“Canada is still going to face an incredibly serious situation with this third wave, cases are increasing rapidly in many cases, in many places, the numbers are higher than they have ever been and many hospitals are completely too thin, “said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. said during a press conference Friday in Ottawa.
He said the situation was particularly dire in Ontario, and Toronto has now seen records shattered and hospital beds full.
Ontario broke more pandemic records on Friday for daily cases, hospitalizations and admissions for intensive care.
“There is every reason to believe that we are now in the final, though the most difficult part of this pandemic, but this is not the moment to stop, not even for a moment,” Trudeau said. ‘This is the moment for us to dig deep into what are hopefully the very late stages of this pandemic for all of us. ‘
There has been a 35% increase in hospitalizations and a more than 20% increase in ICU admissions in the past week alone, public health officials said. More worrying is the 38% increase in deaths over the past week, they said.
The situation is particularly serious in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province.
“Note that our hospitals can no longer function normally, they are bursting at the seams,” said Dr. Adalsteinn Brown, Ontario’s co-chair in science, said. “We are setting up field hospitals and we are separating critically ill patients from their families by helicopter them across the province for care. Our children’s hospitals are now admitting adults as patients. This has never happened in Ontario, it has never happened before. happens in Canada before, ”
Based on new pandemic forecasts, the demand for acute care is expected to increase in the coming weeks, no matter how many restrictions are imposed, Brown said.
Strict lock-in measures expand in Ontario
Late Friday, Ontario extended its state of emergency and home order until at least May 15.
The province said it would also restrict interprovincial travel and set up checkpoints to enforce the mandate, while ordering non-essential construction to begin on Saturday.
All outdoor recreational activities, such as golf courses, playgrounds, basketball courts and soccer fields, will be closed. And even living outside with people who do not live in the same household is forbidden. Indoor gatherings between households have been banned since earlier this month.
All the major provinces of Canada are scrambling to contain the effect of variants, especially in the largest cities of Canada with low incomes.
“The relative risk of these variants with respect to the older version of COVID is much higher, higher for uptake, higher for ICU and higher for mortality. And it affects younger populations with much less vaccination or virus load that causes infection very quickly,” he said. dr. David Williams, Ontario’s chief medical officer for health during an update Friday in Toronto.
Trudeau reflects on the fatigue of millions of Canadians who have now gone through many months of blockade and restrictions, revealing that he had an argument with his 13-year-old son on Friday morning, saying public health measures are still needed.
“Xavier is 13 years old and he misses his friends, he does not want to go to school online, he wants to go outside to play basketball with his friends, he wants the normal life we all honestly want at the moment,” he said. , “but the reality is that we know that the best way to get through this is to follow each and every one of our local public health rules. ”