Canada adds 6,846 new coronavirus cases as country approves Moderna vaccine

Provincial health authorities also confirmed another 172 people have died after testing positive for COVID-19.

The new cases come as the country approved a second vaccine against the virus from American biotechnology company Moderna.

Speaking at a press conference Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said now that Health Canada has approved the vaccine, “we have the green light to start rolling it out across the country.”

He said the first vaccines from Canada’s 40-million dose order will arrive “in the coming days.”

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Dr. Supriya Sharma, chief medical adviser with the regulatory branch of Health Canada, said the authorization is a “critical step” in ensuring a COVID-19 vaccine is available to all Canadians.

Sharma said the agency authorized the vaccine after an “independent and thorough scientific review for safety, efficacy and quality.”

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“After accessing all the data we concluded there was strong evidence that showed the benefits of the vaccine outweighed the risks,” she said.

Thousands of new infections in the provinces

In Ontario, 2,408 new cases were reported, bringing the provincial case load to 162,663.

Health officials also said 41 more people have died, pushing Ontario’s death toll to 4,229.

Meanwhile, Quebec saw 2,247 new infections and 73 more deaths.

To date, the province has reported 183,523 cases of COVID-19 and 7,867 fatalities.

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In Saskatchewan, 159 new cases were confirmed, pushing the province’s total number of infections to 7,867 on Wednesday.

Health authorities also confirmed another five people have died after testing positive for the virus.

To date, Saskatchewan has seen 130 fatalities connected to COVID-19.

Manitoba added 201 new coronavirus infections for a total of 23,381. Fifteen new fatalities bring the province’s death toll to 605. 

Ten new cases of the virus were detected in Atlantic Canada on Wednesday.

New Brunswick added five new cases for a total of 585, while Nova Scotia added four new cases pushing the provincial case load to 1,458.

The provinces did not report any additional fatalities, meaning the death tolls remained at eight and 65 respectively.

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In Newfoundland and Labrador, one new case was detected, but health officials said no new deaths had occurred.

To date, 384 infections and four fatalities have been reported.

Prince Edward Island did not release any new COVID-19 data on Wednesday, but the latest numbers from Tuesday say the province has seen 91 confirmed cases of the virus, 84 of which are considered to be resolved.

In Western Canada 1,819 new cases were detected, with Alberta and British Columbia reporting 1,301 and 518 infections respectively.

Nineteen new deaths in Alberta bring the province’s death toll to 890, while the total number of cases stands at 93,781.

Meanwhile, health officials in B.C. said 19 more people have died after contracting the virus, pushing the total number of fatalities to 796.

B.C. has seen 47,603 confirmed COVID-19 infections, and 424 epidemiologically-linked cases, meaning they have not yet been confirmed by a laboratory. 

New cases in Nunavut

Nunavut added two new cases of COVID-19, but health officials said no one else has died after contracting the virus.

To date, the territory has seen 264 cases of the novel coronavirus and two fatalities.

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Health authorities in The Northwest Territories did not report any new infections, meaning the total number of cases remained at 24 on Wednesday.

The Yukon did not release any new COVID-19 data on Wednesday. So far, the territory has seen 59 cases of the virus and one fatality.

Global cases top 78 million

Globally over 78 million people have contracted the virus.

By 7 p.m. ET, there were a total of 78,551,622 confirmed cases of COVID-19 around the world.

To date, 1,725,959 people have died after testing positive for COVID-19.

The United States remained the viral epicentre on Wednesday, with over 18.3 million infections and more than 325,000 fatalities.