OTTAWA, April 12 (Xinhua) -- For the first time in Canada's 152-year history, Easter Sunday, the most important holy day and significant holiday in the mainly Christian country, was not celebrated in the traditional way.
Churches, normally packed, were locked. Families and friends, accustomed to gathering for a feast, had to stay at home as Canada attempts to flatten the curve of the COVID-19 pandemic within its borders.
In light of government directive, churches streamed services, and friends and families took to Zoom or some other video-chat platforms.
Yet the novel coronavirus disease continued to take lives in Canada, and as of Sunday evening, the country's Public Health Agency reported there were a total of 717 deaths across the country due to COVID-19, an increase of 64 within 24 hours.
The total number of COVID-19 cases also experienced a day-to-day increase of 1,065, bringing the total to 24,383 in the country as of Sunday night.
Canada's long-term facilities, or nursing homes, for seniors have been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. At one, near the province of Quebec's largest city of Montreal, 31 people died at a residence since March 13, with five fatalities linked to COVID-19.
Quebec's government has called for a police investigation, and in light of the COVID outbreak at long-term centers in Canada's largest province of Ontario, the country's deputy prime minister, Chrystia Freeland, said at a Saturday news conference that the federal and provincial governments are working on implementing measures to better protect the safety of residents of these facilities.
However, issues are emerging as to how Canada prepared for the pandemic and how it is managing it.
Carla Qualtrough, the country's former minister of public services and procurement who now serves as employment minister, said on Sunday that increasing Canada's supply of now-desperately needed personal protective equipment was "not a top priority" for the government that was more focused on defense-related procurement, such as acquiring ships for the Canadian Coast Guard.
A made-in-Canada blood test to quickly detect the presence of COVID-19 antibodies has also not been approved for use in Canada, CBC reported on Sunday.
The test, developed by Canadian biotechnology company, BTNX, Inc., which uses a drop of blood and generates results within 15 minutes, is being sold to healthcare professionals in the United States under the Food and Drug Administration's emergency guidelines.
