Trudeau warns Canada has hit 2nd wave of COVID-19

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday the country was in the throes of a second wave of COVID-19, and warned that the situation was set to become much worse than it was during the first wave in March.

"We're on the brink of a fall that could be much worse than the spring," he said.

Trudeau noted that on the day Canada went into lockdown on March 13, there were 47 new confirmed cases of COVID-19. This Tuesday, the number of new cases was well over 1,000.

“We can’t change today’s numbers or even tomorrow’s - those were already decided by what we did, or didn’t do, two weeks ago,” Trudeau said in a rare nationally televised address.

“But what we can change is where we are in October, and into the winter. It’s all too likely we won’t be gathering for Thanksgiving, but we still have a shot at Christmas.”

Trudeau urged Canadians to keep wearing masks and to download the government's COVID-app that lets a person know if they've come in close contact with someone who has tested positive.

“Together, we have the power to get this second wave under control,” he said.

Canada has recorded a total of just under 150,000 coronavirus cases, and almost 9,300 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.