The latest news on COVID-19 developments in Canada

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

6:20 p.m.

Alberta is reporting 1,195 new COVID-19 cases and three additional deaths.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the province’s chief medical officer of health, issued a series of tweets saying the latest cases were identified from about 13,000 tests.

She says that makes for a test-positivity rate of 9.6 per cent.

Hinshaw says there are 686 people in hospital with COVID-19, including 178 in intensive care.

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5:15 p.m.

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

Health officials say the new patient is a person in their 20s who is a close contact of a previously announced case related to a child-care centre.

Last Thursday, a staff member of the Leaps and Bounds Child Care Centre in Charlottetown tested positive, but all of the children and staff have since tested negative.

P.E.I. now has ten active cases of COVID-19 and has logged 191 infections since the onset of the pandemic.

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4:25 p.m.

Saskatchewan is reporting 196 new COVID-19 cases and one new virus-related death.

The province’s daily pandemic update says there are 144 people in hospital with COVID-19.

There are 2,072 cases in Saskatchewan that are considered active.

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1:55 p.m.

Nunavut is reporting five new COVID-19 cases, four of which are in Iqaluit with the other  in Kinngait.

There are 74 active cases in the territory, 73 of which are in Iqaluit.

Premier Joe Savikataaq says in a Twitter post that the patient in Kinngait is already in isolation, and the case has been linked to previously identified infections.

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1:45 p.m.

Manitoba is reporting four new deaths of people with COVID-19 and 430 new cases of the virus.

Today’s provincial pandemic update also unveiled plans to shift more students to remote learning in response to rising case counts.

The province says all 27 schools in the Garden Valley and Red River Valley School Districts will move to remote learning starting on May 18 and effective until May 30.

The update says the five-day test-positivity rate is 12 per cent provincially and 14.2 per cent in Winnipeg.

There are 241 people with COVID-19 in Manitoba’s hospitals, with 70 in intensive care.

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1:10 p.m.

Health officials in Nova Scotia are reporting 86 new cases of COVID-19.

The tally marks the first time since May 1 that the province has recorded less than 100 infections in a single day.

More than half of the new cases were reported in the area that includes Halifax.

Premier Iain Rankin issued a brief statement saying he was pleased to see the slight reduction in the daily case count, but calling on residents to keep adhering to public health measures meant to curb further spread.

Nova Scotia had 1,509 active cases of COVID-19 in the province as of Saturday, with 96 people in hospital, including 23 in intensive care.

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1 p.m.

Newfoundland and Labrador is reporting five new cases of COVID-19, all of which are related to travel in Canada.

The province is now dealing with 78 active cases, with over half of them recorded in the zone that includes St. John’s.

Health officials say one person remains in hospital.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the province has reported 1,184 cases, which include six deaths.

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12:30 p.m.

New Brunswick is reporting seven new cases of COVID-19.

They include two travel-related infections that involve New Brunswickers isolating outside the province.

The other cases involve either travel-related infections or contacts of previously confirmed cases in Saint John, Fredericton and Bathurst.

The province is now dealing with 113 active cases, which are among the 2,052 reported since the beginning of the pandemic.

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11:10 a.m.

Quebec is reporting 760 additional cases of COVID-19 today and eight new deaths, including two within the past 24 hours.

The Health Department says the number of hospitalizations declined by 21 to 509, while the number of patients in intensive care dipped by three to 120.

It says 98,567 doses of vaccine were administered on Friday, for a total of 4,230,520.

Quebec has reported 362,580 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 11,032 deaths linked to the disease since the onset of the pandemic.

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11 a.m.

Ontario is reporting 2,584 new cases of COVID-19 today along with 24 new deaths linked to the virus. 

Health Minister Christine Elliott says there were 689 new infections in Toronto, 584 in Peel Region and 252 in York Region.

Other areas with high case counts include Durham Region with 157 today and Hamilton with 115.

There are 1,546 COVID-19 patients in Ontario hospitals as of this morning, including 714 in intensive care and 516 on ventilators.

Ontario administered 154,104 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine on Friday, a number Elliott describes as a single-day high in the province.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 15, 2021. 

The Canadian Press