Top COVID-19 stories and news
- Online map documents signs of solidarity in public spaces
- The Shore Leave closed by landlord
- 85 per cent of Canadian tenants paid April rent
- Use these fact-checking tools to debunk COVID-19 hoaxes
- New crowdfunding platform supports small businesses in Toronto
Follow the latest Toronto news on coronavirus
5 pm Toronto Outdoor Picture Show postpones to late summer
Outdoor cinema series Toronto Outdoor Picture Show has postponed to late summer, organizers said in a statement. Originally set to start with the 10th edition of the Christie Pits Film Festival on June 28, the festival will now take place between August 1 and Labour Day.
Screenings will take place at Christie Pits Park, Corktown Common, Fort York and Bell Manor Park “if public health authorities allow,” organizers said in a press release.
The festival is proceeding with a fundraising effort to finance short films by nine Canadian indie filmmaking teams that will screen alongside feature films during the season. The goal is $30,000. Go here to contribute.
“Toronto Outdoor Picture Show remains committed to supporting these artist-led projects currently in some stage of production, regardless of what restrictions could eventually impede programming plans for this year,” the organizers added.
4:44 pm Ontario expands COVID-19 testing guidelines
Ontario has updated its guidelines around who should receive priority testing for COVID-19.
As of April 15, people living and working in “congregate” settings such as shelters, prisons and group homes people living in the same household as health-care workers, care providers and first responders essential workers and cross-border workers.
All of these people should be tested as soon as possible if they develop symptoms.
Symptoms are defined as pneumonia, fever or “any new/worsening symptom” such as cough, shortness of breath, sore throat, runny nose or sneezing, nasal congestion, hoarse voice, difficulty swallowing, new olfactory or taste disorder(s), nausea/vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain.
Today, public health officials said they conducted 9,001 tests on the previous day.
4:33 pm Tory calls on the province to ban eviction of commercial tenants
Mayor John Tory called on the provincial government to ban evictions of commercial tenants who can’t pay rent due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a commercial rent relief program is in the works, but had yet to meet with the provinces, which govern rental agreements, on a specific protocol.
“Evicting someone who has paid their rent up until now at the time of this emergency won’t make good business sense in the long run knowing that many small landlords in particularly have their own financial challenges,” Tory said at his daily press briefing. “I continue to believe a provincial ban on eviction of commercial tenants during the emergency makes sense.”
The mayor also said Toronto is expanding its Digital Main Street program, which helps local businesses develop or expand online services, including social media and using data to drive new business opportunities. The budget for the program will go from $240,000 to $825,000 this year.
Trudeau also expanded the federal Canada Emergency Business Account loan program so that a greater number of small businesses will qualify.
4:24 pm Toronto has 2,881 COVID-19 cases, 147 deaths
As of 12:30 pm today, there 2,881 cases of COVID-19 in Toronto, including 2,559 confirmed cases and 322 probable cases, medical officer of health Eileen de Villa said today. There are 230 cases hospitalized and 88 in intensive care units. In total, 147 people have died.
De Villa also said the city is switching from the provincial information system that public heath units use to report infectious disease information and is now using a new, web-based and secure tool to document cases and share data with the province.
“Toronto Public Health realized the system was not well equipped to deal with the scale of the data we need to quickly input,” she said. “We needed more nimble technology.”
The Coronavirus Rapid Case and Contact Entry management system is now live. She added the data will be not be shared publicly, but that data will be used in analysis and reports that will be shared with the public.
4:15 pm TTC blocks of seats to encourage physical distancing
The TTC has started blocking of sections of seats to encourage passengers to practice physical distancing, the transit agency said in a tweet on Thursday.
“We do not have a permanent solution in place yet, so for the time being some seats will be blocked using duct tape or caution tape,” a rep for the TTC wrote in response to a user on Twitter that posted a photo of seats cordoned off with duct tape. “Vehicles will be slowly updated.”
2:10 pm Online map tracks signs of solidarity in Toronto and beyond
Online maps are becoming quite a thing during the coronavirus pandemic, with interactive interfaces tracking coronavirus-related police charges and grocery store hours.
