The United States has quickly become the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 2,500 Americans have lost their lives due to the illness since the pandemic broke out, according to Johns Hopkins University.
There are more than 143,000 cases of the novel coronavirus in the U.S. as of Sunday night, more than China or Italy. Simply by virtue of its size — the U.S.
has 8.7 times as many people as Canada — the country was all but destined to have many more cases than Canada. But the outbreak has gone far beyond that.
COVID-19 has brought the hardest-hit state of New York to a standstill. More than 1,000 people have died. Despite having a little over half the Canadian population, New York has more than 59,500 cases.