Prime Minister Justin Trudeau continued to prod premiers towards more stringent measures to rein in the precipitous rise in COVID-19 cases, warning that his government doesn't have "infinite resources" to stem the regional spread of the virus.
The caution came as Trudeau announced $1.5 billion in federal funding on Friday to help provinces retrain workers left jobless by the pandemic, on top of the $3.5 billion that had previously been announced.
Trudeau said he heard directly from premiers about the challenges they're facing during a conference call Thursday evening.
The prime minister said he assured the premiers that his government is prepared to offer assistance, but if they don't take the necessary action to reduce case counts, there may not be enough to go around.
"If we have limited resources, we may at some point have to choose between helping one region or another," Trudeau said in French at a news conference Friday. "We want to avoid having to make such tough choices."
Canada is reporting more than 45,000 active COVID-19 cases, the highest total since the pandemic began. There was also a new national daily high of 5,516 new cases on Thursday.
Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada's chief public health officer, told reporters Friday that Canada is projected to hit 10,000 COVID-19 cases a day by early next month if the wildfire spread of the virus continues at the current pace.
In British Columbia, Fraser Health remains the epicentre of the virus as case counts have break records on a daily basis.
On Thursday, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry announced 594 new cases over a 24-hour period. And new modelling from the B.C. Centre for Disease Control indicates cases of COVID-19 are doubling across the province every two weeks.
That’s put pressure on contact tracers, whose work is critical to understanding and isolating the virus before it’s transmitted further.
“We’re reaching our limits,” said Dr. Henry, urging Metro Vancouverites to heed her latest public health orders.
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