The latest novel coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Wednesday (this file is no longer updating. Click here to read the latest coverage). Web links to longer stories if available.

10 p.m.: Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe says he’s confident in his government’s plan to relax some restrictions around COVID-19 starting next month, despite two outbreaks of the illness and another death.

“Despite these two isolated outbreaks, we’re confident that, by and large, Saskatchewan is doing very well,” Moe told a press conference.

“This is very different than if we had an increasing of 10 to 17 (cases) and then maybe continue going across the province and we were unaware of exactly where those sources were.”

The province also reported 17 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, bringing its total number of cases to 383; 291 people having recovered.

9:35 p.m.: Mississauga city council has voted to allow mosques in the city to broadcast calls to prayer during Ramadan.

Council unanimously passed a motion Wednesday to temporarily relax city noise bylaws for the calls, which alert Muslims it’s time for prayer, up to the end of Ramadan on May 24.

Because the calls to prayer are broadcast on loudspeakers, they would normally violate city noise bylaw.

During the exemption, Mississauga mosques and “other non-residential buildings regularly used for worship” can send out only one call to prayer in the evening, according to the motion moved by Coun. Pat Saito.

The motion also said that calls can’t be longer than five minutes or encourage people to physically gather, which would be a violation of COVID-19 emergency closures.

Mississauga Imam Nafis Bhayat, who is head imam at Jame Masjid, said the call usually acts as an alert for the congregation to stop other activities and come to pray up to five times a day.

While service in mosques are not allowed during the COVID-19 pandemic, he said hearing the call to prayer will help Muslims in Mississauga prepare for prayers at home

“It will help them stay connected, because a lot of the times when we are at home, we get involved in some stuff and we forget the prayer timing,” he said.

8:45 p.m.: Vancouver’s airport authority has started offering voluntary layoffs to its staff, due to a reduction in passengers caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Vancouver Airport Authority employs roughly 500 people across airport operations, finance, engineering, human resources and other sectors.

Voluntary packages have started and will be followed by layoffs, an airport spokesman said in a statement.

The airport authority did not say how many workers will be affected.

7:55 p.m.: Workers are to return Monday to a beef processing plant south of Calgary that was closed for two weeks because of a COVID-19 outbreak.

Cargill said in a statement Wednesday that it will restart its High River facility with one shift and bolstered safety measures. The company is limiting access to the plant to no more than two people per car, with one sitting in the front and one in the back.

There are 821 cases of COVID-19 tied to the plant and one worker has died.

7:35 p.m.: Three more residents have died at Hawthorne Place Care Centre in North York, bringing the long-term-care home’s total toll to 20.

“These losses will leave a lasting mark on our home and I’d like to extend my deepest sympathies to the residents’ families, friends and loved ones,” Gale Coburn, the executive director of the home, said in a statement Wednesday night.

Seventy-one staff and 44 residents at the home have tested positive for the virus. Forty test results are pending and everyone in the home has been tested.

“A handful of our residents are in the process of being retested to ensure we have a fulsome understanding of the outbreak in our home,” she said.

Hawthorne is one of five Ontario long-term-care homes receiving military help. Canadian Armed Forces staff started providing medical assistance to the home on Tuesday.

6:55 p.m.: The Altamont Community Care long-term-care home in Scarborough has now seen a total of 40 deaths in what has become the deadliest COVID-19 outbreak in Toronto, according to the city’s latest data on ongoing long-term-care home outbreaks.

The reported death toll at Altamont — up eight since Tuesday — includes 39 residents and one staff member, personal support worker Christine Mandegarian, 54, who died earlier this month.

The home now has a total of 123 confirmed cases among residents, and 40 among staff, the city data says.

The outbreak passes Eatonville Care Centre in Etobicoke as Toronto’s worst. On Wednesday, that home confirmed 39 residents had died.

The deadliest outbreak in the province is at Orchard Villa in Pickering, where provincial data says 48 residents have died, with 144 infections among residents and 60 staff cases.

6:30 p.m.: Ontario’s regional health units are reporting their deadliest day of the COVID-19 pandemic even as the growth of new infections continues to slow, according to the Star’s count.

As of 6 p.m. Wednesday, the health units were reporting a total of 17,067 confirmed or probable cases of the disease, claiming 1,132 lives — an increase of 83 over cases reported the same time Tuesday. The previous high for deaths in a single day came on April 14, when the health units reported 67 new fatal cases.

