The latest news on COVID-19 developments in Canada

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

6:40 p.m.

Alberta’s chief medical health officer is reporting five new deaths of people with COVID-19 and 284 additional cases.

Out of 7,972 tests that were completed over the previous 24 hours, Dr. Deena Hinshaw says on Twitter that it amounts to a test positivity rate of 3.7 per cent.

Hinshaw says there are 5,215 active cases in Alberta.

Of those, she says 351 are in hospital, and 60 are in ICU.

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6:30 p.m.

Saskatchewan is reporting 161 new COVID-19 cases today.

The province’s daily COVID-19 update didn’t say whether there were any additional deaths, but a graphic included with the update listed 354 deaths since the pandemic began — the same as Saturday’s total.

The update notes that 1,864 cases remain active in Saskatchewan.

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3:45 p.m.

Nunavut is reporting three new COVID-19 cases in the Hudson Bay community of Arviat.

Arviat is the only community in Nunavut with active COVID-19 infections, with today’s count standing at 11.

Nunavut has had 311 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 299 of which are considered resolved.

The territory says it has administered 6,205 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine so far.

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2:15 p.m.

Manitoba officials are reporting five new deaths in people with COVID-19 and 79 additional cases of the virus.

They say 44 of the new cases are in the Northern health region, while much of the remainder of new diagnoses are in the Winnipeg area.

The province says Winnipeg’s five-day test positivity rate is 3.9 per cent, while the province-wide rate is higher at 5.2 per cent.

Manitoba’s daily COVID-19 update notes that with 1,580 COVID-19 tests that were performed on Saturday, the province has now completed 500,840 tests since early February 2020.

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12:50 p.m.

Health officials in Newfoundland and Labrador are reporting 11 new cases of COVID-19 today after the daily case count shot up to 100 late last week.

Ten of the cases were identified in the St. John’s region, the site of a recent major outbreak in the province.

There are now 296 active cases of COVID-19 in the province.

Officials are also notifying rotational workers who’ve been to the Brucejack gold mine in British Columbia and have returned to the province in the last 14 days to isolate away from family and complete a full quarantine after an outbreak was identified at the mine.

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12 p.m.

The Ontario government has identified the next groups in line to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

The province’s vaccine taskforce released the list in a memo sent to regional public health officers today.

Ongoing vaccine shipment delays forced the province to concentrate its inoculation efforts on long-term care residents in recent weeks.

But today’s memo says immediate priority should now be given to staff and essential caregivers in long-term care, high-risk retirement and First Nations elder care homes, and any residents of these settings that have not yet received a first dose of vaccine.

Hospital patients who have confirmed admission to a nursing home, high priority health care workers, and Indigenous adults in remote communities are also now cleared to start receiving initial doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.

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11:20 a.m.

Quebec is reporting 910 new cases of COVID-19 as well as 15 additional deaths linked to the pandemic.

Two of the deaths occurred in the last 24 hours while the rest happened earlier.

Hospitalizations dropped by seven to 805, with 132 people in intensive care, which is two more than the day before.

Two deaths previously attributed to COVID-19 were found to be unrelated and removed from the list, bringing the provincial total to 10,214 deaths and 276,790 cases since the pandemic began.

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11:15 a.m.

New Brunswick is reporting 2 new cases of COVID-19 today, a significant drop from the 16 reported on Saturday.

The two cases were identified in the Edmundston region bordering Quebec.

There are 150 active cases of the disease in the province.

Six patients are hospitalized, two of whom are in intensive care.

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10:50 a.m.

Health officials in Nova Scotia are reporting one new case of COVID-19 today.

The case is related to travel outside the Atlantic region and the individual involved is in self-isolation.

The active case count in the province has dropped to nine cases from the 10 reported on Saturday.

Nova Scotia completed 1,429 COVID-19 tests yesterday.

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10:45 a.m.

Ontario is reporting 981 new cases of COVID-19 today and 42 more deaths linked to the virus.

Health Minister Christine Elliott says there are 122 new cases in Toronto, 209 in Peel Region, and 171 in York Region.

The province says 48,701 tests were completed since the last daily update.

Meanwhile, health authorities in North Bay, Ont., say a case of the COVID-19 variant first identified in South Africa has been identified among the city’s current infections.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 14, 2021

The Canadian Press