Coronavirus live updates May 15: Total Deaths at 5,562 & Total cases at 69,300

Canada reported fewer than 100 new deaths on Friday, bringing its national coronavirus death toll to 5,562.

Friday is also only the third time in the last 30 days that the daily death toll (90) has dipped into double digits.

Health Canada authorizes first COVID-19 serological tests

In a string of tweets released Friday morning, Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam announced Health Canada has authorized the first COVID-19 serological tests, which will allow labs to test for antibodies that indicate if someone has been infected with the disease.

The testing will help to understand the scope of infections across the country, “which will be key to managing the epidemic over the coming months,” Tam wrote.

The tests will also help to understand whether those infected have long-lasting immunity.

oldiers working at Quebec, Ontario seniors residences  test positive

Five members of the Canadian military working in long-term care homes have tested positive for COVID-19, the Canadian Forces confirmed Friday.

Four are in Quebec and two in Ontario. Nearly 1,700 members of the Forces are working in 25 nursing homes in Quebec and five in Ontario.

At his daily news briefing Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confirmed soldiers who have been deployed to Quebec to help with the pandemic outbreak in long-term care centres have been infected with COVID-19. He did not specify how many members of the Canadian military were infected.

The latest:

• Quebec has 41,420 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and 3,401 people have died. That is an increase of 696 cases and 50 deaths from a day earlier.
• There are 1,822 people in hospital (a decrease of 13), including 191 (an increase of one) in intensive care. Here’s a guide to the numbers.
• A 27-year-old Montreal woman has died from COVID-19. She is the youngest fatal case in the province so far.
• Four soldiers deployed to Quebec’s long-term care homes have tested positive for the virus.

The Quebec government is donating one million masks to the greater Montreal area and $6 million in funding for public transit in the region to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic, Premier François Legault announced Friday. 

Legault is calling on all Montrealers, and especially those who live in the city’s hot zones, to wear a mask or other face covering when leaving the house. 

“All people who can make their own mask, I invite you to do so,” he said. 

He also called on the province’s youth and those who have recently started their careers to consider a profession in health care. He said the province is still facing a large shortage of nurses and patient attendants, especially in long-term care facilities.

Soldiers in CHSLDs test positive

The Department of National Defence confirmed to CBC News that four soldiers deployed to Quebec’s CHSLDs have tested positive for COVID-19.

Another soldier working in a long-term care home in Ontario also came down with the virus.

More room for pedestrians, cyclists this summer

The City of Montreal will be temporarily converting a number of roads into pedestrian and cyclist corridors this summer, to give Montrealers more space outdoors as the weather improves.

The road network, which will include more than 100 kilometres of reconfigured roads, will allow people to “respect social distancing while allowing people to have a breath of fresh air,” Mayor Valérie Plante said. 

COVID-19’s toll on poor neighbourhoods

As the virus continues to spread in the city and community transmission is on the rise, Montreal’s poorest neighbourhoods are being devastated by its effects. 

Montréal-Nord resident Marie Missoule Michaud’s 39-year-old partner died April 30 after what she is certain were complications from the virus, though he was never ultimately tested because his death was so sudden. 

Michaud said she wanted to share her family’s story because so many others in her neighbourhood are experiencing similar loss.

“I’m in pain like everyone else,” she says. “It’s not just me.”