Canada: COVID at ‘critical’ levels, personal contact discouraged

New daily cases of COVID-19 in Canada could almost double to more than 15,000 from 8,600 by the end of April unless stricter measures are taken as new coronavirus variants spread, health officials warned on Friday. The officials told a briefing that if people cut the number of personal contacts by 20-30 percent, the number of cases could drop to about 4,500. “Elevated case counts and severe illness trends remind us we are still in a right race between vaccines and variants and our actions matter,” said Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau echoed the call to reduce personal contact, saying the “COVID-19 situation is critical”. Major provinces such as Ontario are struggling to cope with a worsening third wave of COVID-19 and accuse Ottawa of not doing enough to clamp down on the spread of new, more highly transmissible virus variants and also of bungling the procurement of vaccines. Ontario reported more than 4,500 new cases on Friday.