Canada joined the global community Monday in helping to raise $11 billion toward a COVID-19 vaccine, amid promises to avoid past pandemic practice and make it available for all. That hasn’t happened with past outbreaks, including the H1N1 pandemic in 2009, where richer countries got a vaccine first at the expense of poorer ones.

A viable vaccine must be available and affordable for all countries, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said Monday, while Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, said victory over the virus will take more than great minds in laboratories.

“It will also take a firm commitment to multilateral institutions, and it will take resources,” said Michel.

The conference was partially a response to the decision by Donald Trump to pause funding to the World Health Organization because of concerns that it mismanaged the outbreak of the novel coronavirus earlier on.

“We must learn the lessons from the fight against HIV and swine flu where the narrow self-interests of corporations and governments meant vaccines and treatments were too expensive or arrived too late,” Anna Marriott, head of Oxfam’s health policy, said in a statement.

“President Trump remains isolated and antagonistic to an international collaboration aimed at saving lives of people across the globe. No one individual, community, or country can overcome this crisis alone – we must all work together.”

Quebec

Montreal businesses will have to wait at least one extra week to welcome customers, Quebec Premier Francois Legault said Monday, citing high hospitalization numbers as a reason to push back the planned reopening from May 11 to May 18.

As the province began removing police roadblocks limiting travel in some regions and allowing retail shops in much of the province to resume business, Legault pushed back the reopening of non-essential stores in the Montreal area.

He said that while the hospital situation is currently under control, there aren’t enough empty beds to accommodate a surge in patients after more people go out and get sick.

“We know that if … and when we reopen stores, we’ll probably have more cases in our hospitals,” he said in Quebec City.

Cruises

Carnival Cruise Line has announced it is cancelling its sailings to Alaska this summer. The announcement referred only to Carnival Cruise Line and not the other brands under the umbrella of Carnival Corp. Princess Cruises and Holland America Line, which also fall under Carnival Corp. last month announced dramatically reduced sailing plans for Alaska.

Tourism is a major industry in Alaska, with cruise ships bringing large numbers of visitors during the typically busy summer months. The number of people visiting the state on cruise ships went from 480,000 in 1996 to almost 1.4 million last year, according to a report by state labour department economists Neal Fried and Karinne Wiebold.

Carnival Cruise Line said it is committed to supporting public health efforts to manage COVID-19 and focusing its return to service in North America starting in August on “a select number of homeports where we have more significant operations that are easily accessible by car for the majority of our guests.” Those include Miami, Port Canaveral and Galveston.

Air Travel

Air travel has come to almost a complete standstill and industry executives believe the industry could shrink. The situation continues to worsen.

After Warren Buffet said over the weekend that he had unloaded his company’s entire stake in major US airlines, believing he was mistaken in his valuation of the carriers. Shares of American, Delta and United Continental plunged between 13% and 14% Monday. Southwest slid 9%.

Shareholders of the low-cost carrier Norwegian Air Shuttle approved a plan to rescue the company by swapping debt for equity so that it might access some of the government’s guarantees worth 3 billion kroner ($409 million). The carrier has already laid off 90% of its workforce.

The European Union approved €7 billion ($10.7 billion) in loans and guarantees that the French state is providing to Air France.

Air France will get €3 billion ($4.5 billion) in direct loans from the French state and a €4 billion ($6.1 billion) bank loan guaranteed by the state, the airline said in a statement.

Destinations

Clearwater Beach officially reopened to the public before sunrise Monday morning. Police removed “closed” signs from barricades at 7 a.m. to the cheers of the 50 or so people waiting to step on the freshly groomed sand. Clearwater police have a large presence patrolling the beach and urging people to socially distance. Few, if any, people walking on the beach or along the boutique stores on Gulf Boulevard wore protective masks.

Hong Kong’s economy shrank by 8.9% in the first quarter when compared with a year ago, its worst performance since quarterly reporting began in 1974.

An estimated 1.5 million South Africans had returned to work by Monday, as the country slightly eased lockdown conditions. The mining, manufacturing and business sectors began reopening with up to 30% of their workforce. Additional workers will be added gradually, depending on safety precautions and South Africa’s statistics on the spread and severity of COVID-19 in the country.

Belgium relaxed some of its lockdown measures Monday. Business-to-business companies can open their offices to employees again, even though remote work is still encouraged. Textile shops selling cloth will be opening too since they are essential if people want to make their own protective masks.

Slovakia’s government is accelerating its steps to lift restrictive measures adopted to contain the coronavirus pandemic. All stores, except shopping malls, can reopen Wednesday. That is two weeks before originally planned due to a more positive development of the outbreak in the country than expected. Also, museums, galleries, libraries and the outdoor seating at restaurants can return to service. As previously scheduled, zoo parks, hairdressers, beauty parlours and taxi services can reopen as of Wednesday. Weddings and religious services are also allowed to take place again.

Belarus’ authoritarian leader says the presidential election will be held as planned this summer despite the coronavirus outbreak.

President Alexander Lukaxhenko said that the election will take place “certainly in the summer,” but didn’t mention a specific date. The Belarusian leader has cracked down on dissent and independent media and is expected to easily win another term. Despite the World Health Organization’s call for Belarus to ban public events as coronavirus cases rise sharply, Lukashenko has insisted that the country will have a parade on May 9 to mark the 75th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany.

Scotland’s leader Nicola Sturgeon has hinted that the coronavirus lockdown in her country will last at least a few more weeks beyond this Thursday’s scheduled review. The first minister said at the Scottish government’s daily press briefing that it is “very unlikely” any changes will be announced to lockdown measures when they are reviewed.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has recovered from COVID-19, is widely expected to announce a further extension as the UK’s coronavirus-related death toll heads towards becoming Europe’s highest.

England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have co-ordinated through the coronavirus outbreak, issuing lockdown orders together on March 23. Sturgeon said she understands the need for people to see “light at the end of the tunnel.” However, she said the virus’ reproduction rate was still too high to ease the lockdown despite “real and significant progress.”