The latest news on COVID-19 developments in Canada

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

6:40 p.m.

Alberta is reporting 919 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday and five new deaths.

The government’s website noted that due to technical issues, the numbers were preliminary and subject to reconciliation.

The province said Friday that it had recorded just over 1,400 cases in the previous two days.

Premier Jason Kenney said Friday the province was at “a turning point” as he strongly urged Albertans to stop holding house parties and get-togethers.

The province’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, issued a tweet asking residents “do everything possible” to follow new public health measures announced Friday & break the chains of transmission.

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5:00 p.m.

British Columbia is introducing a suite of new COVID-19 restrictions for areas of the Lower Mainland where case numbers are rising rapidly.

For the next two weeks, Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says residents in the Vancouver Coastal Health and Fraser Health regions are banned from visiting each others’ homes. 

Indoor physical group activity like yoga and spin classes are to stop during that time as well.

Henry says local health officials will close businesses that don’t have COVID-19 safety plans in place, while travel outside of the two health authority areas is strongly discouraged.
British Columbia recorded 567 new cases today, with the vast majority concentrated in the Fraser and Vancouver Coastal health regions.

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3:45 p.m.

Saskatchewan is reporting 116 new COVID-19 infections and two more deaths linked to the virus.

Health authorities say the victims are in their 60s and 50s respectively and bring the total number of deaths to 27.

The province has reported 3,738 cases since the beginning of the pandemic, along with 2,726 recoveries.

Thirty-four people are hospitalized in the province with eight of those patients in intensive care.

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2:45 p.m.

Manitoba is reporting seven new COVID-19 deaths today as the total number of cases in the province climbed by 271. 

Three of the deaths were connected to an outbreak at the Maples Personal Care Home in Winnipeg, while two deaths are from an outbreak at the city’s Victoria General Hospital. 

Public health officials in the province say an outbreak has been declared at the Carman Memorial Hospital in southern Manitoba and the site has been moved to red on the government’s pandemic response scale. 

The southern health region is to go red starting Monday. 

Winnipeg moved into the red zone earlier this week, which forced the closure of restaurants and bars and limits the number of people in stores.

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1:30 p.m.

Newfoundland and Labrador has two new confirmed cases of COVID-19, bringing the province’s total to six active cases.

One case is a woman in her 60s who recently returned to the province from Europe.

The second is a woman in her 20s who recently travelled to the United States.

The province is also asking workers who’ve recently returned from the Kearl Lake and Albian oil sands projects to self isolate due to outbreaks at the Alberta work sites.

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12:00 p.m.

Nova Scotia now has 20 active cases of COVID-19, after four new cases were identified on Friday. 

Public health officials announced on Saturday the new cases are in the central zone, which includes Halifax.

Two cases are related to travel outside of Atlantic Canada, while two cases are close contacts of previously reported cases.  

No one is currently in hospital with the illness. 

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12:03 p.m.

New Brunswick has added three new cases of COVID-19, bringing its total to 26.

All the new cases were reported as being in the Fredericton area.

One person is under 20 years old and and two people are between 50 and 59 years old.

Two people in the province are currently hospitalized with the illness.

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11:20 a.m.

Quebec is reporting 1,234 new cases of COVID-19 and 29 further deaths linked to the virus.

The Health Department says 11 of those deaths came in the past 24 hours.

Hospitalizations decreased by 16 compared to the previous day for 523, while one more patient was listed in intensive care for a total of 78.

The province has now reported 113,423 confirmed infections and 6,431 deaths linked to COVID-19.

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11:00 a.m.

Quebec Premier Francois Legault has published an open letter urging hope and unity among residents in the face of a long winter with COVID-19.

The premier says traditions are important and he’s hopeful that Quebecers will be able to gather in small groups to celebrate Christmas.

Legault says he would declare victory if grandparents were able to see their grandchildren in a month’s time.

He’s also urging Quebecers to keep an eye out for each other and watch for signs of loneliness and distress which have been exacerbated by the pandemic.

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10:30 a.m.

Ontario is reporting a new one-day high for new COVID-19 cases in the province. 

The latest numbers show 1,132 new diagnoses in the past 24 hours and 11 new deaths linked to the novel coronavirus. 

The previous high of 1,050 was reported on Tuesday. 

The latest numbers come as Ontario’s new, colour-coded regional assessment system comes into effect. 

The new system will see public health units classified as green, yellow, orange or red depending on local transmission and infection levels. 

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2020.

The Canadian Press