Today’s coronavirus news: Nova Scotia premier says Atlantic bubble won’t open ‘any time soon’; Ontario reporting 548 cases, 7 new deaths; Canadians urged to hold virtual Thanksgiving gatherings to con
The latest news from Canada and around the world Tuesday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.
4:20 p.m.: The Atlantic bubble won’t reopen to the rest of Canada “any time soon” given the resurgence of COVID-19 cases in some parts of the country, says Nova Scotia’s premier.
Stephen McNeil wouldn’t be specific about a timeline during a briefing Tuesday, but said no reopening was in the offing.
“I can tell you it won’t be in the short term,” McNeil told reporters. “I’m certainly concerned with what I’m seeing in parts of the country with a large outbreak. We’ll be watching it, but it (reopening) won’t be any time soon for sure.”
McNeil thanked the public for helping the province to keep its case numbers low. Nova Scotia currently has three active cases of COVID-19.
Strict isolation orders implemented across the four Atlantic provinces have been credited by health experts for the region’s success in largely eliminating community transmission of the novel coronavirus.
2:45 p.m.: Toronto police say they have charged two people with failing to comply with federal quarantine rules after the pair showed up at a rally shortly after returning to Canada.
Police say Christopher (Chris Sky) Saccoccia, 37, and Jennifer Saccoccia, 34, of King City, Ont., landed at Pearson airport on Sept. 20 after travelling abroad.
Police allege that despite being ordered to quarantine for 14 days, Christopher Saccoccia was seen in the Yonge-Dundas area of downtown Toronto on Sept. 26 and was issued a provincial offence ticket.
Authorities also allege both Christopher and Jennifer Saccoccia went to a rally attended by roughly 500 unmasked participants at Yonge-Dundas Square on Saturday.
Police say both were served Monday with a notice to appear for a virtual court hearing on Nov. 12.
Public health guidelines require everyone coming from outside the country to quarantine for at least 14 days.
Saturday’s rally saw demonstrators protest against public health measures meant to help curb the spread of COVID-19.
2:25 p.m.: Mayor Kennedy Stewart wants councillors to support a multimillion-dollar proposal to help those who are homeless in Vancouver during the pandemic.
Stewart has released a recommendation to council seeking as much as $30 million to buy or lease land in the city and pay for other services to provide emergency relief for people without homes.
A statement from the mayor’s office says the recommendation builds on the findings of a staff report, which concluded that the lease or purchase of vacant apartment complexes, commercial hotels and other buildings is the only viable way to quickly address the needs of the homeless.
Stewart’s recommendation also says he will continue to seek provincial and federal funds to support his plan.
It’s expected council will consider the recommendation at a special meeting on Thursday.
Stewart says councillors must have the “courage and conviction” to act quickly to help hundreds who are living on the street or in tents in city parks.
“To date, I have worked with the provincial and federal governments to secure millions in housing investments for Vancouver, but COVID-19 has presented an unprecedented challenge and we must rise to the occasion,” he says in the statement.
2 p.m. (corrected to say “outdoors”): Health Minister Patty Hajdu is telling Canadians to celebrate Thanksgiving virtually this weekend to avoid spreading COVID-19.
She says it is “an act of love” to celebrate over video links instead of in person because of the rising number COVID-19 cases.
Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, says meeting outdoors can create a false sense of security, and increase the risk of spreading the novel coronavirus. “Too close is too close even if you are outdoors,” Tam added.
Federal officials said earlier Tuesday that 3.4 million Canadians have downloaded the COVID Alert App. A total of 160,000 of those uploads occurred in the last 24 hours, officials said in a briefing Tuesday.
They could not say which provinces saw the highest uptick in usage. Quebec became the latest province to adopt the application on Monday.
1:55 p.m.: Balancing the fight against COVID-19 with efforts to jump-start the economy in Ontario that have sown confusion and could erode trust in public health advice, experts say.
Steven Hoffman, a professor of global health, law and political science at York University, said much of the fault falls at the feet of the provincial government.
“The rules are complex and they haven’t been communicated as clearly as needed,” he said. “And some of them just don’t make sense.”
In Ontario, social gatherings are limited to a maximum of 10 people indoors and 25 outdoors. But the indoor capacity for businesses such as casinos, bars and restaurants is 100 people, as long as they follow all public health guidelines.
