Jennifer Mendoza
Research expert covering health, pharma and medtech
Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Canada - Statistics & Facts
Although COVID-19 continues to circulate around the world, the impact of the disease in many countries has greatly lessened. High rates of vaccination in many countries and the high number of people who have already been infected with the disease, have contributed to a decrease in new cases and many countries have completely lifted COVID-19 restrictions and even stopped keeping accurate counts of new infections. As of May 2, 2023, the number of COVID-19 cases worldwide had reached over 687 million. Canada confirmed its first case in late January 2020 – linked to an individual who had recently traveled to Wuhan, China. It was not until the beginning of March 2020 that the first case of community transmission was reported.
Shortly afterward, the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases in Canada began to rise. This resulted in provinces and territories declaring states of emergency, closing schools and non-essential businesses, and prohibiting public gatherings. As a result, the daily number of new cases of COVID-19 in Canada decreased. However, cases began to surge in the autumn, once again causing restrictions to be put into place. A sharp fall in cases was recorded in early 2021, but the country started to experience a third wave of infection in March and again in December of 2021. As of April 25, 2023, the total number of COVID-19 cases in Canada had reached 4.65 million, with most cases found in Ontario and Quebec.
