LIVE AT 11:30 A.M. | Ahead of summer festivals, Quebec health officials give COVID-19 update

Quebec announced special financial assistance to cover food losses suffered by those using social assistance programs following power outages.
Several thousand homes remain without electricity a week after violent storms uprooted trees, blocked roads, destroyed properties and killed at least 11 people in Quebec and Ontario.
Social assistance recipients who have been affected by an outage lasting more than 24 hours are eligible for $75 per person. The maximum amount for each family is $300.
“It is essential to support the most vulnerable people in our society,” said Labour Minister Jean Boulet in a Sunday statement.
At 7:30 a.m. on Saturday, approximately 8,900 customers, mainly in the Laurentians, Lanaudière and Outaouais, were still affected by the outage which began last Saturday or Sunday according to Hydro-Québec.
However, according to the company's Info-pannes website, more than 18,000 homes are without power as of late Saturday morning.
“New outages have been declared in the last hours in the Laurentians region, thus increasing the total amount of outages in Quebec,” wrote Hydro-Quebec in a press release.
“The already weakened vegetation is affected by heavy precipitation, which causes it to sag on the network and cause new outages.”
Interventions are still necessary on more than 1100 sites. Repairs, some of which are needed in remote locations, only restore service to a small number of customers at a time.
In Ontario, 19,000 Hydro Ottawa customers are still without power. Nearly 27,000 Hydro One customers are also affected by the outages on Saturday morning.
Hydro One anticipates that 99 per cent of customers affected by the storm will be reconnected to the grid. However, the company warns that affected customers in the Bancroft, Perth and Tweed areas are expected to be without power for several more days or even weeks.
-- This report was first published by The Canadian Press in French on May 28, 2022.
Canada found itself under the spotlight on Wednesday as the head of the NATO military alliance said he expects Canada to fulfil its commitment to other members and increase its defence spending to meet the needs of an increasingly dangerous world.
A mother of three children is speaking out after spending a night on the floor of Toronto Pearson Airport with her young kids in a nightmare weekend of travel.
Through the use of MRI technology and spearheaded by researchers at Western University, the cause of long COVID symptoms have been identified for the first time.
Recent data shows more than half of all flights from some of Canada's major airports are being cancelled or delayed, as frustrations for travellers mount due in part to increased summer travel and not enough airport staff.
A Nexus card is supposed to help put low-risk Canadians on the fast track when crossing the U.S. border, but at least 330,000 Canadians aren’t sure when their applications will be processed.
NATO declared Russia the 'most significant and direct threat' to its members' peace and security on Wednesday and vowed to strengthen support for Ukraine, even as that country's leader chided the alliance for not doing more to help it defeat Moscow.
Six police officers are in hospital with gunshot wounds and two suspects have been killed following a shooting at a bank in Saanich, B.C., on Tuesday.
Access to mental health services is taking a hit in Newfoundland and Labrador as psychologists in the province continue to leave the public system en masse.
The mastermind of an elaborate Ponzi scheme that cheated hundreds of people of tens of millions of dollars was sentenced Tuesday in a Barrie, Ont., courtroom. Charles Debono has been behind bars since his arrest in 2020 for his role in one of the largest Ponzi schemes in Canadian history.