Canada reports over 400 new coronavirus cases, as well as 5 deaths

Canada on Friday reported 416 new cases of the novel coronavirus, as well as five more deaths.

The new numbers bring the country’s total number of COVID-19 cases to 121,605 and deaths to 9,020. As of Aug. 14, at least 107,785 people or 88.6 per cent of Canada’s cases have recovered from the virus, while more than 5.47 million tests have been administered.

During a press conference Friday, Canada’s chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam warned of a potential “fall peak” should restrictive measures like school and business closures be lifted without strengthening other controls against the spread of the virus.

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“Nevertheless, it is prudent to plan and to be prepared for a reasonable worst-case scenario,” said Tam.

“This type of scenario could include a large fall peak followed by ongoing peaks and valleys in which resource demands intermittently exceed all public health systems’ capacity to manage.”

Whether or not the “fall peak” was guaranteed to take place in Canada, Tam could not definitively say, stating that it would be up to Canadians and their decisions to either prevent or cause another large-scale outbreak.

“Really, the scenario is for planning but everything, as I’ve said, is in our hands — the sort of day-by-day, week-by-week monitoring of how well we control things right now will sort of determine the actual outcome.”

Ontario reported 92 new cases of the coronavirus on Friday, raising its provincial total to 40,459 confirmed cases. Another death linked to the virus was also declared by provincial health authorities, increasing Ontario’s death toll to 2,788.

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British Columbia reported 82 lab-confirmed cases and no new deaths from virus on Friday, bringing its total COVID-19 cases to 4,311. The province’s death toll now stands at 196.

B.C. also reported two more “epidemiologically-linked” cases, which are patients who have shown symptoms of the virus but were never tested for it. A total of 47 cases in the province are considered as epi-linked, buthave not been counted in Global News’ total because they were not lab-confirmed.

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Quebec announced an additional 87 cases on Aug. 14, raising its total COVID-19 infections to 61,004. Provincial health authorities did not record any new deaths in the last 24 hours, but reported an additional three fatalities which occurred between Aug. 7 and 12.

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The province’s death toll from the coronavirus now stands at 5,718.

Alberta added 84 new cases of the coronavirus on Aug. 14, bringing its total confirmed cases to 12,053. One new death was also announced, raising its provincial death toll to 211.

Saskatchewan reported 30 new cases of the virus on Friday, raising its provincial total to 1,541. No new deaths were announced.

Manitoba added 40 new confirmed and presumptive cases of the coronavirus on Friday. The province’s new total, which includes at least 15 presumptive cases, now sits at 643 cases. No new fatalities were announced by the province, with its death toll standing at eight.

Nova Scotia reported one additional case of the virus on Friday, raising its total caseload to 1,072.

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Worldwide, over 21,000,000 people have been infected with COVID-19 according to a running tally kept by John Hopkins University. Another 762,262 have since died from the virus.

The United States, Brazil and India continue to have the highest amount of infections around the world. Brazil have also recorded more than 100,000 deaths from the virus, while the U.S. has seen over 168,000 fatalities.