However, it was not immediately clear how many of the deaths from Wednesday represented patients who died in the last day, or if reporting delays may have played a role in the jump.

Data on outbreaks in Ontario long-term-care homes has for several days shown that the death toll reported into the province’s central reporting system, the Integrated Public Health Information System, iPHIS, is not yet including hundreds of deaths that have already happened.

The health units typically report a death only after first entering detailed case information into iPHIS.

As of Wednesday, data from the system listed 521 deaths in Ontario long-term-care homes. Meanwhile, the Star has counted at least 819 deaths in these facilities, based on a tally of confirmed deaths reported in more-current data from the Ministry of Long-Term Care and public statements from the homes themselves.

Most of Wednesday’s deaths were reported in Toronto, which also saw its largest single-day increase in fatal cases, with 42. Earlier this week, Dr. Eileen de Villa, the city’s medical officer of health, said the work required to confirm COVID-19 in each case may cause reporting delays.

Meanwhile, with 469 new cases reported since the same time Tuesday, the province saw another day of relatively few new cases — an increase of just 2.8 per cent, up only slightly from the previous 24-hour period, which saw the lowest single-day jump by percentage in the Star’s count.

Earlier Wednesday, the province also reported 977 patients are now hospitalized with COVID-19, a number that has slowly grown in recent days. The province also says 9,612 patients who have tested positive for the coronavirus have now recovered from the disease — more than half the total infected.

Because many health units and publish case data before reporting to the province through a central reporting system, the Star’s count is more current than the data the province puts out each morning.

The province says its data is accurate to 4 p.m. the previous day. The province also cautions its latest count of total deaths — 996 — may be incomplete or out of date due to delays in the reporting system, saying that in the event of a discrepancy, “data reported by (the health units) should be considered the most up to date.”

The Star’s count, includes some patients reported as “probable” COVID-19 cases, meaning they have symptoms and contacts or travel history that indicate they very likely have the disease, but have not yet received a positive lab test.

6:25 p.m.: A third health-care worker in Ontario has died from COVID-19 with her union blaming “ongoing failures” to provide protective equipment such as masks and face shields.

The death came as figures show nursing home workers are becoming infected with COVID-19 at twice the rate of the residents they care for, according to statistics released Wednesday by the Ontario government.

The unnamed woman was a personal support worker at several facilities and was employed by the Victorian Order of Nurses in Peel Region, the Service Employees International Union said Wednesday.

“Like many health care workers, she was precariously employed,” the union added. “Our union has spoken to the family to offer whatever support is needed as they grieve the sudden loss of precious life. She will be missed and remembered.”

The woman is the second PSW to die in the line of duty as the virus sweeps through long-term care and similar settings where people live in close quarters. The first was Christine Mandegarian, 54, who worked at the hard-hit Altamont Care nursing home in Scarborough.

An environmental services employee worker at Brampton Civic Hospital died earlier this month

4:45 p.m.: Toronto is reporting its largest single-day increase in the COVID-19 death toll, with another 42 fatal cases announced Wednesday.

The city says a total of 347 people have died of the disease so far among 5,360 confirmed and probable cases, up 232 cases from Tuesday.

According to the city’s data, nearly three-quarters of COVID-19 deaths in the city — 259 people — have come in an institutional outbreak.

A total of 3,153 people in Toronto have recovered from the disease, the data says.

4:25 p.m. (updated): Four staff and an infant have now tested positive for COVID-19 at one of the emergency daycare centres opened by the City of Toronto to provide care for the children of essential workers, city officials say.

On Tuesday, the city announced three staff had tested positive at the Jesse Ketchum Early Learning and Child Care Centre in Yorkville, with more tests pending. Officials updated the tally at the city’s daily news conference on Wednesday.

The child who tested positive is eight months old, medical officer of health Dr. Eileen de Villa said, adding that public health officials are investigating.

The centre will be closed for the next two weeks, the city said in a statement Tuesday night.

About 58 children, as well as staff, have been asked to stay at home for the next two weeks.

3:15 p.m.: Ontario health officials say 77 retirement home residents have died from COVID-19 in the province. At the daily medical briefing at Queen’s Park, Dr. Barbara Yaffe says 419 residents have tested positive, along with 223 staff with 67 homes having outbreaks.

