The latest news on COVID-19 developments in Canada

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

5:55 p.m.

Alberta is reporting 1,433 new cases of COVID-19.

That brings the total number of active infections in the province to 23,873.

Officials also say there have been five more deaths in Alberta due to the virus.

There are 713 people in hospital because of COVID-19, including 177 people in intensive care.

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3:50 p.m.

Saskatchewan is reporting 227 new cases of COVID-19 today.

Two more people have died, one in their 40s and one in their 70s.

The province is now dealing with 2,075 active cases.

There are 149 people in the hospital, 34 of whom are in intensive care.

The province has now confirmed one case of vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT), or blood clots, in a woman who had received the AstraZeneca vaccine in April.

The woman has received treatment and is recovering.

The province has now delivered over 550,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine.

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2:20 p.m.

A top Manitoba health official says COVID-19 numbers are expected to worsen for at least another week before dropping.

Dr. Jazz Atwal, the deputy chief public health officer, says the current spike in case numbers and hospitalization rates is being made worse by people not following the rules.

He says too many people are still gathering and interacting with others, despite public health orders that have been tightened three times in the last month.

Atwal released new modelling that suggests the daily number of new cases will likely rise for another week, and intensive care usage might rise for another four weeks.

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1:40 p.m.

New Brunswick is reporting five new cases of COVID-19 today.

Health officials say the cases involve one person in the Saint John region and four in the Fredericton area.

New Brunswick has 116 active reported cases and six COVID-19 patients in provincial hospitals.

Four New Brunswickers are hospitalized with the disease out of province.

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1:40 p.m.

Nova Scotia is reporting 117 new cases of COVID-19 today and one virus-related death.

Health officials say a man in his 80s died in the Halifax area, bringing the total number of virus-related deaths to 72 since the outset of the pandemic.

Ninety-seven of the new cases have been identified in the Halifax area and the province now has 1,537 known active cases.

The province also announced that it is opening up COVID-19 vaccine appointments for those aged 35 to 39.

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1:35 p.m.

Manitoba is reporting 491 new COVID-19 cases and no new deaths. 

Two earlier cases have been removed due to data correction, for a net increase of 489. 

The five-day test positivity rate is 11.8 per cent provincially and 14.2 per cent in Winnipeg.

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1:10 p.m.

Canada’s chief public health officer says there are signs the country has “passed the peak” of the third wave.

Dr. Theresa Tam says Canada saw an average of fewer than 7,000 COVID-19 cases per day over the past week, a 20 per cent drop compared to the height of the surge in April.

Tam says there’s also been a decline in severe illness, with an average of fewer than 4,000 COVID-19 patients being treated in hospital each day, including fewer than 1,400 intensive care cases.

She says more than 17 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered across Canada to date.

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12:45 p.m. 

Public Services and Procurement Minister Anita Anand says Canada can expect to receive 4.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna next week.

Anand says Pfizer is moving up its scheduled shipments ahead of the Victoria Day weekend.

She says two million Pfizer doses are expected to arrive early next week, and 1.4 million more will be delivered on Thursday and Friday.

Anand says Moderna is set to send 1.1 million doses next week.

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11:15 a.m.

Quebec is reporting 838 new COVID-19 cases and eight more deaths from the virus.

Two of the deaths occurred in the past 24 hours. 

Health officials say hospitalizations rose by 10 to 530 and 123 people were in intensive care, an increase of two.

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10:30 a.m.

Ontario is reporting 2,362 new COVID-19 cases.

The province says 26 more people have died from the virus. 

The data is based on 44,040 tests. 

There were 1,582 COVID-19 patients in Ontario hospitals as of Friday morning, including 777 people in intensive care.

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10:30 a.m.

Prince Edward Island is reporting two new COVID-19 cases.

Chief medical officer of health Dr. Heather Morrison says both people are in their 20s.

One is a close contact of a case reported Thursday involving a Charlottetown daycare worker.

She says the close contact of the daycare worker had travelled outside the Atlantic region and did not properly isolate when they returned. 

She says 35 children and staff at the daycare have all tested negative but must continue to isolate.

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10:10 a.m.

Manitoba is opening up COVID-19 vaccinations to all people aged 12 and up, down from 18 and up. 

Anyone under 18 will be able to get the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at provincial supersites and urban Indigenous clinics. 

Health Canada approved the Pfizer vaccine for people as young as 12 on May 5.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 14, 2021.

The Canadian Press