The latest:
Toronto, Peel Region and North Bay-Parry Sound will remain under the current stay-at-home order for at least another two weeks, according to a statement released by the Ontario government on Friday.
York Region, located just north of Toronto, will transition to Ontario’s colour-coded COVID-19 restriction system, the release said. This transition will take effect on Feb. 22 at 12:01 a.m. ET. The extension for Toronto, Peel Region and North Bay-Parry Sound will be in effect until at least March 8.
“Our government’s number one priority is the safety of all individuals and families, and that’s why we are taking a gradual, cautious approach to returning regions to the framework,” Health Minister Christine Elliott said in the release. “These are difficult but necessary decisions, in order to protect against COVID-19 variants and maintain the progress we have all made together.
“Until vaccines are widely available, we continue to urge all Ontarians to follow public health advice and measures, and stay home, stay safe and save lives.”
Premier Doug Ford is scheduled to hold a news conference at 2 p.m. ET.
Earlier, Ontario health officials reported 1,150 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, with 47 additional deaths. Hospitalizations stood at 689, with 269 COVID-19 patients in the province’s intensive care units.
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A CBC News investigation into the growing and largely unregulated private sector of COVID-19 tests and found a hodge-podge industry of inconsistent prices, and sometimes, test results. 2:39
What’s happening in Canada
As of 1:25 p.m. ET on Friday, Canada had reported 839,520 cases of COVID-19, with 32,070 cases considered active. A CBC News tally of deaths stood at 21,559.
WATCH | Who is keeping track of thousands of private COVID-19 tests?
A 34-year old Saskatchewan health-care worker has died of cardiac arrest after testing positive for COVID-19. It comes just days after he received his first dose of vaccine, but experts say he was likely exposed to the virus before getting the shot. 2:02
At a briefing on Friday morning, top federal health officials pointed out that the country has seen a steady decline in COVID-19 activity in Canada, but expressed concern about so-called variants of concern.
Health officials said Friday that variants of concern had been reported in all 10 provinces. According to figures provided at the briefing, as of Friday there had been:
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More than 660 cases of the B117 variant first identified in the U.K.
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39 cases of the B1351 variant first identified in South Africa.
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1 case of the P1 variant first traced to travellers from Brazil.
In Quebec, health officials reported 800 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday and 14 additional deaths. COVID-19 hospitalizations stood at 723, with 127 of those patients in intensive care.
In Newfoundland and Labrador, officials reported 60 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Friday and nine new presumptive cases on Friday.
Across Atlantic Canada, New Brunswick reported four new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, while Nova Scotia reported two new cases. There was one new case reported in Prince Edward Island
In the Prairie provinces, Manitoba reported 139 new cases of COVID-19 and two additional deaths, while Saskatchewan reported 146 new cases.
WATCH | Sask. health-care worker dies after positive COVID-19 test:
Alberta, meanwhile, reported 415 new cases of COVID-19 and seven additional deaths on Thursday.
In British Columbia, health officials reported 617 new cases of COVID-19 and four additional deaths.
Across the North, there were six new cases of COVID-19 recorded in Nunavut on Thursday — all in the community of Arviat. There were no new cases reported in Yukon or the Northwest Territories.
Here’s a look at what else is happening across Canada:
What’s happening around the world
As of early Friday afternoon, more than 110.4 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide, with more than 62.2 million of those cases listed as recovered on a tracking site run by Johns Hopkins University. The global death toll stood at more than 2.4 million.
In the Americas, the United States has a backlog of six million COVID-19 vaccine doses due to inclement weather, White House officials said at a media briefing on Friday, adding that the federal government expects to catch up with vaccine distribution by next week.
All 50 states are impacted, according to Andy Slavitt, senior adviser to the White House’s COVID-19 response team. He said delays were due to road closures, shipping company employees unable to get to work, and power outages in certain locations.
Venezuela started vaccinating health workers with the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, adding it hopes to inoculate 70 per cent of the country’s population by year-end.
In Africa, an African Union-created task force working to secure COVID-19 vaccines says Russia has offered 300 million doses of the country’s Sputnik V vaccine. The director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, John Nkengasong, said in a statement Friday that the body is “tremendously proud” to offer the doses to Africa’s 54 countries. The statement says the Sputnik V doses will be available in May.
In the Asia-Pacific region, Japan confirmed a new variant of COVID-19, and an infection cluster emerged at a Tokyo immigration facility.
South Korea may consider a fifth round of COVID-19 cash handouts, the prime minister said, even as the details of a planned fourth cash payout have yet to be completed.
China’s Sinovac delivered 1 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine CoronaVac to Hong Kong on Friday evening. Government officials approved Sinovac’s two-dose vaccine on Thursday. The semi-autonomous city is relying on three vaccines and has purchased 22.5 million doses in total.
Priority groups include health-care workers and those above the age of 60, as well as essential workers. Online appointments will begin on Tuesday.
In Europe, the head of Germany’s disease control agency warned Friday that the drop in new coronavirus cases has levelled off even as the share of more contagious variants is rising. Lothar Wieler, head of the Robert Koch Institute, said Germany may be heading toward another “turning point” in the pandemic after weeks of falling infections.
His agency reported 9,113 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases in the past day and 508 deaths. Germany has recorded almost 2.4 million cases and 67,206 deaths from the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic. Earlier this week Health Minister Jens Spahn said the share of the more contagious variant first detected in Britain has reached about 22 per cent in Germany, from six per cent two weeks ago.
A Dutch appeals court will rule next Friday in a case against the government’s night-time coronavirus curfew, the judge said on Friday. The court is weighing an appeal against the ruling by a lower court, which found on Tuesday that the government measure lacked legal justification and must be scrapped.
Hungarian health authorities issued final approval to a COVID-19 vaccine produced in China, clearing the way for the first inoculations with a Chinese vaccine in the European Union.
Ireland will remain under significant restrictions until the end of April, the prime minister was quoted as saying.
In the Middle East, Saudi Arabia this week approved the use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
