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Shanghai, Jan. 21: Police cordon off an area around a residential neighbourhood near the historic Bund riverfront, where Chinese officials discovered at least three new coronavirus cases.
STR/AFP via Getty Images
- Essential resources
- What does this virus do?
- How do I ‘flatten the curve’?
- More reading
Table of contents
The latest
THE LOCAL PICTURE
- First Nations: COVID-19 is spreading at an “alarming” rate in Indigenous communities, Indigenous Services Canada’s chief medical officer says as the number of reported cases reached an all-time high far surpassing the one in the pandemic’s first wave. New cases have fluctuated between 1,753 and 2,046 a week since the start of 2021, the department said.
- Ontario: A variant infected nearly every resident of a Barrie long-term care home within days, health officials said as Ontario’s public health lab investigated whether the British, South African, Brazilian or another variant was responsible. This would be the first time an extra-contagious variant struck a Canadian long-term care home.
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Toronto, Jan. 20: Dawn Chapman sits in Lazy Daisy’s Café, which she owns. 'My worry is that without government assistance, we wouldn’t be able to keep the doors open,' she says.
Aaron Vincent Elkaim/The Globe and Mail
THE LOCAL PICTURE
- Business: More than 239,000 of Canada’s businesses could be wiped out because of the pandemic, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business warns, citing a new survey of 4,129 of its members last week. It found nearly 18 per cent were considering bankruptcy or closing their businesses permanently.
- Youth and health: Eating disorders are taking a heavier toll among children and teenagers due to their isolation from school and extracurriculars, Canada’s largest pediatric hospital warns. “We’re seeing kids who are at a significantly lower weight than what we would have normally seen pre-COVID,” said Debra Katzman, a professor of pediatrics at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children and the University of Toronto.
Essential resources
COVID-19, or the novel coronavirus, has killed more than two million people around the world since early 2020. Later in this guide, you’ll see an overview of how the virus works and how it kills, but first, here are some essential links answering key questions about how all Canadians can stay safe from it. We also have a daily coronavirus newsletter.
- Are you feeling unwell? If you’ve got COVID-19-like symptoms (dry cough, fever and aches) or have just returned to Canada from abroad, you should self-isolate right away. Here’s what that means. Here are some primers on safety for seniors and parents caring for sick or quarantined children. There’s also a visual guide to self-isolation below in the “how do I flatten the curve?” section.
- Are you distancing? “Physical distancing” means minimizing close contact with others, not the 14-day self-isolation required for sick people and travellers. Generally, it means staying home unless absolutely necessary, and wearing masks in public settings, like stores or transit, where you can’t keep a distance of more than two metres from other people. But every province and territory has its own set of evolving rules for what distancing looks like in practice. If you’re staying home, here are primers on good foods and supplies to stock, what cleaning products and methods are most effective, and tips on good exercise and mental-health habits.
- Are you being vaccinated? Since December, provinces have been vaccinating front-line health workers, long-term care residents and staff and other priority groups before a general vaccination in the spring and summer. Check our guide to the rollout plans by province and our primers on the vaccines approved for Canadian use, Pfizer-BioNTech’s and Moderna’s. Our main data page is updated every evening with the number of vaccinations administered in Canada so far.
- Are you getting the right information? Rumours and hoaxes can run rampant during crises, which is dangerous to public health. Stick to the facts as communicated by agencies like the World Health Organization, the Public Health Agency of Canada or your provincial health authority. If you need pointers on how to spot misinformation, try this media literacy quiz The Globe prepared in 2017.
What we know about the disease
Symptoms
The new illness that emerged in December, 2018, in China – officially called COVID-19, previously known as 2019-nCoV – is caused by a coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2. Corona means “crown” or “halo” in Latin, describing the viruses’ typical shape when seen under an electron microscope. The common cold is a type of coronaviral illness, but it tends to cause nasal congestion, which COVID-19 doesn’t always do. COVID-19′s typical symptoms (dry coughing, fever and aches) resemble more serious and dangerous coronaviruses, like SARS and MERS. Initially the symptoms can also look like flu, which is caused by a different virus type, but don’t let the similarity fool you: COVID-19 is far more dangerous (more on that below).
