The latest:

Canada's chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, says the country's average daily count of new COVID-19 cases hit 2,052 over the last seven days.

That's up 40 per cent over the previous week and is nearly 10 times the low it reached last July.

Tam said the Public Health Agency of Canada is also seeing an upward trend in the number of COVID-19 patients being hospitalized.

In a statement, Tam said the increasing number and variety of COVID-19 tests available in Canada is a good step but that testing cannot replace basic health measures like physical distancing and wearing face masks.

What's happening in the rest of Canada

As of 4:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Canada had 172,865 confirmed or presumptive coronavirus cases. Provinces and territories listed 145,421 of those as recovered or resolved. A CBC News tally of deaths based on provincial reports, regional health information and CBC's reporting stood at 9,541.

Quebec reported 900 new cases and 17 more deaths on Wednesday.

In Montreal, a growing share of new cases are people aged 65 and older, leading the city's director of public health on Wednesday to ask Montrealers to keep their distance from their older family members — even if they live in the same home.

Ontario reported another 583 cases on Wednesday, while the number of resolved infections outpaced new daily cases for the first time in months.

At a new conference on Wednesday, Premier Doug Ford urged Ontarians to spend the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday with people in their own household.

Students sanitize their hands after a morning snack at a Toronto school on Wednesday. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

Manitoba reported three more COVID-19-related deaths and 32 more cases of the illness on Wednesday. Public health officials are also advising about possible exposures at two Winnipeg schools.

New Brunswick says there are 17 new cases connected to an outbreak at a special care home in Moncton.

Dr. Jennifer Russell, the province's chief medical officer of health, said 13 Manoir Notre-Dame residents, four staff and two family members have tested positive for COVID-19. Russell said the source of the outbreak remains under investigation. 

Home oxygen machines are delivered to the coronavirus-hit Manoir Notre-Dame special care home in Moncton, N.B., on Wednesday. (Shane Magee/CBC)

Newfoundland and Labrador is asking workers who returned to the province in the last two weeks from certain work sites in Nunavut and Alberta to self-isolate and get tested for COVID-19.

The Health Department issued three warnings on Wednesday about outbreaks at the Hope Bay gold mine in Nunavut; at Syncrude Canada's Aurora mine site, close to Fort McMurray, Alta.; and at Methanex's methanol plant in Medicine Hat, Alta.

Nova Scotia reported no new cases on Wednesday.

Saskatchewan health officials declared a "multi-jurisdictional community transmitted outbreak" after a large number of people who recently attended events at a gospel centre in Prince Albert tested positive for the virus. 

What's happening around the world

According to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, the global total of confirmed coronavirus cases stands at more than 35.9 million. More than 1,050,000 people have died, while more than 25 million have recovered.

In Europe, coronavirus infections in the Czech Republic have hit a record high, surpassing 4,000 cases in one day for the first time. Slovakia also reported another record daily increase in coronavirus infections, reaching nearly 900.

The Scottish government is banning indoor drinking at bars and forcing restaurants to close in the evening for 16 days to help contain the coronavirus starting Friday. Similarly, Brussels will close all bars, dance halls and cafeterias in the Belgian capital for a month. 

A server wearing a face mask brings beers to customers in a pub in Brussels on Wednesday. (Francisco Seco/The Associated Press)

In Africa, 15 clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccines are underway across the continent, according to a comment published in the journal Nature by the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Five trials are occurring in South Africa and four in Egypt, with a single trial each in Guinea-Bissau, Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

African nations have teamed up to combat the pandemic, with painful memories of millions of Africans dying in the decade it took for affordable HIV drugs to become available on the continent.

In the Americas, the U.S. state of Wisconsin announced Wednesday that a field hospital will open next week at the state fairgrounds near Milwaukee as a surge in COVID-19 cases threatens to overwhelm hospitals.

Wisconsin has become a hot spot for the disease over the last month, ranking third in the U.S. this week in daily new cases per capita. Health experts have attributed the spike to the reopening of colleges and K-12 schools, as well as general fatigue over wearing masks and physically distancing.

In Asia-Pacific, New Zealand has again eliminated COVID-19 in the community after the last six active cases associated with a minor outbreak in Auckland have recovered. From midnight Wednesday, limits on public gatherings and activities in the city will be lifted, though physical distancing is advised.

Iranian state TV on Wednesday reported 239 new deaths in the country, the highest number of daily deaths from the coronavirus. The previous high was 235 daily deaths.