
Here are the latest local, regional and national headlines on the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) for Monday, January 4, 2021:
- There have been 190,962 confirmed cases of COVID-19 across Ontario, an increase of 2,964 (or 1.6 per cent) from the previous day. There are 162,701 people recovered from the virus while 4,650 people have died. The number of Ontario people tested is 8,103,832 of which 27,769 have pending results.
- Canada’s coronavirus case total is 601,663. The country has 15,865 deaths from the virus – one in the Yukon, one in Nunavut, 901 in British Columbia, 1,046 in Alberta, 158 in Saskatchewan, 683 in Manitoba, 4,650 in Ontario, 8,347 in Quebec, nine in New Brunswick, four in Newfoundland & Labrador and 65 in Nova Scotia.
- The Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit stands at 674 confirmed cases, of which 28 are active and 593 are recovered. There have been 53 deaths to date. There are no institutional outbreaks. The community case breakdown is: Lanark County East (two active), Lanark County West (10 active), Leeds-Grenville Central (two active), Leeds-Grenville East (eight active) and Leeds-Grenville West (five active).
- The Eastern Ontario Health Unit region stands at 1,434 confirmed cases with 296 active cases and 1,105 resolved. There have been 33 deaths to date. Six people are in hospital. There are 15 active institutional outbreaks. Testing is at 94,719.
- The federal government is actively looking at all options around a federal sick leave benefit for Canadians who have to quarantine due to COVID-19. One of those ideas is to make people who travel overseas ineligible for the $1,000 benefit, as suggested by the leader of the Bloc Quebecois.
- Another Canadian politician is in trouble for travelling outside the country. Liberal MP Kamal Khera is stepping down from her parliamentary secretary role to the minister of international development. Khera flew to Seattle for a memorial service for the deaths of her uncle and father.
- With the holidays over, Canadian health officials are bracing for a possible spike in COVID-19 cases. It all depends on whether people followed strict health rules about not getting together, socializing or partying. It will be a few days to a week before the fallout from Christmas or New Years is known. Quebec had a new single day record of 2,869 new cases on Sunday. It’s had more than 7,600 cases since New Year’s Eve.
- Nunavut no longer has any active cases of COVID-19, according to the premier. He says that 265 residents who had the virus have recovered. There has been one death since the pandemic began.
- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he hopes to have tens of millions of Brits vaccinated within the next three months. Johnson adds that restrictions might have to be tightened due to the fast-moving contagious variant of COVID-19. The United Kingdom has recorded more than 50,000 new coronavirus cases a day for six days in a row – 54,990 on Sunday.
- The U.S. death toll from coronavirus has surpassed 350,000. Another surge in cases and deaths is anticipated after people gathered for the holidays. There have been more than 20 million coronavirus cases in the United States.
Have a story or news release related to COVID-19? Send it along for possible inclusion in a future digest on Brockville Newswatch. Email editor@brockvillenewswatch.com. Please put “COVID-19 Digest” in the subject line.