Politicians urge Canadians to take this seriously

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.

As of midday on Monday, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Canada was 1,474, while the death toll was 20. (By day’s end, there were reports of more than 2,000 cases.) Worldwide, there are nearly 400,000 cases with 16,300 deaths.

Stay home, and stay two metres away from those not in your home. “If you choose to ignore that advice... You are not just putting yourself at risk but others, too,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. He wasn’t alone in urging Canadians to take the advice of experts seriously. "I'm sorry, the rules in Florida are not the rules here in Ontario,” snapped Ontario Premier Doug Ford, after reports that some snowbirds, after returning to Canada, stopped at stores on the way home, instead of immediately self-isolating for 14 days.

In response to a growing number of COVID-19 cases, both Ontario and Quebec ordered all non-essential businesses to close. “We will not lose this battle,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said. “We will get ahead of it.”

Feeling the strain of a second week in self-isolation? Time to consult some experts, including astronauts Chris Hadfield and Scott Kelly, as well as a few submariners, who know exactly what it’s like to be cooped up in small surroundings for days, weeks and months.

The Canadian government is going to increase foreign aid spending in an effort to fight the spread of COVID-19 in refugee camps and the developing world. Domestic governmental supports and benefits, such as EI sickness benefits, are coming so quickly, it’s hard to keep up. Professor Jennifer Robson, a social policy expert at Carleton University, created a “plain-language guide to benefits for working-age adults impacted by COVID-19.” It’s a Google doc, available to all.

If you’re looking for information or think you may have the symptoms of COVID-19, health authorities ask that you try their online self-assessment tools first. Most provinces have one; the federal government has created one, too. Ontario is using information from the self-assessment tool to provide the “province with real-time data on the number and geography of users who are told to seek care, self-isolate or to monitor for symptoms.”

Central banks are pumping trillions into propping up the world economy. “On Monday, the U.S. Federal Reserve said it would begin backstopping an unprecedented range of credit for households, small businesses and major employers to combat ‘the severe disruptions’ to the economy from the virus,” Reuters reported.

For those wanting to look at how the world is coping with COVID-19, theFinancial Times of London just placed its charts, tables and graphics outside its paywalls. They are some of the best at tracking the progress of the pandemic. Many were created by John Burn-Murdoch, whose Twitter feed shows how he, along with others, is crowd-sourcing data in an effort to better understand the pandemic.

—Patricia Treble

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