COVID-19 Update for October 30 2020 – 2:30pm

This morning, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau released an update on national COVID-19 modelling, made funding announcements to help Indigenous communities recover from COVID-19 and announced an update to the COVID alert app.

Updated COVID-19 Modelling

According to the modelling numbers released today, Canada has a total of 228,542 cases of COVID-19, of which 27,259 are active, with 10,074 deaths. Combined, Ontario and Quebec comprise more than three-quarters of all COVID-19 cases in Canada, and 92.6 per cent of all deaths.

A quarter of all Canadian cases of COVID-19 are found in patients more than 60 years old, but nearly one in five are between the ages of 20 and 29, and 13 per cent are under the age of 19.

Out of 194,583 studied cases, 8.3 per cent resulted in a hospitalization. Of that 8.3 per cent, 21.1 per cent were admitted to the ICU, and five per cent required medical ventilation. One-third (33.6 per cent) of cases requiring hospitalization were found in patients aged 80 years or older.

Canada’s reproduction number remains above one, meaning the epidemic is continuing to grow.

The epidemiology summary can be found online here.

Funding for Indigenous Communities

Trudeau also announced $120 million for early learning and childcare for Indigenous communities to aid in their recovery from COVID-19. The funding will allow them to offer training and hire additional staff. The federal government will also invest more than $25 million to help Indigenous post-secondary institutions with increased costs due to COVID-19, and $59 million will be invested to improve infrastructure in First Nations communities.

More funding is also being made available for six research and development programs to help combat COVID-19 — whether it be through developing rapid tests or other initiatives through the National Research Council of Canada. Additionally, $2.5 million will support a study on the rate of COVID-19 infections in travellers coming into Canada.

COVID App Update

The COVID alert app has received an update that will now allow positive cases to input the date of the start of their symptoms and the date of their test to help provide data on when that case may have been the most infectious.

Easing Restrictions in Ontario?

No actual announcement yet, but during his afternoon briefing today Premier Doug Ford said he is instructing public health experts to report next week with a plan to begin easing restrictions to safely allow businesses to re-open after the 28-day period has elapsed.