Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the final instalment of the Safe Restart Agreement funding today, during a press conference this morning.
Also on hand for the press conference is Dominic LeBlanc, president of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada and minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Health Minister Patty Hajdu, Chief Public Health Officer of Canada Dr. Theresa Tam, and Deputy Chief Public Health Officer of Canada Dr. Howard Njoo.
The Safe Restart Agreement was announced in the summer of 2020** and provided $19 billion to the provinces and territories to tackle the pandemic. Today, Trudeau said the final $700 million is being delivered.
The money is not earmarked for specific pandemic spending, but is to go "where it is needed most," Trudeau said, adding provinces and territories could use it to boost testing capacity or to purchase PPE, depending on their needs.
Highlighting the fact many countries are now in a third wave of COVID-19, the prime minister said ICU beds are filling across the country and variants of concern are spreading.
"Hold tight a little longer," the PM urged.
When Tam spoke, she first highlighted that Canada has had more than one million COVID-19 cases and more than 23,000 people have died from the illness since the pandemic was declared in March of 2020.
She said with the world in a third wave, variants of concern are "driving growth in many areas." On April 5, Canadian vaccine deliveries to provinces and territories hit 10 million, a milestone, Tam said.
However, over the past week, there have been more than 6,100 new cases and 31 deaths logged daily on average.
"The ongoing increase in severe and critical illness is straining the health care system in many areas," Tam said, adding this continued growth means community-based restrictions must continue.
Over the past week, there have been nearly 2,400 Canadians admitted to hospital for COVID-19 each day, a four-per-cent increase over the previous week. Of those cases, an average of 780 people are requiring treatment in an intensive care unit every week, an increase of 18 per cent over the previous week.
The continued growth rate among younger age demographics and ongoing hospitalizations are a reminder that "severe illness (from COVID-19) can occur at any age," Tam said.
Tam also provided an update on the variants of concern (VOCs). She said the B.1.1.7 strain, which is associated with more severe illness and a higher risk of death, accounts for about 90 per cent of the more than 15,000 cases linked to VOCs. She said the that strain has also likely replaced the original virus strain in some parts of the country.
The P.1 variant is also growing. The number of P.1 variant cases rose from 460 to 857 cases over the past week. Tam said this variant appears to reduce vaccine efficacy, so limiting its spread is very important, she said. Most of the P.1 cases are being found in B.C. and Ontario.
Given the ongoing case growth in the third wave, Tam urged people not to travel between regions and jurisdictions, and to keep local travel as essential as possible.
And finally she encouraged Canadians who can be vaccinated to get vaccinated when their turn comes up as it is the best way of protecting everyone.
"No one is protected unless everyone is protected," Tam said.
**An earlier version of this story included a typo regarding this date. It has been corrected to 2020.
