Canada seeing a massive spike in COVID cases, hospitals could be swamped – PM Trudeau

Canada is seeing a massive spike in COVID-19 cases which could overwhelm the hospital system, an emotional Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday, imploring Canadians to stay home as much as possible.

A second wave is ripping across the country, forcing several of the 10 provinces to reimpose restrictions on movement and businesses. Cases continue to spike and authorities complain some people are being more careless about taking precautions.

Trudeau, saying “a normal Christmas is quite frankly right out of the question”, spoke shortly after Theresa Tam, chief public health officer, predicted new daily cases could soar to 60,000 by the end of the year from less than 5,000 now.

“Cases across the country are spiking massively … we’re really at risk of seeing case loads go up and hospitals get overwhelmed,” said a clearly upset Trudeau.

He dismissed the idea of Ottawa invoking emergency powers to reintroduce the kind of widespread national shutdown that provinces imposed earlier in the year, saying “I’m not looking to bring in a federal hammer to try and do things”.

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