Coronavirus: Canada imposes stricter restrictions …

Canadian authorities on Friday expressed concern over the course of the pandemic, after the country this week set two consecutive records in daily records for infections.

“Canada continues to face an extremely dire situation with this third wave. Cases are increasing rapidly. In many places the numbers are higher than ever and too many hospitals are in trouble,” the Canadian Prime Minister warned. Justin at a press conference.

In Toronto, he said, “the numbers are constantly breaking records” and admitted that “there is no doubt that Canada’s largest city is suffering under the weight of the third wave.” “We will do whatever it takes to help,” he added.

Canada on Thursday counted 9,562 new cases of Covid-19, the highest number since the start of the pandemic and the following are expected to be higher.

In the past 24 hours, Ontario, the country’s most populous province, broke its all-time high for infections, with 4,812 new cases.

Canada now has 231 cases of COVID-19 per million people, compared to 212.9 in the United States and 183 in Spain, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced new restrictions in addition to the containment order which has been in effect since April 8.

Ford noted that travel between Ontario and other provinces across the country will be limited to essential reasons, adding that for the first time since the start of the pandemic, roadblocks will be established to prevent unauthorized travel.

This province has also extended the declaration of emergency in force since April 8 and will allow police to patrol the streets to verify that the population remains at home.

“We are losing the battle between the variants and the vaccines. The reality is that there are few solutions left,” Ford said to justify the new measures.

He also criticized the federal government for distributing vaccines to the provinces, pointing out that if Ontario could immunize 300,000 people a day, the spread of the disease could be brought under control.

Canada has suffered from vaccine supply problems since February due to pharmaceutical companies struggling to meet their commitments.

The Canadian government has revealed that Moderna will only send half of the doses planned for April (650,000 instead of 1.2 million) and that in the second quarter of the year, the company will also not be able to meet its targets. forecasts.

To compensate, Trudeau announced that the country has signed a new contract with Pfizer, for which it will receive eight million additional doses to those already committed: four million in May, two million in June and the rest in July.

With this new contract, Canada expects to receive 23.8 million doses of Pfizer’s vaccine in the second quarter of the year.

Canada is the only industrialized country to have decided to delay the distribution of the second dose of the vaccine until four months after the first in order to partially immunize as many people as possible.

To date, 22.13% of the Canadian population has received at least one dose of the vaccine and 2.26% both doses.