Coronavirus Update: B.C.’s pandemic lockdown is relaxing, but front-line health workers aren’t

Good evening, here are the coronavirus updates you need to know tonight.

Top headlines:

1. British Columbia has slowly eased some restrictions, but healthcare workers are still busy saving the lives of COVID-19 patients
2. Florida shatters U.S. record for a state’s largest single-day increase with at least 15,299 new cases, welcomes Disney World visitors
3. South Africa reimposes alcohol ban, curfew as cases spike
4. Ontario to announce plans for Stage 3 of reopening as virus spread slows

In Canada, there have been at least 107,589 cases reported. In the last week 1,943 new cases were announced, 9 per cent fewer than the previous week. There have also been at least 71,467 recoveries and 8,783 deaths. Health officials have administered more than 3,376,976 tests.

Worldwide, there have been at least 12,717,908 cases confirmed and 565,138 deaths reported.

Sources: Canada data is compiled from government websites, Johns Hopkins and COVID-19 Canada Open Data Working Group; international data is from Johns Hopkins University.

Coronavirus explainers: Updates and essential resources • Coronavirus in maps and charts • Lockdown rules and reopening plans in each province

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Number of the day

15,299

In Florida, where parts of Disney World reopened Saturday, at least 15,299 people tested positive, for a total of 269,811 cases, and 45 deaths were recorded.

The figure shattered the national record for a state’s largest single-day increase in positive cases.

The United States is grappling with the largest outbreak in the world, and deaths are also on the rise, especially in the South and West.

Coronavirus in Canada

• British Columbia has slowly eased some restrictions, but healthcare workers are still busy saving the lives of COVID-19 patients on the front line. As part of a 2-volume series, they’ve shared some of their experiences from April onward.
• The Ontario government is set to announce details about Stage 3 of its reopening plan on Monday as transmission continues to slow. A spokeswoman did not say whether the province will take a regional approach to this phase, as it did for Stage 2.
• An 80-year-old woman on Prince Edward Island has tested positive for COVID-19; the new case is not believed to be linked to a recent cluster or to a Charlottetown seniors’ residence where a worker had tested positive.
• Quebec reported 114 new COVID-19 infections and seven deaths today. Montreal’s public health authority urged people and employees having visited bars since Canada Day to get tested after at least eight cases started in five bars.

National updates

• Canadian medical researchers are turning genetics labs into virus detective agencies, looking first to find the novel coronavirus itself within blood samples from thousands of infected patients, and then comparing all of those isolated viruses to each other looking for places they differ. These efforts will help paint a clearer picture of how the virus spread across the country and to pinpoint weaknesses in early public health measures.
• Canada’s effort to fast-track careers of foreign-trained doctors to meet growing patient numbers during the pandemic has resulted in only about two dozen licenses approved in Ontario and none in British Columbia, according to medical colleges in both provinces.

Coronavirus around the world

• Chinese vaccine developer CanSino Biologics is in talks with Russia, Brazil, Chile and Saudi Arabia to launch a Phase III trial of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine, its co-founder said.
• Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore and Indonesia have dealt with concurrent outbreaks of dengue, an incurable, mosquito-borne disease that is also known as “breakbone fever,” and coronavirus this year.
• South Africa will reimpose a ban on the sale of alcohol and a nighttime curfew to reduce pressure on its hospitals as coronavirus infections rise rapidly, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Sunday. South Africa has the highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Africa and is now recording the fourth-largest daily increase in new cases worldwide.

Coronavirus and business

Faced with an unprecedented economic storm, Ottawa is abandoning – at least for the summer – the fiscal anchor that it has used to reassure Canadians and markets about its long-term goals for public debt.

• The fiscal update delivered by Finance Minister Bill Morneau was noteworthy for many of the numbers it disclosed: a $343.2-billion deficit, and debt set to climb above $1-trillion.
• But there was no mention of the Liberals’ fiscal anchor of pushing the ratio of debt to GDP below 30 per cent, a goal meant to be less rigid than the Conservatives’ balanced-budget orthodoxy while still setting a target for the government.

Under the Liberals’ fiscal anchor, the government could run deficits indefinitely, so long as the economy grew fast enough to keep those debts manageable, around 30 per cent of Canada’s gross domestic product.

Of course, with this year’s record-setting deficit, Ottawa is already far adrift from that anchor, and likely headed farther away still if there is significant new spending to boost economic recovery, and if deficits persist in the next few years. Many economists believe the first is a necessity and the second a certainty.

Information centre

• Pandemic personal finance: Rob Carrick’s 10-point checklist of things you should have done by now to protect or improve your money situation. Tips for minimizing damage to your credit score; how to manage retirement anxiety during difficult times; and things to think about if you’re considering home delivery.
• Here are the expectations for self-isolation; tips for managing anxiety and protecting your mental health; and what to do if you think you have the virus, and what you can do to help slow the spread of coronavirus. How to break a bad habit (like touching your face).
• The best foods to eat to maintain an immune system-friendly diet; and how to keep a healthy diet while working from home; four eating tips when working from home; and five mistakes that might cause you to gain unwanted weight. Here are the essentials to stock up on and how to shop safely for groceries; the best pantry staples and how to stop stress-eating. What to cook with rhubarb (aside from pie).
• Here’s what you should do if you are newly laid off; how to apply for CERB, EI, and other financial benefits; how the CRA might identify CERB fraud; and other coronavirus and employment questions answered. What to do if your employees don’t return to work because they want to collect CERB.

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