As the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread throughout several parts of Canada, the country hit more then 10,000 confirmed cases on Thursday.
Ontario announced 401 more cases on April 2, putting the total for country at over 10,000 cases. That’s a stark increase compared to where the country was on March 1, with only 24 confirmed cases at that time.
Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer acknowledged the country reaching over 10,000 cases in a press conference on April 2.
“These represent infections from previous exposures and not what is happening right now necessarily,” she said.
“So even if you’re not hearing of cases in your community, it doesn’t mean there is no risk of exposure. We must all consider that anyone could be infected and keeping our two-metre distance is the safest bet,” she explained.
The provinces of Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec have the highest numbers of COVID-19 cases.
There also continues to be ongoing concern for Indigenous communities along with retirement homes and correctional facilities, where vulnerable people are in close quarters with others.
So far, there have been outbreaks and deaths in some of these spaces, said Tam at a press conference on March 31.
Multiple provinces including B. C., Alberta and Ontario have seen a string of COVID-19-related deaths stemming from outbreaks at nursing homes and long-term care facilities, raising concerns about how protected residents and care workers in those facilities are.
The chart below only includes confirmed cases, not presumptive cases. To see all the presumptive cases in the country, see Health Canada’s chart here.
The Public Health Agency of Canada reports that community transmission applies to 64 per cent of Canada’s COVID-19 cases, meaning those people were infected without travelling or being close to someone who has a confirmed case.
The extent of community spread cases can be difficult to track based on testing rates and if some people are asymptomatic, they know they are carrying the illness.
Thirty-six per cent of the cases are due to travel or a person being exposed to a traveller returning to Canada. So far, this data applies to 4,183 confirmed Canadian cases, according to the Public Health Agency.
As Canada’s total case count surpasses 10,000, Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam says what the new numbers don’t show is the point in time when people became sick, she said at a recent press conference.
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“What you’re seeing today is what happened to someone when they were symptomatic at least two weeks ago,” she said.
Finding context in cases and the source of outbreaks can be difficult for public health agencies to discern and it will take some time to analyze whether social distancing and closures have made an impact in the last few weeks, she explained.
This week, however, is “crucial” to see whether these protocols have had any effect.
“There are still outbreaks connected to a number of high-risk settings in Canada, particularly in long-term care facilities. So there’s still an urgent need to double-down on precautions,” she said.
“While many cases occur in younger adults, it really is people over the age of 60 who account for 60 per cent of the hospitalizations and 90 per cent of deaths. The high-risk population needs to take every precaution.”
Testing efforts have also ramped up across the provinces, with more than 222,000 Canadians having been tested as of March 30. However, Ontario has faced criticism for their backlog of tests that had grown to just under 11,000 as of a week ago.
A Global News data analysis found that Ontario had the lowest testing rates at 351 per 100,000. In comparison, B. C. has a rate of 846 people tested per 100,000 as of April 1.
Ontario is still working through a backlog of cases, which is why the province is reporting increases in the hundreds recently, explained Christine Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott at a press conference on April 1.
On March 31, the province tested 6,245 people in one day, which is doub... (Read more)
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