Canada becomes 23rd country to cross 1 million Covid infections mark

Canada on Saturday crossed one million Covid-19 infections mark, 14 months after reporting its first case on January 25 last year and becoming the 23rd country to cross the grim milestone. The total number of infections in the country stood at 1,001,651 after the province of British Columbia reported its latest figures, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). The country has seen a sharp rise in cases in recent weeks as more contagious variants of the disease are feared to be spreading rapidly. Canada’s chief public health officer Dr Theresa Tam tweeted that “with the ongoing increase in infection rates and rising proportion of cases involving more contagious #VariantsofConcern, we need to maintain a high degree of caution everywhere.”

Canada recorded 9,941 new infections on Saturday, an increase of 35% over the daily figure two weeks earlier. The disease has also caused 23,050 deaths so far. The rising caseload has resulted in several provinces enforcing restrictive measures again, including a shutdown starting Saturday in Ontario. Quebec also announced a lockdown in three cities last week, and British Columbia, too, has announced greater restrictions. Variants originating in the United Kingdom, Brazil and South Africa have caused particular concern in recent days and the head of the newly-formed Coronavirus Variants Rapid Response Network has said that Covid-19 vaccinations could become an annual feature. In an interview with CBC, virologist Dr Marc-André Langlois from the University of Ottawa said that variants may stay “around for a long time” and “may even become endemic”, which could mean that “every year when we get our flu shot, we’ll be getting our coronavirus shot for whatever variants are circulating at that specific time.”