The latest news on COVID-19 developments in Canada (All times Eastern):
3 p.m.
Saskatchewan is reporting 190 new cases of COVID-19.
Health officials say someone in their 80s has also died, bringing the province’s death toll from the pandemic to 155.
The Ministry of Corrections, Policing and Public Safety is dealing with an outbreak at a Regina jail where 54 inmates and three staff have tested positive.
There are 142 people in hospital, with 30 receiving intensive care.
Meanwhile, the Opposition NDP is also calling for a minister to be removed from Premier Scott Moe’s cabinet for travelling to southern California over the holidays.
Highways Minister Joe Hargrave says he’s in Palm Springs to finalize a home sale and move things back to Saskatchewan, but the NDP says that can be done remotely and he showed poor judgement by travelling.
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3 p.m.
The Northwest Territories is rolling out its first doses of the Moderna vaccine today.
Residents of the Jimmy Erasmus Seniors Home in Behchokǫ̀ and AVENS Manor in Yellowknife received the territory’s first vaccinations today.
Chief public health officer Kami Kandola says long-term care residents and staff are the the territory’s first priority for the vaccine.
The NWT aims to have vaccinations rolled out across the territory by March 2021.
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2:50 p.m.
Canada’s chief public health officer is reminding Canadians about the impacts on their health of increased alcohol consumption this New Year’s Eve.
Celebrations tonight often involve alcohol, the use of which has increased during the pandemic.
Dr. Theresa Tam says some may find this season difficult due to distance from friends and family and is urging people to be careful about their consumption.
She suggests in a statement that Canadians find alternative ways of celebrating and coping with stress that respect public health measures in their region, such as phone calls, video chats or having a mocktail or other non-alcoholic beverages.
While it is common to look for ways to cope during periods of uncertainty, Tam says she remains concerned about increased alcohol use linked to the pandemic.
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2:50 p.m.
Quebec says it’s changing its COVID-19 vaccine strategy in order to vaccinate as many people as possible instead of holding doses back for booster shots.
The province said today that vaccine maker Pfizer had asked it to save half the doses received and to reserve them as booster shots for those already vaccinated.
Quebec says that over the next few weeks it will instead use all the vaccines it receives to inoculate as many priority groups as possible.
The province has so far received 87,000 doses of vaccine and has administered 29,250 injections.
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2:45 p.m.
Alberta says that it has administered 11,102 doses of COVID-19 vaccine.
The province’s chief medical health officer, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, provided the update on Twitter.
Earlier this week, Premier Jason Kenney said Alberta was behind on its goal of giving 29,000 shots by the end of the year.
By Tuesday about 7,000 shots had been given, but Kenney said work was being done “as close to around the clock as possible” to catch up.
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1:40 p.m.
Nova Scotia is reporting three new cases of COVID-19 today and now has 22 active cases.
All three cases are in the Halifax area, with one a close contact of a previously reported case and the two others related to travel outside of Atlantic Canada.
Heath officials say given low case numbers over the holiday period, restaurants and licenced establishments in the Halifax area can now reopen for dine-in service starting Monday.
They must still follow provincewide restrictions that include ending service by 10 p.m. and closing by 11 p.m.
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1:35 p.m.
Manitoba is reporting 187 new cases of COVID-19.
The province also says six additional deaths have been linked to the virus.
That brings the death toll in Manitoba to 667.
There are 337 people in hospital, and 37 of those are in intensive care.
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1 p.m.
Ontario’s finance minister has resigned from his cabinet position after going on a Caribbean vacation during the pandemic.
Premier Doug Ford says he has accepted Rod Phillips’s resignation as minister.
Phillips returned to Ontario this morning after spending more than two weeks in St. Barts despite provincial guidelines urging people to avoid non-essential travel.
Ford says he has asked Treasury Board President Peter Bethlenfalvy to assume the role of minister of finance and deliver the government’s 2021 budget.
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12:45 p.m.
Alberta is estimating 1,200 new cases of COVID-19.
The province’s chief public health officer, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, provided a modified update today.
She says the test positivity rate in Alberta is about 7 per cent.
And she says hospitalizations are increasing.
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12:35 p.m.
New Brunswick is reporting its ninth COVID-related death.
Health officials said today a person in their 40s in the Moncton region died as a result of underlying complications including COVID-19.
Authorities are also reporting three new cases of the disease.
The province says the new cases involve people in their 40s in the Fredericton region.
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11:20 a.m.
Quebec exceeded 200,000 COVID-19 infections today after reporting a record 2,819 new cases.
Health officials are also reporting 62 more deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus.
Officials say hospitalizations dropped by 36, to 1,175 and 165 people were in intensive care, a rise of 13.
The province says 3,942 doses of vaccine were administered yesterday, for a total of 29,250.
Quebec has reported a total of 202,641 cases of COVID-19 and 8,226 deaths linked to the virus.
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10:50 a.m.
Ontario is reporting a record high of new COVID-19 cases.
Today’s total of 3,328 tops yesterday’s daily figure of 2,923.
Ontario is also reporting 56 more deaths linked to the virus, matching the highest death toll from the virus’s first wave.
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10:20 a.m.
The leader of the Bloc Quebecois says the federal government’s plan to require travellers to have a negative COVID-19 test before landing in Canada should apply at all border crossings, not just those arriving by air.
Yves-Francois Blanchet also says the federal government should make sure that thousands of Canadians are reimbursed for travel plans that have been interrupted or cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions.
The ideas are among seven he lays out in a statement this morning about ways the Trudeau Liberals can prevent travellers from bringing COVID-19 home from their vacations.
Blanchet says it is essential that Quebecers and Canadians understand they need to avoid non-essential travel to not spread COVID-19, including elected officials who need to model exemplary behaviour.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 31, 2020.
The Canadian Press
Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version said Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet wanted the government to reimburse affected travellers.
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.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
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