We’ve selected 10 countries, including Canada, to examine the growth of COVID-19 cases over time to help explain Canada’s current situation and the effectiveness of our response.

These charts will be updated daily with the latest numbers.

Not every country has reacted to the coronavirus pandemic in the same way. Some countries have been hit harder than others, and there are complex geographic, demographic and political factors at play that may make one country more susceptible to a surge in cases than another.

Some countries, such as South Korea, took immediate action to slow the spread of the coronavirus by isolating COVID-19 cases and restricting travel. Others, such as Italy and Iran, saw their health-care systems quickly overwhelmed, and the number of cases and deaths there rose dramatically before they put effective measures into place.

These charts use a logarithmic scale to make the trajectory of the pandemic in the selected countries more easily comparable.

Remember, the COVID-19 cases appearing today are a snapshot of infections that happened about two weeks ago. So, the impact of ours and others’ actions won’t be apparent immediately.