Our country is in the grips of an unprecedented outbreak of a novel coronavirus that has already killed over 25,000 people worldwide. Canada is reporting hundreds of new cases daily and growing hospitalizations and deaths. And most Canadians are cocooned at home, heeding calls to help “flatten the curve” and stem the surge affecting our health-care systems.
Policy-makers meanwhile have a dilemma: how to suppress the epidemic, bolster health-care capacity and minimize economic contraction.