Thousands of British Columbians have started applying for a provincial subsidy which became available today. The Minister of Finance says more than 16,000 people applied for the BC Emergency Benefit in the first 45 minutes of opening the online portal. Workers who qualify for the federal government's Canada Emergency Response Benefit, or CERB, are also eligible for a one time, tax-free provincial payment of $1000; more in the update.

The city of Nanaimo has agreed to provide 35 emergency shelter beds for the homeless in its Community Services Building on Prideaux St; A Canadian Armed Forces pilot from Nanaimo is among the missing in a helicopter accident off the coast of Greece; more.

A popular past time, tubing on the Cowichan River, will not be allowed this summer. The town council has banned The Tube Shack from operating in an effort to contain the spread of COVID-19. The Sunfest Country Music Festival and the Laketown Shakedown say they could not meet COVID-19 safety requirements. Also in this update: The Nanaimo Arts Council is putting out an urgent call for people to get involved; Nanaimo Regional District taxpayers will get a break, because of the COVID-19 pandemic; The province is hoping to help logging companies stay afloat during the pandemic, by offering a deferral of stumpage fees.

Four more people in BC have died from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the total deaths to 109. All three were seniors in long term care homes on the lower mainland; The Minister of Health says as the number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 falls, the sooner hospitals can reschedule surgeries that were cancelled to free up hospital beds for those infected with the virus. Adrian Dix says emergency surgeries have continued during the pandemic and so have some scheduled surgeries that were urgent; Government officials continue to wring their hands over the dilemma many non-unionized workers face of having to self isolate if they are sick, but not being paid for sick days. That appears to be why there are such large outbreaks at two of the largest poultry processing plants on the lower mainland.

The Premier has announced BC has extended its state of emergency for two more weeks. John Horgan says he is expecting to announce the loosening of some COVID-19 restrictions at the end of next week; Two more poultry processing plants on the lower mainland are reporting cases of COVID-19; The mystery surrounding whether catching COVID-19 will lead to immunity is playing out in a case involving a Vancouver woman. CBC Radio is reporting 36-year-old Shilan Garousi contracted the virus in early March. She recovered, then became sick again in early April.

Two more poultry processing plants on the lower mainland are reporting cases of COVID-19. Specialty Poultry in Yarrow, in the Fraser Valley, announced on its Facebook page, that one of its employees has tested positive for the virus; The mystery surrounding whether catching COVID-19 will lead to immunity is playing out in a case involving a Vancouver woman; A new report from the University of Toronto says 35 people have died in Ontario because their surgeries and treatments were delayed, to free up hospital beds for the COVID-19 pandemic. British Columbia has also suspended all but emergency surgeries for the same reason; Premier John Horgan is expected to address concerns that BC has not released its plan for relaxing COVID-19 restrictions.

Two more people have died from COVID-19 in BC, one from the interior and one from the Fraser Valley, bringing the death count to 105. The province saw another spike in new cases, with 55 reported over the past 24 hours. Four of those are in the Island Health region; The Minister of Education says there is no plan yet to reopen BC schools before the end of this school year. However, Rob Flemming says officials are planning to open more classrooms, as more workers return to their jobs; A just-released series of reports estimate it will cost close to a billion dollars to reopen the Vancouver Island Railway Corridor to maximum capacity from Victoria to Courtenay.

The Provincial Health Officer is not backing down from calls to increase the rate of COVID-19 testing, to get a better picture of how widespread the virus is in BC. Dr. Bonnie Henry says BC is capable of testing 3,000 people a day, but she does not believe it's necessary to reach that daily target; BC's Minister of Health isn't ruling out possible legislation to ensure employees won't lose their jobs or suffer any penalties if they call in sick. The COVID-19 outbreaks at the poultry processing plants on the lower mainland spread quickly because some employees with symptoms continued to go to work. The non-union workers there do not have sick pay; BC's Seniors Advocate is calling for more volunteers to help elders manage during the pandemic. Isobel Mackenzie says more than 5500 people have already signed up with the Safe Seniors-Strong Communities Program.

There have been three more deaths and 50 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in BC since Saturday. BC's death count is 103; Many of the new cases are linked to the outbreak at the federal medium-security prison in Mission. 118 inmates, almost a third of the prison population, along with 12 workers have tested positive for the virus over the past three weeks; The federal prison has come under fire from the union representing guards, and an inmates group, that has launched a class-action lawsuit, claiming Corrections Canada did little to prevent or control the spread of the virus; The Provincial Health Officer says she has not set a date for when BC school classrooms might re-open.

A plan to provide safe shelter to 40 homeless people in Nanaimo has fallen through, due to pushback from the community where they were going to be relocated; Family caregivers in BC are becoming more and more stressed, due to the suspension of programs, designed to give them a break; BC's Provincial Health Officer is encouraging women experiencing violence, to reach out for help; Campbell River RCMP broke up a brawl among two dozen partiers at a local 7-11 early Sunday morning.

A woman from Alert Bay has become the first indigenous person in BC to die from COVID-19; Alert Bay, has been extended its emergency declaration for another week; Family caregivers in BC are becoming more and more stressed, due to the suspension of programs, designed to give them a break; Isobel Mackenzie and the Provincial Health Officer are looking at how care homes can open up to visitors in the coming weeks; BC saw its largest spike in new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, with 95.

Four more people on the lower mainland have died from COVID-19. Today's death count stands at 98. There are three more confirmed cases of the virus in the Island Health region today, bringing our total to 114; The City of Nanaimo is asking some parks and trail users to stay even further than two meters apart. It's asking joggers to stay 5 meters or 16 feet away from others. Cyclists are asked to stay 10 meters or 33 feet away from other park and trail users; Remote and indigenous communities that lack high-speed internet can look forward to improved service in the near future; The executive director of the Western Forest Contractors Association says tree planting companies are doing their best to calm community fears over the possibility of workers spreading COVID-19 in their towns.

Four more people on the lower mainland have died from COVID-19. Today's death count stands at 98. There are three more confirmed cases of the virus in the Island Health region today, bringing our total to 114; The City of Nanaimo is asking some parks and trail users to stay even further than two meters apart. It's asking joggers to stay 5 meters or 16 feet away from others. Cyclists are asked to stay 10 meters or 33 feet away from other park and trail users; Remote and indigenous communities that lack high-speed internet can look forward to improved service in the near future; The executive director of the Western Forest Contractors Association says tree planting companies are doing their best to calm community fears over the possibility of workers spreading COVID-19 in their towns.

There is a second, but smaller outbreak of COVID-19 at another poultry processing plant in BC; Concerns over outbreaks at industrial sites like the poultry plants have prompted Dr. Bonnie Henry to recommend factories and farms that house their workers, appoint an infection control coordinator, so that quick action can be taken if an outbreak occurs; COVID-19 has claimed the lives of four more people in long term care homes on the lower mainland; the Dr. Henry Fluevog Shoe is on sale now.

Unemployed workers and landlords in BC will start receiving provincial COVID assistance payments soon; The BC Coroner's Service is investigating the deaths of two men, at a homeless camp in Victoria; In Parksville, the lack of shelter space has forced homeless advocates to set up a temporary shelter in a graveyard.

BC's Provincial Health officer is extremely concerned by two large outbreaks of COVID-19: one at a poultry plant and the other, at a federal prison; New case numbers are also raising the alarm for Dr. Henry. BC saw another spike with 71 new cases over the past 24 hours, bringing the provincial total to just under 1800; more.