The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Monday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.
12:30 p.m. Joe Biden says he’s willing to go forward with an in-person debate later this month “if scientists say it’s safe,” even after President Donald Trump was diagnosed with COVID-19.
Speaking to reporters before boarding a flight to campaign in Florida, the Democratic presidential nominee declined to say Monday whether he believes the next presidential debate, scheduled for Oct. 15, should be virtual.
Instead, he said he would “listen to the science” and that “if scientists say that it’s safe, that distances are safe, then I think that’s fine.” Biden and Trump stood about 3 metres apart during the last debate, though neither wore a mask during the event. Trump tested positive for the virus just two days later and is hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
12:04 p.m. Newfoundland and Labrador is advising passengers on a recent Air Canada flight from Toronto to Halifax to immediately isolate and get tested for COVID-19.
Authorities said today passengers on AC604 on Sept. 30 seated in rows 13 through 17 should isolate for 14 days upon their arrival in the province and call 811 to arrange a test.
Public Health says while the risk of COVID-19 infection is low for the other passengers, the agency is still recommending they get tested out of an abundance of caution.
Authorities say passengers on another Air Canada flight — 8876 from Halifax to Deer Lake, N.L., on Sept. 30 — who are required to self-isolate have already been contacted.
Public Health says while the risk is also low for the other passengers on that flight, the agency is recommending they self-monitor for symptoms and call 811 to arrange for a COVID-19 test.
The province reported two new COVID-19 cases this weekend and one death — a man between 60 and 69 years old who arrived to the province from Central Africa last week and who died while isolating.
12:01 p.m. (updated) President Donald Trump’s press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, tested positive for coronavirus infection on Monday, she said in a statement posted on Twitter.
McEnany said she isn’t experiencing symptoms of Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus.
“With my recent positive test, I will begin the quarantine process and will continue working on behalf of the American people remotely,” she said.
Trump continues to recuperate from the disease at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. A number of his aides other than McEnany have also tested positive, including his campaign manager, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee and one of his personal assistants
11:45 a.m.: White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a tweet that she tested positive for coronavirus Monday morning. She said she has had no symptoms and had tested negative consistently since Thursday, when she briefed the press.
McEnany also said that she “definitively” had no knowledge of Trump aide Hope Hicks’s infection with the coronavirus prior to holding the Thursday briefing.
11:04 a.m. The number of new COVID-19 cases in public schools across the province has jumped by 56 from the previous weekday, to a total of 449 in the last two weeks.
In its latest data released Monday morning, the province reported 31 more students were infected for a total of 259 in the last two weeks; since school began there have been overall total of 293.
The data shows there are eight more staff members for a total of 65 in the last two weeks — and an overall total of 92.
The latest report also shows 17 more individuals who weren’t identified for a total of 125 in that category — and an overall total of 154.
Read the full story from the Star’s Patrick Ho
11 a.m. Talking turkey and trick-or-treating will not be the same this year thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, a new poll suggests.
The Campaign Research survey for the Star found most Ontarians favour small Thanksgiving gatherings next weekend and oppose the customary Halloween festivities on Oct. 31.
One third of those polled — 33 per cent — said only the people residing in a single household should celebrate Thanksgiving together.
Almost half — 48 per cent — said fewer than 10 people should gather for the traditional turkey dinner.
Ten per cent said Ontarians should be allowed to do whatever they want on the annual holiday while 6 per cent said between 10 and 25 people should be permitted to get together under one roof and 3 per cent had no opinion.
Read the full story from the Star’s Robert Benzie
10:24 a.m. (will be updated) Ontario is reporting 615 cases of COVID-19 Monday. Locally, there are 289 new cases in Toronto, 88 in Peel and 81 in Ottawa. Fifty-eight per cent of the cases are in people under the age of 40. Almost 38,200 tests were completed.
