The latest news on COVID-19 developments in Canada

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

7:20 p.m.

Alberta’s health minister says it will take longer than expected to start immunizing seniors over 75 outside long-term care homes due to a delay in manufacturing one of the COVID-19 vaccines. 

Tyler Shandro says the news out of Ottawa is a blow and it’s not clear how the delay will affect Alberta’s vaccine allocation in the coming weeks. 

He says the government had hoped to announce in the coming days that seniors over 75 and Indigenous people over 65 would be eligible to get their shots, but now the timeline is in question.

Senior medical officer of health Dr. Laura McDougall says Alberta is still ramping up its ability to administer vaccines as quickly as possible.

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6:30 p.m.

British Columbia health officials say they are disappointed to hear there will be a short-term delay in the delivery of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

Their comments came as the province reported 509 new COVID-19 cases for a total of 60,117 infections in British Columbia.

It also reported an additional nine deaths, bringing the total number of fatalities to 1,047.

The number of people who have recovered stands at 53,115.

The number of British Columbians who have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine so far is 75,914.

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5:40 p.m.

Alberta is reporting 785 new cases of COVID-19.

It says there have also been an additional 13 deaths.

There are 796 people in hospital, and 124 of those are in intensive care.

There are 12,189 active infections.

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5:10 p.m.

A person in Yellowknife has tested positive for COVID-19.

Chief public health officer Dr. Kami Kandola says the person has not travelled and there is no known source of infection at this time.

Currently, there are no other active cases of COVID-19 in Yellowknife.

Kandola says the new case was locally acquired but the source is unknown.

A rapid response team has been deployed to investigate the source of the new case.

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3:35 p.m.

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

The new case involves a woman between 20 and 39 years old in the eastern health region.

Officials say the woman is a resident of the province who travelled internationally.

Newfoundland and Labrador has five active reported cases and one person is in hospital with the disease.

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2:55 p.m.

Health officials in Saskatchewan are announcing another 382 cases of COVID-19.

Four more residents who were 60 and older have also died.

There are 210 people in hospital, with 35 people in intensive care.

To date, 14,017 vaccine doses have gone into the arms of the province’s elderly and health-care workers.

Saskatchewan’s chief medical health officer warned that next week, he will recommend the Saskatchewan Party government tighten up its public-health orders if the province continues to see 300 or more new cases daily.

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2 p.m.

The Manitoba government is seeking public input on a potential easing of COVID-19 restrictions on business openings and public gatherings. 

Dr. Brent Roussin, the province’s chief public health officer, says daily case numbers have been dropping and the strain on hospitals has been easing. 

The government has put up an online survey that asks people what they would like to see changed, and a final decision is expected late next week.

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1:35 p.m.

Manitoba is reporting 191 new COVID-19 cases today and five additional deaths. 

The new cases continue to be especially pronounced in the northern health region.

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1 p.m.

Police in Ottawa say they have charged a 62-year-old man from California for violating the quarantine rules meant to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

In a statement, they say the man arrived in Canada Jan. 6 and was required to stay isolated until Jan. 19, but was visited “on several occasions and for extended periods of time” by an Ottawa resident.

They don’t name the man or say what his relationship is to his visitor, but say he came from California, a state struggling more than most with the novel coronavirus.

The section of the Quarantine Act that forbids visits to people in quarantine carries a potential maximum punishment of six months in jail and a $750,000 fine.

The police statement says the visitor was let off with a warning.

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12:42

New Brunswick is reporting 25 new cases of COVID-19 today across almost all of its health zones.

Health officials say the new cases are under investigation and the Miramichi area is the only region without active reported infections.

The province says it has 256 active cases and four people are in hospital with the disease.

New Brunswick remains at the second-highest pandemic alert level.

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11:55

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says a temporary delay in deliveries of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will not derail efforts to vaccinate Canadians by September.

Trudeau says Pfizer’s production issues will not affect plans to have enough vaccines available for every Canadian who wants one by the fall.

He says “it’s only expected that there will be a few bumps along the way.”

Pfizer Canada says modifications at its Belgium facility will affect deliveries for all countries it supplies.

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10:57

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

Officials say one case was identified in the northern zone and one in the central zone, which includes Halifax.

They say both cases involve close contacts of previously reported infections.

Nova Scotia has 32 active reported cases of the disease.

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10:30 a.m.

Ontario is reporting 100 deaths linked to COVID-19 today after a data entry error in one of its public health units.

Forty-six deaths from Middlesex-London were added to the province’s daily count that actually happened earlier in the pandemic.

The province is also reporting 2,998 new cases of COVID-19.

Health Minister Christine Elliott says 800 of those new cases are in Toronto, 618 in Peel Region and 250 in York Region.

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9:56 a.m.

Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam says Canada is on track to hit 10,000 new daily infections of COVID-19 by the end of January.

New modelling shows the total number of cases could reach 796,630 by Jan. 24 and another 2,000 people could die.

Tam says there is rapid and widespread community spread of COVID-19, and governments and individuals need to do everything they can to reduce contacts.

She says measures to reduce contacts must be kept in place long enough to prevent an immediate resurgence of infections as soon as the lockdown measures are lifted.

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9:40 a.m.

U.S. drug-maker Pfizer is temporarily cutting back vaccine deliveries to Canada because of issues with its European production lines.

Procurement Minister Anita Anand says Pfizer thinks it will still be able to deliver four million doses by the end of March, but it’s no longer guaranteed.

Canada has received about 380,000 doses of the vaccine so far, and was supposed to get another 400,000 this month, followed by almost two million doses in February. 

There is no update yet on what the new deliveries will be.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 15, 2021.

The Canadian Press