3 p.m.: Ontario’s Conservative MPs are demanding an apology from leadership candidate Derek Sloan after he questioned the loyalty of Canada’s chief public health officer.

The party’s 36-member Ontario caucus held an emergency meeting Tuesday evening to discuss Sloan’s comments, and voted overwhelmingly to demand the rookie MP apologize to Dr. Theresa Tam, according to three sources with direct knowledge of the meeting.

Read the story from the Star’s Alex Boutilier by clicking here.

2:40 p.m. (updated): The City of Toronto says it will close High Park entirely on Thursday and has set up its “BloomCam” of the cherry blossoms.

Mayor John Tory announced last week that the park would be closed entirely when the cherry trees bloom over fears that large crowds would gather. Instead the city would provide a livestream from the park for people to enjoy at home.

The city said in a press release that the fleeting bloom typically attracts tens of thousands of in-person visitors. The blossoms typically last between four and 10 days, depending on the weather.

“We made the difficult decision to close the entire park because it is the only way we can keep people from gathering to see the blossoms and risking further spread of COVID-19,” Tory said in a statement Wednesday.

“This is about protecting public health and saving lives. I know this will be particularly frustrating for High Park residents who use the park daily for exercise. Thank you for your ongoing understanding that we are following public health advice and we appreciate your sacrifice over the next few days.”

Anyone in violation of the park closure — which includes anyone who enters the park for any reason — can be fined at minimum $750 and up to $5,000 under existing municipal bylaws.

2:20 p.m.: Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough says the government is working on a solution to help people who rely on child support payments.

Currently, parents whose ex partners can’t afford to make their child support payments due to COVID-19 don’t qualify for the emergency response benefit. Qualtrough says she’s aware of the gap, and is working on a potential way forward.

2 p.m.: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio defended his tweets criticizing a large Jewish funeral. De Blasio oversaw the dispersal of a large, tightly packed Hasidic Jewish funeral Tuesday night and lashed out at the mourners who had gathered in defiance of social distancing rules intended to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

1:50 p.m.: Public Safety Minister Bill Blair says children may be at greater risk of online exploitation with so many spending time at home on the internet. He says the national child exploitation crime centre is alert to the risk and is monitoring the situation.

1:50 p.m.: New Brunswick is reporting no new cases of COVID-19.

Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Jennifer Russell says the provincial total remains at 118 cases. She says there are just four active cases right now and only one of those is in hospital.

Russell says she expects there will be more cases in the province and officials will have to respond with quick action when they occur.

1:35 p.m.: Quebec is receiving another 400 soldiers to lend a hand in the province’s overburdened long-term care homes.

Deputy Premier Genevieve Guilbault says the soldiers are in addition to those already working in the province since April 20.

Over 60 per cent of the province’s deaths have occurred in care homes, where absences and illnesses due to COVID-19 have worsened pre-existing understaffing issues.

Guilbault says that while many new people have been hired, she’s encouraging anyone who wants to work in the homes to apply.

1:30 p.m.: Calls are up 1,000 per cent year over year at the Toronto Seniors Helpline, a free Toronto-wide hotline that provides seniors and their caregivers with mental health, financial and other supports.

The hotline has been running in overdrive for the last two weeks since the City announced its membership in its mental health support strategy for residents during the COVID-19 crisis.

Read the story from toronto.com’s Joanna Lavoie here.

1:25 p.m.: Quebec is announcing it will gradually remove police controls that have been limiting non-essential travel to certain regions.

Deputy Premier Genevieve Guilbault says police roadblocks will begin to be removed on May 4 in the Laurentides, Lanaudiere and Chaudiere-Appalaches regions.

The Abitibi, Saguenay Lac-St-Jean and Outaouais regions, with the exception of Gatineau, will reopen May 11, while the Bas-St-Laurent, Gaspesie, Iles-de-la Madeleine, Charlevoix and Cote-Nord areas will remove roadblocks on May 18.

The province announced 79 new deaths for a total of 1,761, and 837 cases for a total of 26,594.

1:15 p.m.: Premier Doug Ford says the Ontario government will expand the list of workers to get child care to include meat packers and grocery store employees, among others. Ford says “the needle is starting to go southward.” He says it is “a positive trend” that “gives hope.” Here is the list.

