COVID-19

Houghton is director of the University of Alberta's Li Ka Shing Applied Virology Institute.

The provincial government has instructed Ontario Health not to provide testing swabs to clinics charging patients for the test and is looking for other actions it can take to prevent the practice.

Ford says the province continues to reach out to universities and private laboratories to bolster its testing capacity.

To get tested at a pharmacy, an individual must be free of symptoms and be part of a group the provincial government has identified as a target, such as workers in or residents of homeless shelters.

So far, with the exception of a few cases at its mines brought in from southern workers, Nunavut has remained COVID-19 free.

He emphasized the COVID-19 pandemic is worsening agitation and similar symptoms in dementia sufferers, which could be alleviated with prescribed cannabis.