10:10 a.m. More Americans blame the U.S. government instead of foreign nations for the coronavirus crisis in the United States, a rebuke to the Trump administration’s contention that China or other countries are most at fault, a new poll shows.
The poll by The University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research was conducted before President Donald Trump tested positive for the virus Friday and was hospitalized. Trump has downplayed the severity and impact of the pandemic in recent months.
Although many see plenty of blame to go around and there’s a wide bipartisan divide over who is responsible, 56 per cent of Americans say the U.S. government has substantial responsibility for the situation. That compares with 47 per cent who place that much blame on the governments of other countries and only 39 per cent who say the same about the World Health Organization.
9:50 a.m. The British government faced huge questions Monday over its coronavirus testing system after a tripling in the number of daily positive cases over the weekend that was blamed on a technical glitch.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock is due to make a statement to lawmakers later Monday after the opposition Labour Party asked the government to explain why the cases were not tabulated when they should have been.
The latest problems to afflict the U.K.’s test and trace program emerged over the weekend when public health officials revealed that a total of 15,841 virus cases weren’t tabulated from Sept. 25 to Oct. 2. The government said the “technical issue” was discovered Friday night and has now been resolved.
The unreported cases were added to the government’s daily new infections total over the weekend, boosting Saturday’s number to 12,872 cases and Sunday’s to 22,961. Before that, there had been signs that the number of new infections had been levelling off around the 7,000 a day mark, which Britain hit the preceding four days.
9:45 a.m. President Donald Trump was hoping for a Monday discharge from the military hospital where he is being treated for COVID-19, a day after he briefly ventured out while contagious to salute cheering supporters by motorcade in a move that disregarded precautions meant to contain the deadly virus that has killed more than 209,000 Americans.
White House officials said Trump was anxious to be released after three nights at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where doctors revealed on Sunday that his blood oxygen level dropped suddenly twice in recent days and that they gave him a steroid typically only recommended for the very sick. Still, the doctors said Trump’s health is improving and volunteered that he could be discharged as early as Monday to continue the remainder of his treatment at the White House.
“This is an important day as the president continues to improve and is ready to get back to a normal work schedule,” White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told Fox News on Monday. He said the determination on whether Trump would leave the hospital won’t be made until later in the day after the president is evaluated by his medical team, but that Trump was “optimistic” he could be released Monday.
9:45 a.m. Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius will spend a week in isolation after having been in contact with two infected people who were part of the French delegation during last week’s visit by French President Emmanuel Macron, an official said Monday.
Linkevicius was tested for COVID-19 and authorities said later that he had tested negative, according to Rasa Jakilaitiene, a spokeswoman for the minister.
“The minister feels perfectly OK. He will remain in self-isolation and will work from home for the rest of the week,” Jakilaitiene told The Associated Press. “We are waiting for the test results (and) the ministry building was being disinfected.”
9:41 a.m. Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said Monday he will self-quarantine after a Cabinet minister he was in contact with tested positive for the coronavirus, as cases in the country hit a record high.
Muhyiddin had chaired an Oct. 3 meeting attended by Religious Affairs Minister Zulkifli Mohamad Al-Bakri, who confirmed Monday he has been hospitalized for treatment.
The health ministry has warned that Malaysia is facing a new wave of virus cases as the outbreak has widened in recent days. New clusters have sprung up in many states amid increased travel to eastern Sabah state, a hotspot zone, for a state election last month.
New virus cases hit a record daily high of 432 on Monday, bringing Malaysia’s tally to 12,813 with 137 deaths. Nearly half were from a prison in a northern state, and 130 were in Sabah.
9:40 a.m. Two players from the Ukrainian national team have tested positive for the coronavirus and four more are in isolation ahead of scheduled games against France, Germany and Spain, the Ukrainian Football Federation said Monday.
The federation said the Shakhtar Donetsk pair of goalkeeper Andriy Pyatov and midfielder Taras Stepanenko tested positive and four other players from the club were in isolation. None of the six were listed to travel with the rest of the Ukraine team ahead of a friendly against France in Saint-Denis on Wednesday.
