Worldwide stats provided by worldometers put the global COVID-19 number of reported cases today at 5,106,423. (103,268 new+) (Deaths: 330,013 and Recovered: 2,035,839) I emphasize reported because there is a wide variance in testing and manner of reporting from country to country and place to place. Yesterday, the WHO reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases in a single day since the start of the pandemic on Wednesday, particularly in the United States, Brazil, Russia, Saudi Arabia, India, Peru and Qatar.
As of 6:31 a.m. ET on Thursday May 21, 2020:
From Global News, Canada reported 80,131 confirmed cases of COVID-19. (1,030 new+)
The official Province of Ontario website is reporting 23,774 total confirmed cases (390 new-) and 1,962 total deaths. Currently, there are 991 people are in hospital with 160 in ICU. 18,190 cases have been resolved.
Quebec continues to have the highest reported cases in the country with 44,775. (578 new+)
The Region of Durham reported 1,295 confirmed cases of COVID-19. (10 new-) The site also reports 14 (none new) current outbreaks at Hospitals, LTCF's and Retirement Homes with 14 of the outbreaks having been "concluded." Currently, there are 79 (none new) cases in Clarington.
In international news,
Trump considers a travel ban as Brazil records its worst daily death toll. Brazil has recorded its highest daily number of coronavirus deaths and cases, one day after it became the country with the third-highest number of confirmed cases in the world. "I worry about everything, I don't want people coming in here and infecting our people," Trump said, "I don't want people over there sick either." Worldometers puts the current cases in Brazil at 293,357.
Sweden is in deep economic crisis despite a soft lockdown, as their per capita deaths rise. Sweden kept most businesses open during the pandemic, opting for voluntary measures on social distancing and basic hygiene. Sweden has kept most schools, restaurants and businesses open during the pandemic and some theorized it might at least suffer less economic pain. But the latest data challenge that idea. Scandinavia’s biggest economy will shrink 7 per cent this year, Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson said.
British drugmaker Astra Zeneca is set to make a billion COVID vaccine doses if tests succeed. AstraZeneca expects to be able to deliver a billion doses of a possible COVID-19 vaccine this year and next if tests are successful, adding on Thursday it should shortly get results of an early stage clinical trial. The British drugmaker said it had signed the first agreements to supply at least 400 million doses of the vaccine, which it is developing with Oxford University.
In national news,
Public Health Agency of Canada now recommends wearing non-medical face masks. Dr. Tam said Public Health will be posting the updated recommendations on medical masks online today, noting that the recommendation isn’t mandatory and will allow for public health officers across Canada to consider their area’s needs.
Think twice before you inadvertently double dip when it comes to CERB says an article from CTV. As days have blended into weeks it may be hard to believe we are now into the third phase of CERB qualifying period, which runs from May 10 through until June 6, 2020. The government has paid out nearly $30 billion in benefits so far.
A few considerations?
1) Don't apply if you think you will be working in the weeks ahead.
2) Know that you will have to repay the CERB if you do not meet the eligibility requirements for the four-week period. This could be the case if you earned more than $1,000 in employment income or you applied for the CERB but later realized you weren't eligible, or you received a CERB payment from Service Canada and CRA for the same period.
3) If you receive a payment you aren't entitled to -- return it. Simply mail it back to Sudbury Tax Centre, to the attention of Revenue Processing Repayment of CERB along with your social insurance number. By the way, the social insurance number is key -- that is the common denominator that will identify you and will red flag you if you receive a payment you weren't entitled to.
4) If you received a direct deposit or you cashed your cheque and realized you received a payment you shouldn't or are simply having second thoughts just repay the amount. Starting May 11, there will be a new feature on the CRA My Account website to repay it.
From the "But what will I do about my summer swamp-ass?" file, Johnson & Johnson will stop selling baby powder in Canada and U.S. They’re facing about 19,400 lawsuits that allege its talcum powder causes cancer. They say demand for the powder has dropped because of “misinformation around the safety of the product.”
