Only 1 Province Has A Positive Test Rate For COVID-19 That's Above 3%

Even with high case counts, there's still a silver lining for some parts of the country. The COVID-19 positivity rate in Canada is over 3% in only one province which is considered high. Some provinces and territories even have rates below 1%.

Editor's Choice: Canada Has Revealed What Single-Use Plastics Will Be Banned Across The Country

Which province has a 3% positive test rate?

Dr. Andrew Morris, an infectious disease specialist with Sinai Health and the University Health Network, told the Toronto Star that high numbers mean a worrying level of positive cases.

"Anything over 3% is pretty high," he said. "When you get over 8, 9 or 10%, it’s very, very high."

While no province or territory in Canada is close to 10%, one province is in the "pretty high" zone.

As of October 5, Quebec reported 81,014 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 2,500,916 tests completed.

That works out to a positivity rate of about 3.2%.

Quebec also has the highest number of total and active cases, as well as the most deaths in Canada but doesn't have the most tests completed.

What is the rate like in other provinces and territories?

The other provinces and territories are faring a lot better than Quebec is.

B.C. has the next highest rate after them at 1.6% with 9,841 confirmations and 608,645 tests completed as of October 6.

Then there's Ontario with 55,362 cases and 4,169,346 tests
as of that date for a positivity rate of 1.3%.

Alberta has the same rate as Ontario despite having more than 36,000 fewer positives.

The province has counted 19,211 instances and 1,442,603 tests completed as of October 5.

There's a positive rate of 1.1% as of October 6 in Manitoba with 2,246 confirmations and 195,595 tests done.

Nova Scotia's rate is 1.0% with 1,089 cases and 99,199 tests as of that same date.

The rest of the provinces and all of the territories have positives below 1% as of October 6.

Saskatchewan is at 0.97% with 1,984 positives and 203,733 tests done.

Newfoundland & Labrador's rate is 0.6% because the province has 277 instances with 44,738 tests.

There's a 0.4% positivity rate in Yukon with the territory having 15 confirmed cases of the virus and 3,522 tests.

With 205 confirmations and 80,809 tests in New Brunswick, the province's rate is 0.25%.

P.E.I. has the fewest cases with just 61 and the smallest rate at 0.18% of all the provinces; 35,378 tests have been completed there.

There are five instances of COVID-19 in Northwest Territories and 5,442 tests have been done which works out to a rate of 0.09%.

In Nunavut, there have been zero cases in the population but positives have been confirmed in workers at a mine.

That's not counted because the workers aren't Nunavummiut and there is no contact from the mine to any Nunavut community.

What's the situation in all of Canada?

For the entire country, the positive test rate for COVID-19 is below 3% but it's within reach of that "pretty high" designation.

As of October 6, there have been 171,323 cases confirmed in Canada and 7,759,301 tests completed.

That works out to a rate of 2.1%.

So the country's rate isn't as high as Quebec's but it's still higher than all of the other provinces and territories.

With 2,363 new cases reported on that date, it's the highest daily increase since the pandemic started.