The latest news on COVID-19 developments in Canada for Tuesday, April 27, 2021

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

7:50 p.m.

British Columbia has extended its provincial state of emergency until May 11 to allow health officials to use the legal means to support its pandemic measures including interprovincial travel restrictions.

Premier John Horgan says that while over a third of all B.C. residents have received at least one dose of vaccine and people have worked hard to keep others safe, the final stretch of the pandemic is proving more difficult.

Public Safety Minster Mike Farnworth says too many B.C. residents still aren’t getting the message when it comes to following public health orders, setting everyone back.

B.C. recorded 799 new cases in the last 24 hours, for a total of 127,048 cases, and for the first time in months, there were no additional deaths in the province, which has had 1,571 fatalities.

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6 p.m.

Alberta is reporting 1,539 new cases of COVID-19.

The province says 812 new variant cases have also been identified.

The active case total is at 20,721.

There have been an additional seven deaths due to the virus.

There are currently 635 people in hospital because of COVID-19 and 143 are in intensive care.

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5:30 p.m.

Saskatchewan truck drivers will now be able to get vaccinated in the United States as the province partners with North Dakota. 

Premier Scott Moe says co-operation with the southern neighbours will get more Canadians vaccinated at a time when Americans have more doses available. 

North Dakota is already vaccinating drivers at the Manitoba border.

Moe says about 2,000 Saskatchewan residents will be able to get doses through the partnership.

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3:45 p.m.

Saskatchewan health officials are reporting 224 new cases of COVID-19 and six additional deaths today. 

There are 186 people in hospital, 42 of whom are in intensive care. 

The province says 58 per cent of people over the age of 40 have now received their first dose of a vaccine. 

A total of 408,429 doses have been administered.

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1:55 p.m.

Health officials in New Brunswick are reporting that a person in their 20s has died from COVID-19 in the Moncton region.

Chief medical officer of health Dr. Jennifer Russell says the death is the youngest among the 36 COVID-19-related deaths in the province.

There are 24 new cases of COVID-19 in New Brunswick today.

Twenty-one cases are in the Edmundston region and are all close contacts of previous cases in an outbreak at Pavillon Beau-Lieu in Grand Falls, while there are two new cases in the Moncton area and one in the Fredericton region.

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1:40 p.m.

Manitoba is reporting 218 new COVID-19 cases today and no additional deaths. 

One earlier case has been removed due to data correction for a net increase of 217. 

The current five-day test positivity rate is 7.5 per cent provincially and 8.4 per cent in Winnipeg.

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1:35 p.m.

Quebec says a person has died of a blood clot that occurred after they received the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

Public health director Dr. Horacio Arruda says the benefits of the vaccine far outweigh the risks but the province always knew that rare complications were possible.

Quebec is offering the vaccine to Quebecers between the ages of 45 and 79 and Arruda says there are no plans to change that strategy.

Health Minister Christian Dube says the province is currently investigating four cases of serious complications out of some 400,000 people who have received the AstraZeneca vaccine.

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1:25 p.m.

Quebec Premier Francois Legault is reopening Quebec City elementary schools and pushing back the curfew in the Montreal area.

Legault says the situation has improved enough to allow primary schools to reopen in Quebec city and the Chaudiere-Appalaches area, south of the provincial capital, on May 3, with some exceptions in harder-hit areas.

The premier is also pushing back the curfew in Montreal and its northern suburb of Laval to 9:30 p.m. from 8 p.m., on Monday.  

Legault says further easing of restrictions will be done gradually to avoid a resurgence in cases.

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11:55 a.m.

Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau spoke with his counterpart in India earlier today about how Canada could best help the country struggling with a deadly surge in COVID-19 cases.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the federal government is ready to provide $10 million to the Indian Red Cross, through the Canadian Red Cross.

He says this money would support everything from procuring more personal protective equipment locally to ambulance services.

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11:50 a.m.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the Canadian Armed Forces is deploying 60 service members to help out at COVID-19 testing centres in Nova Scotia.

Trudeau says the province asked for help as the number of COVID-19 cases has been rising quickly, especially in the Halifax region.

Trudeau says the military also carried out its assessment of what Ontario needs on the ground Monday and that the Forces will mobilize personnel in the coming days.

Trudeau says the federal government has also reached out to Alberta on what support the province might need.

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11:15 a.m.

Quebec is reporting 899 new cases of COVID-19 today and 14 more deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus, including three in the last 24 hours.

Health officials say hospitalizations rose by three, to 667, and 170 people were in intensive care, a rise of three.

The regions with the most new cases were Montreal with 195 and the Quebec City region with 111.

The province administered 45,757 doses of vaccine since the last update, for a total of 2,916,897.

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10:55 a.m.

Prince Edward Island is reporting no new cases of COVID-19 today.

There are 11 active cases in the province, which has had 177 cases since the start of the pandemic.

Chief medical officer of health Dr. Heather Morrison says two recent cases have now been identified as the B.1.1.7 variant first identified in the United Kingdom.

She says there have been a total of 13 variant cases so far on the Island and all have been B.1.1.7.

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10:30 a.m.

Ontario is reporting 3,265 new cases of COVID-19 today and 29 more deaths linked to the virus.

Health Minister Christine Elliott says there are 1,044 new cases in Toronto, 673 in Peel Region, and 452 in York Region.

She also says there are 171 new cases in Durham Region and 150 in Ottawa.

The Ministry of Health says 2,336 people are currently hospitalized, 875 patients are in intensive care, and 589 are on a ventilator.

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10:20 a.m.

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

There are now 49 active cases in the territory, 45 of them in Iqaluit.

There are also two active cases in Kinngait and two in Rankin Inlet.

Premier Joe Savikataaq says all the infected individuals are in isolation and doing well.

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9:50 a.m.

Nova Scotia is reporting 96 new cases of COVID-19 today.

The vast majority are in the Halifax area, where 90 new cases have been identified.

Three cases are in the province’s eastern health zone, two in the western zone and one is reported in the northern zone.

The province now has a total of 419 active infections.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 27, 2021.

The Canadian Press