Ottawa announced on Wednesday that it would increase assistance services to assist people and businesses affected by the Omicron version of COVID-19, warning that the virus’ expansion would make things worse.

The country’s senior public health officer, Theresa Tam, warned Canadians to be cautious, stating at a press conference that “the situation may quickly get out of hand anyplace.”

Several of Canada’s ten provinces have reimposed restrictions due of the extremely contagious Omicron strain.

“I don’t want to downplay the idea that we’re in for even more difficult times ahead. That is correct, and it is really difficult “Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland stated.

Canada has 2,360 confirmed Omicron cases to date. Daily new cases jumped to 11,300 on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, revealing that three of his staff and another three members of his security detail had tested positive, said he knew Canadians did not want to be facing another threat.

“None of us want to be here – we’re tired of COVID, we want it to just go away,” he said in the same briefing.

Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia, the three most populous Canadian provinces, have announced a range of restrictions to fight Omicron, which business associations warned would hit restaurants and bars particularly hard.