The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Friday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.
11:43 a.m. Airbnb says it is not accepting any one-night rentals of entire homes on Friday, Oct. 30 or Sat. Oct. 31, in an attempt to discourage gatherings during the pandemic.
Guests with existing single-night reservations for those dates will be treated to a refund and the hosts of those rentals will be reimbursed by the company.
As Halloween approaches, Airbnb says it will spook would-be partiers by expanding its existing restrictions on last-minute bookings by guests who don’t have positive reviews on the site and guests booking for Nov. 28 through Nov. 1 will be reminded no parties are allowed. Its neighbourhood support line will be on call throughout the weekend.
11:13 a.m. The number of new COVID-19 cases in public schools across the province has jumped by 37 from the previous day, to a total of 412 in the last two weeks.
In its latest data released Friday morning, the province reported 30 more students were infected for a total of 237 in the last two weeks; since school began there have been overall total of 263.
The data shows there are two more staff members for a total of 61 in the last two weeks — and an overall total of 84.
The latest report also shows five more individuals who weren’t identified for a total of 114 in that category — and an overall total of 137.
There are 318 schools with a reported case, which the province notes is 6.59 per cent of the 4,828 public schools in Ontario.
Read the story from the Star’s Patrick Ho
10:43 a.m. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she’s praying for the president and hopes his testing positive for COVID-19 might be a “learning experience” about the virus.
“Let us all pray for the president’s health,” Pelosi said on MSNBC. She added, “This is tragic, It is very sad.”
The speaker said she was tested out of caution and is awaiting results. But said warned against “brazen” behaviour that allowed “something like this to happen”
10:29 a.m. (updated) Ontario set a record for new daily COVID-19 cases for the second time this week with 732 as labs continue processing a huge backlog of tests.
The previous highs were 700 new infections on Monday and 640 in late April, when Ontario was at the peak of the first wave of the pandemic. On Monday, officials said the number was higher than it might otherwise have been because the backlog meant results of some tests had been delayed.
“Locally, there are 323 new cases in Toronto, 141 in Ottawa and 111 in Peel,” Health Minister Christine Elliott said on Twittter after her department released the latest statistics.
She noted 58 per cent of the new cases were in people under 40, which has been steadily declining from about two-thirds in an indication the virus is spreading more widely to older age groups more likely to require medical care for the highly contagious and potentially deadly virus.
Read the full story from the Star’s Rob Ferguson
9:49 a.m. A significant overhaul of COVID screening guidelines in Ontario schools, which will allow kids who recover quickly from a runny nose, headache or upset stomach to return to class without a test, has stunned several infectious disease experts in Toronto, despite a similar move in B.C.
These experts say the province has not provided the evidence to justify loosening guidelines as cases surge.
Dr. Janine McCready, an infectious diseases physician at Michael Garron Hospital, who has been reaching out to families of students who test positive at her hospital since schools reopened, said the decision is not in line with what she is seeing on the ground.
In the past few weeks, McCready said she has seen several cases of COVID in students with no known contact to another COVID case, whose only symptom is a runny nose that resolves “quite quickly.” The new screening tool, she said, “wouldn’t have caught the cases.”
9:47 a.m. Scientists advising Boris Johnson’s government said it is “still highly likely” that the coronavirus epidemic is growing exponentially across the U.K., even as some recent studies indicate the rate may be slowing.
Official data on Friday put the so-called R number, or the rate at which the virus multiplies, at between 1.3 and 1.6 across the country, up on last week’s estimate of 1.2 to 1.5. That contrasts with a major study from Imperial College London published Thursday suggesting the rate may have fallen to 1.1, from 1.7 in late August and early September.
“More data are needed to accurately assess any recent changes in transmission and it is still highly likely that the epidemic is growing exponentially across the country,” the Government Office for Science said in an emailed statement. “Over the next few weeks, it will be important that we understand this in the U.K. and do not become complacent.”
9:42 a.m. On CBC Radio’s Metro Morning Toronto Mayor John Tory was asked to comment on Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis.
“I’m not a fan but I don’t wish anyone ill will with their health so I hope that he recovers. But it sends a very important message because here’s a guy who went around and said he didn’t need to wear a mask and he was kind of a tough guy and you wouldn’t get this if you were tough, somehow. I think it just proves, and hopefully to people in Toronto even though he’s not our president, that anybody can get this. It means that everybody has to be on their guard as we’ve been saying to people.”
Politically, Tory said, “I can’t imagine that it’s a good thing because you’re not able to be out putting your message out and taking on your opponent debating. After the debate the other night I think that’s a relief probably to people. But again, I hope this man and his wife don’t have any bad health effects, that they recover from it.”
9:39 a.m. Health Canada says it’s begun its first review of a possible vaccine for COVID-19.
The agency says it’s evaluating the vaccine candidate being worked on by pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.
