Ontario is reporting 634 new cases of COVID-19 today and 54 more deaths. That brings the total number of cases in the province to 12,879, a 5.2 per cent increase over Wednesday. The total includes 713 deaths and 6,680 cases that have been resolved.

Quebec is reporting 109 new COVID-19 deaths today, bringing the total to 1,243. There are now a total of 21,838 positive cases in the province, including 873 reported over the last 24 hours. Premier Francois Legault says a big concern is finding health-care personnel as 9,500 staff are off the job due to illness or other reasons. He's asking all workers who are not in quarantine and able to return to work to do so.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the federal government will spend more than $1 billion to help develop, test and manufacture a COVID-19 vaccine, as well as to determine how widely the virus has spread through Canada. The cash announced today is on top of $275 million in research funding the Liberals announced in March at the outset of the pandemic. Most of the new money is aimed at funding vaccine development and clinical trials, including $600 million over two years through a federal innovation fund that the government says could help the country's biomanufacturing sector. Smaller amounts

International students are not currently eligible for the newly announced Canada Emergency Student Benefit (CESB), according to Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough, who spoke in an exclusive interview on Connect FM’s Sver Wala Show. Qualtrough confirmed international students can work up to 40 hours per week until the end of August – a temporary relaxation of the 20-hour cap normally in place during the school year. She noted, however, that the legislation for CESB is still being finalized and did not rule out the possibility that eligibility rules could change before it passes Parliament

There are 40,190 confirmed and presumptive cases in Canada. Quebec: 20,965 confirmed (including 1,134 deaths, 4,291 resolved) Ontario: 12,245 confirmed (including 659 deaths, 6,221 resolved) Alberta: 3,401 confirmed (including 66 deaths, 1,310 resolved) British Columbia: 1,795 confirmed (including 90 deaths, 1,079 resolved) Nova Scotia: 772 confirmed (including 12 deaths, 338 resolved) Saskatchewan: 326 confirmed (including 4 deaths, 261 resolved) Manitoba: 246 confirmed (including 6 deaths, 154 resolved), 11 presumptive Newfoundland and Labrador: 256 confirmed (including 3 deaths, 199 resolv

Nova Scotia RCMP says a key element of their investigation in the mass killing over the weekend is how did the gunman get an authentic Mountie uniform. Police have said the uniform along with a vehicle made to look like an RCMP cruiser allowed the shooter to escape detection. The RCMP say they have confirmed the gunman acted alone when he killed 22 people over a 12 hour period before being killed by police. But they are still looking into whether he had help leading up to the rampage.

Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam says over 576,000 people have now been tested for COVID-19 in Canada. She says 6.5 per cent of those tests were positive. Tam says as Canada continues to make progress in slowing the spread, there are bumps in the road that mean the country can't let down its guard. She says a focus must be placed on stopping outbreaks in places like seniors homes and other places where vulnerable populations live together in close quarters.

The country's medical officers of health are at work setting criteria that from a health perspective could provide guidance on when physical distancing restrictions can ease up. Several provinces are now considering loosening their lockdowns. Chief Public Health Officer Teresa Tam says criteria that might be included are the rate of hospitalizations, new cases being reported daily and how the virus appears to be reproducing. She says the special advisory committee on COVID-19 is actively at work on the details of that guidance now.

Ontario is reporting 510 new cases of COVID-19 today and 37 more deaths. That brings the total number of cases in the province to 12,245, a 4.3 per cent increase over Tuesday, which is the lowest growth rate in weeks. The total also includes 659 deaths and 6,221 cases that have been resolved, which puts the percentage of resolved cases over 50 per cent for the first time.