1:15 p.m.: Lululemon has cancelled its popular SeaWheeze Half Marathon in Vancouver that was scheduled for Aug. 15. All registered runners will need to choose from their refund options by May 29.

1:15 p.m.: There are no new cases of COVID-19 reported in Newfoundland and Labrador, leaving the provincial total at 258 cases.

Dr. Janice Fitzgerald, Chief Medical Officer of Health, says four people remain in hospital with two of them in intensive care.

There have been three COVID-19 related deaths so far in the province and Fitzgerald says 225 people are considered recovered, while testing has been carried out on 8,220 people.

Fitzgerald announced two new orders including one requiring assisted living facilities for seniors to take steps to protect their residents, and another restricting visitors to the province.

1:05 p.m.: Prince Edward Island is reporting no new cases of COVID-19 today. The provincial total remains at 27 and the province says all cases were travel-related.

Twenty-four of those cases are considered recovered.

Chief public health officer. Dr. Heather Morrison says there are currently 2087 people in self-isolation. The province announced Tuesday that some of the public health restrictions would be eased starting May 1.

Premier Dennis King has extended the state of emergency to May 31.

12:53 p.m.: Ontario Premier Doug Ford is expected to address reporters at his daily 1 p.m. briefing. A livestream of the news conference will be available at thestar.com

12:35 p.m.: The Manitoba government is going to start easing some of its COVID-19-related restrictions starting on Monday by allowing dentists, physiotherapists, retail stores, hair salons and restaurant patios to open at no more than 50 per cent capacity.

Campgrounds, museums, libraries and art galleries will also be allowed to reopen, and all will have to maintain physical distancing among customers.

Travel restrictions and the 10-person limit on public gatherings will remain in place, but Pallister says the crowd limit may be raised later in May if the province’s COVID-19 numbers remain low.

A second phase will see nail salons, dine-in restaurants and noncontact children’s sports allowed, while mass gatherings such as concerts and big-league sporting events will not happen until September at the earliest.

12:30 p.m.: The NDP and the Bloc Québécois say the federal government is being evasive about whether it will provide emergency financial support to companies registered in foreign tax havens.

The two opposition parties have called on the government to deny federal funding to those companies.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the government will continue to fight tax evasion and avoidance, and those companies will face severe consequences.

12:08 p.m.: Nursing-home workers are becoming infected with COVID-19 at twice the rate of the residents they care for, according to statistics released Wednesday by the Ontario government.

The number of active cases in staff at long term care homes jumped by 13 per cent or 156 workers on Tuesday, compared with a rise of 5.6 per cent or 141 in cases involving residents, the Ministry of Long-Term Care said.

Read the story from the Star’s Rob Ferguson.

12 p.m.: Dr. Anthony Fauci, the leading public health expert on President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force, said this week that it might be very difficult for major sports in the United States to return to action this year.

Various leagues have considered a number of options for restarting play that came to a halt in mid-March as the extent of the coronavirus outbreak became increasingly apparent.

A key variable, Fauci said in an interview with New York Times on Tuesday, will be whether the country can gain broad access to testing that quickly yields results. He said that manufacturers had made strides in developing such tests but not enough for major sports competitions to resume.

Read the story by clicking on this link.

11:45 a.m.: As of 11 a.m. Wednesday, Ontario’s regional health units have reported a total 16,655 confirmed or probable cases of COVID-19, including 1,059 deaths, according to the Star’s latest count.

That’s 47 more deaths and 457 new cases since the same time Tuesday.

That daily increase in cases — 2.8 per cent since Tuesday morning — is in line with a flattening of daily case growth in the province over the last week.

Overall case growth has slowed greatly from the rapid increases seen in late March: In the second half of that month, the province saw an average daily growth of 20 per cent, a rate that doubled Ontario’s case count about every four days.

In the first half of April that rate slowed to an average of 9.5 per cent daily growth, or doubling about every eight days. And the days since have averaged increases of less than 4.5 per cent daily, or a doubling time of more than two weeks.

Even as the rate of new COVID-19 cases has slowed in recent days, the daily tally of new deaths has not yet begun to fall.

What’s more, data on the growing number of deaths in Ontario seniors’ homes reveals the real toll of the COVID-19 epidemic is much larger even than the Star’s count.

