Mar 22, 2020 7:20 AM ET | Last Updated: 24 minutes ago
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/coronavirus-covid19-canada-world-march22-1.5505972
The latest:
- PM hopes repatriation of Canadians abroad is 'a question of days.'
- WHO emergency expert says lockdown not enough to defeat virus.
- Italy reports 800 COVID-19 deaths in one day.
- Canada has 1,331 cases, with 19 deaths and 16 recovered cases.
- Border no longer open for routine, casual traffic between Canada and U.S.
- Flight bringing Canadians home from Morocco lands in Montreal.
- Global athletes group calls for postponement of Olympics.
- Impact on health-care system 'could be total collapse,' warns ICU doctor
Countries will have to go beyond locking down their societies to defeat coronavirus, the World Health Organization's top emergency expert said on Sunday, adding that there need to be public health measures to avoid a resurgence of the virus later on.
"What we really need to focus on is finding those who are sick, those who have the virus, and isolate them, find their contacts and isolate them," Mike Ryan said in an interview on the BBC's
Andrew Marr Show.
"The danger right now with the lockdowns ... if we don't put in place the strong public health measures now, when those movement restrictions and lockdowns are lifted, the danger is the disease will jump back up."
Worldwide, more than 307,000 people have now contracted the novel coronavirus and at least 12,944 have died, according to a tally by
Johns Hopkins University. For most, the coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms. But it can cause more severe illness in others, especially older adults and people with existing health conditions. Some 92,000 people have recovered, mostly in China, where the virus first struck late last year.
At his daily media briefing on Sunday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Global Affairs is "working directly" with the governments in Peru and Spain "and right around the world" to ensure Canadians stranded in other countries "have access to airports so that flights can take off when the airspace is closed."