Canada reported 6,744 new novel coronavirus infections on Monday as the mass vaccination effort against the virus officially began.
Health officials in Toronto and Quebec City began administering initial doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine Monday morning.
“What we witnessed today is a massive step forward in the fight against this deadly virus,” said Ontario Premier Doug Ford.
The vaccines will continue to be administered this week as doses are shipped to 14 designated sites across the country and are thawed and diluted.
Canada is receiving 30,000 doses of the vaccine in this initial shipment, which are being divided on a per capita basis among the provinces.
Procurement Minister Anita Anand says the federal government expects a total of up to 249,000 doses will arrive in the country by Dec. 31.
Canada’s territories, however, are waiting for Health Canada to approve another vaccine candidate from American biotechnology company Moderna, which has less stringent shipping and storage requirements.
New cases in the provinces
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In Ontario, 1,940 new cases were reported, and health officials said 23 more people have died after testing positive for the virus.
The new cases and fatalities bring the provincial case load to 142,121 and death toll to 3,972.
In Quebec, 1,620 new infections were reported, bringing the total number of cases in the province to 165,535.
Twenty-five more deaths mean since the pandemic began, 7,533 have died in Quebec after contracting the virus.
In Saskatchewan, 267 new cases were reported and health authorities said two more people have died.
Since the pandemic began, Saskatchewan has seen 12,238 cases of the virus and 91 deaths.
Meanwhile, in Manitoba, 241 new infections were detected, and health officials said nine more people have died after testing positive for COVID-19.
To date, Manitoba has now seen 21,264 confirmed cases of the respiratory illness, and 499 fatalities.
In Atlantic Canada, six new cases of the novel coronavirus were reported.
Health Authorities in New Brunswick said one new case has been detected, bringing the total case load to 558. The death toll, however, remained at eight.
Nova Scotia saw five new cases of the virus, but no new deaths.
To date, the province has reported 1,420 confirmed cases of the respiratory illness, and 65 deaths.
New Brunswick saw one new case, but a deleted case on Saturday means the total case load remains at 358.
No new novel coronavirus infections were detected in Prince Edward Island on Monday.
To date, the island has seen 89 cases of the virus, and no deaths.
In Western Canada, more than 2,000 new cases were reported.
Alberta saw 1,887 new cases of the virus and officials said another 14 people have died, bringing the provincial death toll to 733.
To date, Alberta has confirmed 81,986 cases of COVID-19.
Health authorities in British Columbia said 759 new infections were detected and seven more people have died after falling ill.
The province has seen 42,557 infections and 647 deaths so far.
On Saturday, B.C. reported 28 new fatalities, marking the highest single-day increase since the pandemic began. Fourteen people died on Sunday, health officials confirmed.
B.C. also has reported 386 epidemiologically-linked cases, meaning they have not yet been confirmed by a laboratory.
New cases in Canada’s territories
The Northwest Territories and the Yukon each added one new case of the virus on Monday, bringing the regions’ total case loads to 21 and 59 respectively.
So far, the Yukon has seen one death related to COVID-19, while the Northwest Territories have yet to see a fatality.
Nunavut saw nine new cases on Monday. To date, 256 have contracted COVID-19 in the territory.
U.S. deaths top 300,000
Globally, 72,690,902 people have been infected with the virus and 1,619,389 have died, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins Univesity.
The United States remained the epicentre of the virus on Monday, with over 16.4 million cases.
The country also hit another grim milestone with the total number of COVID-19 related deaths surpassing 300,000.
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