VIRUS CASES TOP 4,000 IN CANADA.
TORONTO • The COVID-19 death toll in Quebec more than doubled on Friday as the growing case load of infections in Canada surpassed 4,000.
Quebec saw 10 more people succumb to the virus in 24 hours, bringing the total number of reported deaths to 18. The province now has more than 2,000 cases — about twice as many as Ontario, which recorded 15 COVID deaths among 993 cases. British Columbia has had 14 deaths, most elderly, while Manitoba saw its first, a woman in her 60s, on Friday.
Overall, 53 people have died in Canada as a result of COVID-19, health authorities reported. But the true number could be obscured.
Two residents of a nursing home in Bobcaygeon, Ont., who had symptoms of the flu-like illness, have died. Although neither was tested for the coronavirus, both deaths were assumed to be from COVID-19. Pinecrest Nursing Home said only three other residents were tested and confirmed positive, but 35 had symptoms.
Deadly outbreak clusters in nursing homes have also been reported in B.C. As at other long-term care facilities, residents at Pinecrest share rooms, making isolation difficult.
“This is truly a horrible time for the families and friends of the residents as well as our staff,” said Mary Carr, administrator of Pinecrest.
B.C. has seen dozens of infections among nursing home staff. At least 14 staff at Pinecrest have tested positive; results for 16 others were pending, the local health unit said.
Governments and experts have urged people — in some cases backed by the threat of fines or jail time — to keep their distance from others. Travellers entering Canada must quarantine for 14 days. To drive home the message, Ontario residents received an emergency alert on their cellphones, radios and TVS at 2 p.m. Friday: “DO NOT visit stores, family or friends.”
Stringent isolation measures appear to be working in B.C., but experts aren’t saying the tide has turned. In Ontario, the associate chief medical officer of health said recovery numbers were expected to rise in the coming days.
“We’re in it for the long haul,” said Dr. Howard Njoo, Canada’s deputy chief public health officer. “It’s definitely months. Many months.”
The Canadian Armed Forces is being put on a war footing as it prepares to be thrown into the COVID-19 crisis.
Chief of the defence staff Gen. Jonathan Vance issued the call to arms in a five-page letter to the troops on Friday, in which he ordered them to stay healthy and be ready to respond immediately if and when the military is called into action because of the pandemic.
Military commanders are currently preparing “COVID-19 response forces,” Vance said, which includes organizing individual units into task forces that will be able to respond by land, sea or air should their assistance be required.