The latest news on COVID-19 developments in Canada for Wednesday, June 2, 2021

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

7:25 p.m.

British Columbia health officials say a return to normal life may cause anxiety for some people as COVID-19 restrictions begin to ease.

They are reporting more than 71 per cent of eligible residents have now got a first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

The province is reporting 194 new infections of COVID-19 for a total of 144,667 cases since the pandemic began.

Officials are also reporting four deaths for a total of 1,707 COVID-19-related fatalities in the province.

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6:05 p.m.

Alberta is reporting 410 new cases of COVID-19 and four more deaths.

The province says there are 435 people in hospital due to the virus, and 122 of them are in intensive care.

The total number of active cases in the province is 6,305.

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4:10 p.m.

Saskatchewan is reporting 130 new cases of COVID-19 today.

A person in their 70s living in the northwest zone has died.  

There were 116 more recoveries, leaving the province with 1,285 active cases.

The province also reported 103 people in hospital, including 22 patients in intensive care.

Sixty-three per cent of Saskatchewan residents aged 12 and older have now received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine.

People aged 65 and older, or who received their first dose by March 22, are now eligible to receive their second dose.

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3:45 p.m.

One of the COVID-19 patients that Manitoba has transferred to Ontario has died. 

Health officials say the man in his 30s had been cared for in Ottawa since May 20. 

The province says 46 patients have been sent to Ontario and Saskatchewan to free up intensive care beds in Manitoba. 

Seven have returned so far.

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3:40 p.m.

Federal, provincial and territorial watchdogs are urging governments to respect Canadians’ quasi-constitutional rights to privacy and access to information during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a joint resolution, information and privacy commissioners say the pandemic has heightened concerns about increasing surveillance by public bodies and private corporations as well as the slowing down of access requests.

They say the pandemic has highlighted the need to modernize the access-to-information system through innovation and technology.

The joint resolution adopts 11 principles and calls on Canada’s governments to show leadership by implementing them.

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2:15 p.m.

Newfoundland and Labrador is reporting 17 new cases of COVID-19.

Health authorities say eight of those cases are connected to an outbreak in the western part of Newfoundland, while three are linked to a cluster in the central region of the island.

There are 90 active reported COVID-19 infections across the province and 61 per cent of residents age 12 and over have received a first dose of vaccine.

The province unveiled its reopening plan today and aims to begin welcoming travellers from Canada as early as July 1.

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2:10 p.m.

Nova Scotia is reporting 17 new cases of COVID-19 today and two more virus-related deaths.

Health officials say the deaths involve two men in their 60s in the Halifax area.

Nova Scotia has 311 active cases of novel coronavirus, with 38 people in hospital, including 15 in intensive care.

The province has also confirmed its first case of a rare blood-clotting condition known as vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia — a man in his 40s who received his first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in early May.

Officials say he developed symptoms about two weeks after vaccination and is recovering after receiving treatment.

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1:55 p.m.

The Northwest Territories says visitors from the Yukon are now exempt from the territory’s isolation requirements.

Northwest Territories residents and non-residents need to submit an exemption request to the public health office.

Travellers applying for the exception must have been in the Yukon or the Northwest Territories for at least 14 days.

Yukon travellers seeking the exemption must also not be symptomatic and must not have had contact with someone with COVID-19.

The exemption applies to Yukon travellers regardless of vaccination status.

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1:30 p.m.

Manitoba is reporting 267 new COVID-19 cases and six deaths. 

The five-day test-positivity rate has dropped again to 11.5 per cent provincially and 12.9 per cent in Winnipeg.

The province has expanded eligibility for second-dose appointments for the general public. 

Anyone who received a first dose on or before April 20 can now book a second shot.

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1:30 p.m.

Ontario schools will stay closed to in-person learning for the rest of the academic year.

Premier Doug Ford says students won’t return to physical classrooms until the fall.

Schools across the province moved learning online in mid-April amid an escalating third wave of the virus.

Cases have since declined and the province recently unveiled a reopening plan set to take effect in mid-June, but schools weren’t part of it.

The province’s top doctor along with the vast majority of his regional counterparts and other experts have said students should return to classrooms for their well-being.

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12:45 p.m.

New Brunswick is reporting 12 new cases of COVID-19 today.

Health officials have identified four cases in each of the Fredericton and Bathurst health regions, three cases in the Moncton area and one in the Saint John region.

The province has 140 active reported cases of the infection with seven patients in hospital, including two in intensive care.

Officials say 64.5 per cent of people aged 12 and older have received at least on dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

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12:40 p.m.

Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller says $760.8 million in funding, first earmarked in the 2021 budget, is dedicated to supporting First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities as they respond to COVID-19.

Of the total funding, he says $200 million is being directly allocated to communities in early June and a further $200 million will be directly distributed to communities in the fall.

Miller says with each distribution, $148.3 million will support First Nations, $31 million will go to Inuit and $20.7 million to Métis.

The funding, known as the Indigenous Community Support Fund, is meant to help Indigenous leadership and organizations design and implement community-based solutions to ensure their health, safety and well-being.

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11:20 a.m.

Quebec is reporting 288 new cases of COVID-19 today and five more deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus.

Health officials say hospitalizations dropped by 14, to 340, and 77 people were in intensive care, a drop of nine.

The province says it administered over 67,000 doses of COVID-19 in the previous 24 hours, for a total of over 5.2 million.

About 61.9 per cent of Quebecers have received at least one dose.

Officials say 7,701 doses have been given to Quebecers outside the province.

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11:15 a.m.

Newfoundland and Labrador is aiming to ease border restrictions and welcome travellers from the rest of Canada as early as July 1.

The lifting of the province’s travel ban announced today is contingent on COVID-19 case counts staying low in the province and on it hitting its goal of administering at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine to 75 per cent of residents aged 12 and over.

The plan says fully vaccinated Canadian travellers will not have to self-isolate or present a negative COVID-19 test.

Partially vaccinated Canadians will have to present a negative result from a COVID-19 test administered within three days of their departure date, or they can isolate until they get a negative test result.

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10:30 a.m.

Ontario is reporting 733 new cases of COVID-19 in the province and 25 more deaths linked to the virus.

Health Minister Christine Elliott says there are 173 new cases in Toronto and 134 in Peel Region. 

The Ministry of Health says 708 people are in hospital — 576 in intensive care and 399 on a ventilator.

Ontario says nearly 134,000 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine were administered since Tuesday’s report, for a total of over 9.3 million.

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10 a.m.

Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau says he’s “very aware” that Canadians are growing impatient about the ongoing shutdown of the Canada-U. S. border.

In a virtual conversation with the CEO of Montreal’s chamber of commerce, Garneau declined to offer a set of criteria to determine a reopening plan.

He says he and his cabinet colleagues are in discussion with the provinces, but that authorities are wary of opening the floodgates to a fourth wave of COVID-19.

Garneau says “predictability” remains the watchword, while acknowledging that the situation a month from now is hard to predict.

Canada and the United States closed the land border to non-essential travel on March 20, 2020.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 2, 2021.

The Canadian Press