Canadians patiently waiting for thing's to return back to normal should get comfortable as Canada's lockdown will last many more weeks, according to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The Prime Minister warned that if the economy reopens and people head back to work too soon the country could see another peak in coronavirus cases.
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During his daily briefing from Rideau Cottage, Trudeau said if the country reopens too soon, all the sacrifices made up to this point will have been for nothing.
"We're going to be extremely careful about any steps towards reopening the economy," said Trudeau.
He said that instituting wide-scale testing will be an essential part of reopening the economy once the first wave of Canada’s epidemic is over. He added that health authorities will need to be able to quickly respond to future outbreaks and testing and contact tracing will be critical. However, Trudeau warned that wide-scale testing is still many weeks away and added: “we cannot be in a rush.”
"I know that everyone wants to know when life will go back to normal. But the reality is that we cannot give you a specific date. But this is what we know: for this to be over, people have to stay home. We have to limit our movements as much as possible and keep a distance of two metres from others. And if everyone does his or her part, we will come through this together," said Trudeau.
His remarks come as the Bank of Canada warned the downturn from COVID-19 will be the worst on record and how the economy recovers will depend on the effectiveness of current measures in place to bring the pandemic under control.
On Wednesday, the bank announced it's keeping its key interest rate target on hold at 0.25%, saying that it is effectively as low as it can go to combat the economic impacts of COVID-19.
