“In all fairness it is terrifying to see cases increasing day in and day out at home and around the world,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday at a press conference in Ottawa, asking Canadians to follow health guidelines while vaccines are rolled out. the country.
“The amounts of both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines will increase in February,” he said. “Remember, Canada has the most vaccines per capita in the world, which means we’ll have enough vaccines for every Canadian who wants one by September.”
Some provincial leaders have said federal authorities have not yet provided enough doses to meet the demand for vaccinations for priority groups such as health professionals and residents of long-term care centers.
Concerns about vaccinations are coming as the second wave of the pandemic in Canada is taking a heavy toll on hospitals, with admissions surpassing the number of hospitalizations during the first wave.
According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, the seven-day average for new daily cases is about 7,600. There are currently more than 4,300 people in hospital and more than 800 patients in intensive care – a record number.
Provinces lock themselves in during a wave
Canada is going through a wave after the holidays, although most Canadians were told not to get together with anyone outside their household during the holidays.
Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, has warned that the hospital system is at a breaking point and that it may soon become necessary to move patients from region to region as beds fill up.
“There will be a wake-up call, a real wake-up call,” Ontario Prime Minister Doug Ford said at a news conference Friday.
And Ontario could be next, Ford suggested, saying people should “ stay home to save lives. ”
“If these basic measures are still ignored, the consequences will be worse. The shutdown will not end at the end of January and we will have to look at more extreme measures,” he said.
The province of Manitoba, like most other Canadian provinces, has extended its Friday lockdown for two weeks, citing 355 new Covid-19 cases directly related to holiday gatherings. Officials noted that those positive cases may have infected more than 1,900 other people, and some stated that they had attended meetings with more than two dozen people.
For the first time during this pandemic, Canadian health officials in many provinces are starting to deplete peak hospital capacity, with Ontario in particular struggling to create and staff more ICU beds.
“Today’s numbers are, to be honest, scary. It’s going in the wrong direction,” said Dr. Barbara Yaffe, Ontario’s associate chief medical officer of health, at a news conference Friday, when Ontario broke a day record for new cases.
“We have more and more people hospitalized, more people on respirators. Hospitals are starting to cut back on surgeries and other important procedures that require ICU. We have more and more outbreaks in congregational care, especially long-term care. now more positivity, even in children, ”she said.
CNN’s Dakin Andone contributed to this report.