Canada now averaging more COVID-19 cases per million than U.S. — here's what the experts say | CBC News

Friday, April 9 marked the first day since the early days of the pandemic in March 2020 that Canada averaged more confirmed cases per million people than the U.S.

Experts say differences in the countries' vaccine rollouts and the presence of more transmissible variants in Canada contributed to this situation, but context is critical when comparing what's happening in both countries.

"Things are bad in Canada, I agree, but I think there's a little bit of caveat to say, 'We're worse than the United States right now,' without incorporating those pieces as part of the argument," said Dr.

Canada reported 3,091 confirmed COVID-19 cases on Feb.

has outpaced Canada in terms of delivering vaccines in both total amount of doses given and on a per capita basis; as of Monday, Our World in Data shows that more than 35 per cent of the total U.S.

population has received at least one dose, compared to just over 19 per cent in Canada.

As for cases, both Carr and Chagla suggested that the actual number in the U.S.

is likely higher than the confirmed total, while Carr reiterated the impact of the more highly transmissible variants of concern in Canada.

"Canada is one of the only countries in the world to be dealing with all three [variants of concern] and again, the more than double [the number] of cases in less than two months shows the impact," she said.

Because those areas and other parts of the country had massive numbers of cases and deaths, Chagla said a byproduct in that context is the emergence of some herd immunity among survivors.