The possible vaccine is undergoing what’s called a “rolling review,” in which Health Canada accepts data and results from the company’s trials as it comes in, rather than waiting for everything to be complete.
Health Canada cautions that starting a rolling review is just one step on the road to approval.
The federal government has put in an advance order for 20 million doses of this vaccine candidate, if it proves safe and effective.
9:07 a.m. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said Friday that he and his wife Jill “send our thoughts to President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump for a swift recovery” after they tested positive for the coronavirus.
In a Friday morning tweet, he added, “We will continue to pray for the health and safety of the president and his family.”
It was not immediately clear whether the former vice-president had been tested since appearing at Tuesday’s presidential debate with Trump or whether he was taking any additional safety protocols. Trump and Biden did not shake hands during the debate but stood without masks about 10 feet apart for the 90-minute event.
8:56 a.m. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is offering his family’s best wishes to U.S. President Donald Trump and the first lady.
Trudeau says he and his wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, hope the president and Melania Trump recover fully from COVID-19.
Trump announced early this morning that both he and his wife have tested positive for the coronavirus.
Gregoire Trudeau tested positive for COVID-19 in March after returning from a trip to England.
She recovered within weeks, and the prime minister never contracted the virus.
8:54 a.m. Vice-President Mike Pence and second lady Karen Pence tested negative for COVID-19 Friday morning, hours after President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump were diagnosed with the coronavirus.
Spokesman Devin O’Malley says Pence “remains in good health and wishes the Trumps well in their recovery.”
Pence is tested every day for the virus, O’Malley confirmed.
8:38 a.m. Bernie Sanders is returning to in-person campaigning for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in March, heading to the battleground states of New Hampshire and Michigan to promote Joe Biden and sooth any lingering tensions between the Democratic Party’s progressive and centrist wings.
Spokesman Mike Casca says the Vermont senator will hold a socially distanced, outdoor rally Saturday in Lebanon, New Hampshire which will be capped to keep crowds from growing too large. On Monday, Sanders will host a drive-in rally in Macomb County, Michigan — a Detroit suburb that voted Republican in 2016 and was instrumental in clinching the White House for President Donald Trump.
Sanders ended his presidential primary campaign in April and endorsed Biden just days later, as both candidates worked to promote party unity that largely eluded Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Some of Sanders’ top advisers and supporters later formed joint task forces with their counterparts from Biden’s camp to hammer out agreements on major policy issues that were reflected in the Democratic Party platform. Also, high ranking Sanders campaign leaders have formed two Super PACs to promote Biden — despite Sanders personally opposing outside money in politics.
8:35 a.m. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump have tested positive for the coronavirus, he said Friday. The positive test comes a month until the election and after the president has spent the year largely downplaying the threat of the virus.
Trump’s positive test comes just hours after the White House announced that senior aide Hope Hicks had come down with the virus after travelling with the president several times this week. Trump was last seen by reporters returning to the White House on Thursday evening and looked to be in good health. Trump is 74- years-old, putting him at higher risk of serious complications from the virus.
Read the around the world reaction from the Star’s Irelyne Lavery
8:10 a.m. The Athens Marathon has been cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The marathon had been scheduled for Nov. 8. It follows the legendary route purportedly run by the ancient Greek messenger Pheidippides from Marathon to Athens to announce victory over the Persians in the Battle of Marathon in 490 B.C.
The classic marathon route has grown in popularity since the 1970s and the event now includes 10-kilometre and 5-kilometre races.
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The Greek track federation says it had considered holding only the marathon with fewer participants and compulsory COVID-19 tests for all runners but its proposal to Greek health authorities had not been answered.
The federation says participants will be contacted and offered a refund or to transfer their participation to 2021. It says it will organize a virtual race in November that will be open to all.
5:59 a.m.: In Nunavut, Dr. Michael Patterson is a household name.
As the territory’s chief public health officer, he leads the team responsible for keeping COVID-19 out of Nunavut’s 25 communities.
So far, with the exception of a few cases at its mines brought in from southern workers, Nunavut has remained COVID-19 free.
Patterson, who has been in the job since December 2018, says that’s partially thanks to the fact that the only way into Nunavut from the rest of the country is by plane.
“We’re naturally isolated anyway. We’ve taken advantage of that,” he says.
“But some of it is luck.”
5:56 a.m.: A critical snapshot of the job market and the economy to be released Friday is expected to show a further slowdown in hiring as the nation’s viral caseload creeps higher and as government financial aid has faded.
When the Labor Department issues its September jobs report, economists predict it will show a gain of 850,000, according to a survey by data provider FactSet. That would mark a third straight monthly slowdown, after June’s 4.8 million job gain, July’s 1.7 million and August’s 1.4 million.
If the forecast for September proves accurate, it would mean that the economy has regained only slightly more than half the 22 million jobs that vanished when the pandemic flattened the economy in early spring. Should job gains continue to remain below 1 million a month, it would take until late 2021 or 2022 to recoup them all.
