OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada’s coronavirus death toll is set to soar from more than 500 currently to as high as 22,000 by the end of the pandemic, health officials said on Thursday, while the economy lost a record 1 million jobs last month.
Two people walk by the Etobicoke General Hospital drive-thru COVID-19 assessment centre as the number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases continue to grow, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada April 9, 2020. REUTERS/Carlos Osorio
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the country would not return to normal until a vaccine is developed, which could be as long as 18 months.
Health officials said the two most likely scenarios showed between 11,000 and 22,000 people would die. The total number of positive diagnoses of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus, ranged from 934,000 to 1.9 million.
They said they expected between 500 and 700 people in Canada to die from the coronavirus by April 16. There have been nearly 21,000 positive diagnoses so far.
Chief public health officer Theresa Tam said it was cruc