OTTAWA, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- Canada reported 20,036 new COVID-19 cases Friday noon, raising its national total to 2,706,977 cases with 31,306 deaths, according to local media CTV.

Ontario, the most populous province in the country, reported 10,964 new cases and 42 deaths on Friday.

There were 3,814 people in Ontario hospitals who had tested positive for the novel coronavirus, an increase of more than 180 from the day before.

Of the 3,814 COVID-19 patients, 527 were in intensive care units, up from 500 the previous day. And 384 of those in intensive care were either not fully vaccinated or had an unknown vaccination status.

Quebec, the second-most populous province, confirmed 7,382 new cases of COVID-19 with 68 deaths on Friday.

The province admitted 442 new patients on Friday and the total number of hospitalizations was 3,085, including 275 in intensive care units.

The new modeling released by the Public Health Agency of Canada on Friday showed the Omicron variant will push hospital admissions to "extremely high levels" in the coming weeks as case counts will reach levels never before seen in this country.

The modeling data also suggested that Canada is on track to see approximately between 100,000 and 250,000 daily infections.

While there is a lot of uncertainty about how many new infections are being reported each day due to the current COVID-19 testing constraints, the Public Health Agency of Canada said the Omicron variant is running rampant and very intense activity is expected to come in the weeks ahead.

The country's national positivity rate is a stunning 28 percent. That means more than one in four tests for the virus are coming back positive.

"The true number of daily cases, driven by extremely high transmissibility of the Omicron variant, could still vastly exceed anything we have experienced to date during this pandemic," Canada's Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam said. "We are hopeful that cases will soon peak." Enditem

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