The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Sunday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.
8:04 a.m. Chinese authorities in Shanghai are set to categorize parts of the city as low-risk for COVID, as they look to end a brutal two-month long lockdown in China’s financial center.
Starting in June, Shanghai will put areas of the city into high-, medium- or low-risk categories, Zhao Dandan, deputy head of Shanghai health commission, said at a briefing. Districts that haven’t reported positive cases or community infections for 14 days will be defined as low-risk, Zhao said. He didn’t, however, describe how restrictions on freedom of movement might be loosened in such areas.
Residents in high- and medium-risk areas will be restricted to their homes and be required to take a nucleic acid (PCR) test daily for 14 days, Zhao said.
Shanghai’s lockdown, which began in late March, has taken a heavy economic and social toll, sparking clashes between residents and police and disrupting production for companies from Tesla Inc. to Apple Inc. It has even caused a global shortage of a chemical widely used for X-rays, radiography and CT scans.
7:54 a.m. Toronto Public Health is investigating the city’s first suspected case of the rare disease monkeypox.
In a press release, the health unit said a male Toronto resident in their 40s is stable and recovering in hospital. TPH added that he may have come in contact with an individual who traveled to Montreal.
“The risk to the general public from this infection is very low,” said the press release. “In general, monkeypox does not spread easily between people.”
The health unit also said people may have been exposed to monkeypox if they attended the Axis Club on College Street on May 14 or Woody’s bar on Church Street on May 13 and 14.
Read the full story from the Star’s Isaac Phan Nay
7:44 a.m. Play in the year’s second Grand Slam tennis tournament has started on the red clay of Roland Garros in Paris, with none of the COVID-19 restrictions that limited attendance the past two years.
The French Open is the sport’s only major championship that begins on a Sunday.
The most anticipated match of Day 1 involves Carlos Alcaraz, the 19-year-old Spaniard who is seeded No. 6 and the youngest player to break into the top 10 of the men’s rankings since Rafael Nadal in 2005.
Noted anti-vaccine athlete Novak Djokovic, last year’s men’s champion, and 13-time champion Nadal are slated to play their first-round matches on Monday. So is the No. 1-ranked woman, Iga Swiatek, who is on a 28-match winning streak.
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