Canada hit new milestones in the novel coronavirus pandemic Thursday, as cases surged past 160,000 while the death toll topped 9,300.
The country reported 1,776 new COVID-19 infections over the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 160,368 lab-confirmed cases to date.
Twenty-three new deaths were also announced, taking the national death toll to 9,320. While that’s the highest number reported in a single day since early July, 14 of those deaths occurred last week or earlier.
A total of 136,350 patients have since recovered from the virus. Health officials reported 1,379 of those recoveries Thursday.
Cases are now surging at a rate not seen since the first peak of the pandemic this past spring. Daily cases have increased at a rate of 85 per cent over the past 14 days.
Story continues below advertisement
It only took six days for cases to increase from 150,000 to 160,000. By comparison, it took eight days to grow from 140,000 to 150,000, while 14 days separate 130,000 and 140,000 total cases.
Quebec has already re-imposed lockdown measures in some regions, including in Montreal and Quebec City, which became “red zones” as of midnight Thursday. Ontario is also mulling similar moves, with Premier Doug Ford saying Wednesday that “everything’s on the table.”
The two provinces continue to lead the country in new infections and deaths.
1:56 Stress and toll of living through a pandemic
Stress and toll of living through a pandemic
Quebec reported 933 new cases Thursday, nearly matching its peak of over 1,000 daily cases in early May. Sixteen deaths were also announced, two of which occurred over the past 24 hours. The rest are historical deaths that occurred last week and earlier.
Story continues below advertisement
The province has now seen a total of 75,221 cases and 5,850 deaths, while 63,144 patients have recovered.
Ontario saw another 538 cases and three new deaths, bringing its totals to 52,248 infections and 2,851 deaths to date. Over 44,400 people have recovered from the virus.
In Manitoba, 36 new infections brought the province to 2,029 total cases, an unknown number of which are considered probable. The province has seen 20 deaths from the virus and 1,388 recoveries.
Saskatchewan reported 14 more cases and no new deaths. A total of 1,927 cases and 24 deaths have been confirmed to date, with 1,759 of those cases considered recovered.
Further west, 173 new cases and three more deaths were reported in Alberta, which has now seen a total of 18,235 cases and 270 deaths. More than 16,300 patients have recovered from the virus.
5:46 Are rapid tests a game changer in the fight against COVID-19?
Are rapid tests a game changer in the fight against COVID-19?
British Columbia announced 82 new cases, one of which is “epidemiologically linked,” meaning it has not been confirmed by laboratory testing. One new death brought the provincial death toll to 235.
Story continues below advertisement
The province has seen 9,053 lab-confirmed cases and 167 “epi-linked” cases to date, 7,695 of whom have recovered from the virus.
Newfoundland and Labrador saw one new case, bringing its total number of cases to 275. Three people have died in the province to date, although 269 others have recovered.
No cases were reported in the other three Atlantic provinces or the three northern territories.
Nova Scotia has reported 1,088 cases, 65 deaths and 1,021 recoveries to date, while New Brunswick has seen 200 cases, two deaths and 192 recoveries.
Prince Edward Island has seen 59 cases and 57 recoveries, with no deaths to date.
All of the Yukon’s 15 cases and the five cases in the Northwest Territories have long since recovered.
While Nunavut has no local confirmed cases, three confirmed cases and seven presumptive cases — all mine workers from outside the territory — have been reported.
2:28 Questions about reliability of Canada’s newly approved rapid COVID-19 test
Questions about reliability of Canada’s newly approved rapid COVID-19 test
While over 8.8 million tests have been performed across Canada to date, the federal government has been under pressure to expand and speed up testing as the fall and winter fast approach.
Story continues below advertisement
Although up to 7.9 million Health Canada-approved rapid tests were ordered this week, the agency’s chief medical adviser Dr. Supriya Sharma told Global News Thursday that nearly a third of those tests won’t be available until 2021.
Hundreds of thousands of the tests should arrive in Canada this month, she said.
Worldwide cases exceed 34 million
Globally, confirmed coronavirus infections crossed 34 million Thursday, reaching 34,136,078 by 8 p.m. ET according to Johns Hopkins University. Over 1.01 million people have died.
The United States continues to lead the world in both infections, at over 7.2 million, and deaths, which have exceeded 207,000.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
