Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he knows how tough the pandemic has been on Canadians, and how it’s disrupted peoples lives and livelihoods.

Trudeau spoke in Ottawa during a COVID-19 update.
He says its frustrating to go through this. Nobody wanted 2020 to be this way.

Trudeau says vaccines are on the horizon; spring and summer will come, and it will be better than this winter. He also says we do get to control how bad it gets, stressing the need for Canadians to use masks, continue social distancing and avoid large gatherings.

As the second wave of COVID continues to hammer parts of the country, Deputy Public Health Officer Dr. Howard Njoo says hospitalizations are again on the rise. He says over the past seven days, there have been on average almost 1,070 individuals with COVID-19 being treated in Canadian hospitals including 224 in critical care and an average of 28 deaths per day.

There have been 220,413 cases in Canada, with 9,973 deaths.