Covid-19 cases in Canada may rapidly rise in the coming days due to community spread of the Omicron variant, mirroring the situation in the country's most populous province of Ontario, Reuters quotes Canada's top health official as saying.

The surge of Covid-19 cases in Ontario, which accounts for almost 40 per cent of Canada's population of 39 million people, has prompted the provincial government to suspend easing of restrictions that were planned to be lifted ahead of the holiday season.

The province reported 1,536 cases of Covid-19 on Monday, a more-than 70pc jump from a week ago, including 80 cases of the Omicron variant, which has spread across over 60 countries since being first detected last month.