The players who are in isolation were named as Mykola Matviyenko, Viktor Kovalenko, Marlos and Junior Moraes. They will undergo further coronavirus tests and could join the team ahead of the Nations League game against Germany on Saturday and against Spain on Oct. 13, the federation said.
8:38 a.m. Nearly 20 per cent of COVID-19 infections in Canada are among health care workers, which is double the global average and an “irresponsible approach to worker safety,” according to a new report by a former senior adviser on the SARS commission.
At fault are governments and public health officials, who failed to ensure there was a sufficient supply of N95 respirators to protect health care workers from potential airborne transmission of the virus, a precaution that other countries took even without scientific proof, says Mario Possamai.
“In the lead up to COVID-19, Canada really ignored the key lessons from SARS, while China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, who are really our peers in SARS — 90 per cent of cases in SARS affected these four countries — they learned from SARS, took a precautionary approach and looked after their health care workers.”
The report says China, which armed health workers with N95s soon after the outbreak began, had a health care worker infection rate of four per cent.
Read the full story from the Star’s Patty Winsa
8:21 a.m. The head of emergencies at the World Health Organization says its “best estimates” indicate that roughly 1 in 10 people worldwide may have been infected by the coronavirus.
Dr. Michael Ryan, speaking Monday to a meeting of the WHO’s 34-member executive board focusing on COVID-19, said the figures vary from urban to rural, and between different groups, but that ultimately it means “the vast majority of the world remains at risk.”
The estimate — which would amount to more than 760 million people based on current world population of about 7.6 billion — far outstrips the number of confirmed cases as tallied by both WHO and Johns Hopkins University, now more than 35 million worldwide.
Experts have long said that the number of confirmed cases greatly underestimates the true figure.
8:17 a.m. Wendy McQuaig has owned and operated her psychotherapy practice in Orillia, Ont., for the better part of her 30-year career. But the last six months have brought many firsts.
One was attempting to play Lego with a child during a therapy session on Zoom. Another: taking a call from a client who happened to be on a canoe — the only place they were able to find privacy during a cottage trip.
These unlikely backdrops for intimate mental health conversations have replaced conventional comfy couches and private psychiatrists’ rooms across the country, as the COVID-19 pandemic forced many aspects of health care, particularly mental health, onto computer screens.
“When clients used to come and see me, I would get them a cup of coffee or tea and we’d sit in my meeting room,” McQuaig reflected. “It makes people feel at ease; be able to talk about things on their mind.
“Now it’s a little different when you’re doing it over a computer.”
Read the full story from the Star’s Nadine Yousif
8:12 a.m. When Sarah MacNeil landed a job managing events at Toronto’s swanky Hotel X, she was thrilled at the prospect. The pay and hours were solid, a rarity in the hospitality world that would soon be upended by COVID-19.
And while she was hired through a catering company, she felt like an integral part of the hotel’s operation. She received training from Hotel X’s management, wore a Hotel X name tag, and did “everything in her power” to help Hotel X guests.
But when Hotel X switched subcontractors in the middle of the pandemic, MacNeil was cut loose — along with around 200 workers who say they are now owed upwards of $1.4 million in unpaid entitlements.
Read the full story from the Star’s Mojtehedzadeh
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8:03 a.m. Nobody is talking about raising taxes these days. Not with the country in the midst of a pandemic-induced recession that risks getting worse if the rising infection rate forces new lockdowns.
Governments and central banks are focused on getting us through this and mitigating the long-term economic damage as best they can. Ottawa is running up deficits at a rate not seen since the Second World War in an effort to support businesses and individuals.
The Bank of Canada has joined the Federal Reserve Board and other central banks in slashing interest rates to near zero and using quantitative easing to provide liquidity through the purchase of securities like bonds and, in some countries, even ETFs and equities.
