The latest news on COVID-19 developments in Canada

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

5:30 p.m. 

Alberta is reporting an estimated 1,100 new COVID-19 cases for the second day in a row.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the province’s chief medical health officer, says in a tweet that the number is preliminary in order to keep Albertans informed, and that a full update will be provided Monday.

Hinshaw says an estimated 550 additional variants of concern have been identified in Alberta.

She says 35 per cent of active cases in the province are now variants of concern.

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4:40 p.m.

Saskatchewan is reporting 280 new cases of COVID-19 today, but no new deaths.

The province continues to warn in its daily pandemic update that variants of concern are still spreading across southern Saskatchewan, particularly in the Moose Jaw and Weyburn areas.

Today’s update says that as of Friday, 2,226 cases involving variants of concern have been identified through screening, with 1,578 of them in Regina.

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4:25 p.m.

Alberta’s chief medical health officer has tweeted that provincial health officials are investigating what she calls “a significant” COVID-19 outbreak involving the variant first identified in Brazil.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw says the case is linked to a returning traveller, but she doesn’t say where the outbreak occurred or where the traveller returned from.

She says a public health investigation is underway and further updates will be issued on Monday.

The province is scheduled to release preliminary COVID-19 data for Saturday later today.

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2 p.m.

Manitoba is reporting 181 new COVID-19 cases over the past 48 hours.

The province says the total released today includes cases from a day earlier, since it didn’t issue a report on the Good Friday holiday.

Three cases have been removed from the province’s overall  tally due to data correction.

Manitoba is also reporting one new death — a woman in her 60s from the Winnipeg health region.

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1:20 p.m.

New Brunswick is reporting nine new cases of COVID-19, bringing the province’s active case count to 153.

Health officials say two cases are currently under investigation in the Saint John region and involve a pair in their 40s.

The other seven cases were identified in the Edmundston region — five infections are connected to previously confirmed cases and the other two are under investigation.

Health officials have also announced an outbreak at Résidence Rolande Long in Edmundston after identifying one case of the disease. 

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11:05 a.m.

Quebec is reporting 1,282 new cases of COVID-19 today and three additional deaths.

The Health Department says the number of hospitalizations declined by two to 501, while the number of people in intensive care rose by three to 124.

Public health authorities say 47,194 doses of vaccine were administered yesterday, for a total of 1,488,347.

Quebec has reported a total of 314,958 cases of COVID-19 and 10,684 deaths linked to the disease.

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10:55 a.m.

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

Two cases have been identified in the central health region which includes Halifax — one is related to travel outside Atlantic Canada while the other is a close contact of a previously reported case.

The other two infections were found in the eastern zone and are both related to out-of-region travel.

Nova Scotia now has 32 active cases of COVID-19.

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10:45 a.m.

Ontario’s daily COVID-19 case count is back up over 3,000 as new public health measures take effect across the province. 

Government figures show 3,009 new virus infections today and 3,089 yesterday, a day on which the province paused data sharing for the Good Friday holiday. 

Ontario also recorded 39 new deaths linked to COVID-19 over the 48-hour stretch.

A provincewide shutdown that shutters personal services and suspends in-person dining at Ontario restaurants went into effect early this morning. 

Both essential and non-essential retailers can stay open with capacity limits of 50 and 25 per cent, respectively, while schools will stay open during the 28-day shutdown. 

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

The Canadian Press