Here are the latest local, regional and national headlines on the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) for Sunday, December 20, 2020:
- There have been 153,614 confirmed cases of COVID-19 across Ontario, an increase of 2,357 (or 1.6 per cent) from the previous day. There are 131,282 people recovered from the virus while 4,125 people have died. The number of Ontario people tested is 7,302,120 of which 78,147 have pending results.
- Canada’s coronavirus case total is 501,594. The country has 14,154 deaths from the virus – one in the Yukon, 724 in British Columbia, 841 in Alberta, 115 in Saskatchewan, 556 in Manitoba, 4,125 in Ontario, 7,715 in Quebec, eight in New Brunswick, four in Newfoundland & Labrador and 65 in Nova Scotia.
- The country hit another unwanted benchmark on Saturday surpassing half a million confirmed COVID-19 cases. That was mainly fueled by case counts in the hardest hit provinces of Ontario and Quebec where new daily cases exceeding 2,000.
- The Eastern Ontario Health Unit region stands at 1,171 confirmed cases, of which 292 are active and 847 are resolved. The number of deaths is 32. Eight people are in hospital, including two in ICU. There are 11 active outbreaks (includes nursing and retirement homes, lodging homes, group homes, schools and daycare). Testing is at 90,476. The breakdown of cases is: Prescott-Russell 698 cases (147 active), SD&G 232 cases (91 active), Cornwall 202 cases (52 active) and Akwesasne (ON/QC) 39 cases (two active). (The health unit doesn’t update statistics on weekends)
- The Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit stands at 628 confirmed cases, of which 50 are active and 525 are recovered. The number of deaths to date is 53. There are no institutional outbreaks. The community case breakdown is: Leeds-Grenville East (seven active), Leeds-Grenville Central (six active), Leeds-Grenville West (22 active), Lanark County West (10 active) and Lanark County East (five active). (The health unit doesn’t update statistics on weekends)
- Premier Doug Ford is having emergency meetings over the weekend ahead of Monday’s announcement on possibly adding to the lockdowns for the hot zones of Toronto and Peel Region.
- A new strain of COVID-19 – 70 per cent more transmissible – is sweeping through Britain prompting the Prime Minister Boris Johnson to put a large swath of the United Kingdom into one of the highest coronavirus restrictions, known as a Tier 4 lockdown. That means thousands of Christmas gatherings will be cancelled. There are 1.9 million cases in the UK.
- The U.S. had a record day of new cases – 249,709 cases according to Johns Hopkins University. There were 2,814 deaths.
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