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

Top headlines:

  1. Border closures, disrupted supply chain played a role in B.C. deadliest month for illicit drug overdoses
  2. U.S. continues to relax lockdowns and restrictions as cases rise in 21 states
  3. Ontario seniors’ homes struggling with outbreaks on the hook for provincially-mandated emergency pandemic costs

In Canada, 97,474 cases have been reported. In the last week 3,754 new cases were announced, 28% fewer than the previous week. There have also been 57,606 recoveries and 7,996 deaths. Health officials have administered 2,122,393 tests.

Worldwide, 7,360,239 cases have been confirmed, with 416,201 deaths.

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 resourcesCoronavirus in maps and chartsLockdown rules and reopening plans in each province


Photo of the day

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It's a questions isolated people around the world are asking: When my hair salon or barbershop reopen? In Washington, New York, a barber wears a face mask during a hair cut as phase two of reopening continues on June 11.SHANNON STAPLETON/Reuters


Number of the day

70,000

Total deaths in Latin America surpassed 70,000 yesterday.

  • Brazil, the largest economy in the region, has almost 40,000 total deaths. The country is third only to the United States and Britain in deaths.
  • Mexico, the second biggest country in the region, has 15,357 deaths, and on Wednesday hit a new daily record of 4,883 confirmed cases and 708 fatalities.

The WHO determined Latin America is the new epicentre of the virus.


Coronavirus in Canada

Owners of Ontario seniors homes struggling with outbreaks that are now under management by hospitals are on the hook for all emergency costs imposed by the province, but not for assistance from the Canadian military.


In Ottawa: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rejected calls from Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer to resume regular sittings of the House. Trudeau accused Scheer of playing “political games,” while Scheer accused Trudeau of “trying to play petty politics.” Yesterday, the government failed to pass a bill that would have imposed fines and jail time for CERB fraudsters.

Also today: The federal and Ontario governments will spend $58-million to help businesses move into e-commerce.

  • Only 7 per cent of businesses in the province can process payments online.
  • The government set a target of 1,000 businesses to help with the program.

The funding will help Digital Main Street, an existing program to help entrepreneurs in southern Ontario to develop online stores and get digital marketing training.

Education: Ontario students are accepting university admission offers at almost the same rate as before the pandemic, early data shows. This year, 103,426 domestic and international student admission offers were confirmed. Last year, that figure was 102,289.

  • Many predicted enrolment would dip as more classes go online; but one economist pointed out university enrolment is countercyclical: numbers grow during recessions and shrink in boom times.

Coronavirus around the world

  • As much of the U.S. continues to roll back lockdown restrictions, cases are on the rise in nearly half of the states. Driving the uptick is testing lags, localized outbreaks, and the lifting of stay-at-home orders.
  • Cases in India – where the death toll from COVID-19 is fifth highest in the world – shot up by nearly 10,000 today, just weeks after the country began to walk back restrictions. As cases mount, New Delhi, the sprawling capital region, is facing a critical shortage of hospital beds.
  • A senior health minister in South Korea pleaded for Seoul residents to stay home as the officials struggled to trace transmission of a resurgence of new cases in the capital region.
  • While cases in Africa account for less than 3 per cent of the global tally, the pandemic is accelerating on the continent, and the WHO says a shortage of test kit is contributing to the problem.

Coronavirus and business

The TSX fell 4.1 per cent, while the Dow closed down 5.9 per cent on yesterday’s grim outlook from the Fed and rising infections.

“It’s a culmination of events. The market has been up so much from March, up 43 per cent at one point, history shows that when you have that kind of steady move up you’re ripe for some kind of consolidation.”

And: The government will commit $133-million to help Indigenous-led business survive the pandemic.


Globe opinion

  • Max Fawcett: “The consequences of COVID-19 continue to ripple outward, with businesses and households across the country scrambling to adjust and adapt. But there may be no space more disrupted than our cities, where an ever-expanding majority of the country lives and works. ... For proponents of Calgary’s Green Line LRT, the timing couldn’t have been worse.”
  • Brittany Andrew-Amofah, Alexandra Flynn and Patricia Wood: “COVID-19 has laid bare the massive crisis of inequality in our cities, exacerbated by systemic racism in policing, education and health. In our view, city governments must address inequality not only by condemning injustice, but by permanently changing their governance models to include the voices of racialized and marginalized people.”

Some good news

Hold Still, a photography project from the Duchess of Cambridge
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Hold Still aims to create a collective portrait of lockdown in Britain.Handout/Getty Images

Launched by Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge in collaboration with the National Portrait Gallery, Hold Still invited people in the U.K. to submit a pandemic portrait.

What is keeping your spirits up during the pandemic? Email audience@globeandmail.com


Distractions

🎧 For the chair-chained at-home worker: Reduce the effects of sitting all day with these three exercises

  • Rotations: Sit tall and place your fingers at your ears. Rotate through your spine so that you look to the right. As you rotate keep your nose in line with your sternum. Repeat on other side.
  • Lateral reach: Lift your right arm up over your head and lateral bend so that your left shoulder comes toward your left hip. Repeat on other side.
  • Sky reach: Sitting tall, reach both arms up toward the ceiling, while simultaneously lifting your chest slightly toward the ceiling and looking up toward your hands.

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