“If it’s in our homes, then we’re allowed to do one thing but if we all go to a casino then more of us can hang out together,” Hoffman said.
He pointed to Thanksgiving as a perfect example that highlights the unclear and conflicting messages authorities are giving to the public.
1:50 p.m. The Cincinnati Bengals will be allowed to double their home crowd to 12,000 for the remaining six games at Paul Brown Stadium.
The state of Ohio on Tuesday cleared the team to increase the limit after most fans in last Sunday’s crowd of more than 6,000 demonstrated “safe and healthy” behaviour. Social distancing and face coverings will still be required.
The Bengals host the Cleveland Browns on Oct. 25. The first home game at the stadium on Sept. 13 was played without fans.
1:28 p.m. The Canadian Opera Company is cancelling the remainder of its 2020/21 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Earlier this summer, our team made a promise to ourselves — and to our audiences — to explore every possible option for going ahead with our season,” COC general director Alexander Neef said in a news release. “Since then, however, the changing local health situation has made it clear that cancelling our original winter and spring programming is the only safe decision for our staff, artists and audience members.”
The cancelled productions include “Carmen,” “Katya Kabanova,” “La Traviata” and “Orfeo ed Euridice,” as well as the world premiere of an opera for young audiences commissioned by the COC, “Fantasma.”
The company has also cancelled all special events, including its Operanation and Fine Wine Auction fundraisers.
1:21 p.m. The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and other top military leaders .
Gen. Mark Milley and the chiefs of the Army, Navy and Air Force have tested negative for the virus, but remain under quarantine as a precaution, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss information not yet made public. The head of U.S. Cyber Command, Gen. Paul Nakasone, was also among those quarantined.
The officials said the military leaders were working from home and this has not affected military readiness.
Up to 14 officials are believed to have been potentially exposed to the virus after meetings last week with the vice commandant of the Coast Guard, Adm. Charles W. Wray, who has tested positive. The officials were informed about the positive test on Monday.
1:15 p.m. Canada’s two most populous provinces remain COVID-19 hot spots, with Quebec setting a record for new daily case counts.
Cases are surging in several parts of the country but Quebec and Ontario account for about 80 per cent of the country’s total.
Quebec reported 1,364 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 Tuesday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in that province to 81,014.
It was Quebec’s fifth consecutive day of more than 1,000 new diagnoses, eclipsing Monday’s record of 1,191.
1:14 p.m. Procurement Minister Anita Anand says Canada is buying more than 20 million of the rapid antigen tests for COVID-19 approved by Health Canada Tuesday.
Abbott Rapid Diagnostics in Germany got the green light from Health Canada to sell its Panbio antigen rapid test in Canada this morning.
Canada has also signed a contract with Abbott that will see the company ship 20.5 million of the ruler-sized test devices to Canada.
This approval comes a week after Health Canada authorized the use of another rapid test from Abbott Diagnostics in the United States.
That test, the ID Now kit, can provide results in as little as 13 minutes on the spot where the patient is tested. The ID Now test looks for the genetic material of the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
The Panbio test uses antigen technology, and can produce results in less than 15 minutes. Antigens are unique molecules found on the outside of a particular virus.
12:18 p.m. The number of new cases in public schools across the province has jumped by 74 from the previous day, to a total of 470 in the last two weeks.
, the province reported 41 more students were infected for a total of 275 in the last two weeks; since school began there have been overall total of 333.
The data shows there are 10 more staff members for a total of 66 in the last two weeks — and an overall total of 102.
The latest report also shows 23 more individuals who weren’t identified for a total of 129 in that category — and an overall total of 176.
There are 347 schools with a reported case, which the province notes is about 7.2 per cent of the 4,828 public schools in Ontario.
11:10 a.m. Appliance stores are grappling with a double whammy of surging demand and supply chain problems, resulting in mounting backorders ahead of the busiest shopping season of the year.
Retailers say a combination of home renovations, new construction, discounts for energy-efficient appliances and pent-up demand following store closures last spring has led to record sales.
Meanwhile, manufacturers have run into problems obtaining parts and have been forced to scale-back production to adhere to COVID-19 safety protocols.
Consumers are now facing a limited selection of in-stock appliances, or record wait times for special orders and some popular appliances.