5:55 a.m.: Plenty of people want to know whether they ever had COVID-19, and public officials need to know. But existing antibody tests that look for markers of the disease caused by the coronavirus have not met the challenge, with accuracy, cost and convenience problems.
Scientists at the Johns Hopkins University and elsewhere, however, are working on the next generation of these tests that can be done at home.
“We wanted to develop something you could use on your kids,” said Netz Arroyo, a Hopkins assistant professor of pharmacology and molecular sciences who joined with a biomedical engineer and a biophysicist to repurpose a common medical device to look for the virus.
“It would be easy and you may not even have to poke their finger every time,” he said. “Now you have to go to a lab and have a blood draw.”
Antibody tests are different from the diagnostic tests widely used to confirm COVID-19 cases, which involve a nose swab being sent to a lab for analysis.
The Hopkins group designed its antibody test using a glucose monitor, a tool already used by millions of diabetics at home to keep tabs on their sugar levels using a finger prick of blood.
The test can use a drop of blood, saliva or maybe other bodily fluid on a paper test strip that is inserted into a container and then into the monitor. If there are antibodies present, it sets off a series of chemical reactions. The monitor still reads glucose, created by the chemical reaction caused by the presence of antibodies, and the level is proportional to the level of antibodies.
5:53 a.m.: Vice-President Mike Pence says he and his wife, Karen, are sending their “love and prayers” to President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump after the Trumps announced early Friday that they had tested positive for the coronavirus.
Pence says on Twitter, “We join millions across America praying for their full and swift recovery.”
5:52 a.m.: Indonesia’s Parliament is on the verge of approving a sweeping coronavirus stimulus package that opponents charge would undermine worker protections and permit widespread destruction of the country’s rainforests.
The legislation is backed by Indonesia’s president, Joko Widodo, and is seen as a way to attract investment and stimulate the creation of new jobs by reducing regulations on businesses. Its supporters hope to win passage before Parliament ends its session next Friday, even as opposition to the measure grows.
A confederation of labour unions is calling for a three-day national strike starting Tuesday over provisions in the bill that would reduce job security, wages and mandatory days off. Union leaders say the strike has the backing of 5 million workers from dozens of industries.
5:50 a.m.: U.S. stock futures and Asian shares fell Friday after President Donald Trump said he and first lady Melania Trump had tested positive for the new coronavirus.
The future contracts for both the S&P 500 and the Dow industrials lost 1.9 per cent. Oil prices also slipped.
Trading in Asia was thin, with markets in Shanghai and Hong Kong closed. The Nikkei 225 index shed strong early gains, losing 0.8 per cent to 22,999.75 after the Tokyo Stock Exchange resumed trading following an all day outage due to a technical failure.
5:49 a.m.: U.S. Senators from Maine and New Hampshire want the federal government to re-evaluate the restrictions on travel between the U.S. and Canada during the coronavirus pandemic.
The senators said the restrictions “put an immense strain on the communities that straddle the border” along the world’s longest international boundary. They also said the risk of significant cross-border transmission of coronavirus appears to be low at this time in many border areas.
The bipartisan group includes Republican Sen. Susan Collins and independent Sen. Angus King of Maine as well as Democratic Sens. Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire.
Friday 5:48 a.m.: President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump have tested positive for the coronavirus, the president tweeted early Friday.
Trump’s positive test comes just hours after the White House announced that senior aide Hope Hicks came down with the virus after travelling with the president several times this week. Trump is 74 years old, putting him at higher risk of serious complications from a virus that has now killed more than 200,000 people nationwide.
Trump announced late Thursday that he and first lady Melania Trump were beginning a “quarantine process” after Hicks came down with the virus, though it wasn’t clear what that entailed. It can take days for an infection to be detectable by a test.
The diagnosis marks a major blow for a president who has been trying desperately to convince the American public that the worst of the pandemic is behind them even as cases continue to rise with less than four weeks before Election Day. And it stands as the most serious known public health scare encountered by any sitting American president in recent history.
Read more: Statement from Trump’s doctor on president’s virus diagnosis
Thursday 2:41 p.m.: Ontario is changing its COVID-19 symptom screening guidance for the province’s schools and child-care centres.
The province is now asking parents to keep their children home from school for 24 hours if they have either a runny nose or headache.
If a child has both of those symptoms they are asked to consult a health-care provider or have a COVID-19 test before returning to school or child care.
Previously, the government had asked that children with either single symptom stay home until they received a negative COVID-19 test or other medical diagnosis.
Ontario is also removing abdominal pain or conjunctivitis from its screening list.
Earlier this month, British Columbia removed 10 symptoms from their school screening sheet including runny nose. Read Thursday’s rolling file
Correction — Oct. 2 — this file has been updated to indicate that the U.S. election is in four weeks.