Earlier Wednesday, the province also reported 977 patients are now hospitalized with COVID-19, a number that has slowly grown in recent days. The province also says 9,612 patients who have tested positive for the coronavirus have now recovered from the disease — more than half the total infected.

Because many health units and publish case data before reporting to the province through a central reporting system, the Star’s count is more current than the data the province puts out each morning.

The province says its data is accurate to 4 p.m. the previous day. The province also cautions its latest count of total deaths — 996 — may be incomplete or out of date due to delays in the reporting system, saying that in the event of a discrepancy, “data reported by (the health units) should be considered the most up to date.”

The Star’s count, includes some patients reported as “probable” COVID-19 cases, meaning they have symptoms and contacts or travel history that indicate they very likely have the disease, but have not yet received a positive lab test.

11:45 a.m.: Nova Scotia is reporting one new death related to COVID-19, bringing the total to 28. The death occurred at the Northwood long-term-care home in Halifax.

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The province has also identified 20 new cases of the virus today, bringing the number of confirmed cases to 935. Nova Scotia has registered 27,486 negative test results, with 11 people currently in hospital, and three of those patients in intensive care.

Health officials say 529 people have now recovered and their cases of COVID-19 are considered resolved.

11:40 a.m.: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the federal government is looking at what support it can offer to the Canadian Football League.

League commissioner Randy Ambrosie revealed to The Canadian Press on Tuesday that the CFL has asked for up to $150 million in assistance due to the pandemic.

The league was supposed to start its regular season on June 11, but has pushed that date back to July at the earliest. Ambrosie says the league’s long-term future would be in peril if the season was cancelled.

11:30 a.m.: Trudeau says he believes Canadians would voluntarily provide personal information via mobile or digital tracking applications to allow the government to trace contacts of people infected with coronavirus.

“I think many Canadians would be open to idea of providing some information that would normally not be provided simply because of this pandemic, but where do we draw the lines? That is something that has not been established,” Trudeau said Wednesday at his daily briefing.

The Star’s Tonda MacCharles has the story.

11:20 a.m.: Trudeau says the federal government plans to provide between $1,000 and $5,000 for students who volunteer to help deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Trudeau did not say when the new Canada Student Services Grant will be rolled out, but says specific supports will also be set up for Indigenous students.

The prime minister says the federal government is also planning to extend research grants, fellowships and other support to graduate students and researchers. The new measures are on top of $9 billion in support for students unveiled last week.

11:15 a.m.: Newfoundland and Labrador is providing compensation for private sector employers to help pay employees who were required to self-isolate for 14-days due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. The assistance includes people who are self-employed.

The maximum amount of funding under the provincial program will be 500 dollars per week for each employee — to a combined maximum of one-thousand dollars per week for each employee when receiving both federal and provincial funding.

The amount paid under the province’s program will depend on the amount of federal funding received.

11:10 a.m.: The Canadian Armed Forces is deploying its famed Snowbirds aerobatics team on a cross-country tour aimed at boosting morale as Canadians continue to struggle with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trudeau announced the planned spectacle this morning as he took a page from the U.S., where the American military’s own flight demonstration teams have been flying over cities in honour of front-line workers and first responders.

The Snowbirds cut their season short last year after one of the Snowbirds’ famous Tutor aircraft crashed on Oct. 13 prior to an air show at the Atlanta Motor Speedway in Georgia.

11:15 a.m.: Ontario public health units are reporting 16,655 confirmed or probable cases, and 1,059 deaths as of 11 a.m. Wednesday. That’s a jump of 457 cases or 2.8 per cent and 47 more deaths in the last 24 hours. More details to come.

10:30 a.m.: Trudeau is expected to address reporters at his daily 11 a.m. briefing. A livestream of his news conference will be available at thestar.com

10:10 a.m.: The head of the IOC’s co-ordination commission for the Tokyo Olympics said Wednesday he disagrees with suggestions by some scientists and doctors that a vaccine for COVID-19 is needed to hold the games.

John Coates, an International Olympic Committee member from Australia who is a lawyer, said he had seen the opinion but didn’t agree.

10 a.m.: Ontario funeral homes are bracing for wave of memorial services when restrictions lifted. Small funerals are still permitted under Ontario’s current emergency orders, with an officiant plus nine other people allowed to attend.

