Your weekly COVID-19 update

Every Tuesday, the Maclean's daily newsletter will catch you up on what you need to know about Canada's fight against the coronavirus. This week, Patricia Treble focuses on one story worth watching, and you can get a sneak peek here. You'll also get the same mix of Maclean's stories you expect every day if you scroll down below.

The day after a long weekend is never a happy one for anyone tracking COVID-19 in Canada. The data is always a bit of a mess—more so after a holiday like Thanksgiving. Some jurisdictions reported daily, others reduced their workloads and others didn’t announce any new statistics. That’s particularly the case for the provinces experiencing the biggest surges in cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

Hardest hit Quebec reported data throughout the weekend, while Ontario announced its Monday figures alongside those for Tuesday, though some, but not all, of its public health units did update their figures on the statutory holiday. A lot of jurisdictions slowed both testing and reporting, meaning just 16,000 tests were officially reported on Monday. (Maclean’s gets its data from COVID-19 Canada Open Data Working Group, which uses local sources.)

This long-weekend data aftermath serves as a reminder that focusing on trends, rather than daily information, is how experts advise everyone evaluate what’s happening in the pandemic in Canada and around the world. And right now, Canada’s second wave remains in a steep upward incline.

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