https://ca.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idCAKBN21L2DD
Ontario health officials projected 80,000 coronavirus cases and 1,600 deaths in the province by month end under current public health measures, and urged people to restrict their movements.
Ontario has reported 3,255 confirmed cases and 67 deaths.
Late Thursday, Trump slammed 3M in a tweet after earlier invoking the Defense Production Act to get the company to produce protective face masks. N95 masks, essential for protecting healthcare professionals from breathing in the coronavirus, are in short supply.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said blocking the flow of medical supplies across the border would be a “mistake.”
He said such a move could backfire, and he noted that Canadian healthcare professionals go to the United States to work in Detroit every day. Canada and the United States closed their common border to all non-essential traffic earlier this month.
Asked whether Canada would retaliate if the U.S. blockade goes ahead, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Ottawa would “do whatever it takes to defend the national interest.”
3M said on Friday it would boost respirator production and import more masks into the United States, and it warned that blocking exports could result in retaliation by other countries that could ultimately reduce the amount of equipment available.