Article content continued

Read our full story, by Bill Brownstein.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or

9:55 a.m.

Metro grocery stores going gangbusters

From Bloomberg:

The Metro grocery chain benefited from a surge in sales as Canadians stocked their pantries in March.

With restaurants closed, fiscal second quarter revenue jumped 7.8 per cent to $3.99 billion from the prior year.

More in our story here.

9:50 a.m.

Boris

9:32 a.m.

Quebec launches help-wanted site

Quebec’s Labour Ministry has launched a web platform where businesses that offer essential services can post job offers.

Available jobs “will be posted soon,” the government says. Job seekers will be able to search by region, city or keyword.

Check it out here.

Plusieurs entreprises prioritaires ont un besoin criant de main-d’oeuvre. Nous devons les soutenir dans leurs démarches. C’est pour répondre à cette demande urgente que nous mettons en place cette plateforme. @Gouv_MTESS pic.twitter.com/h6DksAIyDe — Jean Boulet (@JeanBoulet10) April 21, 2020

9:12 a.m.

Ottawa to announce help for students, young people

The federal government is expected to announce today more significant financial support for students and other young Canadians struggling to stay afloat and find jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The new measures are intended to target support at young people who have fallen through the cracks of other emergency financial assistance plans.

Some students, for instance, have complained that they don’t qualify for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit.

It provides $500 a week for up to 16 weeks to Canadians who have lost their jobs due to the pandemic and had an income of at least $5,000 in the previous 12 months — criteria that doesn’t apply to many students.

Today’s measures are in addition to some steps the federal government has already taken to specifically help young people weather the health crisis.

It has put a six-month, interest-free moratorium on student loan repayments. And it has bolstered the Canada Summer Jobs program in a bid to encourage employers to hire young workers for essential jobs

9:05 a.m.

What does it mean to reach a peak?

From a Canadian Press explainer:

What does it mean to reach a peak in a pandemic?

Infectious disease and statistical modelling specialists say to reach the peak in a pandemic curve means that the number of new cases has begun to level off rather than continuing on a sharp upward trajectory. Such a scenario is playing out this week in Ontario, where public health officials said the province was experiencing the peak of the outbreak in the broader community despite registering some sharp single-day spikes in the number of new cases. The peak has not yet arrived in the province’s long-term care system, where roughly half of all cases and deaths have occurred.

“Peaks are not a single day,” said Steini Brown, dean of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, as he presented the province’s latest projections on Monday. “They’re not a nice single sort of spike. They can be a little bit bumpy, they can be prolonged for a period of time, particularly given public health interventions.”

Brown said pandemic curves are usually symmetrical in nature — a sharp increase of cases is followed by the plateau or peak, which then gives way to a decline in new diagnoses.

Where in Canada is that actually happening?

While Ontario may be experiencing the peak of community transmission right now, several provinces are already ahead of the game. Public health officials in British Columbia said last week that they had succeeded in flattening the curve, meaning they’re past the peak of new COVID-19 cases. Provinces and territories such as Manitoba, Saskatchewan and the Yukon are posting single-digit increases each day, while New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador have gone several days in a row without any new cases at all.

Canada’s chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, has said the national curve is bending but has yet to flatten. Those figures are still fuelled by data out of Quebec and Ontario, the epicentres of the national outbreak. The premier of Quebec, which has recorded more than 20,100 of Canada’s roughly 38,000 cases, has said the peak has lightly been reached outside of the province’s hard-hit long-term care homes.

9 a.m.

57 per cent of Canada’s deaths have been in Quebec

As of 4 a.m. today, there were 38,422 cases in Canada, and 1,834 deaths.

Quebec, with 23 per cent of Canada’s population, remains the epicentre, with 52 per cent of cases and 57 per cent of deaths.

Here’s the breakdown by province and territory:

Quebec: 20,126 confirmed (including 1,041 deaths, 4,048 resolved)

Ontario: 11,735 confirmed (including 622 deaths, 5,806 resolved)

Alberta: 3,095 confirmed (including 61 deaths, 1,273 resolved)

British Columbia: 1,724 confirmed (including 87 deaths, 1,041 resolved)

Nova Scotia: 737 confirmed (including 10 deaths, 286 resolved)

Saskatchewan: 320 confirmed (including 4 deaths, 252 resolved)

Newfoundland and Labrador: 257 confirmed (including 3 deaths, 194 resolved)

Manitoba: 246 confirmed (including 6 deaths, 150 resolved), 9 presumptive

New Brunswick: 118 confirmed (including 92 resolved)

Prince Edward Island: 26 confirmed (including 23 resolved)

Repatriated Canadians: 13 confirmed

Yukon: 11 confirmed (including 8 resolved)

Northwest Territories: 5 confirmed (including 5 resolved)

Nunavut: No confirmed cases

Total: 38,422 (9 presumptive, 38,413 confirmed including 1,834 deaths, 13,178 resolved)

8:30 a.m.

What’s open and closed in Montreal

We are constantly updating our list ofwhat is open, and mostly what is closed, in Montreal.

8:30 a.m.

Nightly newsletter

Sign up for our email newsletter dedicated to local coronavirus coverage here:montrealgazette.com/coronavirusnews

8:30 a.m.

If you have symptoms

Quebecers who think they have symptoms of COVID-19 should call Quebec’s hotline at 1-877-644-4545.

ariga@postmedia.com