Canada reported a total of 1,796 new cases of the novel coronavirus Wednesday, the highest daily total seen since the spring and proof that the second surge of the pandemic may be just beginning.
The country has now seen a total of 158,592 COVID-19 infections to date. Of those, 134,971 patients have since recovered — 1,234 of them over the past 24 hours, according to provincial health officials.
Six more deaths were also reported Wednesday, bringing the national death toll to 9,297.
Since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned the country last week that the four biggest provinces have entered a second wave, cases have only escalated.
Ontario and Quebec, in particular, have returned to levels seen during the pandemic’s peak in April, with Ontario surpassing those record daily totals this week. British Columbia has also surpassed its springtime peak, although the number of active cases has started to trend slightly downward again.
Ontario, which reported 625 new cases and four new deaths Wednesday, released new modelling the same day projecting the province could see up to 1,000 cases a day in October unless people adhere to stricter measures.
The province has seen a total of 51,710 cases and 2,848 deaths to date, while 43,907 patients have recovered.
Quebec reported 838 new infections, one of its highest daily counts ever, and one additional death that occurred last week. The province continues to lead the country in cases, at 74,288, and deaths, which have hit 5,834. A total of 62,564 people have recovered.
Montreal, Quebec City and parts of the Chaudière-Appalaches region of Quebec are going into “red zone” partial lockdowns at midnight Thursday, meaning bars, restaurants and other public spaces will be closed for 28 days in an effort to drive down infections.
In Atlantic Canada, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador each reported one new case, while New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island had no new cases to report.
Nova Scotia has now seen a total of 1,088 cases and 65 deaths to date, while Newfoundland and Labrador has reported 274 cases and three deaths. New Brunswick, which has seen two deaths, and P.E.I. are sitting at 200 and 59 cases, respectively.
Nearly all of those Atlantic cases have recovered, leaving just 12 active cases across four provinces.
In Manitoba, 40 new cases were reported, bringing its total to 1,993. Twenty people have died in the province to date, while 1,374 have recovered.
Saskatchewan saw 14 new cases Wednesday. A total of 1,913 cases and 24 deaths have been recorded since March, with 1,750 recoveries.
Further west, Alberta reported 153 new cases and one more death, taking the province’s totals to 18,062 infections and 267 fatalities. To date, 16,213 patients have recovered.
In British Columbia, officials announced 124 lab-confirmed cases and an additional “epidemiologically linked” case, meaning it has not been confirmed by laboratory testing.
The province has now seen 8,972 confirmed cases and 166 epi-linked cases, along with 234 deaths and 7,591 recoveries.
None of the three territories reported cases Wednesday.
The Yukon has seen 15 cases and the Northwest Territories has a total of five, yet all of those recovered months ago. The Northwest Territories is approaching six full months without reporting a new case.
While Nunavut remains the only jurisdiction without any local confirmed cases of COVID-19, the territory has not fully escaped the virus. Three confirmed cases and seven presumptive cases have been reported among workers at local mines who are based out of province, with health officials considering them part of their home provinces’ numbers.
As provinces wrestle with additional measures and restrictions to try and contain the spread of the virus, the federal government is attempting to provide support through testing and contact tracing.
Under fire for not answering the call for rapid test expansion sooner, Health Canada on Wednesday approved a rapid coronavirus test that can detect the respiratory illness in as few as 13 minutes.
The news comes one day after Ottawa announced it had signed a deal securing up to 7.9 million Abbott ID Now COVID-19 rapid tests once they were approved by Canadian health officials.
When the tests will be in the hands of health professionals — and how they will be distributed — is not yet known.
Global cases approach 34 million
Worldwide, the coronavirus pandemic is showing few signs that is slowing its spread, recording hundreds of thousands of new cases daily.
Globally, over 33.8 million cases and more than 1.01 million deaths have been reported in nearly 190 countries since the virus was first detected in Wuhan, China, over nine months ago, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The United States continues to lead the world in cases, with over 7.2 million, while its death toll also leads the world with nearly 207,000.
India, which has seen over 6.2 million cases and nearly 97,500 deaths, and Brazil’s 4.7 million cases and 142,900 deaths, round out the top three hardest-hit countries on the planet.
The World Health Organization has said it’s “not impossible” to see another million deaths from the virus by the time an effective, readily available vaccine is introduced, which experts have said may not happen until next year.
CALGARY – The Calgary Flames have re-signed defenceman Ilya Solovyov and centre Cole Schwindt, the NHL club announced Wednesday.
Solovyov signed a two-year deal which is a two-way contract in year one and a one-way deal in year two and carries an average annual value of US$775,000 at the NHL level.
Schwindt signed a one-year, two-way contract with an average annual value of $800,000 at the NHL level.
The 24-year-old Solovyov, from Mogilev, Belarus, made his NHL debut last season and had three assists in 10 games for the Flames. He also had five goals and 10 assists in 51 games with the American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers and added one goal in six Calder Cup playoff games.
Schwindt, from Kitchener, Ont., made his Flames debut last season and appeared in four games with the club.
The 23-year-old also had 14 goals and 22 assists in 66 regular-season games with the Wranglers and added a team-leading four goals, including one game-winning goal, in the playoffs.
Schwindt was selected by Florida in the third round, 81st overall, at the 2019 NHL draft. He came to Calgary in July 2022 along with forward Jonathan Huberdeau and defenceman MacKenzie Weegar in the trade that sent star forward Matthew Tkachuk to the Panthers.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
KING CITY, Ont. – Oman scored 10 runs in the final over to edge Nepal by one wicket with just one ball remaining in ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 play Wednesday.
