Your daily COVID-19 update QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Prepare for not being able to get into the hospital if you have a car wreck.” —Dr. Thomas Dobbs, Mississippi’s state health officer, who cautions that hospitals will be overwhelmed by the fall if the pace of new COVID-19 cases in that states isn’t brought under control. The number of Canadians infected with COVID-19 has passed 103,000, while 8,500 people have died. Worldwide, 9.3 million people have been infected and 480,000 have died. As the United States recorded 35,000 new cases on Tuesday, its third-highest daily level to date, the states of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut announced that anyone arriving from nine states with high levels of new outbreaks would have to quarantine for 14 days. These include Florida, Arizona and Texas, where Houston’s mayor warned that his city’s intensive care units are at 97 per cent capacity. The Global Fund warns that the pandemic could undo all the significant gains in the fights against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, especially in the developing world as “health and community systems are overwhelmed, treatment and prevention programs are disrupted, and resources are diverted.” Those three diseases killed 2.8 million people in 2018 and analysis by international health agencies suggests that number could double this year alone. Major League Baseball will open a shortened 60-game season in late July, officials announced. That’s not the only change: National League teams get designated hitters, and runners will start at second base to hurry up extra-inning games. One tradition that thankfully has been jettisoned: spitting of any form whatsoever. Trying to shame people into healthier behaviour doesn’t have a great track record. Take masks, for example. They are hot, fog up glasses, make it hard to see facial expressions, explains Julia Marcus, an epidemiologist at Harvard Medical School, in The Atlantic. She argues that empathy, better fitting designs and alternatives such as face shields can go a long way to making face coverings “cool.” It’s been 27 years since it was the top box-office hit, but Jurassic Park has reclaimed the slot thanks to the pandemic, explains the Hollywood Reporter. The movie grossed a little over US$500,000 in North America last weekend, largely thanks to drive-ins (and shuttered movie theatres). No. 2 was an even older summer flick: Jaws. The audience of nearly 3,000 never slumped in their seats or restlessly fidgeted during a concert at Barcelona’s opera house to mark Spain’s exit from lockdown on Monday. They also didn’t applaud. For the performance, live streamed online, each seat was occupied by a lush green plant that will be donated to a hospital worker. —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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