Expanding the number of people allowed to attend funerals was in Stage 1 of Premier Doug Ford’s plan to reopen the province that was unveiled Monday, but the timeline and details of that plan are not yet clear.

Of course, death doesn’t wait for government orders. Read more here.

9:30 a.m.: In cities around the world, public transit systems are key to getting workers back on the job and restarting devastated economies, yet everything from trains and buses to ferries and bicycles will have to be reimagined in the coronavirus era.

In Europe in particular, public transportation is shaping up as a new front line in the battle to tame the outbreak that has killed over 120,000 of its citizens.

In hard-hit Italy, Spain, France and Britain, standing cheek-to-jowl with fellow commuters in packed trains or trams was as much a part of the morning routine in pre-coronavirus times as a steaming shot of espresso or a crispy croissant.

That’s going to have to change as authorities try to restart their economies without losing their hard-won gains in controlling the spread of the virus.

Read more about potential solutions around the world here.

8:45 a.m.: Toronto Mayor John Tory says he was “deeply concerned” after learning that three staff members in the emergency daycare at Jesse Ketchum Early Learning and Child Care Centre tested positive for COVID-19.

“I think (essential workers) turned to us because they probably didn’t have alternatives,” Tory told CP24. “We’ll have to see what we can learn from it as well in terms of the other emergency child care centres we’re operating, of which there are six still open. But the kids who went to that one cannot go to the other ones, obviously, because there is some risk they may have the virus and they’ll all be tested and they will have to isolate for 14 days.”

8:30 a.m.: One in seven Ontario residents who have tested positive for COVID-19 are health-care workers, a rate that is steadily rising, provincial data reveals.

That puts Ontario at one of the highest rates of health-care worker infection worldwide. As of Tuesday, almost 14 per cent (2,144) of Ontario’s 15,381 confirmed cases are nurses, personal support workers, doctors and other health-care workers.

Read the story from the Star’s Kevin Donovan here.

8 a.m.: The province has expanded the $4 an hour pay increase to more front-line workers combating COVID-19.

Paramedics, public health nurses and addictions and mental health workers in hospitals and congregate care settings, and respiratory therapists will now be eligible to receive the expanded pandemic pay, the province announced late Tuesday.

The pandemic pay was initially announced Saturday and eligible workers included staff working in long-term care and retirement homes, emergency shelters, supportive housing, social services congregate care settings, corrections institutions and youth justice facilities, home and community care providers, and some staff in hospitals.

Eligible staff who work more than 100 hours per month will see an additional $250 per month for the next 16 weeks.

The expansion of the pay raises come after a series of discussions between the province and OPSEU, the union representing public-sector employees in Ontario.

8 a.m.: The Canadian Football League is asking the federal government for up to $150 million in financial assistance due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

CFL Commissioner Randy Ambrosie told The Canadian Press on Tuesday the league’s proposal involves three phases: $30 million now to manage the impact the novel coronavirus outbreak has had on league business; additional assistance for an abbreviated regular season; and up to another $120 million in the event of a lost 2020 campaign.

7:30 a.m. Loblaw Companies Ltd. reported its first-quarter profit rose compared with a year ago as shoppers stockpiled supplies due to the pandemic, however it said costs also rose as it ramped up spending to protect its workers and customers.

The company, which owns Loblaws grocery stores and the Shoppers Drug Mart chain, says it earned a profit attributable to common shareholders of $240 million or 66 cents per share for the 12-week period ended March 21.

That compared with a profit of $198 million or 53 cents per share in the same quarter last year.

Revenue totalled $11.8 billion, up from nearly $10.7 billion in the first quarter of 2019.

7:11 a.m. The Italian sports minister says it is increasingly unlikely the soccer season will resume.

Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte announced Sunday that professional sports teams can resume training on May 18. That means Serie A could resume playing games in June.

But Vincenzo Spadafora tells Italian television channel LA7 that “resuming training absolutely does not mean resuming the season.”

He adds that he sees “the path to restarting Serie A getting ever narrower” and that if he was among the presidents of soccer teams “I would be thinking about next season.”

The French government called off the season in that country on Tuesday and Spadafora says that could push Italy to do the same.

6:30 a.m.: The head of the IOC’s co-ordination commission for the Tokyo Olympics said Wednesday he disagrees with suggestions by some scientists and doctors that a vaccine for COVID-19 is needed to hold the games.

