The latest news on COVID-19 developments in Canada

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

5:45 p.m.

Alberta is reporting 2,042 new COVID-19 cases and two additional deaths.

The province’s chief medical officer of health says in a series of tweets that the cases were identified out of 18,809 tests, and that the test-positivity rate is 11 per cent.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw says 406 of today’s new cases are variants of concern, as are 47.6 per cent of Alberta’s active COVID-19 cases.

Hinshaw says 661 people are in hospital with COVID-19, 148 of whom are in intensive care.

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4:15 p.m.

Saskatchewan is reporting 269 new cases of COVID-19 in the province, but no new deaths linked to the virus.

The province says it has now surpassed 500,000 vaccine doses administered, with the recent addition of 13,042 new jabs.

A total of 504,482 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Saskatchewan, and the province says almost 70 per cent of people over 40 have received a first shot.

There are 2,293 active COVID-19 cases in Saskatchewan, with 168 people in hospital and 42 in intensive care.

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2:15 p.m.

Nova Scotia is continuing to log high case counts of COVID-19, reporting 163 new infections today.

Public health officials have also confirmed a man in his 70s has died in the Halifax area, bringing the province’s total death toll from the virus to 71.

Most of the new cases are in the Halifax region, with 134 occurring in the central zone, while the remainder are spread over the rest of the province.

One of the new cases involves a staff member at Melville Gardens, a residential care facility in Halifax and another is at Harbour View Haven, a nursing home in Lunenburg.

Most residents in the homes have been fully vaccinated with two doses of COVID-19 vaccine.

As of today, Nova Scotia has 1,538 active COVID-19 cases.

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2 p.m.

Manitoba is reporting 488 new COVID-19 cases and three additional deaths as the province gets set for new restrictions to take effect.

One of the new deaths was a woman in her 20s from the Winnipeg health region.

The other two were men over 70, one in Winnipeg and the other in the Prairie Mountain health region, whose cases officials say are linked to the variant of concern first identified in the UK.

The province reports there are 3,237 active COVID-19 cases, with 200 virus patients in hospital and 54 in intensive care.

As of Sunday morning, Manitoba is capping outdoor gatherings to five people, limiting restaurants, bars and patios to take-out and delivery and closing some businesses in a bid to curb rising case numbers.

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1:40 p.m.

There are six new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Newfoundland and Labrador today.

The province says those include two men and a woman in their 20s and a man in his 60s in the Eastern Health region.

The fifth new confirmed case is a man in the Central Health region under 20 years of age, while the sixth is a man in the Western Health region in his 70s.

There are now 67 active cases of COVID-19 in the province.

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12:30 p.m.

New Brunswick is reporting eight new cases of COVID-19 and one related death today.

Public Health officials say the person who died was in their 90s and lived in the Pavillon Beau-Lieu care home in Grand Falls, N.B.

There have now been 41 deaths in the province.

Of the eight new cases, two are in Moncton, two in the Saint John area, three in the Fredericton area and three in the Bathurst region.

The cases are all contacts of previously confirmed patients.

There are currently 141 active cases in the province and 10 people hospitalized, including two in intensive care.

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11:25 a.m.

Quebec is reporting 958 new cases of COVID-19 and seven deaths over the past 24 hours.

Health authorities say hospitalizations continue to decline in the province, falling by 27 to 547 today.

There are 130 patients in intensive care, a decrease of nine.

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10:45 a.m.

Ontario is reporting 2,864 COVID-19 cases today and 25 deaths from the virus.

The data is based on 47,817 completed tests.

The province says 1,832 people are hospitalized with COVID-19, including 851 patients in intensive care.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 8, 2021

The Canadian Press