Stranded Canadians are desperate for their government's help Welcome to the Maclean's daily newsletter. As the coronavirus disrupts life in Canada, and Canadians get used to the notion of "social distancing" and "flattening the curve," Maclean's has expanded this newsletter to include everything you need to know about the global pandemic. You'll still find our best stories of the day at the bottom of the newsletter, but we'll also catch you up on news and notes from around the world. QUOTE OF THE DAY: "A firefighter has never been criticized for using too much water." — Stephen Poloz, governor of the Bank of Canada, as he cut its interest key rate to just 0.25 per cent, while also pledging to spend at least $5 billion a week buying federal bonds in a bid to stabilize the economy At least 4,600 Canadians have confirmed cases of COVID-19 and at least 53 have died. There are nearly 600,000 cases around the world. Late on Thursday, the United States also overtook China to become the nation with the most confirmed cases, now approaching 100,000. On Friday, Italy recorded the largest number of deaths in a single day in this worldwide pandemic; it reported 919 deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing its total to more than 9,000. Canada’s federal government announced a series of new fiscal measures on Friday, including a plan to subsidize 75 per cent of the salaries of employees of small- and medium-sized businesses. This week, a New York hospital that is facing a shortage of ventilators began sharing the machines among critically ill COVID-19 patients. The practice is risky, in part because the patients sharing a ventilator also share its settings. "The other option is death," explains Dr. Lorenzo Paladino, who is trying to devise standards for “ventilator sharing” among critically ill COVID-19 patients. On March 3, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson shrugged off concerns about COVID-19, boasting he’d shaken hands with patients in a hospital. On Friday, he announced he’d tested positive. Shortly afterward, the country’s secretary of state for health also revealed he has the coronavirus. Then came word the country’s chief medical officer was self-isolating with symptoms. (In a sign of the times, Buckingham Palace immediately reassured everyone that Johnson hadn’t been in Queen Elizabeth II’s presence since March 11 and the monarch was in good health.) Forty-seven intensive care COVID-19 patients were flown by military aircraft from Italy to Germany for treatment, freeing up ICU beds back home (Germany’s extensive testing has kept the numbers needing hospital admission low). Germany’s Foreign Office released a photo that showed the precautions needed for the medical airlift. "Helping each other in Europe should go without saying! Now it is one for all and all for one," said German Foreign Affairs Minister Heiko Maas. News organizations are helping: Since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, the New York Times has worked round-the-clock to count every U.S. case on a county level. No one else has such accurate granular data for the entire nation. Now, at the request of researchers, scientists, governments and business, desperate to track the growing crisis, the NYT is making its data available to the public. Bored British broadcasters are applying their colour commentary skills to everyday life, and the results are fun. Recent offerings include a nail-biting race between Olive and Mabel, the Honey Harvest Marathon, and Dragging a Load of Tat. —Patricia Treble As of the latest update, this is the number of confirmed cases in Canada. We're updating this chart every day.
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