The latest news on COVID-19 developments in Canada for Thursday, June 3, 2021

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

5:55 p.m.

Alberta health officials are reporting 296 new cases of COVID-19 and five new deaths.

The province says there are 411 people in hospital due to the virus and, of those, 120 are in intensive care.

Officials say there are 5,831 active cases in the province and 3,300 of them are the more contagious variants of concern.

Since the pandemic began more than a year ago, 2,236 people have died of COVID-19 in Alberta.

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5:25 p.m.

British Columbia’s provincial health officer says those who received a single dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca will be able to either wait for a second dose, or receive a second dose in the form of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines.

Dr. Bonnie Henry says those who received the AstraZeneca vaccine made “the right choice” and helped ease the province’s COVID-19 caseload in the early spring.

Henry says she wants to encourage patients to take what is offered to them, in terms of vaccinations.

B.C. recorded 199 new cases of COVID-19, along with two new deaths.

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4 p.m.

Saskatchewan is reporting 131 new cases, for an active total of 1,314, and two more deaths.

The province says 100 people are in hospital.

It also says nearly 755,000 vaccine doses have been administered and 100,000 of Saskatchewan’s almost 1.2 million residents have received both shots.

More Moderna vaccine is expected to arrive this week, and the Saskatchewan Health Authority says it will be running an Oxford-AstraZeneca drive-thru vaccine clinic in Regina starting on Sunday for five or six says.

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3:35 p.m.

There are two new COVID-19 cases in P.E.I., and both are younger people.

One is a person in their 20s and the second is between 10 and 19.

Dr. Heather Morrison, the chief public health officer, says both had recently travelled outside of Atlantic Canada and tested positive through routine testing.

Prince Edward Island currently has six active cases of COVID-19 and has had 206 positive cases since the onset of the pandemic.

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2:45 p.m.

New Brunswick is reporting 16 new cases of COVID-19 today and one death related to the virus.

Health officials say a person in their 70s has died in the Fredericton health region, bringing the total number of deaths to 44 since the pandemic began.

Eight new cases have been identified in the Bathurst region, five in the Fredericton area and three in the Moncton region.

The province has 146 known active cases with four people hospitalized in the province, including one in intensive care and one patient in intensive care at a hospital outside of the province.

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2:30 p.m.

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

Health officials say two new cases are connected to the cluster in the Central Health region which has grown to 69 confirmed cases.

There are three new cases in the Western Health region, with two under investigation and one linked to a cluster of 23 confirmed cases.

The province has 90 known active cases.

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1:40 p.m.

Manitoba is reporting 360 new COVID-19 cases and five deaths. 

The five-day test positivity rate is 11.5 per cent provincially and 13.2 per cent in Winnipeg.

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1:10 p.m.

Nova Scotia is reporting 25 new COVID-19 cases and the province’s youngest person to die yet as a result of the infection.

Health officials say a man in his 30s has died in the Halifax area.

Fifteen of the new cases have been identified in the Halifax area, with eight in the province’s eastern zone and two in the northern zone.

The province has 273 known active cases of novel coronavirus with 22 people in hospital, including nine in intensive care.

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1:10 p.m.

The White House is giving 75 per cent of its surplus COVID-19 vaccines to the international sharing program known as COVAX — and Canada is in line to get some of what’s left over.

All told, some 80 million doses, including 60 million of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, will be shared around the world by the end of June.

Of the first tranche of 25 million doses, six million will be earmarked for regional priorities and partners, a list that includes Mexico and Canada, as well as the Republic of Korea, the West Bank and Gaza.

Also getting a share of the six million will be Ukraine, Kosovo, Haiti, Georgia, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and Yemen, as well as United Nations front-line workers.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki says the first batch of doses will begin shipping out as early as today.

Doses shared through COVAX will prioritize Latin America and the Caribbean, South and Southeast Asia and Africa, in co-ordination with the African Union.

The U.S. first began sharing its surplus of AstraZeneca doses — a vaccine that has never been approved for use domestically — back in March, providing 1.5 million doses to Canada and 2.5 million to Mexico.

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12:15 p.m.

The Manitoba government is preparing to spend up to $1 million to encourage more people to get a COVID-19 vaccine.

The province is offering grants of up to $20,000 each to community, religious, sports and arts organizations in areas where uptake has been low.

Those groups can spend the money on anything from new outreach programs to prizes such as meals or tickets to a sporting event.

Data from the province show there are areas of low vaccine uptake, including the core areas of Winnipeg and some rural areas south of the capital.

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11:30 a.m.

Quebec is shortening the interval between first and second doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines to eight weeks.

The province previously recommended a 16-week interval.

Last week, Quebec shortened the interval between doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to eight weeks.

Health Minister Christian Dubé is scheduled to announce a plan later today that would allow people to reschedule second-dose vaccine appointments.

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11 a.m.

Quebec is reporting 267 new cases of COVID-19 and six more deaths attributed to the virus, including one within the past 24 hours.

Health officials say hospitalizations have dropped by 23 to 317, and 68 people are in intensive care — a drop of nine.

The province says 85,230 doses of vaccine were administered yesterday, for a total of just over 5.8 million.

Just over 62 per cent of Quebecers have received one dose.

Quebec has reported a total of 371,082 cases of COVID-19 and 11,144 deaths linked to the virus.

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10:30 a.m.

Ontario is reporting 870 new cases of COVID-19 in the province and 10 more deaths linked to the virus.

Health Minister Christine Elliott says there are 225 new cases in Toronto, 167 in Peel Region and 49 in the Porcupine Health Unit region.

Ontario says that over 150,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered since Wednesday’s report for a total of over 9.4 million doses.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 3, 2021.

The Canadian Press