Canada has added more than 120,000 cases of COVID-19 since the Easter long weekend, nearly double the infections seen in the two weeks leading up to the holiday.
On Monday, 8,316 new cases of COVID-19 were reported as the third wave of the pandemic continues to wreak havoc across the country.
The new cases bring Canada’s total number of novel coronavirus infections to 1,131,780.
Forty-four new fatalities means a total of 23,667 people have died in Canada after testing positive for COVID-19.
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Easter spike?
The new cases come two weeks after the Easter holiday.
Ahead of the long weekend, health officials urged Canadians to stay home and limit their contacts in a bid to slow the spread of the disease.
However, since the holiday weekend, the cases in Canada continue to rise steadily.
Since Easter Sunday — April 4 — Canada has added 123,666 new cases of the novel coronavirus, and 593 people have died across the country.
By comparison, during the two weeks leading up to Easter Sunday, a total of 73,170 new cases were reported.
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The country has seen a spike in cases after several of the most widely celebrated holidays.
In the two-week period after Christmas, 101,205 new cases of COVID-19 were reported.
A smaller spike in cases was also reported in the 14 days following Thanksgiving when more than 35,000 new cases were detected.
The race between variants and vaccines
In a series of tweets on Monday, Canada’s top doctor, Theresa Tam said this wave of the pandemic is “difficult on so many levels.”
“But things ARE picking up and we CAN do this,” she wrote.
2/2 Though we need to keep following public health advice & maintain #WashMaskSpace as #COVID19 vaccines rollout further, the benefits are building and they will be the bridge that takes us to greater safety and the things we miss so much. https://t.co/w27G7rpZu4
— Dr. Theresa Tam (@CPHO_Canada) April 19, 2021
Tam noted that more than 10 million doses of the approved COVID-19 vaccines have now been administered across the country.
By Sunday evening, a total of 10,242,073 doses of COVID-19 shots have been administered in Canada.
That means approximately 2.46 per cent of the Canadian population is fully vaccinated, while 24.49 per cent has received at least one dose.
“Though we need to keep following public health advice & maintain further, the benefits are building and they will be the bridge that takes us to greater safety and the things we miss so much,” Tam said.
Health officials across the country have been racing to get needles into arms as the “variants of concern” continue to spread.
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To date, 66,159 variant cases of COVID-19 have been detected in the country.
Thousands of new cases reported in the provinces
In Ontario, 4,447 new cases and 19 more fatalities were reported.
On Sunday, the federal government pledged more support for Ontario, which has been especially hard-hit by the third wave of the pandemic.
In a video posted to Twitter, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the federal government would be “mobilizing federal health care workers from across government departments to deploy to the front lines in Ontario,” and would be boosting rapid-testing in the province.
Trudeau has also called on other provinces to support Ontario, saying his government will cover all costs associated with coordination.
So far, Newfoundland and Labrador has committed to sending health care workers to Ontario.
Meanwhile in Quebec, officials said 1,092 new cases were identified and 14 more people are dead.
Hundreds of new cases of the disease were detected in Canada’s prairie region on Monday.
Health officials in Saskatchewan said 241 more people have tested positive for COVID-19, while 108 more people are sick in Manitoba.
However, neither province reported any new fatalities.
In western Canada, thousands of new cases of the novel coronavirus were identified.
Health authorities in British Columbia said 1,000 more people have fallen ill with COVID-19, and eight more people have died.
On Monday, the provincial government announced it would be extending the ban on social gatherings, events, indoor dining and group fitness activities for adults through the May long weekend.
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Meanwhile, in Alberta, 1,391 new cases of the novel coronavirus were reported, and authorities said three more people have died.
Several new cases were reported in Atlantic Canada on Monday, too.
Nova Scotia added 15 new cases, while officials in New Brunswick said nine more people have fallen ill in the province.
Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island each added three new infections.
None of the Maritime provinces, or Newfoundland and Labrador saw any new fatalities related to COVID-19.
Nunavut reported six new COVID-19 infections, while one new case was detected in the Yukon.
Global cases approach 142 million
Since the virus was first detected, it has infected 141,813,257 people around the world, according to the latest tally from Johns Hopkins University.
On Saturday, the pandemic hit a grim milestone, as the global number of deaths topped 3 million.
By Monday, the coronavirus had claimed 3,027,182 lives worldwide.
