Provinces break COVID-19 case records as new restrictions set in
Global News
Quebec and Nova Scotia set new records for their daily case counts on Sunday while Ontario reported more than 4,100 additional infections, which was 800 more than the previous day.
Large parts of Canada are starting to hunker down, with new restrictions and lockdowns coming into effect as a fifth wave of COVID-19 fuelled by the Omicron variant saw thousands of new cases across the country over the weekend.
Quebec and Nova Scotia set new records for their daily case counts on Sunday while Ontario reported more than 4,100 additional infections, which was 800 more than the previous day.
Other parts of the country were also experiencing a surge in new cases unseen since before the summer as the Omicron variant, identified by the World Health Organization as a potential concern only last month, became increasingly entrenched in Canada.
And while hospitalizations have remained steady in Ontario and some other parts of the country, a recent spike in the number of severe cases in Quebec has added to concerns the rest of the country could soon follow.
In response to the growing wave, several provinces have started to re-impose public health restrictions and lockdowns only days before the start of the holiday season that in many cases apply to both the vaccinated and unvaccinated.
In Ontario, new limits on indoor gatherings came into effect Sunday as the provincial government struggled to get escalating case counts under control while similar restrictions were set to come down in British Columbia and Quebec on Monday.
Quebec reported 3,846 new cases on Sunday, setting an all-time high for the province’s daily tally for the second time in three days, while the number of hospitalizations and people in intensive care because of COVID-19 continued to increase.
Dr. Adalsteinn Brown, head of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Table, had warned Thursday that while hospitalizations in his province had remained fairly steady, he expected a spike in two to three weeks.
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