Canadians still want to set new records. They're getting creative. QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Those meant to die will die." — Russia's COVID-19 information chief, Alexander Myasnikov, according to the Moscow Times. He'd previously estimated that there was a "0.0 per cent" chance of the virus spreading in Russia. The number of Canadians infected with COVID-19 has passed 80,000, while 6,000 people have died. Worldwide, 4.9 million people have been infected while 325,000 have died. The World Health Organization reports that there were 106,000 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, the largest single-day tally since the pandemic began earlier this year. Worryingly, Russia and Brazil are relaxing their public health restrictions even though their caseloads are rising; they have the second- and third-highest numbers of cases in the world, surpassed only by the United States. "It is an added layer of protection, even for people who don't have symptoms, to wear a mask to prevent transmission to others," Dr. Theresa Tam said today, as she and other public health officials recommended that Canadians wear non-medical masks, especially in public areas prone to crowding. While not mandatory, the recommendation is the strongest urging made by Canada’s chief public health officer to date on the question of masks, and was endorsed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who donned a black version. “Why do some COVID-19 patients infect many others, whereas most don’t spread the virus at all?” is the headline of this Science magazine article, which breaks down what is known and what is still a mystery about so-called “superspreading events.” Chinese researchers found that “patients found in the northern provinces of Jilin and Heilongjiang appear to carry the virus for a longer period of time and take longer to test negative,” Bloomberg reports. The fear is that the virus is changing in a way that may make it harder to stamp out. Among the myriad things that the pandemic has upended, add people’s attempts to break odd world records to the list. The “indefinite postponement of the Calgary Marathon also meant Blaine Penny would not vie to run history’s swiftest half-marathon by somebody dressed as a battery,” Jason Markusoff explains in Maclean’s. (In a related sports note, the main BBC channel just aired a Scottish stone skimming contest in prime time.) For everyone tired of making the same old meals, how about trying your hand at a 4,000-year-old Babylonian stew recipe? Moudhy Al-Rashid, a post-doctoral fellow at Wolfson College, provides a few options, originally recorded on cuneiform tablets. Oh, and there’s one for beer bread. After raising more than $50 million for Britain’s National Health Service by walking 100 laps of his garden before his 100th birthday, Tom Moore is to be knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, who, for the record, is a spry 94 years old. —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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