Canada's COVID-19 Cases Are Increasing At A Slower Rate Than Other Countries

There are new updates amid the pandemic, and there is actually some good news for Canada! Right now, we seem to be doing better than most other places in the world. COVID-19 in Canada has a smaller curve than many other countries, and the number of cases is increasing much slower.

During a press conference on April 28, Canada's top health officials gave an update on models and projections for COVID-19.

One of those models shows how Canada compares to other countries when it comes to how fast the pandemic is spreading in each place.

The graph starts on the day each country reached 500 cases and grows from there.

Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada's Chief Public Health Officer, noted that countries whose epidemics began before Canada's were chosen for this specific comparison.

Here at home, we're actually at an earlier stage than a lot of countries.

Dr. Tam also mentioned that the total case count for the country as a whole is increasing more slowly than other places around the world, which at least sounds like a good thing!

Back when the first models and projections were announced on April 9, the confirmed case count was doubling every three-to-five days.

Now, the number of cases in Canada is doubling every 16 days.

"Canada's epidemic slope is bending as the rate of growth slows down in response to our collective control efforts," Dr. Tam explained on Tuesday.

[rebelmouse-image 25979050 photo_credit="Public Health Agency of Canada | Handout" expand=1 original_size="1308x722"]

When you look at the graph, Canada's curve is also lower than most countries in terms of cumulative confirmed cases.

Only Japan and South Korea are below it.

While this graph doesn't show every country in the world, it's helpful to see how Canada is doing compared to other places.

The model also shows that growth is slowing down in most of the countries that Canada is compared to.

During Tuesday's press conference, Dr. Tam also noted that in order for the pandemic to disappear, each infected person would only spread the virus to less than one person on average.

Currently, each positive case leads to just about one other case because of strong control measures.

"Once we're on the downside of the slope, we must absolutely remain vigilant and continue our public health measures," Dr. Tam added.

Since the last briefing about the state of COVID-19 in Canada, cases have more than doubled.