Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday that people need to sometimes lean on their neighbours as the quarantines and lockdown continues due to the spread of COVID-19.
“Each of us individually can also look out for our neighbours, look out for our loved ones, to have more conversations, try to create a supportive system where we’re there for each othere where we’re going to get through this together.”
Trudeau also talked about Eabametoong Nation (Fort Hope) in Ontario, the first remote First Nation in Ontario to confirm a positive case of COVID-19, which has exacerbated fears that the virus will spread through other remote communities.
“From the start we’ve worked with the AFN and with communities across the country to ensure that we’re sending more money, more community resources to those areas. And we will continue to respond in every way we possibly can to help those communities that are beginning to deal with COVID-19.”
Following Trudeau’s newser from the house in Ottawa where he is still self-isolating, his ministers held a news conference in a specially designed room on Parliament Hill.
Health Minister Patty Hajdu said the government is watching what happens after the first wave of cases makes its way through the country.
“What we see in countries that have crested their first wave is that they have to keep a close eye on new cases. And until we all have a global solution this virus will be with us and we’ll have to work together to prevent its re-emergence in any of our countries.”
Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s top doctor at the Public Health Agency said because this virus is new, no one knows for sure what will happen after the first wave leaves.
“Cause there’s different possibilities as to whether the virus becomes more entrenched in the human population, like influenza, whether it would undergo mutations. So all these things are unknown at his time.”
Tam qualified an earlier statement that masks could be worn but are not appropriate for infants, children under two or people who have breathing difficulties.
The committee, and Trudeau, is also under pressure to release casualty models for the COVID-19 virus.
Quebec released its projections on Tuesday saying anywhere from 1,200 to 9,000 people could die from the novel coronavirus depending on whether people adhere to public health warnings about personal hygiene and social distancing.
Last week Ontario projected that between 3,000 and 15,000 people could die from COVID-19.
