Canada reports no new deaths from coronavirus for the first time since March

Canada has reported no deaths from Covid-19 on Friday for the first time in six months, per CBS News.

According to the publication, the last time that the country reported no new deaths from the virus was on March 15, at the start of a series of lockdowns in North America due to the pandemic.

As of Friday evening, over six million people have been tested for the coronavirus in Canada, 2.1% of which came back positive. Around 702 cases were reported on Friday, but no new deaths, per the Public Health Agency of Canada.

While Quebec reported one new death on September 11, Ontario removed a previously reported death, which means that the number of deaths reported, 9,163, remained unchanged from the day before.

As the numbers improve, "I am reminded of the ways Canadians have pulled together to reduce the spread of COVID-19," Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada's Chief Public Health Officer, said on Thursday in a statement. "We have been physically apart from each other in order to plank the curve, but we have found new ways to be together, and connected, while at a distance."

The majority of cases, 80.0%, and deaths, 93.7%, were reported by Ontario and Quebec.

In Canada, fatalities from the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic spiked in April and steadily increased until July, per data from the country's health department. They then started to plateau over the summer months.

According to the publication, 71.3 % of deaths in the country were in people over the age of 80.

Several provinces in Canada have begun easing lockdown restrictions, as schools start to reopen as usual, which has resulted in a recent spike in cases.

Compared to the United States, however, Canada has had fewer Covid-19 infections and resulting deaths. Per John Hopkins University, there have been 6,555,384 cases of coronavirus, at the time of writing.

Canada, however, has had 140,098 cases of the novel coronavirus.