The latest news on the COVID-19 global pandemic (all times Eastern):
11:30 a.m.
Nova Scotia is reporting three more deaths related to COVID-19, bringing the province’s total to 27.
Health officials are also reporting 15 new cases of the virus bringing the total of confirmed cases to 915.
The province says the newly reported deaths occurred at the Northwood long-term care home in Halifax, which has been hardest hit by the disease.
There are 10 licensed long-term care homes and unlicensed seniors facilities in Nova Scotia with cases of COVID-19, involving 218 residents and 95 staff.
Nova Scotia has registered 26,902 negative test results, while 522 people have recovered.
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11:16 a.m.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says six million surgical masks will be shipped to the provinces and territories this week.
He says 100,000 face shields are also on the way soon.
Trudeau says ensuring workers have the right protective equipment is essential to helping businesses reopen.
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11:10 a.m.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says in many parts of Canada the COVID-19 curve has flattened.
He says that’s the bottom line of new federal modelling data being released today.
But he says while the measures taken so far to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus are working, Canadians can’t let up.
He says a coming national framework for easing up on some of those measures is based on ensuring COVID-19 can be contained.
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10:35 a.m.
Ontario is reporting 525 new COVID-19 cases today, and 59 more deaths.
That ends three consecutive days of declining numbers of new cases.
The new provincial total of 15,381 cases is an increase of 3.5 per cent over the previous day’s total and includes 951 deaths and 8,964 resolved cases.
Hospitalizations went up, but the numbers of people in intensive care and on ventilators declined slightly.
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8:20 a.m.
More than three dozen organizations from across British Columbia and Canada are demanding an immediate inquest into the April 15th death of an inmate due to COVID-19.
The unnamed man died at Mission Institution east of Vancouver — where 106 inmates have now tested positive for the virus — and he became Canada’s first reported COVID-related death of a federal prisoner.
Thirty-eight groups representing human rights, prisoners’ rights, health and legal interests have sent a letter to B.C.’s chief coroner and solicitor general saying an immediate inquest is in the public interest.
They say inmates cannot be allowed to die in prison from the “ticking timebomb of COVID-19” and call an inquest a “minimum first step” to ensure similar deaths are prevented.
The Canadian Press
