Canada added another 4,075 new cases of the novel coronavirus Monday, the second day in a row the country has posted over 4,000 cases in a single day.
New data reported Monday from British Columbia also found over 530 cases were confirmed in that province Sunday, pushing that day’s national total to 4,603 — shattering previous records.
Monday’s cases were about six per cent of the roughly 67,600 tests performed since Sunday. Not all provinces released their testing data Monday.
To date, Canada has seen a total of 268,460 confirmed cases, 218,400 of whom have recovered from COVID-19. Out of the 39,496 active cases across the country, 1,463 are in hospital.
Another 43 deaths were also reported Monday, though not all of them occurred over the past 24 hours. The national death toll now stands at 10,564.
Monday also saw American drug company Pfizer release early data for its in-development coronavirus vaccine, which suggests it may be 90 per cent effective.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said while the results are “very encouraging,” they won’t help anyone who catches COVID-19 between now and when a vaccine is ready for mass distribution.
Trudeau said that could be as soon as early next year, but warned Canadians need to “double down on our efforts” until then.
“We need to make sure we are controlling the spread of COVID-19 in the coming months so that when vaccines get here we will be able to act quickly to protect all Canadians,” he said.
The federal government signed a deal with Pfizer in August that will secure 20 million doses of that company’s vaccine, and has also signed deals with other vaccine candidates including AstraZeneca.
Ontario and Quebec each reported over 1,000 new coronavirus cases on Monday — 1,242 and 1,169, respectively — while 27 new deaths were announced between the two provinces.
In Atlantic Canada, one new case was announced by both New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island did not report new cases Monday.
Manitoba reported another 365 new cases and three more deaths, while 190 more cases and an additional death were reported in Saskatchewan.
Alberta saw one of its highest daily total to date, with 644 new infections and six more deaths. British Columbia, meanwhile, announced 462 new cases Monday, while five more deaths had occurred since Saturday.
Nunavut reported its second confirmed local case Monday, a household contact of the territory’s first-ever case that was announced Friday. The other two northern territories did not report any new cases.
Globally, there have been at least 50.8 million confirmed coronavirus cases — 1.26 million of whom have died — according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
The United States surpassed a cumulative total of 10 million cases Sunday, the most in the world, as the country experiences a third surge of the pandemic. Over 238,000 people have died after contracting the virus so far.
It is now taking an average of three days for the world to add another million cases, with many other countries also reckoning with exploding infections.
Some of those countries, including Britain and others in Europe, have imposed new restrictions in an effort to control the spread.
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