Experts say the situation could worsen if the second wave of the pandemic intensifies as the busy holiday spending period gets underway.
Jason Goemans, president of Goemans Appliances, said demand has been so high the retailer is concerned about keeping up with Black Friday sales next month, an increasingly popular shopping event in Canada.
“We’ve never had more backorders in our history,” he said in an interview. “We’ve got thousands of backorders now because of surging demand.”
Compounding the spike in orders is sluggish supply, with manufacturers operating either below capacity or paring down inventory to focus on more popular models.
11:09 a.m. President Donald Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis proved that testing alone wasn’t enough to protect him.
Mask wearing and social distancing are other key ingredients for preventing the spread of COVID-19, and both have often been in short supply at the White House.
Trump’s press secretary once called the president the “most tested man in America” when it came to COVID-19. The White House has not required masks, only testing. Anyone near the president or vice-president is tested prior to the day’s events.
“Testing alone doesn’t prevent disease spread,” said Dr. Cyrus Shahpar, a former CDC scientist. The main benefit of testing is to identify people with infections and isolate them before they can spread the disease to others, he says.
Health experts also advise social distancing, a recommendation ignored at several recent White House events.
10:17 a.m. (will be updated) Ontario is reporting 548 cases of COVID-19 and 7 new deaths. Locally, there are 201 new cases in Toronto, 90 in Peel, 62 in Ottawa and 56 in York Region. Sixty-one per cent of Tuesday’s cases are in people under the age of 40. More than 42,000 tests were completed.
10:11 a.m. U.S. President plans to take part in with his Democratic rival Joe Biden despite his coronavirus diagnosis last week, a spokesman told Fox News late Monday.
“The president intends to debate,” Tim Murtaugh told the broadcaster less than an hour after Trump left the Walter Reed medical center, where he had been receiving treatment for .
The second debate, during which the candidates are to answer questions from voters, is set to take place on Oct. 15 in Miami.
There have been concerns that Trump may have been infectious at his first debate with Biden last week, when the pair stood six feet apart. Both men are in their 70s and in the high-risk category of those who become infected with coronavirus because of their age.
9:52 a.m. Toronto home prices and sales continued to hit records in September as pent-up demand and historic low borrowing costs pushed prices up 14 per cent to $960,772 across all housing types, including condos.
The number of transactions also soared 42.3 per cent year over year, said the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) on Tuesday.
It reported the biggest gains in the 905 areas surrounding the city, with single-family homes leading the growth.
Detached houses were the region’s hottest selling properties, going for 12.9 per cent more compared to last September at an average of nearly $1.2 million.
9:50 a.m. A reportedly ill defendant in a murder case didn’t show up for the first day of his trial this past week in front of a jury in a downtown Toronto courtroom.
A COVID-19 test was ordered. But rather than keep jurors on an indefinite hold, the trial judge, after obvious careful reflection, cut them loose and declared a mistrial.
For the second time in a week, the wheels had fallen off a case in Superior Court, highlighting the challenges faced by the justice system as it tries to restart jury trials after their pandemic-induced suspension in March.
In the case of the ill defendant, they’ll try again in a few weeks, after an elaborate — and expensive — off-site jury selection process at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, which is where the first juries were picked a week ago.
9:37 a.m. The NDP and the B.C. Liberals are promising to make the vaccine a.
John Horgan, who is scheduled to release his party’s platform Tuesday, announced the plan to make the available once it is approved and available at an online town hall meeting on Monday evening with other NDP candidates.
Shortly after, Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson said on Twitter a “life-saving vaccine” should be made available to everyone for free in matching the NDP promise.
Earlier, Wilkinson resurrected a previous party plan to build a 10-lane bridge over the Fraser River to replace the aging Massey Tunnel if the Liberals are elected on Oct. 24.
9:16 a.m. Michelle Obama is going after President Donald Trump in a scathing new video that accuses him of “wilful mismanagement” of the coronavirus crisis and of racism. She calls on Black and all young voters not to “waste” their votes.
In the video, released Tuesday by Joe Biden’s campaign, Mrs. Obama notes that more Americans have died from COVID-19 than died in the Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam and Korean wars combined. She charges that with respect to the virus, “our commander in chief, sadly, has been missing in action.”
