Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned Canadians on Tuesday that the situation with the COVID-19 pandemic in the country “remains extremely serious” as the number of infections continues to rise despite efforts to ramp up vaccinations.
“On Sunday, Ontario reported a record single-day high of new COVID-19 cases. And not just in Ontario, but in many parts of the country, ICU beds in hospitals are filling up,” Trudeau said.
“And the patients in them are younger and younger. This is not the place anyone wanted to be.”
Canadians are “not out of the woods yet” with the coronavirus, Trudeau said.
“Everyone is working around the clock to get as many Canadians vaccinated as quickly as possible,” Trudeau said.
“But right now, more contagious and dangerous variants are spreading and threatening the progress we’ve made.”
Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, said over one million cases of COVID-19, including over 23,350 deaths have been reported in Canada so far.
“Over the past week, there has been a 33-per-cent rise in daily case counts with an average of almost 8,100 new cases reported daily,” Tam said. “During the same time, the number of people experiencing severe and critical illness continues to rise; on average over 3,000 people with COVID-19 were being treated in our hospitals each day representing a 29-per-cent increase over last week.”
There are almost 36,000 variant of concern cases reported to date across Canada, with the B.1.1.7 variant first reported in the U.K. accounting for over 96 per cent of these, Tam said. There are 1,222 P.1 variants first reported in Brazil, and 365 B.1.351 variants originating from South Africa reported to date in Canada.
Worried about the rapid rise of the Brazil variant, federal authorities reinstated enhanced screening measures for all travellers to Canada who have been in the South American country in the past 14 days.
“Effective March 30, 2021, all travellers who have been in Brazil within 14 days of seeking entry into Canada are now subject to secondary screening and increased scrutiny of quarantine plans,” Heath Canada officials tweeted Tuesday.
(1/3) In response to the increased number of daily reported cases of the variant of #COVID19 first identified in Brazil, the #GoC has reinstated enhanced screening measures for all travellers to Canada who have been in Brazil in the past 14 days. pic.twitter.com/r6XGP22dbm
— Health Canada and PHAC (@GovCanHealth) April 13, 2021
Canadian officials are also closely watching the situation south of the border, where U.S. health authorities have paused the use of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine over concerns of a small number of rare blood clotting events, Trudeau said.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) jointly recommended a stoppage of the single-shot vaccine following reports of very rare blood clotting in six women ranging in age from 18 to 48.
Health authorities in the U.S. have administered 6.8 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson (Janssen) COVID-19 vaccine.
“We’re closely monitoring what’s happening in the U.S. We can assure everyone that Health Canada will, every step of the way, put the health of Canadians first and foremost around any decisions we make around the distribution of the vaccine,” Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa during his regular COVID-19 press conference.
Health Canada has asked Janssen to provide information on any cases of these rare blood clotting events, officials said Tuesday.
Canadian regulators approved the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in March and Canada has placed an order of 10 million doses of the vaccine with an option to buy 28 million more.
It’s not clear when the first shipment of the vaccine will arrive in Canada and what will happen with it.
Trudeau said in hindsight his government’s decision to sign contracts with seven vaccine candidate producers proved to be very wise given production delays and safety issues faced by the drugmakers.
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