Quebec's COVID-19 projections are sobering. But there's hope.

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: “In earlier centuries, cathedrals were always used this way, like during the plague,” says the Right Rev. Clifton Daniel, as the Episcopal Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City is converted into a field hospital.

When does a nation reopen its economy? That is a question being asked in hard-hit Italy. As its number of new COVID-19 cases gets smaller, economists and business leaders are now wondering about the next phase of its national emergency: how and when to send people back to work. Italy first locked down its northern industrial heartland, then, on March 9, the entire country.

As the industrialized economy is largely shuttered, the knock-on effect is now hitting the nations largely dependent on financial remittances by migrants.In one Guatemalan town, half of its 100,000 residents are dependent on money from relatives working abroad, mainly in the United States, the Associated Press reports. “We need to figure out a way not to die of hunger,” one resident said, after her sister living in Texas had to cut back her monthly stipend. “She’s the only one who’s helping the entire family.”

Roughly 400 corporate-level staff at Loblaw are now working in the grocery chain’s stores, after a request for volunteers was sent out, the National Post reports. Wal-Mart staff are doing the same. In Ireland, Prime Minister Leo Varadkar rejoined his nation’s medical register and is working one day a week as a physician.

“To fight coronavirus, U.K. asked for some volunteers. It got an army,” is the headline of this New York Times article on the more than 750,000 Britons who signed up to help older and vulnerable people. The reaction is similar to the spontaneous “caremongering” networks that have sprung up in Canada and elsewhere.

Hockey great Hayley Wickenheiser and actor Ryan Reynolds are teaming up to promote efforts by a grassroots organization called Conquer Covid-19 which collects PPE (personal protective equipment) from the general public every Saturday at a storage facility in Toronto to distribute to health workers.

Tonight, a “supermoon” will be visible, at least for those areas without cloud cover. As this CNN article explains, “Supermoons occur when the moon is within 90 per cent of perigee—which is its closest approach to Earth in orbit… April's full moon, also known as the pink moon, happens to be the closest of the year.” The best viewing time is around 10:35 pm ET to midnight, and possibly into the early hours of Wednesday morning.

As of the latest update, this is the number of confirmed cases in Canada. We're updating this chart every day.

—Patricia Treble