People wearing face masks walk on a street in Toronto, Canada, on Dec. 12, 2020. Canada has confirmed a total of 453,257 COVID-19 cases and 13,337 deaths as of Saturday afternoon, according to the Canadian television network CTV. (Photo by Zou Zheng/Xinhua)
OTTAWA, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- Canada has confirmed a total of 453,257 COVID-19 cases and 13,337 deaths as of Saturday afternoon, according to the Canadian television network CTV.
The Public Health Agency of Canada said on Saturday that the country's daily average over the past seven days has reached 6,543.
The pandemic is "putting countless Canadians at risk of life-threatening illness, causing significant disruption to health services, and presenting ongoing challenges for areas not adequately equipped to manage complex medical emergencies," Canadian Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam said in a statement on Saturday.
The number of people experiencing severe illness continues to increase across Canada. The country's provincial and territorial data indicates that during the most recent seven days, an average of 2,900 people with COVID-19 were being treated in Canadian hospitals each day, with 565 of them in intensive care units.
Tam said that during the same period, there were an average of 100 COVID-19-related deaths reported daily.
"These impacts affect everyone, as the healthcare workforce and health system bear a heavy strain, important elective medical procedures are delayed or postponed, adding to pre-existing backlogs and wait times," she said.
"We can change this," Tam said. "To do this, we need to continue to limit close contacts to only those in our immediate household and reduce in-person interactions to only essential errands and activities, while consistently maintaining key public health practices." Enditem
