Read The Star’s live coverage of the novel coronavirus pandemic here. This story is no longer updating.

7:17 p.m. There are 12,547 confirmed and presumptive cases in Canada, according to The Canadian Press, including 187 deaths, 2,271 resolved cases. This breaks down as follows:

Quebec: 6,101 confirmed (including 61 deaths, 306 resolved)

Ontario: 3,255 confirmed (including 67 deaths, 1,023 resolved)

British Columbia: 1,174 confirmed (including 35 deaths, 641 resolved)

Alberta: 1,075 confirmed (including 18 deaths, 196 resolved)

Saskatchewan: 220 confirmed (including three deaths, 36 resolved)

Nova Scotia: 207 confirmed (including 21 resolved)

Newfoundland and Labrador: 195 confirmed (including one death, 11 resolved)

Manitoba: 164 confirmed (including two deaths, 11 resolved), 18 presumptive

New Brunswick: 95 confirmed (including 22 resolved)

Prince Edward Island: 22 confirmed (including 4 resolved)

Repatriated Canadians account for 13 confirmed cases

Yukon: six confirmed

Northwest Territories: two confirmed

Nunavut reports no confirmed cases.

6:22 p.m. There are 12,440 confirmed and presumptive cases in Canada, according to The Canadian Press, including 182 deaths, and 2,249 resolved cases. This breaks down as follows:

Quebec: 6,101 confirmed (including 61 deaths, 306 resolved)

Ontario: 3,255 confirmed (including 67 deaths, 1,023 resolved)

British Columbia: 1,174 confirmed (including 35 deaths, 641 resolved)

Alberta: 968 confirmed (including 13 deaths, 174 resolved)

Saskatchewan: 220 confirmed (including three deaths, 36 resolved)

Nova Scotia: 207 confirmed (including 21 resolved)

Newfoundland and Labrador: 195 confirmed (including one death, 11 resolved)

Manitoba: 164 confirmed (including two deaths, 11 resolved), 18 presumptive

New Brunswick: 95 confirmed (including 22 resolved)

Prince Edward Island: 22 confirmed (including four resolved)

Repatriated Canadians account for 13 confirmed cases

Yukon: six confirmed

Northwest Territories: two confirmed

Nunavut reports no confirmed cases.

5:52 p.m. As a result of the Toronto Zoo’s closure and the City of Toronto cancellation of all public events until June, the zoo is temporarily laying off 118 non-permanent employees, who mainly deal with visitors. The move affects 58 per cent of its peak season workforce.

5:23 p.m. With at least three new deaths in the GTA Friday afternoon and several more reported at the Bobcaygeon seniors’ home at the centre of Ontario’s worst outbreak, the province has now seen more than 100 deaths in the COVID-19 pandemic.

As of 5 p.m. Friday, the province’s regional public health units were reporting 3,407 confirmed or probable cases of COVID-19, with at least 105 deaths.

The afternoon saw two men in their 70s reported dead in Peel, one from Brampton and one from Mississauga, and an eighth death in York Region. Toronto also reported two more deaths Friday afternoon, however, it was not immediately clear whether those cases were among eight deaths at a Scarborough nursing home that were reported earlier this week.

Outside the GTA, four more residents of the Pinecrest Nursing Home in Bobcaygeon were reported dead Friday. Twenty residents of the home have now died in the outbreak, as has the wife of a man in the facility’s care.

Earlier Friday, the province reported that 462 patients are hospitalized with COVID-19, including 194 in intensive care units.

So far, a total of 1,023 patients have recovered after being infected.

The province says its data is accurate to 4 p.m. the previous day. The province also cautions its latest count of deaths, reported at 67 on Friday morning, may be incomplete or out of date due to delays in its reporting system.

The Star’s count of COVID-19 cases and deaths is based on the public tallies and press releases issued by Ontario’s 34 regional health units.

