Canada surpassed the grim milestone of 600,000 coronavirus cases, two weeks after passing half a million, underscoring the pandemic's persistence in the country during the end-of-year holiday period.

On Sunday afternoon, Canada recorded 601,314 Covid-19 infections since the start of the pandemic and 15,860 deaths, according to data from provinces and territories reported by the public television station CBC.

Ontario, Canada's most populous province, recorded 2,964 new cases in 24 hours, and Quebec registered 2,869, a new daily record for the French-speaking province, which also has the country's highest death toll. There have been 4,650 Covid-19 deaths to date in Ontario and 8,347 in Quebec.

Canada, a country of about 38 million, did not reach its first 100,000 cases until mid-June, three months after it recorded its first Covid-19 diagnoses.