DATA TRENDING IN RIGHT DIRECTION, TRUDEAU SAYS.
OTTAWA • The number of people with the new coronavirus in Canada is trending in the right direction but strict physical distancing will need to stay in place, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Sunday.
The remarks by Trudeau were some of his most upbeat since the crisis began in March.
The total number of people killed by the coronavirus in Canada rose by just under 12 per cent to 1,506 in a day, official data showed on Sunday. The figure for those diagnosed with the coronavirus had climbed to 33,922.
The respective figures on Saturday were 1,346 deaths and 32,412 positive diagnoses.
As many countries have done during the pandemic, authorities across Canada ordered the closure of non-essential businesses, throwing millions out of work, and urged people to stay at home. In response, Ottawa has unveiled more than $200 billion in programs to help dull the economic pain.
“All these measures we’ve brought in are about helping you do the things that will get us through this. And it’s working — we’re seeing the numbers trend in the right direction so we need to keep doing what we’re doing,” Trudeau told a daily briefing.
He later added: “People need to know that it (the economy) is not suddenly going to reopen in any part of the country overnight to what it was before. We are going to have to be very very careful (and) very gradual” to prevent a resurgence.
Meanwhile, COVID-19 continued its cruel march through Quebec’s long-term care homes on Sunday, as the province raised its death toll by 72 and the Canadian Armed Forces prepared to step in to lend a hand.
Close to 60 per cent of the province’s 877 deaths have now been linked to the province’s long-term care homes, provincial data showed. That number sat at about 50 per cent early last week.
While Premier Francois Legault did not deliver an update over the weekend, he has requested that any Quebecers with medical training, including retired nurses, orderlies and specialist doctors, sign up to lend a hand in the centres, which have long been plagued with low salaries and staffing issues that have been made worse by the pandemic.
The provincial government reported 836 more cases on Sunday, for a total of 18,357.
There was some bright news on the hospitalization front, as the number of people in intensive care dropped for a fifth straight day to 183.
The number of hospitalizations initially appeared to drop as well. However the province later revised its numbers from the day before to reflect that the number of people in hospital rose by 22 from Saturday to Sunday to just over 1,100.