If you practise social-distancing, you are helping to protect the most vulnerable members of your community.
That's the message from Canada's chief medical health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, as she addressed the country Friday morning.
After announcing that 925 cases of COVID-19 cases have now been identified in Canada – including 12 deaths—Tam said the biggest concern is the safety of people in elderly care facilities.
"If we are to slow the spread and protect these (facilities)...practice social distancing," said Tam.
"We need to buy time to have the best chance of savings lives."
Social-distancing requires people to stay two metres away from each other, in order to lessen the chance of catching and/or spreading COVID-19 and, hence, slow the virus' spread.
Globally, as of Friday morning, there were 259,020 reported cases of the virus, across 179 countries, which has taken the lives of 10,545 people.
Almost 90,000 people have fully recovered from COVID-19.
Tam added that there is now an urgent need for medical supplies and called on an increase of production domestically to help fight the pandemic.
"Everyone who is practising social distancing is giving our scientists and experts a chance to find a cure," said Tam.
Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation and Science, said the federal government is mobilizing industry to speed up production of medical supplies.
Bains said the government will "leverage (our) industrial base to fight COVID-19."
Funds, added Bains, will be deployed to tackle COVID-19-related problems and the government will aid faster approvals for businesses.
"We're putting the full weight of the federal government behind this. This will include helping supplies get to the market faster."