Read the full story by Gordon Pape
7:26 a.m. The French government is planning to shut down bars in the Paris region and impose other new restrictions in the area as the country struggles to contain a spike of new coronavirus cases and avoid a second nationwide lockdown, according to Agence France Presse.
Paris and its inner suburbs will be declared a maximum alert zone on Monday, then the measures will go into effect Tuesday to last 15 days, AFP reported late on Sunday, citing a statement from France’s Prime Minister’s Office.
The benchmarks for French cities fall under local virus-alert criteria set out last month by President Emmanuel Macron’s government, which says it doesn’t want a second nationwide lockdown.
France’s virus cases increased the most in Europe over the past two months and monthly virus-related deaths tripled in September. The country reported a record number of laboratory-confirmed new cases on Saturday.
7 a.m. There will still be crowds for the final week of French Open after Paris police decided not to reduce the limit of 1,000 spectators per day.
Paris police chief Didier Lallement said bars in Paris will close for two weeks from Tuesday as part of new measures to slow coronavirus infections.
But he maintained the current limit of 1,000 spectators at sports events in Paris and specifically noted the clay-court tournament at Roland Garros.
The decision will come as a relief to players.
Many have said how much they appreciate having spectators even in much smaller numbers than normal.
6:31 a.m.: As a kindergarten teacher, Michelle McKay used to revel in the lively, open classrooms that are the hallmark of early childhood education.
But that ended abruptly for her and countless other teachers in March when schools shut down amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
After donning her personal protective gear — usually a face mask and shield — she is screened at the door for COVID-19 symptoms. Once inside, she follows arrows on the floor and sanitizes her hands on the way. When she finally reaches the classroom, she focuses on maintaining a careful distance between herself and the students in a bid to keep everyone safe.
Like most of her colleagues, McKay’s job these days is a big departure from what it once was. But even with a new school year and a new role, her level of exhaustion is at an all-time high.
Many of Ontario’s 160,000 teachers say burnout is running rampant. They’re overwhelmed with a barrage of new responsibilities outside of teaching, including rigorous cleaning of classrooms, navigating technological issues for online classes and trying to maintain physical distancing between younger children.
5:45 a.m.: Canada put health-care workers at risk of contracting COVID-19 and taking it home to their families because it failed to learn lessons from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in 2003, a new report says.
Mario Possamai, who authored the report and was senior adviser to a two-year commission on SARS, outlines multiple shortcomings by the Public Health Agency of Canada.
The agency was established to respond to emerging infectious diseases after an early recommendation by the commission investigating how the SARS epidemic that killed 44 people arrived in Canada and spread, mostly in Ontario.
Hundreds of people died of SARS elsewhere, including in China and Taiwan. However, Possamai says in the report released Monday that unlike Canada, those countries heeded the warnings from SARS, which he calls “a dress rehearsal for COVID-19.”
“In COVID-19, Canada is witnessing a systemic, preventable failure to learn from the 2003 SARS outbreak,” he says. “It is a failure to both adequately prepare and to urgently respond in a manner that is commensurate with the gravest public health emergency in a century.”
5:31 a.m.: The Italian government is weighing whether to require masks outdoors nationwide amid a steady, nine-week increase in coronavirus infections.
Already several individual regions have imposed outdoor mask mandates in a bid to curb the rebound in infections. On Sunday, Italy added another 2,578 confirmed cases, far fewer new daily infections than in neighbouring France or Spain, but cause for concern in the one-time European epicentre of the pandemic.
Another 18 people died, bringing Italy’s toll to 35,986, the second highest in Europe after Britain.
Health Minister Roberto Speranza told RAI 3 television a national outdoor mask mandate was being considered by the government in a bid to keep infections from spiralling out of control now that schools have reopened. There have been 900 cases tied to schools, and 14 school-based clusters in the last week alone. But health authorities said in their weekly monitoring report that it will still be some time before they know the full effect of schools reopening on the infection curve.
