Canada tops one million confirmed COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic

Variants of concern make up the bulk of new infections in Ontario

On the same day Canada administered its six-millionth dose of vaccine to protect against COVID-19, the country recorded its one-millionth case of the virus on Saturday.

The figure was reached when British Columbia published its Saturday stats of 2,090 infections over the past two days, bringing the national number to about 1,001,650.

As of Saturday evening, the country had 57,022 active COVID-19 cases, 931,459 recoveries, and 23,050 deaths.

Canada surged past 900,000 cases on March 13, and has been reporting about 100,000 new infections every three to four weeks.

According to provincial data, the country had administered six million doses of vaccine as of Saturday evening, a target the federal government established as the goal for how many vaccine doses should arrive in Canada by the end of the first quarter of 2021 – a target it met last week.

Variants of concern make up the bulk of new infections in Ontario. The province’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table said 67 per cent of all new cases can now be traced back to variants, which are more contagious.

Health officials have described the current phase of the pandemic as a race between the variants and the authorized vaccines.

Ontario reported more than 3,000 new COVID-19 cases both Friday and Saturday, the first time since Jan. 17 the tally has been this high.

A 28-day province-wide Shutdown began on Saturday.

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