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.

In the past week, the national average of cases was 2,808 a day, down from an average of 3,509 in the previous week, though it’s not clear how much of the current dip is due to jurisdictions not reporting data over the Family Day weekend. As well, Toronto, which reported 266 cases on Sunday, continues to warn that case counts may fluctuate on a daily basis as it continues its migration to the provincial data management system. At the same time, the spread of the new variants is continuing; on Monday, everyone in a condominium building in Mississauga was offered COVID-19 tests after five residents tested positive for the Brazilian variant B.1.351.

As Newfoundland and Labrador deals with an outbreak of the B.1.1.7 variant, the province announced new restrictions on rotational workers returning home from worksites, such as the oilfields in Alberta, where the variant is known to be spreading. The province’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Janice Fitzgerald, said that all such returning workers will have to self-isolate away from families for a full 14-day period (previously they could leave quarantine after a week if they got a negative COVID-19 test). “It’s unfortunate,” said Dr. Fitzgerald , “We hope we don’t have to keep it in place for long.”

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