Human coronaviruses most commonly spread from an infected person to others through:
The air by coughing and sneezing
Close personal contact, such as touching or shaking hands
Touching the eyes, nose or mouth after touching an infected surface
Rarely, fecal contamination
WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS OF THE VIRUS?
Headache
Dry cough
Fever
In more severe cases, infection can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure and even death
SOME FACTS ABOUT THE VIRUS
Belongs to large family of viruses that cause illnesses ranging from common cold to more severe diseases such as MERS and SARS
Coronaviruses are zoonotic, meaning they are transmitted between animals and people
There are no specific treatments for coronaviruses, but symptoms can be treated
MURAT YÜKSELIR / THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Health Canada, WHO
Human coronaviruses most commonly spread from an infected person to others through:
The air by coughing and sneezing
Close personal contact, such as touching or shaking hands
Touching the eyes, nose or mouth after touching an infected surface
Rarely, fecal contamination
WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS OF THE VIRUS?
Headache
Dry cough
Fever
In more severe cases, infection can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure and even death
SOME FACTS ABOUT THE VIRUS
Belongs to large family of viruses that cause illnesses ranging from common cold to more severe diseases such as MERS and SARS
Coronaviruses are zoonotic, meaning they are transmitted between animals and people
There are no specific treatments for coronaviruses, but symptoms can be treated
MURAT YÜKSELIR / THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Health Canada, WHO
Human coronaviruses most commonly spread from an infected person to others through:
The air by coughing and sneezing
Close personal contact, such as touching or shaking hands
Touching the eyes, nose or mouth after touching an infected surface
Rarely, fecal
contamination
COMMON SIGNS OF INFECTION
Headache
In more severe cases, infection can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure and even death
Dry cough
Fever
SOME FACTS ABOUT THE VIRUS
Belongs to large family of viruses that cause illnesses ranging from common cold to more severe diseases such as MERS and SARS
Coronaviruses are zoonotic, meaning they are transmitted between animals and people
There are no specific treatments for coronaviruses, but symptoms can be treated
MURAT YÜKSELIR / THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Health Canada, WHO
How COVID-19 CAN KILL YOU
COVID-19′s death rate varies considerably from country to country and among age groups, but even conservative estimates put it tens of times higher than seasonal influenza (0.1 per cent), though generally lower than SARS (10 per cent). The graphics below offer a step-by-step explanation of COVID-19′s lethal effects on the body in severe cases.
VIRUS
The virus enters the lungs and attaches itself to cells which make up the lungs’ protective lining.
CELLS
RNA
RECEPTOR
VIRUS
Once attached to a cell’s receptor, the virus injects its RNA into the cell, providing it with the blueprint to build copies of the virus.
IMMUNE
CELL
INFECTED
DEAD
The infected cell eventually self-destructs, releasing the virus to infect neighbouring cells. Exponential growth in infected cells triggers an excessive response by the immune system. Immune cells sent to fight the virus begin to destroy both infected and healthy cells.
ALVEOLI
BACTERIA
BACTERIAL
INFECTION
If enough of the protective lining is destroyed, it leaves the alveoli – the tiny air sacs via which breathing occurs – vulnerable to bacterial infection. This can lead to severe respiratory problems, making mechanical ventilation necessary to help the patient survive.
The immune system can become overwhelmed while the bacteria multiply. If bacteria enter the blood, they can overrun the body and cause death.
MURAT YÜKSELIR / THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: KURZGESAGT
VIRUS
The virus enters the lungs and attaches itself to the cells that make up the protective lining of the lungs.
CELLS
RNA
RECEPTOR
VIRUS
Once attached to a cell’s receptor, the virus injects its RNA into the cell, providing it with the blueprint to build copies of the virus.
