total of 33,417 confirmed cases.

Quebec Premier Francois Legault said today about 11,200 workers are absent from the health-care network, either because they are sick, vulnerable to COVID-19 infection or otherwise too afraid to go into work.

He says about a third of them should be finishing their 14-day quarantines and is calling on them to return to work in the health-care network, especially in the province’s struggling long-term care homes.

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12:55 p.m.

Newfoundland and Labrador is reporting no new cases of COVID-19 Tuesday, keeping the provincial total at 259 cases.

The province’s chief medical officer of health says there are currently four people in hospital and two of them are in intensive care.

She says 241 people are considered recovered.

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12:51 p.m.

Canada’s chief public health officer says the daily increase of COVID-19 cases in Canada has slowed to about three per cent.

Dr. Theresa Tam says that trend, coupled with statistics showing the percentage of tests coming back positive is going down, even as the number of tests goes up, signifies that the epidemic in Canada is slowing down.

Meanwhile, Tam says the pediatric network in Canada is monitoring children for signs of the inflammatory syndrome known as Kawasaki disease, which some countries have found in some children with COVID-19.

But Tam says there are no firm conclusions in Canada about the links between COVID-19 and inflammatory diseases.

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12:34 p.m.

The Manitoba government will be mailing out cheques to seniors to help them deal with costs associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Premier Brian Pallister says starting this month, the $200 tax credit will be sent to anyone over 65 who filed 2018 tax returns.

The new benefit is not limited to low-income earners, and will not be treated as taxable income.

Pallister says it will help seniors pay for grocery deliveries and other costs they are facing.

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12:10 p.m.

The federal government says almost 7.5 million people have received emergency federal aid since the program launched almost a month ago.

The Canada Emergency Response Benefit provides up to $2,000 per month to anyone who either lost a job, earns less than $1,000, or whose job prospects have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Federal figures posted today show 7.49 million people have applied for the benefit since it launched on April 6.

The government has said the benefit is taxable, but it won’t seek to collect the money until next year.

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11:12 a.m.

Ontario is reporting 387 new cases of COVID-19 today, and 61 more deaths.

That brings the provincial total to 18,310 cases, including 1,361 deaths and 12,779 resolved cases.

The new provincial total is 2.2 per cent higher than the previous day, which is part of a general downward trend of late.

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11:10 a.m.

Nova Scotia is reporting three more deaths related to COVID-19, bringing the total number of deaths to 41.

Health officials say the deaths occurred at the Northwood long-term care home in Halifax.

As of today, Nova Scotia is reporting six new cases of COVID-19, for a total of 991 confirmed cases.

They say 652 people have now recovered and their cases of COVID-19 are considered resolved.

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11 a.m.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is announcing $252 million to support the agri-food industry.

That includes $77 million for food processors and $125 million for cattle and pork producers who are incurring extra costs keeping animals on their farms longer during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Another $200 million is being added to a credit line program for dairy producers, who also have more product than can be consumed right now.

Trudeau says there isn’t the capacity to redistribute milk and cheese to places in need at the moment.

The Canadian Press