OTTAWA -- Canada’s COVID-19 count has now surpassed 10, 000 confirmed cases across the country, with the largest cluster reported in Quebec.
Early Thursday morning, the number of confirmed COVID-19 infections in Canada was still in the 9,000 range before Ontario health authorities released their most recent tally, boosting the overall count to 10,132. There are 127 reported deaths and more than 1,500 recovered patients nationwide.
Latest reports out of Quebec show there are more than 4,500 cases of the virus in the province, while Ontario reports more than 2,700 confirmed cases.
Meanwhile the number of COVID-19 cases internationally has surpassed one million, including more than 500,000 in Europe. On Thursday, Spain reported a record 950 deaths in just 24 hours, bringing their total death toll to over 10,000.
Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam addressed the rise in numbers across Canada on Thursday during a daily press briefing.
"These represent infections from previous exposures and not all is happening right now, necessarily. 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 said.
Tam added that Canada continues to rate among the highest in the world in testing frequency, having already tested more than 260,000 people.
"Around three and a half per cent of these people have been confirmed as positive and 95 per cent as negative," said Tam.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was asked repeatedly during his Thursday press briefing why his government isn’t releasing modelling information about how long Canadians can expect to live under current COVID-19 conditions, namely social gathering restrictions.
"There has been tremendous transparency on the raw data," said Trudeau on the number of confirmed cases, the death toll, and the recovery count.
He added that precise timeline projections on when people can get back to work or when self-isolation measures will be lifted depend entirely on how Canadians behave today.