IMMUNE
CELL
INFECTED
DEAD
The infected cell eventually self-destructs, releasing the virus to infect neighbouring cells. Exponential growth in infected cells triggers an excessive response by the immune system. Immune cells sent to fight the virus begin to destroy both infected and healthy cells.
ALVEOLI
BACTERIA
BACTERIAL
INFECTION
If enough of the protective lining is destroyed, it leaves the alveoli – the tiny air sacs via which breathing occurs – vulnerable to bacterial infection. This can lead to severe respiratory problems, making mechanical ventilation necessary to help the patient survive.
The immune system can become overwhelmed while the bacteria multiply. If bacteria enter the blood, they can overrun the body and cause death.
MURAT YÜKSELIR / THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: KURZGESAGT
VIRUS
The virus enters the lungs and attaches itself to the cells that make up the protective lining of the lungs.
CELLS
RNA
RECEPTOR
VIRUS
Once attached to a cell’s receptor, the virus injects its RNA into the cell, providing it with the blueprint to build copies of the virus.
IMMUNE
CELL
INFECTED
DEAD
The infected cell eventually self-destructs, releasing the virus to infect neighbouring cells. Exponential growth in infected cells triggers an excessive response by the immune system. Immune cells sent to fight the virus begin to destroy both infected and healthy cells.
ALVEOLI
BACTERIA
BACTERIAL
INFECTION
If enough of the protective lining is destroyed, it leaves the alveoli – the tiny air sacs via which breathing occurs – vulnerable to bacterial infection. This can lead to severe respiratory problems, making mechanical ventilation necessary to help the patient survive.
The immune system can become overwhelmed while the bacteria multiply. If bacteria enter the blood, they can overrun the body and cause death.
MURAT YÜKSELIR / THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: KURZGESAGT
Transmission
Though SARS had a higher death rate than COVID-19, it infected and killed far fewer people (8,098 infections and 774 deaths worldwide, according to the U.S. CDC’s estimates). One reason for this is that, whereas SARS carriers generally knew they were sick, carriers of the new coronavirus can be contagious before symptoms develop. Some people may recover from COVID-19 without ever knowing they were infected, and don’t realize until later that they spread the virus to others. And more contagious variants of the regular virus, like those that emerged in Britain and South Africa, can spread even faster, though they’re not necessarily more harmful or resistant to vaccination.
Testing
Health officials in Canada and other countries have a variety of tests to make sure whether a patient has COVID-19 or some other illness. Getting a test in person generally involves a health professional taking a sample from inside your nasal cavity using a swab. Depending on where you live in Canada, tests may be available either at dedicated clinics or in at-home visits from health officials. If you start showing the symptoms of COVID-19, contact your local health authority or family doctor and do as they advise.
Prevention
Health Canada has approved two vaccines so far that have shown high effectiveness in clinical trials, and Ottawa has purchased millions of doses of those drugs and others in development. Provincial and federal governments are still organizing their vaccine rollout plans through 2021.
How do I ‘flatten the curve’?
When diseases reach uninfected populations, a graph of the new infections will generally follow a curve: Infections rise, then peak, then fall. You’ll see a lot of officials talk about “flattening the curve,” or preventing the peak infections from exceeding their health systems’ ability to handle them. A big part of this is physical distancing: Avoiding public gatherings, staying home from work or school and changing social habits, like waving instead of shaking hands. If front-line health workers are spared from a sudden and overwhelming increase in new cases, lives will be saved.
HOW TO ISOLATE AT HOME WHEN YOU HAVE COVID-19
Isolation means staying at home when you are sick with COVID-19 and avoiding contact with other people to help prevent the spread of disease to others in your home and your community. If you have been diagnosed with COVID-19, it is expected that you take the following measures.
AVOID CONTAMINATING COMMON
ITEMS AND SURFACES
At least once daily, clean and disinfect surfaces that you touch often, like toilets, bedside tables, doorknobs, phones and television remotes. Do not share personal items with others, such as toothbrushes, towels, bed linen, utensils or electronic devices.
