CBC puts controversial holiday song “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” back on playlists

The global spread of infection from the new virus reached a critical stage this week with the number of new cases reported in the rest of the world surpassing the number of new cases in China, where the emergency began.

Reflecting how tourism and business travel unite the planet, Antarctica is the only continent with no reported cases of the illness COVID-19. Troubling outbreaks in South Korea, Japan, Italy and Iran have seeded cases elsewhere as travellers bring the virus home with them.

With the world at a tipping point, there was hopeful new evidence from China showing that containment is possible. And as more mild cases are counted, experts said, the death rate may be more like seasonal flu than like previous new coronavirus outbreaks.

Here's what you should know about the illness:

A morning in the life …

My very first lesson does not start when I walk into that lecture hall, oh no — it starts long before. It begins when I walk to my car, check the estimated arrival time to the University of Manitoba and hope that Winnipeg traffic agrees with it.

A drive that appears completely manageable changes almost immediately when I’m greeted by a tsunami of orange pylons and a line of cars that appears to go on forever. Traffic moves by the inch, lanes magically disappear and the detour I took yesterday now has a detour of its own. These factors make me do a calculation that I have become all too familiar with. How late can I arrive and still find parking, run to my class across campus and get to class with enough time left to make it worth it?

I have grown used to people saying, “Why not just leave earlier?” I do. But when I’m already leaving for my 8:30 a.m. class at 7 a.m., there’s only so much I can do. This drive that some would think is relaxing is one that feels like an assignment that I didn’t know I had to complete and is due at 8:30 a.m.