Trudeau announces more funding for businesses amid COVID-19 second wave

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday announced 600 million Canadian dollars in new funding for the country's small and medium-sized businesses to deal with possible lockdowns amid a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The fund will be directed toward various sectors, including tourism, manufacturing and technology. It will be added to the 962 million Canadian dollars already invested in the Regional Relief and Recovery Fund.

Some 456 million Canadian dollars of the new fund will be made available to help businesses struggling to bridge their finances through another lockdown and will be distributed through regional development agencies.

Another 144 million Canadian dollars will help provide capital and technical support to rural businesses and communities through the offices of Community Futures Canada, which provides small business services to rural communities.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business estimates that 160,000 or 14 percent of small and medium-sized businesses are at risk of closing for good due to COVID-19. The tourism, hotel and catering sectors are particularly threatened.

As of Friday afternoon, there have been 162,363 cases of COVID-19 in Canada, including 9,403 deaths, according to the country's official data.