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Canada adds over 2,500 new coronavirus cases, breaking previous day’s record – Global News

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david ljunggren


Canada reported 2,554 new cases of the novel coronavirus Friday, setting another record high for daily reported infections.

Friday’s total — only surpassed by the case count on May 3 which was inflated due to a delay in reporting in Quebec — brings the number of COVID-19 cases in Canada to 177,931.

Read more:
How many Canadians have the new coronavirus? Total number of confirmed cases by region

Records for daily reported coronavirus infections have been broken every day over the past eight days except for Wednesday, which saw 1,795 new infections.

Canada also added another 28 deaths from the virus on Friday, though 18 in Quebec had occurred at an unknown date.

The fatalities bring Canada’s death toll to 9,585, while more than 149,500 people have recovered from the virus and over 9.7 million tests have been administered.

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In a tweet Friday, Canada’s chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam said that an average of 71,664 people have been tested daily over the past week, 2.5 per cent testing positive.

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Canadians must reduce contacts to bring pandemic under control: modelling

At a press conference Friday, Tam cited new modelling that showed that an acceleration of the pandemic in Canada unless Canadians reduced their contact with others.

The modelling suggested that cumulative cases of the virus could range between 188,150 to 197,830 by Oct. 17, while the country’s death toll could be as high as 9,800.

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In an announcement Friday, the Canadian government also vowed to create and revamp business support programs to keep businesses afloat amid the surge of a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a press conference Friday that Ottawa was planning to provide a wage subsidy program that will cover up to 65 per cent of eligible costs through December and a rent support program for commercial tenants, among other updates to bolster Canada’s economic response to the virus.

Quebec reported the highest increase in new COVID-19 cases on Friday, with 1,102 new cases. Another 22 deaths were also announced by the province on Friday, though only four had occurred in the last 24 hours.






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Coronavirus: Toronto officials welcome return to stage 2 despite some uncertainty of rules


Coronavirus: Toronto officials welcome return to stage 2 despite some uncertainty of rules

Friday’s data pushes the province’s total coronavirus cases to 84,094 and its deaths to 5,936 — the highest among all provinces in Canada.

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Ontario added 939 new cases on Friday, its highest-ever daily increase in new infections since the start of the pandemic. Friday’s cases bring the province’s total confirmed cases to 57,681, while another five new deaths bring the death toll to 2,997.

As case numbers continued to surge across in the province, Ontario announced several temporary measures under modified Stage 2 plans for parts of Toronto, Peel Region and Ottawa on Friday in a bid to slow the spread of the virus.

Alberta announced 277 new COVID-19 infections on Friday, raising its total lab-confirmed cases to 19,995. One new death was also announced on Friday, though health authorities removed two fatalities originally thought to be COVID-19 related from the province’s death toll.

Read more:
Revamped coronavirus business relief programs unveiled as 2nd wave surges

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Alberta’s death toll from the virus now stands at 282, while a total of 17,488 patients have since recovered.

British Columbia reported 119 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, raising its total confirmed cases to 9,999. A further 186 people are also considered “epidemiologically-linked,” by the province, which are patients who exhibit typical coronavirus symptoms and are close to confirmed cases, but were never formally diagnosed.






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Coronavirus: Adapting to new ways of working


Coronavirus: Adapting to new ways of working

Four of the cases announced Friday were classified as epi-linked. No new deaths were announced by the province on Friday, with B.C.’s death toll standing at 245.

Saskatchewan added 22 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Friday — its highest daily increase in new infections since Aug. 15.

The province’s number of lab-confirmed cases now sits at 2,034, and its death toll at 24. A total of 1,871 patients have also recovered from the virus.

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Manitoba added 84 new cases on Friday, raising the province’s total number of infections to 2,428 — of which an unknown number are considered probable cases.

The province’s death toll from the virus now stands at 30, after three people were confirmed to have died from the virus Thursday.






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Coronavirus: Modified stage 2 implemented in Toronto, Ottawa and Peel Region


Coronavirus: Modified stage 2 implemented in Toronto, Ottawa and Peel Region

Newfoundland and Labrador added two new cases on Friday, raising its total infections to 279. Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and P.E.I. reported no new cases of the virus Friday.

Worldwide, cases of the virus have surpassed 36.7 million according to a running tally kept by Johns Hopkins University. More than 1,064,000 people have succumbed to the virus globally.

With files from the Canadian Press and Global News’ Kerri Breen.

© 2020 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

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Ready for liftoff: Why Canada’s telecom sector sees opportunity in satellite internet

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TORONTO – When a severe tropical cyclone hit New Zealand in February 2023, it left thousands on the country’s North Island without internet or cellphone service for nearly a week, as major roads carrying vital fibre optic cables were washed out.

Of residents who managed to retain an internet connection amid Cyclone Gabrielle, many relied on a lifeline that didn’t even exist just a few years earlier: SpaceX’s satellite internet service known as Starlink.

The company, which provides internet service through a constellation of thousands of satellites orbiting the globe, has seen significant uptake in New Zealand since launching there in 2021 — especially among rural communities — which helped keep users connected after the storm.

Bronwyn Howell, a telecommunications policy researcher at New Zealand’s Victoria University of Wellington, said 14 per cent of rural households in New Zealandare connected to satellite, almost solely driven by Starlink.

