Canada Surpasses 30,000 Confirmed COVID-19 Cases, 1,193 Deaths - Health Agency

The virus-related death toll rose by 145 since the morning hours to 1,193, according to the data updated on Thursday, in large part due to a sharp increase in fatalities in long-term care facilities.

Half of the reported deaths are attributed to care home, which led to the revision of the expected mortality rates – officials now project that up to 1,620 Canadians will succumb to complications of the novel coronavirus. Modeling data from federal health officials on April 9, indicated that the number of coronavirus-induced deaths was expected in the 500-700 range by April 16.

The province of Quebec remains the epicenter of the outbreak in Canada as provincial authorities have confirmed 15,857 cases of the disease and 630 deaths.

The dire situation in Quebec has prompted the province to officially request the federal government for medical personnel from the Canadian military to deal, in part, with the dozens of outbreaks in long-term care facilities across the province. The Canadian Rangers have already been deployed to two northern communities in Quebec.

The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11. To date, 2.15 million people have been infected with the new coronavirus worldwide, of which more than 143,000 have succumbed to the deadly virus, according to Johns Hopkins University.