The latest news on COVID-19 developments in Canada (all times Eastern):
6:30 p.m.
Alberta is reporting 644 new cases of COVID-19 and three new deaths.
The province says on its website that as of Saturday night, 1,972 of the 7,698 active COVID-19 cases were variants of concern.
Alberta’s chief medical health officer says in a tweet that there are 277 people in hospital with COVID-19, including 63 in ICU.
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4:55 p.m.
Health officials in Saskatchewan are now urging residents of Moose Jaw to follow the same public health guidelines as Regina due to a rise in the number of COVID-19 variants of concern in the province’s south.
The advice, contained in Saskatchewan’s daily pandemic update on Sunday, follows a warning from officials a day earlier that variants of concern cases were rising in Moose Jaw, which is about 70 km west of the capital.
Regina remains the area with the most variants of concern cases, with 1,126 of the Saskatchewan’s 1,365 variant cases identified so far through screening.
Last week, the province recommended that people avoid travelling into or out of Regina unless it was absolutely necessary, in order to stop the spread of more infectious variants of COVID-19.
Extra restrictions took effect in Regina and surrounding areas Sunday, including a ban on in-person dining in restaurants.
Saskatchewan reported three new deaths and 248 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday.
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4:30 p.m.
Newfoundland and Labrador is reporting one new case of COVID-19.
Health officials say a man in his 40s from the central region was infected while travelling in Canada.
The province now has two active cases of COVID-19.
A total of 1,004 people in the province have recovered from the virus since the pandemic began.
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4:30 p.m.
Two new cases of COVID-19 are being reported in Nova Scotia.
Both cases were recorded in the province’s central zone, with one related to travel and the other under investigation.
As well, health officials confirmed that an earlier case in the central zone related to travel was linked to the U.K. variant of the virus, though that case is now considered resolved.
This brings the total number of cases of the U.K. variant in Nova Scotia to 14, while the South African variant remains at 10.
As of Sunday, Nova Scotia had 25 active cases of COVID-19.
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4:30 p.m.
Health officials in New Brunswick are reporting six new cases of COVID-19 — all but one of them in the Edmundston area.
The new cases in the northern New Brunswick community, which is dealing with a recent outbreak, are all contacts of previously reported infections.
One new case reported in the Miramichi region is an individual in their 40s whose infection is travel related.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the province has reported 1,577 cases, which includes 1,432 recoveries, 30 deaths and 114 active cases.
Five patients remain in hospital, including one in intensive care.
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2:05 p.m.
Manitoba is reporting one new death of a person with COVID-19 and 55 new cases.
Today’s new death — a man in his 60s in the Winnipeg health region — is the 934th person with COVID-19 in Manitoba to die since the pandemic began.
The province reports there are 1,179 active cases, with 140 people in hospital due to COVID-19.
Twenty-seven of those are receiving intensive care.
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11:30 a.m.
The Quebec government is reporting 917 new cases of COVID-19 and two additional deaths due to the pandemic, but none in the past 24 hours.
Hospitalizations declined by one to 480, but the number of people in intensive care increased by six to 114.
The province vaccinated 45,745 people in the last 24 hours, and has currently given a vaccine dose to 14.4 per cent of the population.
Some 29,407 tests were completed on Friday, which is the last day for which data is available.
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10:30 a.m.
Ten more people in Ontario have died with COVID-19 as the province reports 2,448 new cases of the disease.
Health Minister Christine Elliott says there are 780 new cases in Toronto.
She says there are also 356 new cases in Peel Region, 278 in York Region, 278 in York Region, 219 in Durham Region and 150 in Ottawa.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 28, 2021.
The Canadian Press
<!– Photo: 20210328110340-6060a37ee95030990984e374jpeg.jpg, Caption: Vaccine clinic visitors fill in paperwork as they wait in line at a mass vaccination clinic in Toronto on Tuesday, March 23, 2021. Toronto's mayor is urging anyone 70 years or older to get vaccinated. John Tory says three new COVID-19 mass vaccination clinics will open Monday, but there are still many appointments unfilled. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn –>
VANCOUVER – Mayors and other leaders from several British Columbia communities say the provincial and federal governments need to take “immediate action” to tackle mental health and public safety issues that have reached crisis levels.
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim says it’s become “abundantly clear” that mental health and addiction issues and public safety have caused crises that are “gripping” Vancouver, and he and other politicians, First Nations leaders and law enforcement officials are pleading for federal and provincial help.
In a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier David Eby, mayors say there are “three critical fronts” that require action including “mandatory care” for people with severe mental health and addiction issues.
The letter says senior governments also need to bring in “meaningful bail reform” for repeat offenders, and the federal government must improve policing at Metro Vancouver ports to stop illicit drugs from coming in and stolen vehicles from being exported.
Sim says the “current system” has failed British Columbians, and the number of people dealing with severe mental health and addiction issues due to lack of proper care has “reached a critical point.”
Vancouver Police Chief Adam Palmer says repeat violent offenders are too often released on bail due to a “revolving door of justice,” and a new approach is needed to deal with mentally ill people who “pose a serious and immediate danger to themselves and others.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024
The Canadian government says it will donate up to 200,000 vaccine doses to fight the mpox outbreak in Congo and other African countries.
It says the donated doses of Imvamune will come from Canada’s existing supply and will not affect the country’s preparedness for mpox cases in this country.
Minister of Health Mark Holland says the donation “will help to protect those in the most affected regions of Africa and will help prevent further spread of the virus.”
Dr. Madhukar Pai, Canada research chair in epidemiology and global health, says although the donation is welcome, it is a very small portion of the estimated 10 million vaccine doses needed to control the outbreak.
Vaccine donations from wealthier countries have only recently started arriving in Africa, almost a month after the World Health Organization declared the mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
A few days after the declaration in August, Global Affairs Canada announced a contribution of $1 million for mpox surveillance, diagnostic tools, research and community awareness in Africa.
On Thursday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said mpox is still on the rise and that testing rates are “insufficient” across the continent.
Jason Kindrachuk, Canada research chair in emerging viruses at the University of Manitoba, said donating vaccines, in addition to supporting surveillance and diagnostic tests, is “massively important.”
But Kindrachuk, who has worked on the ground in Congo during the epidemic, also said that the international response to the mpox outbreak is “better late than never (but) better never late.”
“It would have been fantastic for us globally to not be in this position by having provided doses a much, much longer time prior than when we are,” he said, noting that the outbreak of clade I mpox in Congo started in early 2023.
Clade II mpox, endemic in regions of West Africa, came to the world’s attention even earlier — in 2022 — as that strain of virus spread to other countries, including Canada.
Two doses are recommended for mpox vaccination, so the donation may only benefit 100,000 people, Pai said.
Pai questioned whether Canada is contributing enough, as the federal government hasn’t said what percentage of its mpox vaccine stockpile it is donating.
“Small donations are simply not going to help end this crisis. We need to show greater solidarity and support,” he said in an email.
“That is the biggest lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic — our collective safety is tied with that of other nations.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
