With strong control measures, the federal public health agency projects that 11,000 to 22,000 Canadians could die of COVID-19 in the coming months.
In a report released Thursday, (April 9) Public Health Agency of Canada said short-term estimates are more reliable, and it anticipates 500 to 700 deaths by the end of next week.
The agency released modelling data this morning with different possible scenarios, warning that what happens depends very much on how Canadians behave to keep the respiratory illness from spreading.
With poor containment measures, the death toll could be much, much higher, the agency said.
It says the COVID-19 battle in Canada is still in its early stages but Canadasa国际传媒檚 numbers of confirmed cases have been increasing more slowly than in other countries.
The agency the fight against the novel coronavirus will likely take many months and require cycles of tighter and weaker controls.
Later on Thursday (April 9), Chief medical officer Dr. TheresaTam said the sa国际传媒渁spirational and our ambitious goalsa国际传媒� was that just one per cent of the population is infected with COVID-19. With a population of 37.6 million, that would mean about 376,000 people would be infected.
Tam said there were 17,766 total confirmed cases of the virus and 461 deaths as of Thursday morning.
sa国际传媒淚 recognize the changes in our daily livessa国际传媒� are extremely difficult,sa国际传媒� Tam said during a press conference in Ottawa.
She said the measures have so far sa国际传媒渁llowed the healthcare system to cope.sa国际传媒�
She called on Canadians to make the upcoming long weekend a sa国际传媒渟taycation for the nation,sa国际传媒� and stay home to celebrate with their household, or virtually with other friends and family.
Tam said health officials were evaluating the effect of measures like physical distancing and self-isolation daily.
sa国际传媒淣o one is gathering, reallysa国际传媒� wesa国际传媒檙e just trying to strengthen the message to Canadians that you should avoid all non-essential travel and stay at home as much as possible,sa国际传媒� she said.
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