The latest on the coronavirus outbreak for March 30

• Canadian military assembles 'rapid reaction' teams to help with pandemic response.
• Suspected, confirmed COVID-19 patients filling roughly 1 in 4 ICU beds in Ontario.
• Your daily COVID-19 questions answered, including whether your groceries and food deliveries are safe.
• Newfoundland and Labrador, Saskatchewan record 1st deaths related to COVID-19; Manitoba to shut down all non-critical services as of April 1.
• Read more: Here's the latest on what's happening in Canada and around the world.

Canadian military assembles 'rapid reaction' teams to help with pandemic response

The Canadian military has mobilized 24,000 full-time and part-time members to respond to calls from provinces and northern Indigenous communities for help with pandemic measures, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said Monday.

The military's "rapid reaction" teams will be available for a range of missions, such as delivering medical supplies and supporting remote communities that may be vulnerable to COVID-19 outbreaks.

At least 10 regular force units on bases across the country have troops and equipment set aside to take action. At the moment, no formal requests for what's known as "aid to the civil power" have been submitted to the federal government, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said today.

While the Canadian military has transport capacity, it does not have an oversupply of medical equipment and personal protective equipment, the chief of the defence staff said last week.

Read more about the military's "rapid reaction" teams

Suspected, confirmed COVID-19 patients filling roughly 1 in 4 ICU beds in Ontario

More than 430 patients in Ontario hospital intensive care beds have either tested positive for COVID-19 or are suspected to have the coronavirus a far higher number than officials have revealed.

CBC News has obtained copies of COVID-19 reports issued daily by Critical Care Services Ontario, a branch of the Ministry of Health. The reports feature more detail than has previously been made public about the impact the virus is having on hospital ICUs. The latest report, from Saturday, shows 92 patients in critical care wards have been confirmed positive for COVID-19, while another 342 ICU patients are considered "suspected" cases.

This means confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases now account for roughly one out of every four patients currently in Ontario's intensive care units the first crucial medical resource to be overwhelmed by the spread of the virus in Italy, Spain and New York City.

Despite the hundreds of confirmed and suspected COVID-19 cases, Ontario's ICUs are not full. On average, hospital critical care wards are running at an average occupancy rate of 76 per cent, leaving some 500 beds available.

Read more about the demand for ICU beds in Ontario

Answering your daily COVID-19 questions

CBC News has received countless emails from readers, viewers and listeners about the COVID-19 pandemic if you have one, reach out at covid@cbc.ca and we are working to address as many as we can. There will be an online story posted every weekday responding to some of the more frequently asked questions, including:

Do I need to wipe down surfaces on delivered items and groceries?

According to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, there are no reported cases of food or food packaging being associated with the transmission of COVID-19.

A recent study suggests the virus can persist on surfaces, such as cardboard, but found the amount of virus that is found on the surfaces might not be enough to get infected and further research is needed.

As for packaged items from the grocery store, epidemiologist Dr. Rama Nair suggests rinsing them with soap and water if possible, or at least a disinfectant wipe approved for use against coronavirus. Nair adds that fresh fruits and vegetables should be rinsed as soon as they are brought into your home.

If you choose to disinfect your deliveries, use soap and water, and wash your hands after unpacking your items.

Read more answers to COVID-19 questions

Front Burner12:48In Brief: Breaking down Canadas COVID-19 numbers

Early data is starting to give an indication of how Canada is doing in its fight against the spread of COVID-19. How deadly is the virus in Canada? How is the virus spreading across the country now? Who is most vulnerable to becoming seriously ill? And why are public health officials watching this week so closely? For answers, Jayme Poisson turns to CBC health writer Adam Miller on this episode of Front Burner.

ANALYSIS

COVID-19's potential lingering effects on the economy

If you have kept a close eye on forecasts for the impact of COVID-19 on the global and Canadian economy, it is instructive to watch how much the outlook keeps changing.

Uncertainty remains extraordinarily high and predictions for the economy range from moderately gloomy to what may be wishful thinking, so CBC's Don Pittis came up with a few considerations to help you think about what the future may hold.

Debt accumulation could be an issue especially once the outbreak has passed despite a new round of emergency rate cuts, income support and mortgage deferment plans that should help heavily indebted Canadians from hitting rock bottom.

Business survival and recovery will also be important to watch, as some economic theory says that capitalism actually needs periodic downturns to refresh itself through creative destruction. The adjustment process is far from instant, however, and can be painful for displaced workers.

Employment rates are likely to dip from pre-COVID levels during the recovery period, with many observers noting that low-wage workers will suffer the most, while the pandemic's impact on energy is evident in plummeting oil prices.

THE SCIENCE

Young people have no 'bulletproof' protection from COVID-19 particularly smokers and vapers

Some young people who say they have been smoking and vaping for years don't seem concerned about the potential damage to their lungs and whether that puts them more at risk for COVID-19, calling it more of an issue for older people.

That attitude is common, and is precisely the problem, said David Hammond, a professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Waterloo. "It's part of this idea that young people have that they're bulletproof, that these things are for older people. Well, this is about changing that attitude, and doing it very quickly," he said.

Public health experts are sounding the alarm about the possible connections between lung damage caused by smoking or vaping and increased vulnerability to the novel coronavirus.

"While COVID-19 is less likely to cause serious symptoms in younger people, in combination with substance use like vaping or smoking cigarettes or cannabis, it could pose a serious health threat," said a March 24 commentary written by Dr. Nicholas Chadi and Dr. Richard Blanger of the Canadian Pediatric Society.

AND FINALLY...

Keeping young children entertained during the COVID-19 pandemic

Entertainer Robbie Doherty usually slips into his kid-friendly persona Silly Robbie for stage shows across Prince Edward Island, but the COVID-19 pandemic has put a hold on those performances. Now, Silly Robbie is entertaining children with his own show on YouTube called Silly Robbie's World.

His original plan was to post 10 episodes, but when COVID-19 started to spread, that plan changed. "There are a lot of children that are going to be at home, they're going to be looking to do things maybe getting a little bit bored," Doherty said.

Luckily, Doherty said, he and producer Jesse Wachter already filmed quite a bit of the series which is aimed at children aged two to seven years old so they didn't have to worry about physical distancing. He took what they'd filmed and edited it down to five episodes, all about using your imagination, learning how to do activities and taking them to the "next level," he said.

"A lot of it is just trying to help kids say, 'Hey, it's too bad, we all would like to go outside, but there is a lot of fun things we can do at home if we just use our imagination.'"

Read the full story about Silly Robbie's World

Send us your questions

Still looking for more information on the outbreak? Read more about COVID-19's impact on life in Canada, or reach out to us at covid@cbc.ca.

If you have symptoms of the illness caused by the coronavirus, here's what to do in your part of the country.

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