Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the country has secured “tens of millions” of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine candidate, along with a “wide range of other promising options.”
“This is good news,” he said, but caution that a vaccine “can only protect you once you’ve gotten the shot.”
“So until that happens, we all need to double down to get this second wave under control,” he said.
In Ontario and Quebec — the provinces hit hardest by the pandemic — 1,249 and 982 new cases were reported respectively.
Ontario saw 12 additional deaths on Tuesday, while Quebec saw 24 new fatalities.
Meanwhile, in Saskatchewan, 240 new cases were reported, but health officials said the province’s death toll remained at 31.
The new cases came as the officials strengthened the coronavirus-related measures, mandating masks provincewide and limiting social gatherings to five people.
In Manitoba, 269 new cases and seven new deaths were reported.
Further west in Alberta, 773 new COVID-19 infections were reported, while British Columbia saw a record 717 new cases. Between the two provinces, 16 more people have died. Five of those fatalities occurred within Alberta, while 11 more people have died in B.C.
In Atlantic Canada, 11 new cases of COVID-19 were detected.
Officials in New Brunswick reported four new cases, Nova Scotia saw five new infections, while Newfoundland and Labrador added two new cases.
Prince Edward Island, which has seen a total of 68 infections, did not report any new COVID-19 infections on Tuesday.
No new deaths were reported in any of the maritime provinces, either.
The Yukon saw one new case of the novel coronavirus on Tuesday, bringing the territory’s total case count to 25.
No new cases of the novel coronavirus were reported in the Northwest Territories on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, 34 new cases were reported in Nunavut.
The new infections come a day after officials in the territory ordered a two-week shutdown of non-essential businesses and schools to stem the spread of the virus.
The Northwest Territories did not see any new COVID-19 infections, meaning its total case count remained at 15.
55.5 million cases worldwide
By 7:40 p.m. ET, there were a total of 55,547,836 confirmed cases of the virus globally, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University.
Since the virus was first detected, it has claimed 1,336,670 lives worldwide.
The United States remained the epicentre of the virus on Tuesday, with more than 11.3 million cases of COVID-19 and 248,429 fatalities.