This is what flattening the curve looks like

Did I mention that I feel very, very lucky to be living in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic? I suppose that I should have been a little more specific; in spite of what the pandemic has done to global oil prices, I feel very, very lucky to live in Alberta right now. Because this is what Alberta's and B.C.'s COVID-19 curves look like right now, compared to a) the national average, b) Quebec, and c) Ontario.

Alberta and B.C., incidentally, were early hot spots for coronavirus infection, and are still basically tied among Canadian provinces for the third-highest case total (Ontario is #2, and Quebec is #1). The difference is even more stark when you look at daily numbers, rather than the cumulative total.

See how Alberta and B.C. have daily case totals that are basically flat, and that drop down to near-zero (24 cases each) as of yesterday, while the national curve and Quebec's curve are basically tracking each other? That's how you know who's succeeding in flattening the curve, and who isn't. And even Quebec's curve appears to be levelling off - daily case reports have been well below their peak value for a couple of days now.

This is what flattening the curve looks like. This is what social distancing, and universal health care, and governments that take governing seriously, can accomplish. But even in Canada, you can tell which provincial governments started out taking a right-wing-populist approach to this thing, and which took it much more seriously from day one.

Now, if only we could get a government in Alberta that would do something on the economic front besides simply dumping more money into the oilpatch, we'd be really well situated for the post-COVID recovery. Oh, well... baby steps, I guess.