More than 50,000 Canadians have died from COVID-19 since pandemic began

More than 40 Canadians are still dying from COVID-19 per day on average despite the prevalence of COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and overall immunity to the virus.

More than 50,000 Canadians have died after contracting COVID-19 since the pandemic emerged nearly three years ago, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) confirmed Monday — a sobering reminder that the virus remains a deadly concern.

The national death toll first crossed 50,000 last Tuesday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University and confirmed by a Global News analysis of provincial health data.

By Monday, the toll had reached 50,135, according to PHAC, which reports national data weekly based on provincial reports that are released throughout the week.

Quebec, which is the only province that still reports COVID-19 data daily, has seen the most confirmed deaths of any jurisdiction with 17,865 fatalities to date. Ontario has the second-highest provincial death toll as of Friday, which sits at 15,786, followed by Alberta at 5,470 deaths as of Wednesday.

British Columbia has seen 5,007 deaths according to the most recent data released on Thursday, a day that also saw Saskatchewan report a total of 1,826 deaths to date. Friday’s report saw Manitoba record 2,403 deaths since the pandemic began.

In Atlantic Canada, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island have recorded 762 and 85 deaths, respectively, as of Tuesday. Newfoundland and Labrador upped its death toll to 297 on Wednesday. As of Thursday, Nova Scotia has seen 706 deaths.

Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut stopped reporting their data last year, and have confirmed a combined 61 deaths since early 2020, half of which were in the Yukon.

Despite the prevalence of COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and overall immunity to the virus, about 40 Canadians are still dying from COVID-19 per day on average, according to Global News’ analysis of provincial data.