The coronavirus pandemic has now claimed more than 7,000 lives in Canada.
The number of fatalities reached 7,073 on Saturday, after Quebec released its latest figures.
The province announced 76 deaths, along with 419 new cases of the virus.
COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, has infected more than 90,000 people in Canada, with a little more than half of the cases diagnosed in Quebec. Nearly 1.7 million Canadians have been tested for the virus.
Public health officials have said that most of Canada’s deaths have occurred in long-term care facilities.
The Canadian Forces deployed members to Ontario and Quebec in order to help care for residents last month. The soldiers recently sounded the alarm over poor conditions in some homes.
Despite increasing death tolls and case counts, the rate of infection appears to be slowing in most provinces, and many have taken gradual steps toward reopening in recent weeks.
The new coronavirus was formally identified in January after Wuhan, China, saw a cluster of pneumonia cases that were not associated with any known virus. The illness caused by the virus was later dubbed COVID-19.
COVID-19 was declared a pandemic on March 11.
The disease has wrought havoc on economies around the world and prompted widespread shutdowns of non-essential businesses, schools and workplaces.
Earlier this week, the U.S. exceeded 100,000 deaths due to the pandemic. And overall, more than 5.9 million people around the world have been diagnosed, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.The global death toll stands at more than 365,000.
Source: – CKNW News Talk 980
Edited By Harry Miller
