The latest news on COVID-19 developments in Canada

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

6:15 p.m.

British Columbia has hit another daily record high with 274 new COVID-19 infections.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry social gatherings such as weddings and funerals are the cause of much of the spread.

She says life occasions need to be small and people need to stick with their safe six people.

Henry says she doesn’t want to tighten restrictions but will if the situation gets worse.

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5:40 p.m.

Alberta’s COVID-19 numbers continue to go up.

The province reported 427 cases on Thursday — the highest since the pandemic began — and the second day in a row that the count surged past 400.

There were no new deaths, however. 

That number remained at 296.

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3:45 p.m.

Newfoundland and Labrador is reporting one new case of COVID-19, bringing the province’s number of active cases to nine.

In a release sent Thursday, public health officials say the new case is a man between 20 and 39 years old who returned to the province from work in Alberta.

A spokeswoman from the department could not confirm if the man is a rotational worker, which the department defines as a resident of the province who travels regularly back and forth from another part of the country for work.

Officials say the man is self-isolating and contact tracing is underway.

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2:40 p.m.

New Brunswick is reporting three new cases of COVID-19 today, all in the Campbellton region.

Dr. Jennifer Russell, chief medical officer of health, says the cases involve one person between 40 and 49 and two people between 50 and 59.

There are currently 81 active cases in the province.

The province has seen a total of 322 confirmed cases, while 237 people have recovered.

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2:05 p.m.

Chances are slim that restaurants in Quebec’s largest cities will be allowed to reopen this month, Premier Francois Legault said today.

Montreal and Quebec City have been under a 28-day partial lockdown since Oct. 1.

Legault told reporters at an afternoon press conference that with the province reporting around 1,000 new cases of COVID-19 a day, the odds are low that some lockdown measures will be lifted.

The premier said it remains important to reduce the possibility of contact between people, rather than increase it.

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1:45 p.m.

Manitoba health officials have announced the deadliest day of the pandemic with four deaths caused by COVID-19 as more restrictions are being brought in for the capital city and the north.

Forty-seven people in Manitoba have died, the vast majority in recent weeks as the province saw a significant growth of positive cases after going weeks in the summer without a new infection.

Two of the deaths, a man in his 80s and a man in his 70s, are linked to an outbreak at a personal care home in Winnipeg.

The others are two men in their 80s.

Dr. Brent Roussin, the chief provincial public health officer, announced 147 new cases – 87 in Winnipeg, where more restrictions on restaurants, pubs and gathering sizes were enacted this week.

Those limits will also be implemented for the northern health region and Churchill starting next week, Roussin says, as well as further restrictions in schools such as banning choir, wind instruments and field trips.

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1:10 p.m.

The Alberta government says rapid COVID-19 tests will soon be available at the Calgary airport and a United States border crossing in the province.

The pilot project is to start Nov. 2 and will be voluntary.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says if travellers take the tests, they will not have to quarantine for the required 14 days.

If they test negative, they will be allowed to leave quarantine if they promise to get a second test on the sixth or seventh day after their arrival.

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12:40 p.m.

The number of COVID-19 cases in Indigenous communities across Canada is still rising.

Indigenous Services Canada says there were 160 new cases reported for each of the two weeks leading up to Oct. 17.

The department says the growing numbers have been linked to large gatherings, both public and private, where physical distancing and mask-wearing was not observed.

The department says as of today, there have been 1,000 confirmed positive cases on First Nations reserves since the pandemic began, including 322 active cases.

There have been 15 deaths.

There has also been a total of 25 confirmed positive COVID-19 cases in Nunavik, in northern Quebec, and five of those cases remain active.

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12:15 p.m.

Dr. Theresa Tam says the number of people in hospital for COVID-19 treatment keeps rising, and that has her worried as the autumn flu season closes in.

In her daily update on the pandemic, Canada’s chief public health officer says nearly 1,000 Canadians are hospitalized with COVID-19 and 200 of them are in intensive care.

Tam says those numbers lag behind increases and declines in COVID-19 cases by up to three weeks, so we can expect them to keep rising.

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11:17 a.m.

Quebec is reporting 1,033 new cases of COVID-19 and 20 additional deaths today.

Public health authorities say the number of hospitalizations has declined by 12 to 553, while the number of people in intensive care has risen by seven to 101.

There have now been 97,321 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the province and 6,094 deaths associated with the novel coronavirus.

Quebec conducted 26,070 tests on Oct. 20, the most recent date for which data is available.

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11:08 a.m.

Ontario is reporting 841 new cases of COVID-19 and nine new deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus.

Health Minister Christine Elliott said today 335 of the new cases are in Toronto, 162 are in neighbouring Peel Region, 106 are in York Region and 72 are in Ottawa.

The province is also reporting 74 new cases involving schools, including at least 49 among students.

That brings the number of schools with a reported case to 501 out of Ontario’s roughly 4,800 publicly funded schools.

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11 a.m.

A union is calling for a pork processing plant southeast of Quebec City to close after 40 workers tested positive for COVID-19.

One worker died Wednesday after testing positive the day before. 

Plant owner Olymel says it’s unclear whether the worker’s death was caused by the novel coronavirus. 

Public health officials said today they are testing the plant’s workers for COVID-19.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 22, 2020.

The Canadian Press