The latest developments on COVID-19 in Canada on Feb. 16, 2021

OTTAWA — The latest developments on the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada (all times eastern):

6:50 p.m.

British Columbia is reporting 1,533 new cases of COVID-19 and 26 new deaths over the past four days, bringing the total number of cases to over 74,000 and fatalities to 1,314.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says there are 60 cases of variants of concern, including 40 of the strain first identified in the United Kingdom and 19 of the one first found in South Africa.

The province still has only one case of the variant first detected in Nigeria.

She warns that there are signs of concern for the future, including the seven-day average of cases starting to rise again, especially in the Fraser Health region.

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6:30 p.m.

Alberta is reporting 263 new cases of COVID-19, including 50 people who have been infected by the more contagious variants of the virus over the weekend.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the province’s chief medical officer of health, says 50 variant cases were confirmed between Friday and Monday.

The province has now identified 221 cases of the two more serious strains.

Alberta has recorded 214 cases of the variant first reported in the United Kingdom and seven of the one first detected in South Africa.

The province is also reporting nine more deaths, with five of them from this month, three from November and one from December.

There are 4,993 active COVID-19 cases across Alberta, with 365 people in hospital, including 56 in intensive care.

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5:20 p.m.

Quebec Premier Francois Legault says cinemas across the province will reopen Feb. 26 in order to offer parents activities for children ahead of spring break week.

Legault said today he is also permitting indoor sports to resume that day, in arenas and pools, for individuals, family bubbles and groups of up to two people.

The premier says that on Feb. 22, the Outaouais region of the province, which includes Gatineau and borders the nation’s capital, will move to the lower, “orange” pandemic-alert level.

In-person dining and gyms are permitted to open in orange zones.

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3:35 p.m.

Saskatchewan has extended its public health rules until at least March 19.

Existing rules prohibit households from having guests over, team sports from playing games, and casinos and bingo halls from operating.

Health officials announced another 136 new infections and say that three more residents have died from the virus.

There are 184 people in hospital, with 20 people in intensive care. 

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2 p.m.

Nova Scotia is reporting three new cases of COVID-19 and now has 12 active infections.

Health officials say two cases have been identified in the Halifax area while the other is in the western zone.

All are related to travel outside of Atlantic Canada.

As of Monday, the province says it has administered 23,140 doses of COVID-19 vaccine, with 8,225 people having received their required second dose.

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1:55 p.m.

New Brunswick is reporting its 24th COVID-19-related death.

Health officials say the latest death involves a resident in their 80s at the Manoir Belle Vue long-term care home in Edmundston.

Most of the recent pandemic-related deaths in the province have occurred at this long-term care facility.

Officials say there are 130 active reported cases in the province.

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1:50 p.m.

Manitoba is reporting 166 additional COVID-19 cases over the last two days and four deaths. 

Seven cases from a First Nations community that were identified as potential cases of the United Kingdom variant have turned out not to be, after sequencing.

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1:35 p.m.

Nunavut is reporting five new cases of COVID-19 today.

All of the new cases are in Arviat, a community of about 2,800 on western Hudson Bay.

Chief public health officer Dr. Michael Patterson urged Arviat residents to stay home to end the current outbreak as quickly as possible.

There are 23 active cases of COVID-19 in Nunavut, all in Arviat, and 299 total recovered cases.

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1:10 p.m.

Newfoundland and Labrador is reporting seven new confirmed cases of COVID-19 today.

All of the latest cases were found in the area including St. John’s, which has been at the centre of a recent COVID-19 surge in the province.

Officials are also reporting 25 new presumptive cases of the disease, and the individuals are now in self-isolation while contact tracing is underway.

Newfoundland and Labrador now has 297 active cases of COVID-19.

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1 p.m.

Procurement Minister Anita Anand says Canada will receive 1.3 million doses of the Moderna vaccine in March, despite uncertainty over timing details.

The shipments would bring the total of Moderna doses to two million as planned, following smaller-than-expected deliveries this month.

Canada’s vaccine rollout is ramping back up with more than 878,000 more Pfizer-BioNTech doses expected in the next two weeks after faltering shipments attributed to production delays abroad.

Chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam says new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continue to decline across the country despite an alarming flare-up of more contagious variants of the virus.

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1 p.m.

Prince Edward Island is reporting zero new cases of COVID-19 today.

Health officials say the province has two active reported cases.

P.E.I. last weekend said it had identified its first case of the variant first detected in the United Kingdom.

Chief medical officer of health Dr. Heather Morrison says that case involves a person who has been isolating since arriving in the province.

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11:25 a.m.

Ontario is reporting 904 new COVID-19 cases today, and 964 cases that were not reported on the Family Day holiday.

Twenty-six deaths from the virus were reported over the last two days.

There were 742 people hospitalized with COVID-19 as of this morning, including 292 in intensive care and 201 on ventilators.

The province says 10,679 COVID-19 vaccines were administered yesterday.

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11:15 a.m.

Quebec is reporting 669 new cases of COVID-19 and 20 more deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus, including six in the past 24 hours.

Health officials said today hospitalizations dropped by 33, to 771, and 134 people were in intensive care, a decline of two.

The province says it administered 2,732 doses of vaccine yesterday, for a total of 297,694.

Quebec has reported a total of 278,187 COVID-19 infections and 10,246 deaths linked to the pandemic. The province has 9,399 active reported infections.

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10:50 a.m.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he’s been reassured again by the president of the European Commission that export controls imposed by the EU won’t affect shipments of COVID-19 vaccines to Canada.

He says he spoke to Ursula von der Leyen this morning.

Canada is expecting its biggest single shipment of vaccine doses from Pfizer-BioNTech this week, and a bigger one next week.

All of Canada’s doses of that vaccine come from a factory in Belgium.

Trudeau also said he spoke to Moderna chair Noubar Afeyan Monday to get reassurance about that company’s deliveries.

Moderna is to ship two million doses by the end of March but is only at about half a million doses shipped so far.

Trudeau said Afeyan said the company will meet its contract for two million doses in the first quarter.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 16, 2021.

The Canadian Press