4:27 p.m. There are 12,387 confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 in Canada, according to The Canadian Press, including 178 deaths, 2,249 resolved. These break down by province as follows:

Quebec: 6,101 confirmed (including 61 deaths, 306 resolved)

Ontario: 3,255 confirmed (including 67 deaths, 1,023 resolved)

British Columbia: 1,121 confirmed (including 31 deaths, 641 resolved)

Alberta: 968 confirmed (including 13 deaths, 174 resolved)

Saskatchewan: 220 confirmed (including three deaths, 36 resolved)

Nova Scotia: 207 confirmed (including 21 resolved)

Newfoundland and Labrador: 195 confirmed (including one death, 11 resolved)

Manitoba: 164 confirmed (including two deaths, 11 resolved), 18 presumptive

New Brunswick: 95 confirmed (including 22 resolved)

Prince Edward Island: 22 confirmed (including four resolved)

Repatriated Canadians account for 13 confirmed cases

Yukon: six confirmed

Northwest Territories: two confirmed

Nunavut: reports no confirmed cases.

4 p.m. Canadians who had been stranded for weeks on two cruise ships are now on their way home.

Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne tweeted that a plane chartered by cruise operator Holland America has taken off.

Only those who are asymptomatic are being allowed back into Canada for the time being, and the government has said they’ll enter isolation upon their return.

3:50 p.m. Eileen de Villa, medical officer of health for the City of Toronto, noted that, based on Ontario projections, Toronto could see between 600 and 3,000 deaths by the end of this pandemic.

“Everyone needs to stay home now, and adhere to the public health measures,” de Villa, who added that she hoped the numbers will be a wake-up call to residents.

She reported that there are 986 cases of COVID-19 in the city, including 812 confirmed, 89 in hospital, 42 in intensive care and 13 deaths. Community spread accounts for 27 per cent of the cases.

“There are still hotspots around the city, where people are putting their needs above those of the community,” de Villa said.

“We need to stay laser-focused on our mission: to save lives,” she said.

Mayor John Tory says people not maintaining a distance of two metres in City parks and squares are subject to a $1,000-fine.

“I was disappointed to have to bring this bylaw in,” said Tory, who noted that the bulk of the letters he gets are from residents disappointed in their peers’ inability to follow the principle of social-distancing.

Tory said that fighting the spread of the virus is costing the city $65 million a week, in the form of reduced TTC revenues, reduced revenue from parking tickets and increased costs for providing social supports.

4:40 p.m. Reacting to Ontario government death projections from COVID-19 released earlier Friday, Mayor John Tory told the Star that city officials saw some of the information last weekend.

“My initial response was one of fear, but it didn’t paralyze me, it galvanized me into saying right at that moment to the medical officer of health: “What is it you need to do in order to stop this from happening to the maximum extent possible?”

That spurred Dr. Eileen de Villa’s order that people with the virus, of who have had close contact with somebody infected, need to self-quarantine for 14 days or face prosecution, and the mayor signing a bylaw making it illegal to come with two metres of a non-household member in city parks and public squares.

3:18 p.m. The City of Mississauga is extending the closure of all its facilities, public counters and programs until further notice.

The city is laying off temporarily around 2,000 part-time employees in non-essential services who work at these facilities effective April 17.

Most of the lay-offs affect part-time employees in Community Services, where community centres, libraries and cultural facilities remain closed.

2:10 p.m.: Premier Doug Ford announces closure of additional non-essential businesses in Ontario on Saturday at 11:59 p.m., all industrial construction to stop with the exception of “critical industrial projects” such as the building of hospitals. (see video below)

2 p.m.: Ford says “the ending of our story is still up to us and if we work together, we can write the last chapter of our story. These forecasts are projections and they can change with your actions and the government’s actions.”

1:35 p.m.: Quebec Premier Francois Legault says the province recorded 25 more deaths related to COVID-19 since the day prior, bringing the provincial total to 61.

But Legault said the majority of the new recorded deaths did not occur in the past 24 hours, because the province had been investigating 20 prior fatalities to see whether they had been the result of COVID-19.

The premier says the province recorded an additional 583 positive cases of COVID-19, for a total of 6,101, and another 64 hospitalizations including 26 patients in intensive care.

Legault says medical authorities are planning to present to the public a series of projections related to COVID-19 next Tuesday.

1:30 p.m.: Health officials emphasize such modelling of a new virus is “inexact.” But the most important message is physical distancing is the best way to stop the spread and prevent thousands of deaths in Ontario. Pandemic could last 18 months to two years. (see video below)

1:20 p.m.: Peter Donnelly, president of Public Health Ontario, says that more than 1,300 people die annually from the flu. With the mortality rate 10 times higher for COVID-19, and because there is no vaccine, the death-toll projection is between 3,000 and 15,000 for the coronavirus. (see video below)

1 p.m.: According to provincial projections, Ontario will have to add another 900 intensive care unit beds to cope with the expected rise in patients even in a best-case scenario. (see video below)

12:45 p.m.: Ontario can expect 1,600 deaths COVID-19 deaths by the end of April if stricter measures aren’t taken, according to a computer models projecting tracks for the virus that has already killed 98. That number could be as low as 200 if the province moves to “full future intervention” and more people staying home, health officials said at a briefing Friday.