In Ontario,
A Cambridge, Ont. woman tests positive for COVID-19 eight times in 50 days. In order to be considered recovered from the virus, patients must receive two negative results within a 24-hour period.
From the "Ooops" file, a Hamilton retirement home emptied due to COVID-19 outbreak, but a sick resident was (forgotten) and left behind. A man with COVID-19 was left behind Friday when the entire Rosslyn Retirement Residence in Hamilton was emptied because an outbreak of the illness had infected dozens of other residents and staff. The mistake wasn't discovered until the next evening, after the man's family had repeatedly insisted he hadn't been transferred to hospital with the others and was still in the building. The man was finally found, alone in his room, around 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
The province is now recommending face coverings or masks when physical distancing is tough. The province released their guidelines Wednesday, just as businesses are beginning to reopen their doors. The Ministry of Health says you should continue to practice physical distancing whenever possible, but a face covering should be worn when you can’t stay at least two metres from others. That covering should be something made of at least two layers of tightly-woven material that can be cleaned multiple times without losing its shape. It should be worn snugly, covering both your nose and mouth, without any gaps.
Medical masks, like surgical or N95 masks, should be reserved for health care workers, people providing direct care, first responders and people who are ill and must leave their home for essential reasons.
In local news,
From "In God's country" file, no new lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported by Public Health in over two weeks in Hastings-Prince Edward counties.
Yesterday, a pedestrian was hit on the 401 eastbound in Newcastle. OPP are investigating after a woman was struck by a transport truck. They say the 57-year-old woman from Courtice was struck in the eastbound lanes Wednesday morning and she was rushed to hospital with unknown injuries. Ornge Air Ambulance says they were initially called in, but the call was cancelled as the women was taken to a local hospital.
Fun facts
What is the "R factor?" it is defined as "a group of genes present in some bacteria that provide a basis for resistance to antibiotics and can be transferred from cell to cell by conjugation." R refers to the “effective reproduction number” and, basically put, it’s a way of measuring an infectious disease’s capacity to spread. The R number signifies the average number of people that one infected person will pass the virus to.
Because Sars-CoV-2 (COVID-19) is a new pathogen, scientists at the start of the outbreak were scrambling to calculate its R0, or “R nought”: the virus’s transmission among a population that has no immunity. Studies on early cases in China indicated it was between 2 and 2.5; more recent estimates have placed it as high as 6.6.
To put these figure in context COVID-19 has an "R" that is worse than seasonal flu, which has an R0 of 1.3, but miles better than measles, whose R0 is between 12 and 18. The kicker, though, is that for each of those diseases we have a vaccine, and so the effective reproduction number – the R – is way below 1.
Conversely, an R of less than 1 means that the virus will eventually peter out – the lower the R, the more quickly this will happen. An R of 0.5 means that 100 people would infect only 50, who would infect 25, who would infect 13. As the number of cases drops and ill people either die or recover, the virus will be brought under control – as long as the R can be kept low.
Finally, from the "This should scare the shit out of you, yet again" file, do you think COVID-19 will be transmitted by mosquitoes, or blackflies? Turn your mind to this.....
1) Malaria (To be fair, malaria is not a virus but it is transmitted by mosquitoes)
2) West Nile Virus
3) Zika Virus
4) Dengue Virus
5) Yellow fever Virus
In reality, the list of illness that can be transmitted by mosquito is quite long. The ones listed above are just a few of the wee nasties that we are familiar with. Nearly 700 million people get a mosquito-borne illness each year resulting in over one million deaths. Source: World Mosquito Program
Live coronavirus map of Canada: Tracking every case of COVID-19 in the country.
Wait times in grocery (and other) stores can be found here.
Hunting/fishing related closures in Ontario can be found here.
Town of Clarington COVID-19 updates can be found here.
Province of Ontario COVID-19 updates can be found here.
Government of Canada COVID-19 updates can be found here.
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