COVID-19 Ottawa:
Ottawa Public Health is reporting a significant increase in COVID-19 related deaths Monday.
35 more deaths have been confirmed, moving the city’s total to 127.
There are 21 new confirmed cases in the Capital, sending that total to 1,504.
COVID-19 Ontario:
Ontario is reporting 370 new COVID-19 cases and 84 more deaths related to the virus.
That brings the provincial total to nearly 18,000 cases, including 1,300 deaths and more than 12,500 resolved cases.
The new provincial total is 2.1 per cent higher than Sunday, which is part of a downward trend.
In response to this, Premier Doug Ford says our province is “getting close” to opening parks and to opening retail stores for curbside pick-up.
Ford is suggesting he may also have good news for cottagers if the numbers keep going down.
He says that with the May long weekend approaching, there’s only so long he can “hold the big gates back.”
Civic Hospital Outbreak:
A COVID-19 outbreak has been declared in the Ottawa Hospital Civic site’s Emergency Department.
Four staff members in the department have tested positive for the virus. In a release, Ottawa Public Health stated: “the hospital has taken additional precautions to reduce the spread of the virus, and protect patients and staff. This includes expanding staff lounge areas to enhance physical distancing, increasing cleaning frequency throughout the Emergency Department and in staff lounge areas, and ensuring that everyone who enters the area is wearing PPE at all times.”
Quebec Delays Some Re-Openings:
Quebec is pushing back the reopening of retail stores in the greater Montreal area by one week, to May 18.
Premier Francois Legault said today there are too many COVID-19 patients in Montreal’s hospitals to safely open retail stores by the originally scheduled date.
Legault says the construction and manufacturing sectors across Quebec will reopen, as scheduled, on Monday.
This news comes after the province recorded another 75 COVID-19-related deaths, for a total of 2,280, and the province announced 32,623 confirmed cases of the virus, an increase of 758 from Sunday.
Top Doctor Warns About a Return To Work:
Canada’s top Doctor Theresa Tam says Canadians are going to need to learn how to live with COVID-19.
She says that means even as things begin to reopen, people will have to keep practicing physical distancing and cough etiquette, and stay home at the first sign of symptoms.
Tam says working while sick can no longer be allowed.
Nunavut False Positive:
Nunavut’s lone case of COVID-19 has turned out to be a false positive.
Michael Patterson, Nunavut’s top doctor, says the original swab was tested again after no other cases emerged in the area.
He says all orders under the territory’s public health emergency remain in effect.
Arrests Made in Robbery/Kidnapping:
Ottawa Police arrested two men in connection with a frightening incident over the weekend.
The force says a man was attacked and abducted near Murray and Cumberland Streets around 12:45 am Sunday.
He managed to escape the vehicle he was taken in, but was then attacked again.
Shawn Seguin, 31, and Cameron Scott-Reeves, 35, are facing several charges, including kidnapping, robbery, and assault causing bodily harm.