Mrs. Obama accuses Trump of being “racist” when he and other Republicans are “lying about how minorities will destroy the suburbs,” which she says is meant to “distract from his breathtaking failures.”
She also calls on undecided voters “to think about all those folks like me and my ancestors” and have some empathy for what it’s like “to walk around your own country scared that someone’s unjustified fear of you could put you in harm’s way.”
And to Black and brown voters, and all young voters, who are considering sitting out the election, Mrs. Obama urges them to make a plan to vote, because “we don’t have the luxury to assume that things are going to turn out okay.”
8:39 a.m. President Donald Trump’s return to the White House to recover from the coronavirus seems certain to raise the already heightened anxiety level of the journalists assigned to follow him.
Three reporters have tested positive for COVID-19 in recent days while covering a White House described as lax, at best, in following basic safety advice like wearing masks. Discomfort only increased Monday with news that press secretary Kayleigh McEnany had tested positive.
Journalists are left to wonder if a still-contagious president will gather them for a public appearance and how their safety will be ensured.
After McEnany’s announcement Monday, Fox News chief White House correspondent John Roberts spent part of his afternoon waiting outside an urgent care centre for his own test. He had attended McEnany’s briefing last Thursday. She didn’t wear a mask, and neither did one of her assistants who later tested positive, and Roberts sat near both of them. He tested negative.
He called it an inconvenience, but stronger emotions were spreading. American Urban Radio Networks correspondent April Ryan said she found it infuriating that Trump and his team had risked the health of her colleagues. CNN’s Kaitlan Collins said it was “irresponsible, at best.”
8:21 a.m. Stocks mostly rose on Tuesday after U.S. President Donald Trump returned to the White House to complete his recovery from the coronavirus, though uncertainty remained over prospects for fresh economic stimulus.
Trump left the hospital after spending less than three days there, returning from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to finish his treatment at home. His doctor, Navy Cmdr. Sean Conley, said the president remained contagious and would not be fully “out of the woods” for another week.
Signs of Trump’s improved condition boosted markets in Asia and Europe following an overnight rally on Wall Street. The future contract for the S&P 500 rose 0.1 per cent and that for the Dow industrials edged 0.3 per cent higher.
Germany’s DAX rose 0.6 per cent to 12,903 and the CAC 40 in Paris gained 0.7 per cent to 4,905. Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.2 per cent to 5,957.
In Asian trading, Japan’s Nikkei 225 climbed 0.5 per cent to 23,433.73 and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong jumped 0.9 per cent to 23,980.65. South Korea’s Kospi added 0.3 per cent to 2,365.90.
8:19 a.m. More than 10 per cent of tests are coming back positive in some pockets of Toronto, a metric that shows the city’s second wave surging even more alarmingly than previously known and lends urgency to calls for local restrictions.
According to provincial data provided to the Star that has not been publicly released, approximately two-thirds of the city has a test-positivity rate of higher than 3 per cent, considered a critical threshold by public health authorities in Toronto and beyond.
Test positivity is an important statistic because it helps indicate how widespread transmission is, especially as testing or lab capacity fails to match demand — as Ontario is experiencing right now. When people who need to be tested are turned off by long lineups or can’t find an available appointment at assessment centres, daily case counts may flatten or drop. But rising test positivity suggests surging transmission levels, independent of how many tests are completed.
7:49 a.m. Canadians are divided about whether to let the COVID-19 pandemic disrupt their plans for upcoming holidays and seasonal events, a new poll suggests.
The poll, conducted by Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies, comes as COVID-19 cases are surging and public health authorities are pleading with Canadians in places with rising case counts to avoid contact with anyone outside their immediate families or at least to stick to small social circles.
The results suggest that message is only partially getting through.
Respondents with children who went door to door for Halloween last year were closely divided on whether to let them go trick-or-treating again this year, with 52 per cent saying they won’t and 48 per cent saying they will.
The poll found sharp regional variations, however. About two-thirds of respondents in Atlantic Canada, which has been relatively untouched by COVID-19’s resurgence, said they will let their kids go out. In harder-hit Ontario and Quebec, two-thirds said they won’t.
7:43 a.m. Desrine Peters, 43, moved to Canada 10 years ago from Jamaica and had been working in security, but found there wasn’t much room for progress in the field. “I was finding myself not accomplishing my goals,” she said.
