Canada’s top health officials presented their coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) predictions based on modelling data on Thursday morning, June 4.
Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam and Dr. Howard Njoo updated the figures on a briefing, seeing between 97,990 and 107,454 cases and a forecast of 7,700 to 9,400 deaths by June 15.
Tam acknowledged the “commitment of Canadians” in following public health advice and protocol in protecting themselves as this has made Canada have “significant progress to bring the epidemic under control.”
However, she warned that until a vaccine or an effective treatment is discovered, “we must carefully balance the risks associated with [the] spread of COVID-19 with the unintended social and health consequences of restrictive public health measures.”
Tam and Njoo also reported on each province’s status in this pandemic. According to them, more than 90 percent of the cases in Canada in the past two weeks were from Ontario and Quebec.
This is the third public report of health officials concerning COVID-19 projections. However, it must be noted that federal projections are not always accurate.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in his daily briefing outside his home, also on Thursday morning, said that Canada is still “not out of the woods.”
He said that the data presented just shows that the country is continuing to make progress in its fight against COVID-19.
“In many communities, the number of new cases is low and we can trace where they came from. That’s an encouraging sign that the virus is slowing and in some places even stopping,” he told reporters.
“But I want to be very clear, we’re not out of the woods. The pandemic is still threatening the health and safety of Canadians,” Trudeau added.
As of publishing, Canada has a total of 93,726 cases, 7,637 deaths, and 51,739 recoveries.