Canada reported 257 more cases of the novel coronavirus on Saturday, as well as seven more deaths.
The numbers, released by provincial and federal health authorities, bring the country’s total cases of COVID-19 to 124,571 while the death toll has risen to 9,071.
Saturday’s data also brings Canada’s total recovered patients to 110,859 and administered tests to over 5.9 million.
The new data does not, however, represent all regions across Canada due to all territories and some provinces like B.C., Alberta and P.E.I. not releasing updated coronavirus numbers on the weekend.
In a statement Saturday, Canada’s chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam said 89 per cent of all patients with COVID-19 have since recovered, while national daily case counts have ranged between 350 and 500 cases over the last week, with an average of 380 cases reported daily over the last seven days.
“As public health authorities and Canadians continue with our collective effort to limit the spread of COVID-19, we are closely monitoring disease activity indicators, including daily case counts, number of cases hospitalized and the percentage of people testing positive in order to inform, adjust and adapt our actions as needed,” read Tam’s statement.
“Currently, laboratory testing is continuing at a high rate, with an average of 48,714 people tested per day, while we are maintaining a low percentage positive. The latter indicates that our surveillance remains very sensitive, testing many people detect the positive cases.”
Ontario reported 108 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday and one new death. The numbers bring the province’s total cases and deaths from the virus to 41,287 and 2,797, respectively. A total of 37,487 patients have since recovered from the virus, however.
Quebec, the hardest hit province in Canada, added 104 more cases on Aug. 22 — raising its provincial case total to 61,599 or 49 per cent of Canada’s total.
Six more deaths were also reported by the province on Saturday, though four of those had occurred before Aug. 20. A total of 5,739 have died in Quebec from the coronavirus.
Manitoba added a record 42 new cases of the virus on Saturday. The new numbers bring the province’s total cases to 872, which includes at least 15 cases counted as probable. The province’s death toll stands at 12.
Both Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia reported single-digit increases of the virus on Aug. 22 with two and one new cases, respectively. Saturday’s data brings Saskatchewan’s total infected to 1,597 and Nova Scotia’s total cases to 1,078.
New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador did not report any additional cases during their daily updates on Saturday.
Worldwide, cases of the novel coronavirus have surpassed 23 million, according to a running tally kept by John Hopkins University. Global deaths have also passed a grim milestone on Saturday, with over 800,000 fatalities now being attributed to COVID-19.