The novel coronavirus pandemic passed another grim milestone on Wednesday, with more than two million cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, reported worldwide.
Numbers compiled by Johns Hopkins University show the outbreak has claimed the lives of more than 128,071 people, with Italy reporting the most fatalities at 21,067.
As of 10:30 a.m. ET, the number of total confirmed cases worldwide was 2,000,984.
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The United States remained the hardest-hit nation on Wednesday, with more than 609,696 COVID-19 infections — more than double Spain, which reported the second most cases at 177,633.
Meanwhile, the latest numbers tallied from across Canada’s provincial health authorities counted at least 27,063 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country.
Quebec has reported the most infections in Canada, with 14,248 confirmed cases in the province.
So far, 903 people in Canada have died from COVID-19.
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While the virus continues to spread, some countries have already begun looking at when and how some of the most stringent social-distancing measures could be lifted.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday, World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said his organization would be releasing a guide to help countries properly roll back measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
He said countries must do this in a safe way to control new infections and ensure health systems can effectively detect, isolate and treat patients.
He added “significant” contact tracing would be needed in order to lift measures.
Tedros said officials will also need to minimize outbreaks in certain settings such as long-term care homes.
On Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said based on federal projections, officials anticipate some of Canada’s restrictions could be loosened if the first wave of the virus subsides in the summer.
This will need to be done carefully, Trudeau said, in order to prevent a resurgence of the virus.
“I think even after we are through this first wave, we will need to remain vigilant and we will need to bring in different measures,” he said. “Normality as it was before will not come back full on until we get a vaccine for this.”
Researchers anticipate a vaccine could be ready sometime in the next two years.