EDMONTON -- Despite an ongoing surge in active cases, Canada's COVID-19 death toll was unchanged on Friday for the first time since March, a grim milestone to mark six months since the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a pandemic.
According to the , Quebec reported one new death on Friday, but Ontario鈥檚 data was adjusted to remove a previously reported death, leaving the number of deaths unchanged from the previous day.
The last time Canada recorded no new deaths as a result of the virus was March 15 -- the same day Canada's Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, warned the COVID-19 outbreak had become a serious public health threat.
At the time, Canada had recorded just 341 cases of the virus and one death. The U.S.-Canadian border remained open, and airports across the country were inundated with Canadian鈥檚 heeding Prime Minister Justin Trudeau鈥檚 warning to return home amid the rapidly developing health crisis.
On Friday, Canada had recorded 135,626 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 9,163 deaths.
COVID-19 fatalities reached a peak in April and steadily increased until July before plateauing. The majority of deaths, 71.3 per cent, in Canada are people over the age of 80.
But despite a decrease in deaths, Canada鈥檚 active case load continues to rise.
On Saturday, Canada recorded 515 new cases of COVID-19 and seven deaths, bolstered by rising case numbers in Ontario and Quebec.
Ontario health officials reported an increase of more than 200 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday for the third straight day. , its highest one-day total since June 1.
British Columbia and Alberta, which have also been hit hard by COVID-19 in recent weeks, do not report data on weekends.
Despite the steady increase of confirmed cases in some provinces, Canada鈥檚 top doctor says officials do not want to 鈥済o backwards鈥 by tightening restrictions again.
鈥淚 think it's about adaptation. There is not a simple level of which someone will roll back a particular measure, but we just have to watch it really carefully so that things don't escalate to the extent that we can't manage," Tam said during a COVID-19 briefing in Ottawa on Friday afternoon.
Meanwhile, fears are mounting among doctors about the possibility of a so-called 鈥渢windemic鈥 consisting of duelling flu and coronavirus outbreaks. PHAC says it expects a higher demand for influenza vaccines amid the combined threat, and is recommending provinces and territories consider alternate ways to deliver immunization programs this season.鈥
