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 is reporting 1,836 new COVID-19 cases and 19 additional deaths.

It’s the fourth straight day the province has seen new case numbers above 1,800.

There are 600 people in hospital with COVID-19 in Alberta, 100 of whom are in intensive care.

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5:15 p.m.

Nova Scotia is amending today’s COVID-19 case count to add one more.

Health officials say the latest patient is a student at an elementary school in Dartmouth, N.S.

The affected school will now be closed until Dec. 10.

The new diagnosis brings the number of new cases reported in the province today up to five.

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5:10 p.m.

New Brunswick is reporting four new cases of COVID-19 today as it lifts some health-related restrictions in the Fredericton and Moncton areas.
Health officials say the regions were returned to the Yellow Level as the COVID-19 caseload dropped and residents adhered to health protocols.
But they say tougher restrictions will remain in place in the Saint John area, where the number of active cases remains stubbornly high.
The number of confirmed cases in New Brunswick reached 534, of which seven have died and 445 have recovered.
The number of active cases stands at is 82.

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5:00 p.m.

Nunavut is reporting two new cases of COVID-19 today, marking a sharp turnaround from the week before when the daily average new case count stood at seven.

The two most recent diagnoses are in Arviat, where there have been a total of 174 cases in the community of 2,600 since the first case there last month.

Officials say 46 of those remain active.
The only other community in Nunavut with active cases is Whale Cove, where there are five current patients.

The territory has had 216 COVID-19 cases in total, 51 of which are active.

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4:15 p.m.

Prince Edward Island has announced a two-week circuit breaker in an attempt to gain control of rising COVID-19 cases.
Beginning Monday morning and lasting until Dec. 21, indoor dining at restaurants will be prohibited and there will be no organized or recreational team sports.
Gyms, libraries, bingo halls and casinos will also be closed, retail stores must limit capacity to 50 per cent, and weddings and funerals will be limited to 10 people excluding officials.
Organized gatherings, including faith services, will only be allowed to have 10 people, whether they are indoors or outdoors.
Schools will remain open, except for four high schools in the Charlottetown area.

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2:52 p.m.

Saskatchewan is reporting 415 new COVID-19 cases and four additional deaths.
The province says that two of the people who died were in their 60s and were from Regina and the Far North zones, while the two others were in their 70s and were from the South zone.
Their deaths bring the provincial total to 59 since the start of the pandemic.
Saskatchewan reports there are 135 people in hospital with COVID-19, with 26 of those receiving intensive care.

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2:10 p.m.

Manitoba is reporting 383 new cases of COVID-19 as well as 14 new related deaths today.

Health officials say many of the deaths were linked to outbreaks at care homes and involve patients who ranged in age from their 60s to their 90s.

But the province says one was a man in his 20s who lived in the Winnipeg region.
The government says 348 people are in hospital with COVID-19, and 43 of those are receiving intensive care.
So far, there have been 395 COVID-19 deaths in Manitoba.

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1:45 p.m.

Health officials in Newfoundland and Labrador are reporting four new cases of COVID-19, three of them men who recently returned to the province from Alberta.

The fourth case involves a man from the central region who was a close contact of a previous case.

The three travel-related cases include two men in their 40s, one of whom is not from Newfoundland and Labrador, and a third man in his 60s from the central region.

The province now has 30 active cases of COVID-19, though 317 people have recovered from the virus.

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12:05 p.m.

Nova Scotia is reporting four new cases of COVID-19 today.

All of the new cases were recorded in the central zone, which includes Halifax.

As of today, the province was dealing with 88 active cases, though no one with the virus has been admitted to hospital.

One of the new cases is related to travel outside Atlantic Canada, and the three others remain under investigation.

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11:10 a.m.

Quebec is reporting 1,691 new cases of COVID-19 today, as well as 24 additional deaths linked to the virus, 10 of which took place in the past 24 hours.
The province has now recorded 151,599 total cases and 7,255 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
Hospitalizations went up by 24 today for a total of 778 across Quebec.
Of those, 102 people are in intensive care, an increase of six from a day earlier.

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10:45 a.m.

For the second day in a row, Ontario has set a new single-day high for new COVID-19 cases.

The province is reporting 1,924 new diagnoses today, surpassing the peak of 1,859 recorded on Saturday.

There were also 15 new deaths linked to the virus in the past 24 hours.

The record-setting weekend comes as three provincial health regions — Middlesex-London, Thunder Bay and Haliburton Kawartha Pine Ridge — prepare to move up a notch in the province’s colour-coded pandemic response plan on Monday.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 6, 2020.

The Canadian Press