John Coates, an International Olympic Committee member from Australia who is a lawyer, said he had seen the opinion but didn’t agree.

“The advice we’re getting from WHO says we should continue to plan for this date and that is what we’re doing, and that’s not contingent on a vaccine,” Coates told the Australian Associated Press.

On Tuesday, Japan Medical Association president Yoshitake Yokokura said it would only be possible for the Olympics to go ahead in July 2021 if the infections were under control, not only in Japan, but globally.

5:25 a.m.: China, in a step toward returning to business as normal, announced Wednesday that its previously postponed national legislature session would be held in late May.

The National People’s Congress, delayed from early March because of the coronavirus outbreak, will start on May 22, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the 3,000 or so delegates would come to Beijing for what is the biggest political meeting of the year, or if it would be held virtually through video conferencing.

5:20 a.m.: Demonstrators chanted pro-democracy slogans in a luxury mall in Hong Kong on Wednesday, the latest in a string of small but determined protests as the city’s coronavirus outbreak slows.

More than 100 protesters gathered at lunchtime in the Landmark Atrium mall in Central, a prestigious business and retail district, despite social distancing rules that prohibit public gatherings of more than four.

“The protests had calmed down previously because of the coronavirus, but now we must step up and let the world know that we have not given up,” said Mich Chan, who works in the legal industry. “We’re still fighting for what we fought for last year.”

5:15 a.m.: Officials in Thailand’s capital say they’re preparing to ease restrictions that were imposed to fight the coronavirus. The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration said Wednesday that plans call for the reopening of restaurants, markets, exercise venues, parks, hairdressers and barbers, clinics and nursing homes, animal hospitals and pet salons, and golf courses and driving ranges.

Restaurants will have to keep their seats at least 1.5 metres (5 feet) apart and practice a wide range of sanitary measures. Thailand has confirmed 2,947 cases, including 54 deaths.

4:15 a.m.: The House of Commons will be asked today to give rapid approval to legislation authorizing $9 billion in promised financial assistance for students facing bleak summer job prospects in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But whether the Trudeau government will get the unanimous consent needed to expedite the bill’s approval in a matter of hours today remained to be seen late Tuesday.

The government was continuing negotiations with opposition parties on details of the bill, which was shared with them on the weekend.

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer has said his party wants changes that would ensure the legislation includes incentives for young people to take available jobs, rather than stay home and collect the emergency aid.

4 a.m.: There are 50,026 confirmed and presumptive cases in Canada.

Quebec: 25,757 confirmed (including 1,682 deaths, 5,841 resolved)

Ontario: 15,381 confirmed (including 951 deaths, 8,964 resolved)

Alberta: 4,850 confirmed (including 80 deaths, 1,800 resolved)

British Columbia: 2,053 confirmed (including 105 deaths, 1,231 resolved)

Nova Scotia: 915 confirmed (including 27 deaths, 522 resolved)

Saskatchewan: 366 confirmed (including 5 deaths, 291 resolved)

Manitoba: 262 confirmed (including 6 deaths, 209 resolved), 10 presumptive

Newfoundland and Labrador: 258 confirmed (including 3 deaths, 222 resolved)

New Brunswick: 118 confirmed (including 114 resolved)

Prince Edward Island: 27 confirmed (including 24 resolved)

Repatriated Canadians: 13 confirmed (including 13 resolved)

Yukon: 11 confirmed (including 8 resolved)

Northwest Territories: 5 confirmed (including 5 resolved)

Nunavut: No confirmed cases

Total: 50,026 (10 presumptive, 50,016 confirmed including 2,859 deaths, 19,244 resolved)

Tuesday 10:40 p.m.: Three staff have tested positive for COVID-19 at one of the emergency daycares opened by the City of Toronto to provide care for the children of essential workers. Two other staff and two children are awaiting test results.

The Jesse Ketchum Early Learning and Child Care Centre will be closed for the next two weeks, the city said in a statement Tuesday night.

Tuesday 10:32 p.m.: An employee has tested positive for COVID-19 at a Loblaws in East York.

The employee of the Loblaws on 301 Moore Ave. last worked April 27, the company said Tuesday night. The store will undergo a deep cleaning and reopen for Wednesday.

Any staff who were believed to be exposed are also being asked to stay at home.

Read more of Tuesday’s coverage here.