12:35 p.m.: Ontario is forecasting between 3,000 to 15,000 deaths over the course of the pandemic with public health measures. There could have been as many as 100,000 deaths in the province had the measures not been ordered, according to officials.

12:15 p.m.: As we wait for the briefing at 12:30 p.m., slides on Ontario’s COVID-19 outbreak created for the province and seen by the Star show deaths and cases could continue to balloon without stronger interventions. Read Kate Allen’s story.

11:55 a.m.: Public health officials in Ontario are set to release data at 12:30 p.m. showing how many people could die of COVID-19 under various scenarios. Premier Doug Ford says the projections might be hard to hear and should serve as a wake-up call for some people.

11:30 a.m. (updated): Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he’s working with the United States to help them understand that trade between the two countries goes both ways.

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He made the comments after the White House ordered a U.S manufacturer to stop delivering N95 respirators to Canada from the United States. He says it would be a huge mistake to restrict staff, or products and services from crossing the border in both directions.

11:15 a.m.: Trudeau says the Canadian Forces are being sent to northern Quebec to help communities there prepare to respond to COVID-19.

In a daily appearance outside his Ottawa residence today, Trudeau also says the federal government has an agreement with Amazon to use its distribution network to send medical supplies to meet provincial needs.

11:14 a.m.: Ontario’s COVID-19 epidemic has jumped by 442 cases in 24 hours, according to the Star’s latest count of the public tallies and press releases issued by the province’s regional public health units.

As of 11 a.m. Friday, 98 people have died from COVID-19 in Ontario, with a total of 3,407 infections so far, up 14.9 per cent from the same time Thursday.

Friday morning saw new deaths reported by the Lambton Public Health unit, where several people have died in a Sarnia seniors’ home outbreak, in Peel Region, where a Brampton man in his 60s died, and in Windsor-Essex were two patients died.

The Star’s count of COVID-19 cases and deaths is based on the public tallies and press releases issued by Ontario’s 34 regional health units.

The province says its most recent tally of 3,255 COVID-19 cases is accurate to 4 p.m. the previous day. The province also cautions its latest count of deaths — reported at 67 on Friday morning — may be incomplete or out of date due to delays in its reporting system.

11 a.m.: Four more residents have died at the Pinecrest Nursing Home, bringing the total number to 20. The 60-bed nursing home in Bobcaygeon is the scene of the worst COVID-19 outbreak in Ontario.

10:45 a.m.: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to speak at his daily news conference at 11:15 a.m.

10:30 a.m. (updated): Ontario is reporting 462 new COVID-19 cases, a 16.5 per cent increase from the previous day (and the biggest one-day jump since reporting began) and 14 new deaths. The overall case count climbs to 3,255 and the total dead is now 67, according to the Ministry of Health.

There are 462 patients in hospital, 194 of them in intensive care with 140 on a ventilator. There are 1,245 cases still under investigation.

The province says its most recent tally is accurate to 4 p.m. the previous day. The province also cautions its latest count of deaths may be incomplete or out of date due to delays in its reporting system.

10:10 a.m.: President Donald Trump attacked 3M Co. over concerns with supplies of protective face masks as his administration issued an order under the Defense Production Act to speed production of ventilators and respirators for coronavirus patients.

The president said at a White House news conference he signed an “element of the act against 3M” that allows the Federal Emergency Management Agency to obtain as many N95 respirators as it needs from the company. Trump tweeted Thursday evening that the company would “have a big price to pay” for its handling of the masks, without specifying the problem.

3M responded hours later with a statement, saying early Friday that it has increased production of respirator masks significantly and was already working with the administration to prioritize orders from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The latest actions offer a framework to “expand even further the work we are doing in response to the global pandemic crisis,” 3M said.

“We’ve been in constant discussions” with the administration, 3M Chief Executive Officer Mike Roman said Friday on CNBC. “The narrative that we aren’t doing everything we can as a company is just not true.”

