The latest news on COVID-19 developments in Canada

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

6:30 p.m.

British Columbia’s top doctor says ongoing COVID-19 restrictions that were set to expire Friday have been extended to Feb. 5 at midnight.

Dr. Bonnie Henry announced the extension while reporting eight more deaths and 761 new cases of COVID-19, saying Thursday’s spike is related in part to changes in how the province is reporting cases each day.

She says the curve of the outbreak is starting to trend up again in B.C. and now is not the time to ease public health rules that prohibit social gatherings among people from different households, as well as adult team sports and other activities.

Henry adds that two more B.C. residents have tested positive for a variant of the novel coronavirus first detected in the United Kingdom.

She says the two people are both household contacts of the first person to test positive for the variant in B.C. and she doesn’t believe others are at risk.

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6:20 p.m.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says students are to go back to in-school learning starting Monday.

But he says other public-health restrictions will continue, including a ban on indoor and outdoor gatherings and reduced capacity in retail stores.

Alberta is reporting 968 new cases of COVID-19 and 24 additional deaths linked to the virus.

There are 871 people in hospital and 139 of those are in intensive care.

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5:30 p.m.

Yukon officials rolled out the territory’s COVID-19 vaccination plan today, with a goal of vaccinating 75 per cent of its adult population by the end of March.

The territory says two mobile vaccination teams, dubbed Balto and Togo after the sled dogs who helped transport a diphtheria antitoxin across Alaska in 1925, will start heading to remote communities on Jan. 18.

A vaccination clinic will be set up in Whitehorse at the city’s convention centre on the same day.

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4:05 p.m.

Prince Edward Island is reporting one new case of COVID-19 today.

Chief public health officer Dr. Heather Morrison says the case involves a woman in her 20s who arrived in P.E.I. following travel outside Atlantic Canada.

Officials say she is self-isolating and being followed by public health daily, and contact tracing is complete.

The province currently has eight active cases of COVID-19 and has had a total of 102 cases since the onset of the pandemic.

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1:50 p.m.

New Brunswick is reporting 24 new COVID-19 cases today.

Chief medical officer of health Dr. Jennifer Russell says there are multiple outbreaks across the province, including in several long-term care facilities.

Health officials say there are 130 active reported cases in New Brunswick and one person is in hospital with the disease, in intensive care.

The province has reported 717 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began.

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1:45 p.m.

Manitoba is reporting 201 additional COVID-19 cases and 12 deaths. 

Dr. Jazz Atwal, the acting deputy chief public health officer, says Manitoba is seeing a bump following the holiday period. 

The province’s current set of restrictions on public gatherings and business openings is set to expire tomorrow, and Premier Brian Pallister has said the rules will be extended, likely without any major changes. 

A final decision is expected tomorrow.

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1 p.m.

Nunavut has vaccinated 30 people against COVID-19 to date, including 23 elders and seven workers in Iqaluit’s elders home.

Starting Monday, community-wide vaccination clinics will take place in Arviat, Igloolik, Gjoa Haven and Cambridge Bay.

Chief public health officer Dr. Michael Patterson says Nunavut’s travel restrictions will stay in place until enough of the population is vaccinated.

Right now, anyone entering Nunavut must isolate for 14 days in a designated hotel in southern Canada before boarding a plane.

Patterson says about 60 per cent of Nunavut’s adult population needs to be vaccinated to create herd immunity.

Nunavut expected to receive enough of the Moderna vaccine to vaccinate 75 per cent of the adult population.

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12:30 p.m.

Gov. Gen. Julie Payette is calling on Canadians’ sense of duty in an appeal to adhere to public health measures aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19.

Payette says in a video statement that vaccines give hope but there aren’t yet enough to go around.

In the meantime, with the pandemic raging, she says keeping apart, minimizing movements and following restrictions are the only ways to get the pandemic under control.

She says we owe it to front-line health workers, seniors, our loved ones and other people’s loved ones to make the necessary sacrifices.

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11:15 a.m.

Quebec is reporting 2,519 new cases of COVID-19 today and 74 more deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus.

Health officials say 16 of those deaths occurred in the past 24 hours.
Hospitalizations dropped by 13 to 1,380, and 202 people were in intensive care, unchained since yesterday.
The province says it administered 9,960 doses of vaccine yesterday for a total of 48,632.
Quebec has reported 220,518 COVID-19 cases and 8,562 deaths linked to the virus since the beginning of the pandemic.

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11:10 a.m.

Nova Scotia is reporting four new cases of COVID-19 today.
Two of the cases were identified in the central zone and involve close contacts of previously reported cases.
One case was identified in the eastern zone and also involves a close contact with a known case; the other is related to travel outside the Atlantic region and was identified in the northern zone.
Nova Scotia has 28 active reported cases of COVID-19.

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10:45 a.m.

Ontario has set new single-day highs both for COVID-19 cases and deaths in the province today. 

Government data shows 3,519 new cases of the virus in the past 24 hours along with 89 new deaths. 

Health Minister Christine Elliott says there are 891 new cases in Toronto, 568 in Peel Region and 457 in York Region.
Ontario says more than 27-hundred people have recovered from the virus in the past day.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 7, 2021. 

The Canadian Press