OTTAWA (Reuters) -Longer-range forecasts show a second wave of the coronavirus is still spreading rapidly through Canada and all the major provinces need to do more, federal health authorities said on Friday.
Many of the 10 provinces have reimposed some restrictions on businesses and limited gatherings as numbers continue to spike.
“(The) longer-range forecast shows overall for Canada, we remain on a rapid growth trajectory,” Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam said in a presentation to media.
“A stronger response is needed now in all large provinces to slow the spread of COVID-19.”
Tam said that by Dec. 25 the domestic cumulative death toll could be between 14,410 and 14,920, with the total number of cases ranging from 531,300 to 577,000. Canada has so far reported 13,109 deaths and 442,069 cases.
Next week Canada is set to become only the second nation in the world after Britain to start vaccinating against the coronavirus. The first 30,000 doses of Pfizer’s Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine are set to arrive in the next few days.
(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Franklin Paul and Jonathan Oatis)