The company pushed back against what it described as a White House request to stop exporting the products from the U.S. While 3M said it has worked to increase the number of masks imported from its overseas factories, including approval to ship 10 million respirators from China, part of its U.S. production is needed in Canada and Latin America.

10:20 a.m.: Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer is calling for the federal Liberals to be more transparent about their response to the COVID-19 crisis. He wants the government to release national level data on the spread of the virus and its implications.

He also says the government needs to move faster to get money into the hands of business, calling for them to immediately rebate GST payments.

10:11 a.m.: The growing movement in British Columbia and across Canada to salute health care workers by clapping and making noise each evening at 7 p.m. will gain even more volume tonight.

A statement from the Chamber of Shipping, the voice for the marine industry on Canada’s west coast, says all ships in B.C. waters will sound their horns in solidarity.

10:05 a.m.: Early this week, the streets of the central Israeli city of Bnei Brak were bustling with shoppers as ultra-Orthodox residents, obeying their religious leaders, ignored pleas to stay home in the face of the coronavirus threat.

By Friday, Bnei Brak had become the country’s worst hot spot and now resembles a ghost town. One expert estimated that nearly 40 per cent of the city’s population might already have been infected.

9:55 a.m.: The Star’s May Warren contracted COVID-19 from a friend at a dinner party two weeks ago. She thought it was a mild case — until it wasn’t. Read her story here.

9:50 a.m.: More than half of Africa’s 54 countries have closed their land, air and sea borders to fight the spread of the coronavirus, authorities said Friday, but fears are growing that the restrictions are delaying deliveries of critical aid.

9:20 a.m.: The Trump administration is formalizing new guidance to recommend that many Americans wear face coverings in an effort to slow the spread of the new coronavirus as the president defends his response to the crisis.

9:15 a.m.: Drake’s new dance video ‘Toosie Slide’ shows his self-isolation life from his Bridle Path mansion. Read the Star’s Evelyn Kwong’s story.

9 a.m.: “He’s my therapist.” How Chrystia Freeland and Doug Ford forged an unlikely friendship in the fight against COVID-19. Read the feature from the Star’s Susan Delacourt.

8:45 a.m.: Spain surpassed Italy in the number of COVID-19 cases as of Friday morning, according to Johns Hopkins University. Spain has 117,710 cases compared to Italy’s 115,242 cases. Italy still has the most number of people who have died with 13,915 followed by Spain (10,935) and France (5,387). The number of cases around the world has topped one million, with 218,864 listed as recovered. Spain has had more than 30,513 listed as recovered. There are more than 245,000 cases in the U.S.

8:30 a.m.: One GTA health region has already exhausted its inventory of ventilators that it had before COVID-19. Experts say this should be a “red alert.” Read the report the Star’s Jesse McLean and Kenyon Wallace.

8:20 a.m.: The Canadian Bankers Association says the country’s six largest banks have deferred more than 10 per cent of the mortgages in their portfolios as borrowers affected by COVID-19 seek financial help.

The association says almost 500,000 requests for mortgage deferrals or to skip a payment have been completed or are in process.

Canadian banks announced a mortgage deferral program over two weeks ago in a move to help those hurt by the steps taken to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. The six largest banks said they would allow customers to defer mortgage payments for up to six months among other changes.

But mortgage and loan relief could end up costing you thousands more as big banks continue to charge interest. Read the report from the Star’s Marco Chown Oved after the announcement was first made.

8:15 a.m.: COVID-19 has pushed Toronto area home sales off a cliff. But while prices may stall as people stay home from work, many real estate experts are predicting they will pick up where they left off once the crisis passes. Read the story from the Star’s Tess Kalinowski.

8 a.m.: As of 10 p.m. Thursday, Ontario’s COVID-19 epidemic has grown to 3,319 cases and 94 deaths, according to the Star’s latest count of the public tallies and press releases issued by the province’s regional public health units.

Thursday saw a jump of 12 deaths and 459 cases in 24 hours, and the first COVID-19 deaths in three Ontario regions: Brant County, where a woman in her 60s with pre-existing health issues died; in Guelph, a patient in their 80s; and in Sudbury, where a man in his 70s died after contracting the disease through international travel.

The Star’s count of COVID-19 cases and deaths is based on the public tallies and press releases issued by Ontario’s 34 regional health units.