Now, there’s a made-in-Toronto map that charts hopeful signs posted around the city and world. At duetocovid19.com, you can browse a collection of signs from Toronto to New York City to Amsterdam to Granada.
“During the coronavirus pandemic, daily life has come to a sudden standstill and businesses have had to respond,” reads a statement by creator Andrew Louis, a Toronto-based software developer. “Signs on storefronts announce operational changes but these messages are also brimming over with solidarity, shared responsibility, and cautious optimism. This project attempts to document the temporary signs that have gone up across our communities.”
Read more here.
2:06 pm Ontario adds over 2,400 hospital beds
Ontario health minister Christine Elliott shared some numbers on the province’s hospital capacity on Thursday.
She said the government has added 1,035 acute care beds and 1,492 critical care beds so that hospitals will be in a position to handle a potential surge in patients. So far, hospitals have not yet had an expected surge in COVID-19 patients as modelling projections had predicted.
In total, Ontario has 20,354 acute care beds and cold potentially add 4,205 more by April 30. There are 3,504 critical care beds in the province and 2,811 of those are now equipped with ventilators, an increase of 1,319 since the outbreak began.
The bed capacity expansion is happening in tandem with staffing changes, including the redeployment of surgical nurses to medical units, nursing staff working across units, bringing family doctors in to hospitals to work shifts and recruiting retired nurses and support workers.
1:10 pm Ontario has 514 new cases of COVID-19
Public health officials reported today that the province’s COVID-19 cases went up by 514, bringing the total to 8,961. That’s a 6.1 per cent increase over the previous day. The number of resolved cases is 4,194 and 423 people have died – an increase of 38 deaths from the previous report.
There are 807 patients in hospital, with 248 in intensive care and 200 in intensive care on ventilators. There are 104 outbreaks in long-term care homes across the province.
In terms of testing, 9,001 tests were carried out since yesterday and 4,323 test results are pending. In total, 128,093 tests have been carried out since the outbreak began.
11:22 am Trudeau announces commercial rent relief, expands CEBA eligibility
The Canadian government has announced to new measures to help small businesses struggling to survive during the COVID-19 crisis.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the government will expand the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA), which provides $40,000 in guaranteed loans to businesses.
However, many small businesses have said the fund isn’t enough to help them tackle the current economic situation.
The feds are now expanding CEBA by both increasing and decreasing the eligibility threshold. Businesses that spent between $20,000 and $1.5 million in total payroll in 2019 will be eligible to receive a loan through the CEBA.
So far, more than 149,000 loans have been approved, amounting to $7.5 billion in credit, Trudeau said.
“This is money entrepreneurs and employers can use to cover operational costs and other immediate needs,” he said.
Trudeau also announced the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance, a fund that will help businesses cover rent payments for the months of April, May and June. He did not elaborate on details, but noted that provinces and territories govern rental agreements.
“We hope to have more details to share soon,” he said.
9:45 am Toronto sees an increase in stunt driving
Some drivers in Toronto are taking advantage of the empty streets.
While there’s been a dramatic drop in traffic volumes, Toronto Police reported that between between March 15 to March 31 there was a 35 per cent increase in speeding tickets and an almost 200 per cent increase in stunt driving compared to the same time last year, the city said in a statement on Wednesday.
“The City of Toronto is urging drivers to slow down, stay alert and obey the rules of the road to save lives, keep streets safe and accessible, prevent traffic-related collisions and reduce the strain on the city’s healthcare system during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the statement reads.
Drivers are advised to stay home and travel only for essential reasons.
The stunt driving increases has prompted the Toronto Police Service’s Vision Zero Enforcement Team to begin rotating patrols to catching speeding motorists and or stunt drivers.
9:30 am Canada has over 28,000 cases of COVID-19
There are 28,381 cases of COVID-19 in Canada and 1,010 people have died.
The outbreak is a serious public health threat though most people who contract the virus have not been hospitalized.
Symptoms include cough, fever, difficulty breathing and pneumonia in both lungs and may take up to 14 days to appear after exposure. People age 65 and over and people with compromised immune systems and/or underlying medical conditions have a higher risk of contracting a severe case.
