The latest news on COVID-19 developments in Canada for Monday, June 7, 2021

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

6:20 p.m.

B.C. health officials say 72 per cent of all residents aged 12 and up have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine.

That includes 39 per cent of eligible youth between the ages of 12 and 17.

B.C. has recorded 12 more deaths and an average of 160 new cases of COVID-19 each day since Friday.

Deputy provincial health officer Reka Gustafson says there are just over 2,100 active infections, including 199 people in hospital.

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5:50 p.m.

Alberta is reporting 127 new cases of COVID-19 and two additional deaths due to the virus.

The province says there are 4,707 active cases.

There are 351 people in hospital because of the illness, and 94 are in intensive care.

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3:40 p.m.

Saskatchewan is reporting 68 new cases of COVID-19 today.

Three more people have died.

One was in the 19-and-under age group in the northwest zone, one was in their 60s in the north central zone and one was in their 70s in the northwest zone.

There were 119 more recoveries, leaving the province with 1,142 active cases.

This is the lowest number of active cases since Nov. 8, 2020.

The seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases, 97, is also at its lowest mark since that day.

The province also reported 102 people in hospital, including 19 patients in intensive care, one of whom is an out-of-province transfer from Manitoba.

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2:20 p.m.

New Brunswick has failed in its bid to have 75 per cent of its population over the age of 12 receive a first dose of COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the day.

Premier Blaine Higgs says even though the vaccination rate has been climbing at a steady pace in recent weeks, it will take another four or five days for the province to reach its goal and for the first phase of its reopening plan to kick in.

Higgs confirms that 70.3 per cent of those eligible to receive a vaccination had done so, and he predicted that the 75 per cent goal will be reached by the end of the week.

Meanwhile, health officials are reporting only one new case of COVID-19 today among the province’s 111 active cases, which includes three people recovering in a New Brunswick hospital.

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1:35 p.m.

Manitoba is reporting 169 new COVID-19 cases and two deaths. 

Chief public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin says while daily case counts have dropped, the hospital system remains strained. 

The five-day test positivity rate is 11.9 per cent provincially and 12.7 per cent in Winnipeg.

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1:30 p.m.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will spend his travel quarantine following an upcoming trip to Europe at an Ottawa hotel, not one of the government’s designated hotels for international air travellers.

Trudeau is travelling to the United Kingdom later this week to attend the G7 leaders summit in Cornwall, his first foreign trip since he was in Ethiopia, Senegal, Kuwait and Germany in February 2020.

Currently, all international air passengers are limited to landing in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver, and must spend up to three days in a designated quarantine hotel near those airports while they await the results of a COVID-19 test.

Trudeau and his travelling delegation, including media, will return by private plane to Ottawa, and a hotel is being prepared for them to quarantine there.

The Conservatives are accusing the prime minister of asking for special treatment.

Public Health Agency of Canada president Iain Stewart says the agency had provided several options for the prime minister’s quarantine, and he wasn’t aware of which option had been chosen. 

He says there might be security or other concerns behind the choice but that the decision was not made by PHAC.

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1:25 p.m.

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

Officials say both cases are related to travel within Canada.

There are now 70 active reported COVID-19 infections across the province, including two people in hospital due to the disease.

Online government data shows nearly 66 per cent of residents aged 12 and over have received a first dose of vaccine.

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1 p.m.

Manitoba is expanding eligibility for second doses of COVID-19 vaccine. 

Anyone who received their first dose on or before May 1 can now book a second shot. 

The previous cutoff was April 25.

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12:30 p.m.

Ontario’s economic reopening plan will begin Friday, a few days earlier than originally scheduled.

Outdoor gatherings of up to 10 people will be allowed, as will limited outdoor dining, outdoor fitness classes, outdoor religious services and in-store retail shopping with capacity limits.

The government says health indicators have improved enough to advance its reopening plan by a few days.

It had originally planned to start loosening health restrictions next week.

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12 p.m.

Nova Scotia is reporting 14 new cases of COVID-19 today.

Health officials have identified 11 cases in the Halifax area, two in the province’s eastern zone and one in the western zone.

Two of the new cases in the Halifax area are connected to schools: one is at Graham Creighton Junior High in Dartmouth, N.S., and the other is at the Bedford and Forsyth Education Centres’ Dartmouth campus.

Nova Scotia has 182 active reported cases of COVID-19 and 22 people in hospital with the disease, including seven in intensive care.

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11 a.m.

Quebec is reporting 194 new cases of COVID-19 today and three more deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus, including one in the past 24 hours.

Health officials say hospitalizations dropped by nine, to 265, and 58 people were in intensive care, a drop of three patients.

The province says 66,590 doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered Sunday, for a total of 6,153,771; about 66 per cent of Quebecers have received at least one dose.

All of Quebec is now out of the province’s highest pandemic-alert level after Montreal and its northern suburb Laval and a few smaller municipalities moved to the orange level today.

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10:45 a.m.

Nunavut is reporting no new cases of COVID-19 today.

The territory has one active reported case of COVID-19, located in Iqaluit.

Health officials are announcing that starting June 14, fully vaccinated travellers will be exempt from Nunavut’s 14-day isolation requirement.

Chief public health officer Dr. Michael Patterson says travellers must apply to the Nunavut government for an exemption and will need to prove vaccination status.

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10:30 a.m.

Ontario is reporting 525 new cases of COVID-19 today and 15 more deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus.

Health Minister Christine Elliott says there are 114 new cases in Toronto, 95 in Peel Region and 51 in Waterloo.

The Health Department says 547 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 but notes that 10 per cent of hospitals did not submit data over the weekend.

Health officials say 497 people are in intensive care with COVID-19 and 339 are on a ventilator.

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9 a.m.

Moderna is applying to Health Canada today for its COVID-19 vaccine to be approved for use in teenagers. 

The Massachusetts-based company says a trial of 2,500 youth aged 12 to 17 in the United States indicated the vaccine was 93 per cent to 100 per cent effective against COVID-19. 

Moderna is the second vaccine maker to apply for approval for youth; the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was authorized for kids as young as 16 in December and for youth 12 to 15 years old in May.

Both companies continue to test their vaccines on children as young as six months with hopes to apply for authorization by the fall.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 7, 2021.

The Canadian Press