Peters is now a first-year student at Seneca College in the chemical lab technician program, and has plans to continue studying biochemistry. She credits her adult day school teachers with motivating her and encouraging her to continue her studies.
Two years ago she began taking classes at the TDSB’s Emery Adult Learning Centre to complete high school credits needed for her college program. When the created hiccups in education and moved things online in the spring, she finished that semester and took summer school so she would be able to continue to college this fall.
7:32 a.m. With COVID-19 infections on the rise, Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca wants Premier Doug Ford to open the purse strings and close many businesses in the hard-hit regions of Toronto, Peel, and Ottawa.
“Doug Ford has lost control. Ontario is now in a full-fledged Wave II and still this premier and his cabinet refuse to invest in the safety of Ontarians, even as they sit on billions of dollars in unspent federal funding,” Del Duca said Tuesday.
The Liberal chief said the Progressive Conservative premier should “follow the advice of Toronto public health, the Ontario Hospital Association, and the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario.”
“Immediately suspend indoor dining at restaurants and bars and close gyms for 28 days in COVID-19 hotspots and … provide immediate support to businesses affected by the closures,” he said.
6:07 a.m.: Italy’s health minister says the government is examining a proposal to make masks mandatory outdoors as the country enters a difficult phase of living alongside COVID-19, with the number of infections growing steadily for the last nine weeks.
Roberto Speranza told the lower house of parliament on Tuesday that as infections spread, it is necessary to return to restrictions that were gradually loosened over the spring and summer months after Italy’s strict nearly three-month lockdown.
‘’We must raise our guard with the awareness that our county is better off than others,’’ Speranza said.
The government is expected to pass new measures by Wednesday making it necessary to wear masks outdoors and limit gatherings. The government also wants to extend the state of emergency put into place on Jan. 31, while the epidemic was still believed confined to China, until the end of January 2022, making it easier to enforce new measures on a national level.
5:45 a.m.: Even with in place in court — including courtrooms fitted with Plexiglas barriers between all participants, masking and, where possible, physical distancing, as well as courtrooms repurposed to be jury rooms — the and testing backlog means it will only get harder to keep trials going.
Courthouse screening rules prohibit anyone — from witnesses to judges — showing COVID-19 symptoms from entering the courthouse.
Are the courts ready to weather the second wave? Legal insiders predict there will be lots of COVID-interruptus, but say there’s no going back, not when the criminal case backlog continues to get bigger and bigger.
“The court system can’t withstand another shutdown,” observed Sid Freeman, a long-time criminal defence lawyer.
5:21 a.m.: About 25 residents from remote Easter Island who have been stranded far from their loved ones for more than six months because of the coronavirus will finally be able to return home this week on a French military plane.
The group has been stranded on Tahiti in French Polynesia. Many arrived in March planning to stay for just a few weeks, but they got stuck when the virus swept across the globe and their flights back home on LATAM airlines were cancelled.
A second group of about 15 Tahitians have also been stranded on Easter Island because of the flight cancellations.
French authorities announced Tuesday they would use an Airbus A400M Atlas turboprop to repatriate both groups in a flight that would take about six hours in each direction.
5:19 a.m.: The White House has to market that would almost certainly have prevented their introduction before the Nov. 3 election.
At issue was the FDA’s planned instruction that vaccine developers follow patients enrolled in their trials for at least two months to rule out safety issues before seeking emergency approval from the agency. A senior administration confirmed the move Monday evening, saying the White House believed there was “no clinical or medical reason” for the additional requirement.
The White House action was first reported by The New York Times.
The intervention by Trump officials is the latest example of the administration undercutting its own medical experts working to combat the pandemic that has killed more than 210,000 Americans. FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn has been attempting to shore up public confidence in the FDA’s vaccine review for weeks, vowing that career scientists, not politicians, will decide if the shots are safe and effective for mass vaccination.
5:15 a.m.: After a revered ultra-Orthodox rabbi died this week, Israeli police thought they had worked out an arrangement with his followers to allow a small, dignified funeral that would conform with public health guidelines under the current coronavirus lockdown.
But when it was time to bury the rabbi on Monday, thousands of people showed up — ignoring social distancing rules and clashing with police who tried to disperse the mass gathering.
Such violations of lockdown rules have angered a broader Israeli public that is largely complying with the restrictions imposed to halt a raging coronavirus outbreak.
