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Ford said students would not be returning to school on April 6, as originally planned and that the new measures were necessary to prevent wider outbreaks.

“This is not the time for half measures. This decision was not made lightly and the gravity of this order does not escape me, but as I have said since day one, we will and we must take all steps necessary to stop the spread of COVID-19.

Quebec Premier François Legault said his province would effectively be closed for at least the next three weeks.

Photo by Mike Hensen/The London Free Press/Postmedia Network

Trudeau’s own self isolation began on March 12 after his wife contracted the virus, which means it could come to an end later this week, but he stressed he is going to follow the advice he gets from experts.

“I am going to make sure that we continue to follow all recommendations of public health officers, particularly around staying at home wherever possible and self-isolation and social distancing.”

As of Monday morning, the government’s latest update revealed there are now 1,474 cases of the virus in Canada and 20 people have died from it. There are 340,000 cases globally. The Canadian Olympic committee announced Canadian athletes would skip the Tokyo games, unless they were postponed.

Trudeau also announced a host of research funding Monday. A Vancouver bio-tech company is getting funding for drugs that could be used to treat the virus and hopes to be in clinical trials this summer. A Quebec City based company is also getting funding to work on a potential vaccine as are researchers at the University of Saskatchewan. There is also money available to the National Research Council’s labs to help it scale up production of a vaccine when one is discovered.