The South Bayview Bulldog

The facts of where, when and whether US border guards physically stopped a shipment of masks from entering Canada over the weekend remained elusive Monday afternoon. The prime minister said Canadian officials are still in talks with U.S. officials about reports medical supplies could be blocked from entering Canada. Premier Ford is reported to have said flatly Monday morning that such a blockade occurred Sunday. But Mr. Trudeau would not confirm that a shipment had been blocked. A White House spokesman meanwhile has said: “there will still be some shipments to our friends in Mexico and Canada.”

The Ministry of Health has announced that the Monday total of new virus cases is 309. There have been 13 new deaths and the number of cases across the province is 4,347. Remarkably, the number of cases under investigation is down to 329 from many thousands in recent weeks. Website

This entertaining idea for keeping dogs busy in these difficult times has been posted to Facebook by Ursula Daphne Aitchison at The Dogspotting Society page.

Among Monday headlines is the hospitalization of UK prime minister Boris Johnson after what is said to be ten days of high fever and coughing. Johnson was diagnosed with COVID-19 last week.  In North America, stock markets opened higher and in Washington, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Friday that 3M would continue to export masks to Canada.

• Ontario COVID-19 cases at 4,538 in Star tally; UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson admitted to hospital; Toronto COVID-19 cases now total 1,438
• Critics call out Canadian Tire over stacks of pricey masks while hospitals call for donations

The sacrifices being made to save lives against the COVID-19 pandemic are essential but a terrible price is being paid by small businesses. Self-isolation and quarantine are destroying — at least for now — the lives of these entrepreneurs. Shops and restaurants have closed by the dozens and many more are likely to fail in the days to come. 

Pleasant early April weather has arrived in the quiet neighborhoods of Midtown Toronto during the COVID-19 lockdown. The high Monday is forecast to be 12º Celsius.

The Ontario Ministry of Health says its Sunday count of new COVID-19 cases is 408. It also confirmed an additional 25 deaths, many related to nursing home outbreaks. Four residents of St. Clair O’Connor Community long-term care home have died of the virus. Some 14 others are ill with it. Total fatalities in Ontario attributed to the virus now stand at 119. Ontario reported 375 new cases Saturday and 462 on Friday. As seen at the ministry’s website, the testing backlog is now down to a promising 981 after coming close to 11,000 less than two weeks ago.

The furious search for a vaccine to knock out the COVID-19 threat is underway in several centres across Canada as well around the world. The best guess is that with necessary testing, it might be 18 months before a vaccine could arrive in doctors’ offices. Media reports say a key moment in research came January 10, when researchers in China released the genomic sequence for SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Since then, no fewer than 60 vaccine projects have been launched around the world, by some estimates.

Sunnybrook HSC, U of T and McMaster isolate the virus

Another key moment came in early March when researchers at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, the University of Toronto and McMaster University managed to isolate and culture the virus from two patients. This meant that lab-grown copies of the virus would be available for researchers around the world who are looking for a vaccine or treatment. In the past few months, more than half a dozen projects have sprouted up across Canada in pursuit of a vaccine and using various different approaches to the problem.

Normally crowded arrivals road is empty

Pictures posted to Twitter by Living by YYZ show Toronto International Airport a ghost town.

Aircraft sit silent waiting business another day