The latest news on COVID-19 developments in Canada

The latest news on COVID-19 developments in Canada (all times Eastern):

6 p.m.

Alberta’s chief medical officer of health is reporting 12 new COVID-19 deaths.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw says in a series of tweets that 811 new cases of the novel coronavirus were identified over the previous 24 hours.

That’s from 12,302 tests, making a test-positivity rate of 6.4 per cent.

She says there are 128 people with COVID-19 in intensive care.

Hinshaw says that as of Saturday, nearly 45,000 vaccinations have been administered, which she says translates to 1,017.5 doses per 100,000 people.

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4 p.m.

Health officials in Newfoundland and Labrador say the province has one new confirmed case of COVID-19.

They say the new case is a female in the Eastern Health region and is related to international travel.

Officials are asking passengers who travelled on Air Canada Flight 690 from Toronto to St. John’s last Tuesday to call 811 to arrange a test.

The province currently has five active cases of the virus.

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3:55 p.m.

New Brunswick is reporting 14 new cases of COVID-19 today, with the cases spreading across much of the province.

Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Jennifer Russell says the virus is “all around us” and encourages anyone with symptoms to seek testing.
The new infections bring the total number of active cases in New Brunswick to 184.
The entire province remains at the orange level of alert, and schools in certain hot spot areas will be closed this week.

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3:30 p.m.

Saskatchewan is reporting no new COVID-19 deaths today for the first time in a week.

The province is reporting 307 new cases, however, and 187 people are in hospital with COVID-19 including 31 in intensive care.

The province’s daily COVID-19 update says there have been 7,929 vaccine doses administered to date, and says there may be more because some vaccinations that took place Saturday in northern Saskatchewan may not have been reported yet.

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2:00 p.m.

Manitoba is reporting 151 new cases of COVID-19 and five new deaths among virus patients as of this morning. 

The provincial death toll since the beginning of the pandemic now stands at 738.

There are 36 people with COVID-19 in the province’s intensive care units.

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1:00 p.m.

For the first time in nearly two months, Nova Scotia says there are no new cases of COVID-19 in the province. 

Officials say they’ve gradually been whittling the regional tally down to the point where there are just 28 active cases in the province and no virus patients in hospital. 

Premier Stephen McNeil says the fact that there have been no new diagnoses in the past 24 hours suggests residents have been following public health protocols. 

The province’s chief medical health officer, Dr. Robert Strang, says the public needs to keep doing so to ensure case counts don’t rise again. 

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11:15 a.m.

Quebec is reporting 2,588 new cases of COVID-19 today and 39 additional deaths associated with the novel coronavirus.

The Health Department says 1,380 people are currently hospitalized in association with the virus, a decline of 12 from the day before. 

The number of people in intensive care declined by three from the previous day to 203.

The province says 9,264 doses of vaccine were administered yesterday for a total of 84,387.

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10:45 a.m.

Another day, another single-day high for new COVID-19 cases in Ontario. 

The province is reporting 3,945 new infections across the province in the past 24 hours, along with 61 new related deaths. 

Health Minister Christine Elliott says Toronto remains the most active virus hot spot, with 1,160 new cases since yesterday. 

The numbers of patients in hospital and in intensive care both rose slightly to 1,483 and 388 respectively.

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  -This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 10, 2021.

The Canadian Press