“Satellite is the gift that keeps on giving,” said Howell.

“The game is changing.”

The technology seems poised for liftoff in Canada, too.

As the future of connectivity via satellite continues to take shape, industry watchers say its growth could have significant implications for solving resiliency challenges, improving connectivity in rural and remote communities, and increasing competition in Canada’s telecom sector.

Academics, industry executives and regulatory officials gathered in Toronto on Oct. 16 for a conference hosted by the Ivey Business School, which delved into the role that satellite technology can play in Canadian telecommunications.

“Satellite is not a niche technology. It’s not just the technology that fills in some of the hard-to-reach parts, it’s a technology that cuts across the entire telecom agenda,” CRTC vice-chairperson Adam Scott said during the conference.

“The better satellite technology becomes the more attractive an option it could be to customers. Maybe not for everyone, but for some, including some who are not accustomed to having much competition or choice at all.”

Howell said satellite’s introduction in New Zealand has marked “the end of natural monopoly” for connectivity in rural communities.

“Now, in fact, many of the rural areas have better competition than some of the peri-urban and suburban areas, because they have a real and viable choice of satellite service that works,” she said.

“The strategic options are now much wider.”

In June, the federal government launched a consultation into expanding wireless services through satellite technology, with Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne hailing it as “the next frontier where Canadians will be able to use their current phone … to have absolute connectivity.”

Champagne also said in an interview at the time that with natural disasters on the rise, satellite connections could serve as a backup when traditional networks go down due to power outages.

The government’s study is set to wrap up this month, with new regulatory rules expected to be announced in the coming months and in place by April 2025, said Andre Arbour, director general of telecommunications and internet policy at Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada.

“It can be invaluable, and maybe the only option in the wake of some type of natural disaster when the traditional infrastructure is damaged and being repaired,” he said.

In the meantime, some Canadian carriers are already working on development.

Rogers Communications Inc. announced partnerships last year with SpaceX and Lynk Global to deliver satellite-to-phone connectivity across Canada. By last December, Rogers said it has passed a key milestone by completing a test call using Lynk’s low-earth orbit satellites and its own wireless spectrum.

Telus Corp. also said it successfully trialled the technology in late 2023 in partnership with Montreal-based telecom provider TerreStar Solutions Inc. and non-terrestrial network service provider Skylo.

Last month, Ottawa announced a $2.14-billion loan to satellite operator Telesat to help that company build its broadband satellite constellation, called Lightspeed. The government said Lightspeed would enable people in the most remote parts of the country, including in Indigenous communities, mines and forestry companies, to access cheaper, more reliable internet.

The first of an initial 198 satellites is scheduled to launch in 2026.

Michèle Beck, Telesat’s senior vice-president of Canadian sales, said the technology is “creating a level of resiliency that we’ve never seen before.”

“It can be used anywhere in Canada, as long as you have an antenna to land in. It’s fungible,” she said.

“You can configure it where you need it at any particular time. It’s an insurance that would allow you then to provide that continuity where you need it.”

She highlighted another advantage of the technology when it comes to trying to prevent mass outages — individual satellites are spread out across a constellation.

“You don’t have a big fat target in the sky,” said Beck.

“You’ve got many, many satellites creating this network and if one or two gets taken out or denied, jammed, you still have hundreds more to complete the links.”

In Northern Canada, where some remote communities have a history of connectivity challenges such as slow or unreliable speeds, high prices and data caps, many have pointed to satellites as a potential solution, said Rob McMahon, associate professor of media and technology at the University of Alberta.

Speaking at the Ivey conference, McMahon shared research surrounding customer experiences from two communities in the Northwest Territories, which showed Starlink users tended to report fewer hiccups than customers of other broadband services.

But McMahon noted limitations to the technology. Starlink, in particular, currently has a limited customer base — it became available in Canada in 2021 — and may see declines in speed or quality of service as uptake grows, he said.

Consumer costs are also still relatively high, with the company charging $140 per month for service and $499 for hardware in Canada.

“Reliability is somewhat unclear. There’s no local technicians to provide support if the service goes down, for example,” said McMahon.

Arbour added satellite shouldn’t be seen as a full substitute for 4G or 5G communications. He said the departmenthas received complaints about “dead zones” where satellite internet doesn’t seem to work, even in centralized locations.

“It’s not in the middle of Hudson Bay,” he said. “It’s not too far from the (Greater Toronto Area), actually.”

Howell said those concerns echo some of the lessons learned thus far from New Zealand’s experience with satellite.

She said governments and regulators shouldn’t abandon their focus on improving service of traditional broadband networks in order to see satellite take off.

“There are going to be very different options created for a handful of consumers at the geographic periphery of society, but it doesn’t take away the importance of all of the other stuff that we’ve all been working on for the last so many years,” she said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 27, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:RCI.B, TSX:T)



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Homeless tent encampment returns to Montreal thoroughfare after it was dismantled

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Homeless tent encampment returns to Montreal thoroughfare after it was dismantled

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Popular Banff landmark being moved |

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A dark wooden Banff sign that has been popular with visitors seeking selfies at the national park is being moved. A town official says the amount of traffic the sign attracts is becoming a danger to pedestrians and a headache for motorists. (Oct. 27, 2024)



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