The latest news on COVID 19 developments in Canada for March 28, 2021

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

6:30 p.m.

Alberta is reporting 644 new cases of COVID-19 and three new deaths.

The province says on its website that as of Saturday night, 1,972 of the 7,698 active COVID-19 cases were variants of concern.

Alberta’s chief medical health officer says in a tweet that there are 277 people in hospital with COVID-19, including 63 in ICU.

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4:55 p.m.

Health officials in Saskatchewan are now urging residents of Moose Jaw to follow the same public health guidelines as Regina due to a rise in the number of COVID-19 variants of concern in the province’s south.

The advice, contained in Saskatchewan’s daily pandemic update on Sunday, follows a warning from officials a day earlier that variants of concern cases were rising in Moose Jaw, which is about 70 km west of the capital.

Regina remains the area with the most variants of concern cases, with 1,126 of the Saskatchewan’s 1,365 variant cases identified so far through screening.

Last week, the province recommended that people avoid travelling into or out of Regina unless it was absolutely necessary, in order to stop the spread of more infectious variants of COVID-19.

Extra restrictions took effect in Regina and surrounding areas Sunday, including a ban on in-person dining in restaurants.

Saskatchewan reported three new deaths and 248 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday.

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4:30 p.m.

Newfoundland and Labrador is reporting one new case of COVID-19.

Health officials say a man in his 40s from the central region was infected while travelling in Canada.

The province now has two active cases of COVID-19.

A total of 1,004 people in the province have recovered from the virus since the pandemic began.

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4:30 p.m.

Two new cases of COVID-19 are being reported in Nova Scotia.

Both cases were recorded in the province’s central zone, with one related to travel and the other under investigation.

As well, health officials confirmed that an earlier case in the central zone related to travel was linked to the U.K. variant of the virus, though that case is now considered resolved.

This brings the total number of cases of the U.K. variant in Nova Scotia to 14, while the South African variant remains at 10.

As of Sunday, Nova Scotia had 25 active cases of COVID-19.

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4:30 p.m.

Health officials in New Brunswick are reporting six new cases of COVID-19 — all but one of them in the Edmundston area.

The new cases in the northern New Brunswick community, which is dealing with a recent outbreak, are all contacts of previously reported infections.

One new case reported in the Miramichi region is an individual in their 40s whose infection is travel related.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the province has reported 1,577 cases, which includes 1,432 recoveries, 30 deaths and 114 active cases.

Five patients remain in hospital, including one in intensive care.

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2:05 p.m.

Manitoba is reporting one new death of a person with COVID-19 and 55 new cases.

Today’s new death — a man in his 60s in the Winnipeg health region — is the 934th person with COVID-19 in Manitoba to die since the pandemic began.

The province reports there are 1,179 active cases, with 140 people in hospital due to COVID-19.

Twenty-seven of those are receiving intensive care.

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11:30 a.m.

The Quebec government is reporting 917 new cases of COVID-19 and two additional deaths due to the pandemic, but none in the past 24 hours.

Hospitalizations declined by one to 480, but the number of people in intensive care increased by six to 114.

The province vaccinated 45,745 people in the last 24 hours, and has currently given a vaccine dose to 14.4 per cent of the population.

Some 29,407 tests were completed on Friday, which is the last day for which data is available.

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10:30 a.m.

Ten more people in Ontario have died with COVID-19 as the province reports 2,448 new cases of the disease.

Health Minister Christine Elliott says there are 780 new cases in Toronto.

She says there are also 356 new cases in Peel Region, 278 in York Region, 278 in York Region, 219 in Durham Region and 150 in Ottawa.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 28, 2021.

The Canadian Press