The latest developments on COVID-19 in Canada

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

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6:18 p.m.

Two more people have died after contracting COVID-19, bringing the death toll in B.C. to 244.

The province is reporting 102 new cases of the illness on Tuesday.

The number of active cases ticked up by 31 to 1,384, including 71 people who are in hospital.

Outbreaks are ongoing at 16 assisted-living or long-term care homes and three acute-care facilities.

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2:38 p.m.

New Brunswick is reporting a COVID-19 outbreak at a special-care home in Moncton.

Two cases were found in the Notre-Dame Manor during an investigation public health officials started Monday night.

Premier Blaine Higgs says all residents and staff are being tested at the facility, and scheduled visits are currently on hold.

Dr. Jennifer Russell, chief medical officer of health, says that contract tracing is taking place but there is no news as to how the two residents, whose condition is stable, were infected.

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1:06 p.m.

Federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu says 3.5 million Canadians have downloaded the COVID Alert app.

She urged all Canadians and provinces to use it, adding it could give a heads-up about outbreaks in remote communities.

Federal officials could not say in a briefing Tuesday which provinces saw the highest uptick in usage. 

There were 160,000 downloads in the last 24 hours, after Quebec became the latest province to adopt the application on Monday.

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11:15 a.m.

Ontario is reporting 548 new cases of COVID-19 today, and seven new deaths due to the virus.

Health Minister Christine Elliott says 201 cases are in Toronto, 90 in Peel Region and 62 in Ottawa.

The province says it has a backlog of 55,483 tests, and has conducted 42,031 tests since the last daily report.

Ontario’s testing centres moved to an appointment-only model today, a shift that comes after the government faced criticism over long lines at testing sites.

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11:14 a.m.

Health authorities in Quebec are reporting a record number of new COVID-19 cases for the second day in a row.

There were 1,364 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported in the province over the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in Quebec to 81,014.

Three deaths were reported in the past 24 hours, while 14 earlier deaths are now believed to be linked to the novel coronavirus, bringing the total number of deaths to 5,899.

There are now 397 people in hospital, an increase of 36 from the day before, while 67 people are in intensive care, an increase of five.

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10:55 a.m.

Elections Canada says if there’s a federal election during the COVID-19 pandemic, voting should be spread over two days on a weekend.

In a report presented to Parliament today, the agency also says the chief electoral officer should have more power to adapt voting plans to emergency situations on the fly.

The report says Elections Canada is worried about the safety of voters and people working the polls, and about whether it could get enough temporary workers to staff polling places.

Previous elections have had mobile polling places move through as many as 5,000 long-term care homes across the country, which could put residents at risk of contagion if this were done in the usual way during a pandemic.

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10:30 a.m.

Health Canada says it has approved another rapid test for COVID-19. 

The Panbio antigen test from Germany’s Abbott Rapid Diagnostics was added to the list of approved tests this morning.

The test can deliver results on site in less than 15 minutes.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Oct. 6, 2020.

The Canadian Press