The defiance on display has confounded public health experts, tested Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s long-standing political alliance with religious leaders and triggered a new wave of resentment from secular Israelis who fear for their health and livelihoods.
The ultra-Orthodox claim they are being unfairly targeted by the authorities. They point to large weekly protests, mainly by secular Israelis, against Netanyahu’s handling of the pandemic that have continued throughout the summer. Only last week, the government finally placed limits on the size of the protests, citing violations of public health guidelines.
5:11 a.m.: South Korea has reported 75 new cases of the coronavirus as infections steadily rise in the greater capital area. The figures released Tuesday by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency brought the national caseload to 24,239, including 422 deaths.
At least 36 troops have tested positive at an army unit in Pocheon, north of Seoul, while 14 other infections were tied to a hospital in nearby Euijeongbu. There’s concern that infections will grow in the coming weeks due to increased travel during the five-day Chuseok harvest holiday that ended Sunday.
5:08 a.m.: Philippine Airlines has called on its employees to apply for voluntary separation as part of a retrenchment plan that may affect up to 35% of its 7,000 workers.
PAL said it resorted to furloughs and flexible working arrangements at the height of the pandemic to preserve jobs. But it is operating 15% of its normal flights and said collapsing demand and ongoing travel restrictions made retrenchment inevitable. The retrenchments would involve voluntary and mandatory steps to be carried out in the remaining months of the year, PAL said and assured employees of fair treatment.
5:05 a.m.: India has registered 61,267 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, marking the lowest daily infections since Aug 25 and driving the country’s total virus caseload to nearly 6.7 million.
The Health Ministry on Tuesday also reported 884 deaths in the past 24 hours. The death toll now stands at 103,569. India, the world’s second most-affected country, has been reporting the highest single-day caseload in the world for nearly 45 days. The last three weeks have seen a gradual decline in its daily reported infections.
5 a.m.: called for the immediate lifting of sanctions by the United States and Western countries to ensure an effective response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking on behalf of the 26 countries at a meeting of the U.N. General Assembly’s Human Rights Committee, China’s U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun said “unilateral coercive measures” violate the U.N. Charter, multilateralism, and impede human rights by hindering “the well-being of the population in the affected countries” and undermining the right to health.
“Global solidarity and international co-operation are the most powerful weapons in fighting and overcoming COVID-19,” the joint statement said. “We seize this opportunity to call for the complete and immediate lifting of unilateral coercive measures, in order to ensure the full, effective and efficient response of all members of the international community to COVID-19.”
Among the countries that backed the statement were half a dozen that face sanctions by the United States, European Union or other Western nations including Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Russia, Syria and Venezuela.
The statement notes that both U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet have called for the waiving of sanctions that undermine a country’s capacity to respond to the pandemic.
4 a.m.: Ontario
Premier Doug Ford has said the shift to the new system was done to prepare the province’s 155 assessment centres for winter.
The government has faced criticism over the long lines at assessment centres where people have had to wait for hours for a COVID-19 test.
The province has also changed its screening guidance, now saying that only symptomatic people or those in high-risk groups should seek out a test.
Testing centres began to close Sunday to prepare for the new model that is being launched today.
The province is facing a testing backlog of approximately 68,000 tests.
Monday 10:26 p.m. Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid has tested positive for COVID-19, according to a statement on the team’s Twitter account Monday night.
“Earlier today, Oilers Captain Connor McDavid underwent medical testing that revealed a positive result for the COVID-19 virus,” the statement says.
“Since that time, he has been in voluntary self-quarantine at his home. He will continue to be monitored and will follow all associated health protocols.”
The statement says McDavid is “feeling well and is experiencing mild symptoms.”
Monday 9:30 p.m.: Nunavut has confirmed nine positive cases of COVID-19 at the Hope Bay gold mine in the western part of the territory.
The Nunavut government announced the positive cases Monday evening. Another four presumptive positive cases have also been identified and are pending testing at a lab in southern Canada.
Last week, the territory declared eight presumptive positive cases of COVID-19 at the mine, which is located 125 kilometres southwest of Cambridge Bay. The government said it is still working to determine whether the positive cases at the mine will count as the first in the territory. Cases that were announced earlier weren’t counted because the people came from outside Nunavut.
