OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada’s hospitalizations are surging, intensive care beds are filling up and COVID-19 variants are spreading as a third wave of the pandemic sweeps across much of the country, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday.
“Around the world, countries are facing a very serious third wave of this pandemic,” Trudeau told a news conference. “And right now, so is Canada.”
Canada has averaged nearly 5,200 new coronavirus cases per day over the past week, and has recorded a total of more than a million positive tests and 23,000 deaths.
The Canadian province of Ontario – the nation’s most populous – entered a limited lockdown on Saturday, but some local health officials are calling for more drastic measures. Trudeau said he would speak with Ontario Premier Doug Ford later on Tuesday, without providing further details.
Canadian provinces from Quebec westward to British Columbia, with the exception of Manitoba, are struggling against surging numbers of coronavirus infections.
The federal government has delivered more than 10 million doses of coronavirus vaccine so far, and provincial health agencies are in the process of administering shots. Trudeau has said everyone among the 38 million Canadians who want to be vaccinated will be by the end of September.
(Reporting by Steve Scherer and David Ljunggren; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