The province says its most recent tally of 2,793 COVID-19 cases is accurate to 4 p.m. the previous day. The province also cautions its latest count of deaths — 53 — may be incomplete or out of date due to delays in its reporting system.

7:50 a.m.: The Ontario government has issued a new order under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act that empowers public health units to override collective agreements to allow for more volunteers to help in unionized facilities, the Star’s Robert Benzie reports.

7:48 a.m.: The United States’ top infectious disease specialist is getting his own bobblehead.

The creation from the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum in Milwaukee features Dr. Anthony Fauci wearing a suit as he makes a motion showing how the nation needs to “flatten the curve” in the coronavirus pandemic.

6:22 a.m.: Ontario is set to reveal projection numbers today at noon which show how many people could die of COVID-19 under a number of different scenarios.

Premier Doug Ford said Ontario residents deserve to see what he’s seen on various modelling scenarios in the COVID-19 outbreak. Top doctors will provide briefing on modelling numbers Friday on where Ontario was, is and could be, he said on Thursday. “You deserve to know what I know,” Ford said.

6:56 a.m.: Mosques were allowed to remain open in Pakistan on Friday, when Muslims gather for weekly prayers, even as the coronavirus pandemic spread and much of the country had shut down.

6:21 a.m.: The Zaandam and a sister ship sent to help it, the Rotterdam, were allowed to unload passengers in Florida on Thursday after working out a detailed agreement with officials who feared it would divert needed resources from a region that has seen a spike in virus cases. At least two passengers died of COVID-19 while the cruise ship was barred from South American ports.

5:24 a.m.: Lothar Wieler, the head of Germany’s disease control agency says the number of people who die of COVID-19 is likely being undercounted. He said he believes “we have more dead than are officially being reported.”

4 a.m.: There are 11,283 confirmed and presumptive cases in Canada as of 4 a.m. as compiled by The Canadian Press

Quebec: 5,518 confirmed (including 36 deaths, 224 resolved)

Ontario: 2,793 confirmed (including 53 deaths, 831 resolved)

British Columbia: 1,121 confirmed (including 31 deaths, 641 resolved)

Alberta: 968 confirmed (including 13 deaths, 174 resolved)

Saskatchewan: 206 confirmed (including 3 deaths, 36 resolved)

Nova Scotia: 193 confirmed (including 16 resolved)

Newfoundland and Labrador: 183 confirmed (including 1 death, 10 resolved)

Manitoba: 152 confirmed (including 1 death, 11 resolved), 15 presumptive

New Brunswick: 91 confirmed (including 22 resolved)

Prince Edward Island: 22 confirmed (including 3 resolved)

Repatriated Canadians: 13 confirmed

Yukon: 6 confirmed

Northwest Territories: 2 confirmed

Nunavut: No confirmed cases

Total: 11,283 (15 presumptive, 11,268 confirmed including 138 deaths, 1,968 resolved)

2:19 a.m.: Google will release “mobility reports” including new data about how the COVID-19 pandemic has reduced foot traffic to transit centers, retail stores and public parks in more than 130 countries.

12:13 a.m.: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorized the first test for coronavirus that measures antibodies in the blood. Such tests could identify people who have recovered from COVID-19, a key for knowing who’s immune and for developing a vaccine. Cellex Inc. of Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, received an emergency use authorization for its test on Thursday.

12:05 a.m.: South Korea says more than 27,000 people are under self-quarantine. The total number of infections in South Korea increased to 10,062 and the death toll rose by five to 174, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Seoul.

12:01 a.m.: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked citizens to light candles on Sunday evening to “challenge the darkness” of the coronavirus crisis in a video message to the nation as India entered its ninth day of a three week long country-wide lockdown.

11:52 p.m.: Apple Inc. on Thursday told employees that its retail stores in the U.S. will remain closed and work-from-home procedures will stay in place until early May due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

11:45 p.m.: Health officials in Peel Region say that they accidentally mailed letters to 16 residents saying that their COVID-19 test results were negative when they were in fact positive.

Officials say that several positive test slips were mixed in with a batch of negative results and the error was not noticed until the letters were mailed out.

“I know the relief those residents felt for a few moments has sadly been transformed into feelings of fear and uncertainty. Our team is working quickly to notify these residents and make sure they have what they need to manage this difficult situation,” said Peel interim medical officer of health Lawrence C. Loh in a news release.

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