Justin Trudeau began to set the stage for looser public-health restrictions, but cautioned that Canada must first focus on getting past a third wave of COVID-19.

With the country’s most populous province under a stay-home order, the prime minister said keeping tougher rules in place now is necessary to lower case counts. Offering everyone a first dose of vaccine by summer, however, should allow Canadians to enjoy more social interactions and set the stage for a return to schools and offices in the fall after second shots are administered.

“We all want to have a summer where we can see our loved ones and invite friends over for barbecues,” Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa, warning cases need to come “way down” before that happens. “We can have a better summer, a one-dose summer.”

Canada’s seven-day moving average of new daily cases stands at about 7,250, down from more than 8,700 in mid-April. Its vaccination campaign, which hinges in part on delaying second shots by as long as four months, is now ramping up sharply after initial delays and confusion.

More than 34 per cent of the population has received a first dose, while only 2.7 per cent is fully vaccinated, according to the Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker. That compares to 46 per cent of with their first shot in the U.S. and nearly 35 per cent fully immunized.

Trudeau said the government would like three quarters of Canadians to have at least one dose before restrictions are eased, and that its goal remains to have everyone fully vaccinated in September.

“A one-dose summer sets us up for a two-dose fall when we’ll be able to talk about going back to school, back to work and back to more normality,” the prime minister said.