Canada could see 60,000 COVID-19 cases per day by year-end if...

New COVID-19 infections could reach 60,000 a day by the end of December if Canadians increase their current level of contact with other people, according to modeling charts prepared by the Public Health Agency of Canada and as seen by CBC News.According to new modeling – which will be released tomorrow – that number could drop to 20,000 per day if Canadians maintain their current number of personal contacts.

But to reduce that number to less than 10,000 cases per day by the end of the year, Canadians should limit their interactions to essential activities while maintaining their physical distance and following other public health guidelines. .

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and opposition leaders met earlier this evening with Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, and her Deputy, Dr. Howard Njoo, to discuss the new model.

Tam will hold a press conference at 9 a.m. ET to officially provide detailed projections on potential infections and deaths from the novel coronavirus.

After the meeting, Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole released a statement criticizing the Liberal government’s response to the pandemic.

“What struck me was that 11 months after news broke about the spread of COVID-19, after thousands of lives and millions of jobs have been lost and hundreds of billions of dollars added to the national debt, we, as a country, are in a worse situation than at the start of the pandemic, ”he said.

“We are in this position because the government has not given Canadians the opportunity to quickly and frequently test for COVID-19, has failed to tell Canadians how they plan to administer a vaccine, and has failed to demonstrate transparency with Canadians on what was related to COVID-19. information they use to make decisions that affect life and employment. “

O’Toole said the government must come up with a plan to test, trace and isolate those infected because shutting down the economy is “just not a solution.”

Public health orders

The national snapshot comes as Manitoba, which now faces the highest daily number of COVID-19 cases per capita among Canadian provinces, is set to issue new orders starting Friday to limit the spread virus.

Public health orders will ban people from having inside their homes who do not live there, with a few exceptions, and will ban businesses from selling non-essential items in stores. Large retailers must limit their capacity at any time to 25 percent of their normal limit or to a maximum of 250 people, whichever is lower.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford also warned Thursday that additional public health restrictions would be announced Friday for hot spots in the province.

“These measures will have to be severe in the hardest hit areas,” he said. “We have difficult but necessary decisions to make. “