Your daily COVID-19 update

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “These numbers keep going up.” — Howard Catton of the International Council of Nurses, which reported that more than 600 nurses have died of COVID-19 in the 30 nations the council surveys, which is more than double the death toll of a month ago.

The number of Canadians infected with COVID-19 has passed 93,000, while 7,500 people have died. Worldwide, 6.4 million people have been infected and 382,000 have died.

A major new Canada-U.S. study shows that taking hydroxychloroquine will not prevent people exposed to COVID-19 from getting the disease, the Toronto Star reports. The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine and comes in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump saying that he’d taken the drug as a preventive measure against acquiring the infection.

For the first time since April 1, Ontario is reporting more new cases of COVID-19 than neighbouring Quebec, largely because of the divergent paths being taken by the epicentres in both provinces. The number of new cases reported in Montreal has dropped significantly, while Toronto has posted only the slightest decrease in its daily count.

Anders Tegnell, Sweden’s state epidemiologist, admits that his decision not to impose a COVID-19 lockdown has resulted in too many deaths. "There is quite obviously a potential for improvement in what we have done," he said. Sweden has one of the highest death rates in Europe, far higher than those of its Scandinavian neighbours, which imposed strict lockdowns. 

The slow, chaotic and, at times, dangerously bureaucratic response to the COVID-19 pandemic by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control has severely damaged its reputation as one of the world’s top health agencies, writes the New York Times. “Here is an agency that has been waiting its entire existence for this moment,” Dr. Peter Lurie, a former associate commissioner at the Food and Drug Administration, told the paper. “And then they flub it. It is very sad.”

Israel, which has been reopening its school system, is now recording a spike in new cases. And most of them are centred in schools, including 159 students and staff infected at one school in the past week, the Times of Israel reports.

Some golf courses have adjusted their holes because of COVID-19 precautions, by adding raised liner cups or other devices so multiple players don’t touch the holes as they retrieve balls. As well, the United States Golf Association amended its rule governing what qualifies as a “holed shot,” meaning a ball that touches those additions counts as a hole. The result is lowered scores and lots of controversy.

Yesterday, our newsletter's subject line stated that Dr. Chika Oriuwa was the first Black woman to be named valedictorian for the faculty of medicine at the University of Toronto. In fact, Dr. Kristine Whitehead was co-valedictorian for her class in 1992. We regret the error.

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