Kaleemullah, the No. 11 batsman who goes by one name, hit a four with the penultimate ball as Oman finished at 223 for nine. Nepal had scored 220 for nine in its 50 overs.
Kaleemullah and No. 9 batsman Shakeel Ahmed each scored five in the final over off Sompal Kami. They finished with six and 17 runs, respectively.
Opener Latinder Singh led Oman with 41 runs.
Nepal’s Gulsan Jha was named man of the match after scoring 53 runs and recording a career-best five-wicket haul. The 18-year-old slammed five sixes and three-fours in his 35-ball knock, scoring 23 runs in the 46th over alone when he hit six, six, four, two, four and one off Aqib Ilyas.
Captain Rohit Paudel led Nepal with 60 runs.
The 19th-ranked Canadians, who opened the triangular series Monday with a 103-run win over No. 17 Nepal, face No. 16 Oman on Friday, Nepal on Sunday and Oman again on Sept. 26. All the games are at the Maple Leaf Cricket Ground.
The eight World League 2 teams each play 36 one-day internationals spread across nine triangular series through December 2026. The top four sides will go through to a World Cup qualifier that will decide the last four berths in the expanded 14-team Cricket World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
Canada (5-4) stands second in the World League 2 table. The 14th-ranked Dutch top the table at 6-2.
Oman (2-2 with one no-result) stands sixth, ahead of Nepal (1-5).
Canada won all four matches in its opening tri-series in February-March, sweeping No. 11 Scotland and the 20th-ranked host Emirates. But the Canadians lost four in a row to the 18th-ranked U.S. and host Netherlands in August.
Canada which debuted in the T20 World Cup this summer in the U.S. and West Indies, is looking to get back to the showcase 50-over Cricket World Cup for the first time since 2011 after failing to qualify for the last three editions. The Canadian men also played in the 1979, 2003 and 2007 tournaments, exiting after the group stage in all four tournament appearances.
The Canadian men regained their one-day international status for the first time in almost a decade by finishing in the top four of the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier Playoff in April 2023 in Bermuda.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024
PENTICTON, B.C. – Rick Tocchet has already warned his Vancouver Canucks players — the looming NHL season won’t be easy.
The team made strides last year, the head coach said Wednesday ahead of training camp. The bar has been raised for this year’s campaign.
“To get to the next plateau, there are higher expectations and it’s going to be hard. We know that,” Tocchet said in Penticton, B.C., where the team will open its camp on Thursday.
“So that’s the next level. It starts day one (on Thursday). My thing is don’t waste a rep out there.”
The Canucks finished atop the Pacific Division with a 50-23-9 record last season, then ousted the Nashville Predators from the playoffs in a gritty, six-game first-round series. Vancouver then fell to the Edmonton Oilers in a seven-game second-round set.
Last fall, Jim Rutherford, the Canucks president of hockey operations, said everything would have to go right for the team to make a playoff push. That doesn’t change this season, he said, despite last year’s success.
“The challenges will be greater, certainly. But I believe the team that we started with last year, we have just as good a team to start the season this year and probably better,” he said.
“As long as the team builds off what they did last year, stick to what the coaches tell them, stick to the system, stick together in good times and bad times, this team has a chance to do pretty well.”
Some key players will be missing as Vancouver’s training camp begins, however.
Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin announced Wednesday that star goalie Thatcher Demko will not be on the ice when the team begins it’s pre-season preparation.
Allvin did not disclose the reason for Demko’s absence, but said the 28-year-old American has been making progress.
“He’s been in working extremely hard and he seems to be in a great mindset,” the GM said.
Demko missed several weeks of the regular season and much of Vancouver’s playoff run last spring with a knee injury.
The six-foot-four, 192-pound goalie has a career 213-116-81 regular-season record with a .912 save percentage, a 2.79 goals-against average and eight shutouts across seven seasons with the Canucks.
Allvin also announced that veteran centre Teddy Blueger and defensive prospect Cole McWard will also miss the start of training camp after each had “minor lower-body surgery.”
Vancouver previously announced winger Dakota Joshua won’t be present for the start of camp as he recovers from surgery for testicular cancer.
Tocchet said he’ll have no problem filling the holes, and plans to switch his lines up a lot in Penticton.
“Nothing’s set in stone,” he said. “I think it’s important that you have different puzzles at different times.”
The coach added that he expects standout centre Elias Pettersson to begin on a line with Canucks newcomer Jake DeBrusk.
Vancouver inked DeBrusk, a former Boston Bruins forward, to a seven-year, US$38.5 million deal when the NHL’s free agent market opened on July 1.
The glare on Pettersson is expected to be bright once again as he enters the first year of a new eight-year, $92.8 million contract. The 25-year-old Swede struggled at times last season and put 89 points (34 goals, 55 assists) in 82 games.
Rutherford said he was impressed with how Pettersson looked when he returned to Vancouver ahead of camp.
“He seems to be a guy that’s more relaxed and more comfortable. And for obvious reasons,” said the president of hockey ops. “This is a guy that I believe has worked really hard this summer. He’s done everything he can to play as a top-line player. … The expectation for him is to be one of the top players on our team.”
A number of Canucks hit milestones last season, including Quinn Hughes, who led all NHL defencemen in scoring with 92 points and won the Norris Trophy as the league’s top blue liner.
Several players could once again have career-best years for Vancouver, Tocchet said, but they’ll need to be consistent and not allow frustration to creep in when things go wrong.
“You’ve just got to drive yourself every day when you have a great year,” the coach said. “You’ve got to keep creating that environment where they can achieve those goals, whatever they are. And the main goal is winning. That’s really what it comes down to.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