5:08 a.m.: European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen says she has placed herself in isolation after being in contact with a person infected with the coronavirus.
In a message posted on Twitter Monday, the head of the EU’s executive arm said she took part in a meeting last Tuesday that was attended by “a person who yesterday tested positive.” Von der Leyen was on a two-day trip to Portugal last Monday and Tuesday.
She said she tested negative for the virus on Thursday and that she will undergo another test later Monday.
5:05 a.m.: India registered 74,442 new coronavirus cases, driving the country’s tally to 6.6 million. The Health Ministry on Monday also reported 903 deaths in the past 24 hours, taking total fatalities to 102,685.
India, the second worst-affected nation in the world after the United States, is witnessing a sustained decline in new coronavirus infections and active virus cases have remained below the million mark for 14 consecutive days. It still is registering the highest number of daily cases globally and is soon expected to cross the U.S. which has 7.4 million confirmed coronavirus cases.
5:03 a.m.: Sri Lankan authorities closed a university and imposed restrictions on buses and trains on Monday, a day after a COVID-19 patient was reported from the community for the first time in two months.
A curfew was imposed Sunday in the Colombo suburbs where the patient lived, and about 15 hospital staff and 40 co-workers have been quarantined. The state-run University of Kelaniya in the area was also closed down for a week starting from Monday.
Buses and trains must transport passengers according to the number of seats, and commuters must wear masks. Schools countrywide have been closed down. For more than two months, health officials have been saying that they have prevented the community spread of the virus. The country has reported 3,388 confirmed cases, including 13 deaths. Of the total, 3,254 have recovered.
5 a.m.: Grade school and high school students in the Philippines began classes at home Monday after the coronavirus pandemic forced remote-learning onto an educational system already struggling to fund schools.
The shift to distance learning has been a logistical nightmare for the poverty-stricken Southeast Asian country that has long lacked enough classrooms, teachers and educational equipment. Nearly 25 million students enrolled this year, mostly in 47,000 public schools nationwide that would have to be replicated in homes and enlist the help of parents and guardians as co-teachers.
A majority of families, especially from poor and rural communities, opted to use government-provided digital or printed learning materials or “modules,” which students will read at home with the guidance of their elders before carrying out specified activities. Most lack computers and reliable internet connections. Teachers can answer questions by telephone.
Other families preferred for their children to get lessons online or through regional radio and TV educational broadcasts.
4 a.m.: Canadians forced to miss work because of COVID-19 can start applying for financial support from the federal government Monday.
The new benefits have been highly anticipated as Canadians face increasing uncertainty due to a surge in new COVID-19 cases heading into the fall and winter.
The new caregiver benefit provides $500 per week for up to 26 weeks to households where one person has to miss more than half a week of work because they have to care for someone.
That includes situations in which a child or other dependent has either caught COVID-19 and can’t go to school or daycare, or in which schools, daycares or day programs and facilities are closed because of the illness.
Canadians will also be able to start applying for a new sick-leave benefit that will pay up to $1,000 for those forced to stay home because they have become infected or have to isolate because of the illness.
Sunday 10:15 p.m.: An appeals court refused Sunday to allow the Trump administration to resume detaining immigrant children in hotel rooms before expelling them under rules adopted during the coronavirus pandemic.
Three judges on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals left in place a lower court’s order that requires the U.S. to stop using hotels in most situations to detain children unaccompanied by a parent. The judges denied the U.S. government’s request for a stay of that order.
Sunday 9:27 p.m.: New York City’s mayor said Sunday that he has asked the state for permission to close schools and reinstate restrictions on non-essential businesses in several neighbourhoods because of a resurgence of the coronavirus.
The action, if approved, would mark a disheartening retreat for a city that enjoyed a summer with less spread of the virus than most other parts of the country, and had only recently celebrated the return of students citywide to in-person learning in classrooms.
