Canada’s two largest provinces reported record high COVID-19 case counts Thursday, as preliminary data from Britain indicated that people with the Omicron variant are up to 70 per cent less likely to need hospitalization than those with the Delta mutation.
In total, Canada added 20,192 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday — pushing the national total to over 1.94 million infections.
Another 19 COVID-related deaths were also added by the provinces, raising the death toll to 30,131. Over 1.81 million patients have recovered from the disease however, though there are currently over active 98,000 cases.
In Quebec, the provincial government reported 9,397 new cases and a rise of 28 COVID-19-related hospitalizations, for a total of 473.