CARE FOR YOURSELF
Monitor your symptoms as directed by your health-care provider or Public Health Authority. If your symptoms get worse, immediately contact your health-care provider or Public Health Authority and follow their instructions.
LIMIT CONTACT WITH OTHERS
Do not leave home unless absolutely necessary, such as to seek medical care. Do not go to school, work, other public areas or use public transportation (e.g. buses, taxis). Arrange to have groceries and supplies dropped off at your door to minimize contact.
KEEP YOUR HANDS CLEAN
Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, and dry with disposable paper towels or dry reusable towel, replacing it when it becomes wet.
MURAT YÜKSELIR / THE GLOBE AND MAIL,
SOURCE: GOVERNMENT OF CANADA
HOW TO ISOLATE AT HOME WHEN YOU HAVE COVID-19
Isolation means staying at home when you are sick with COVID-19 and avoiding contact with other people to help prevent the spread of disease to others in your home and your community. If you have been diagnosed with COVID-19, it is expected that you take the following measures.
AVOID CONTAMINATING COMMON
ITEMS AND SURFACES
At least once daily, clean and disinfect surfaces that you touch often, like toilets, bedside tables, doorknobs, phones and television remotes. Do not share personal items with others, such as toothbrushes, towels, bed linen, utensils or electronic devices.
CARE FOR YOURSELF
Monitor your symptoms as directed by your health-care provider or Public Health Authority. If your symptoms get worse, immediately contact your health-care provider or Public Health Authority and follow their instructions.
LIMIT CONTACT WITH OTHERS
Do not leave home unless absolutely necessary, such as to seek medical care. Do not go to school, work, other public areas or use public transportation (e.g. buses, taxis). Arrange to have groceries and supplies dropped off at your door to minimize contact.
KEEP YOUR HANDS CLEAN
Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, and dry with disposable paper towels or dry reusable towel, replacing it when it becomes wet.
MURAT YÜKSELIR / THE GLOBE AND MAIL,
SOURCE: GOVERNMENT OF CANADA
HOW TO ISOLATE AT HOME WHEN YOU HAVE COVID-19
Isolation means staying at home when you are sick with COVID-19 and avoiding contact with other people to help prevent the spread of disease to others in your home and your community. If you have been diagnosed with COVID-19, it is expected that you take the following measures.
AVOID CONTAMINATING COMMON
ITEMS AND SURFACES
LIMIT CONTACT WITH OTHERS
At least once daily, clean and disinfect surfaces that you touch often, like toilets, bedside tables, doorknobs, phones and television remotes. Do not share personal items with others, such as toothbrushes, towels, bed linen, utensils or electronic devices.
Do not leave home unless absolutely necessary, such as to seek medical care. Do not go to school, work, other public areas or use public transportation (e.g. buses, taxis). Arrange to have groceries and supplies dropped off at your door to minimize contact.
CARE FOR YOURSELF
KEEP YOUR HANDS CLEAN
Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, and dry with disposable paper towels or dry reusable towel, replacing it when it becomes wet.
Monitor your symptoms as directed by your health-care provider or Public Health Authority. If your symptoms get worse, immediately contact your health-care provider or Public Health Authority and follow their instructions.
MURAT YÜKSELIR / THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: GOVERNMENT OF CANADA
More reading
On the science: Ivan Semeniuk explains
When does physical distancing end? These graphs show where we’re heading and why
How experts in big data and health are trying to map COVID-19 in the community
COVID-19 in depth
Ottawa had a playbook for a coronavirus-like pandemic 14 years ago. What went wrong?
A bit of relief
Compiled by Globe staff
With reports from Carly Weeks, Kelly Grant, Wency Leung, Ivan Semeniuk, Andrea Woo, Jeff Gray, Eric Atkins, Patrick Brethour, Robert Fife, Marieke Walsh, Bill Curry, Nathan VanderKlippe, Eric Reguly, Paul Waldie, The Associated Press, Reuters and The Canadian Press
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