The latest news on the COVID-19 global pandemic (all times Eastern):
9:25 a.m.
Newfoundland and Labrador is reporting its first death from COVID-19.
The Department of Health and Community Services says further details will be provided at a news conference this afternoon.
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9:20 a.m.
The Canadian Ferry Association is flagging concerns that Canadians displaying symptoms of COVID-19 have not been banned from boarding ferries as they have been barred from planes and inter-city trains.
Association president Serge Buy says people with COVID-19 should be banned from ferries except in emergency situations such as going to the hospital.
Buy says the respiratory illness has already worsened already severe work shortages in the ferry sector.
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9 a.m.
Statistics Canada is providing a detailed view of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in this country.
The data posted online this morning shows information such as whether the source was travel or community exposure, the person’s hospitalization status and health outcome status.
The information is available by age and sex for cases between January 15 and March 27, but the agency says it will be updated with help from the Public Health Agency of Canada.
The agency has spent the last 10 days setting up the infrastructure necessary for employees to remotely collect vital data on the economy and society.
Chief Statistician Anil Arora says that the national statistics office is also launching an online survey to see how Canadians are coping through the pandemic by asking questions around child care, elder care, stress and mental health.
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8 a.m.
A loud and beloved Vancouver tradition is being altered for the first time in its 164-year history to show the city’s appreciation for health care workers on the front lines of the battle against COVID-19.
The Vancouver Park Board says starting tonight and continuing for the month of April, the Nine O’Clock Gun — a 12-pound cannon in Stanley Park fired every night at 9 p.m. — will be fired two hours earlier, at 7 p.m.
That matches the time each evening when residents across the city stand on porches, balconies and street corners to honk horns, cheer, clap and bang pots in a show of support for health care workers.
The park board says the Nine O’Clock Gun has been silent just a handful of times since it was given to the city in 1856 and the firing schedule has never been altered, but the change reflects widespread public appeals.
The Canadian Press
