The latest news on COVID-19 developments in Canada for Thursday, May 6, 2021

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

5:30 p.m.

Alberta chief medical officer Dr. Deena Hinshaw says the province is no longer testing every sample for variants in order to free up lab capacity.

She says anyone with a positive test should assume they have contracted a variant, as they are now dominant in the province.

Alberta recorded 2,211 new COVID-19 cases in the past day and no new deaths.

There are 654 people in hospital, including 146 in intensive care.

Some 100,000 Albertans born in 1991 or earlier booked vaccine appointments today.

So far, 1.73 million doses of vaccine have been given in total.

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4:15 p.m.

B.C.’s top doctor says a woman is recovering in hospital after suffering a blood clot reaction to the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

Dr. Bonnie Henry says the patient is in stable condition, and that the vaccine is still safe to use.

B.C. reported 694 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, along with one new death.

Henry says B.C. is on track to administer its two millionth dose of vaccine today.

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4 p.m.

Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin says Canada will be getting another 655,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in the next few weeks. 

The doses are the second shipment from the COVAX facility, a global vaccine-sharing program. 

Canada invested hundreds of millions into COVAX to help low- and middle-income countries access vaccines they otherwise couldn’t afford, and also to buy millions of doses for itself.

It has been criticized for taking doses from COVAX when it has so many private purchase agreements. 

More than 1.2 billion doses have been administered so far worldwide, but more than eight in 10 of those doses have gone to wealthy nations.

North American countries have administered 49 doses for every 100 people, Europe has given 32, while South America has done 19 and Africa only 1.4.

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3:55 p.m.

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

Health officials say the cases involve people in their 20s: one travelled within Atlantic Canada and the other travelled outside the region.

Prince Edward Island has nine active reported cases of COVID-19.

The Island has reported a total of 185 cases and no deaths linked to the virus.

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3:35 p.m.

Saskatchewan is reporting 156 new cases of COVID-19 today.

The province now has 2,158 active cases.

There are 173 people are in hospital, 41 of whom are in intensive care.

Of those intensive care patients, 23 are in Regina and 14 are in Saskatoon.

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2:25 p.m.

Nova Scotia is reporting 182 new cases of COVID-19 today — another record daily high for the province.

The province is now dealing with 1,309 active reported cases.

Almost all of the new cases, 155, were reported in the central zone, which includes Halifax.

Two of those cases involve a staff member and resident of a residential care facility in the Halifax area where two other staff members and two other residents have already tested positive.

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2:05 p.m.

Nunavut’s chief public health officer says house parties and visits between households are to blame for a rise in COVID-19 cases in Iqaluit. 

Dr. Michael Patterson says he knows of at least three house parties in Iqaluit where COVID-19 was transmitted. 

As a result, anyone who attended a party in the last three weeks in the city is asked to call the COVID-19 hotline and get tested. 

Although gatherings are banned in the city, Patterson says public health will not report people to law enforcement who have been to a house party and call the hotline. 

Iqaluit has been under a strict lockdown since April 15, with restricted travel as well as the closure of all schools and non-essential businesses.

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2:05 p.m.

Health authorities say another crew member on a cargo ship anchored off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador has tested positive for COVID-19.

A total of 14 crew members have now tested positive on the MV Federal Montreal, a bulk carrier owned by Fednav, a transport company headquartered in Quebec.

The vessel left Montreal on April 26 and has been anchored in Conception Bay for about a week.

Officials reported five new cases of COVID-19 in Newfoundland and Labrador, bringing the province’s active reported case count to 58.

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1:40 p.m.

Manitoba is reporting 363 new COVID-19 cases. 

Six earlier cases have been removed due to data correction, however, for a net increase of 357. 

The province is also reporting four deaths — two in Winnipeg and two in the Prairie Mountain health region.

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1:20 p.m.

New Brunswick says a resident in their 80s of special-care home Pavillon Beau-Lieu in Grand Falls is the 40th person to die in the province of COVID-19.

Health officials are reporting 11 new cases of COVID-19 today, including 10 travel-related cases of New Brunswick workers who are isolating outside the province.

The province is also confirming that a previously reported infection from the Bathurst region involves the P.1 variant.

New Brunswick has 142 active reported cases of COVID-19 and six patients in hospital with the disease, including two in intensive care.

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1:10 p.m.

Quebec is announcing a plan to vaccinate youth between the ages of 12 and 17 against COVID-19.

Health Minister Christian Dubé says the plan is for youth to be offered first doses before the end of June and second doses before school returns in the fall.

Health Canada approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children age 12 and up on Wednesday.

Dubé says 40 per cent of Quebecers have now received a first vaccine dose.

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12 p.m.

Canada achieved a new milestone in its vaccination program Wednesday, surpassing the vaccination rate in the United States for the first time.

The Our World in Data project that tracks vaccinations given around the world, says on May 5, the United States injected doses at a rate of 6.4 doses for every 1,000 people. 

Canada injected 6.6 doses for every 1,000 people.

Canada has been inching closer to the U.S.’s rate for weeks now, as supplies of vaccines shipped into Canada increased in April, and the United States has been slowing, after getting at least one dose to 44 per cent of Americans, and full vaccinations to almost one-third.

The United States peaked on April 16, delivering 10 doses for every 1,000 people. 

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11:15 a.m.

Quebec is reporting 907 new cases of COVID-19 today and seven more deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus.

Health officials say hospitalizations dropped by eight, to 580, and 144 people were in intensive care a drop of eight.

The province says it administered nearly 79,000 doses in the past 24 hours, for a total of over 3.4 million. 

Health Minister Christian Dubé says another 200,000 people booked vaccination appointments on Wednesday. 

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10:30 a.m.

Ontario reports there are 3,424 new cases of COVID-19 in the province and 26 more deaths linked to the virus.

Health Minister Christine Elliott says there are 958 new cases in Toronto, 900 in Peel, 291 in York Region

Ontario says that over 141,000 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine were administered since Wednesday’s report, for a total of more than 5.7 million.

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10:05 a.m.

Nunavut is reporting 12 new cases of COVID-19 and eight new recoveries today.

All the new cases are in Iqaluit, Nunavut’s capital city of about 8,000 people.

There are now 84 active cases in Iqaluit and two in Kinngait.

There have been 72 recoveries since the first case was declared in Iqaluit on April 14.

Two Iqaluit residents have been hospitalized in southern Canada with COVID-19.—

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 6, 2021.

The Canadian Press

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version said B.C. reported 684 new cases today, when in fact it was 694.