Ontario passes 8,000 COVID-19 deaths

Alberta brought in tighter public-health measures to try to get rapidly rising infection rates in hot spots under control.

The measures target six cities, including Calgary, Edmonton and Fort McMurray, and one county east of the capital for at least the next two weeks.

LIVE: Update on Alberta’s COVID-19 https://t.co/2oYM0FRBY1

— Jason Kenney (@jkenney) April 29, 2021

Junior and senior high school students will have to learn from home and indoor fitness and sports are banned. Kenney said curfews will be considered if case numbers go higher.

"Ultimately, Albertans have to step up to the plate in the next few weeks,” Kenney said.

There were 2,048 new cases in the province and 632 people were in hospital, 151 of them in intensive care.

Kenney had said earlier this week that current restrictions would suffice if more people followed them. On Thursday, he said the new measures were "a hard but necessary step."

Alberta also opened up two more groups to be eligible for vaccines.

Other provincial health leaders sped up plans that could get more Canadians vaccinated in the coming months.

Ontario marked a grim COVID-19 milestone Thursday as its virus-related death toll passed 8,000 and provincial health leaders sped up plans that could get more Canadians vaccinated in the coming months. "The way out of the pandemic is vaccines, and the light at the end of the tunnel grows brighter every day," said Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott.

Ontario is forecasting everyone over the age of 18 will be able to book a shot by May 24. The province planned to lower the age eligibility for mass vaccination clinics to 55 and older starting Friday.

Officials also announced that the province will send half its available vaccines to hot spots in the first two weeks of May to try to slow spread in those hard-hit regions. Ontario recorded 41 new virus-related deaths to bring the provincial total to 8,029. There were another 3,871 cases of COVID-19.

Premier Doug Ford remained in self-isolation after a possible exposure to the virus. Regions are preparing to receive much larger volumes of vaccines over the next two months as Pfizer-BioNTech ramps up deliveries.

Ontario has now administered over 5 MILLION doses of the #COVID19 vaccine.

Thank you to everyone on #TeamOntario for your hard work to get us here.

Learn more about getting your vaccine:
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📱 1-888-999-6488
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— Doug Ford (@fordnation) April 29, 2021

Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin, the officer overseeing vaccine delivery and distribution for the Public Health Agency of Canada, said Pfizer's shipments are to double next week to more than two million doses.

Johnson & Johnson's first delivery of 300,000 doses landed in Canada on Wednesday. Fortin said the vaccine must be thawed before distribution to provinces next week. Moderna, which is still struggling with production, intends to send one million doses that will be distributed to provinces in two weeks, Fortin added. Other provinces were also laying out plans to ramp up vaccinations to allow more people to book appointments in the coming months.

Quebec reported 1,042 cases and 10 more deaths as the government opened vaccinations to the general public. Health Minister Christian Dubé said Quebecers between 50 and 59 could begin booking appointments Friday. The age will continue to drop until May 14 when the government expects vaccines to be available for anyone over 18. Dubé said every adult Quebecer would be able to get one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by June 24.

The province's public health institute predicted the sped-up pace of vaccinations should lead to a rapid drop in new infections by mid-May or early June. Marc Brisson, with the Institut national de santé publique du Québec, cautioned that regions hit hard by the virus will need to maintain strict public-health orders until more doses find their way into arms.

The province said 69,501 shots were given Wednesday for a total of 3,039,512. Quebec's population is roughly 8.4 million. Nova Scotia, for its part, reported 70 new cases. That marked a slight decline in new infections after days of record-setting, single-day case counts. The province went into full lockdown after logging a single-day peak of 96 new infections on Tuesday. That, and other outbreaks of more contagious COVID-19 variants, contributed to premiers in all four of the Atlantic provinces delaying the reopening of their travel bubble indefinitely.

Nova Scotia Premier Iain Rankin said leaders are optimistic travel in the region will resume by summer when most residents have received a dose. “As long as we continue to get supply, we will have an opportunity for every Nova Scotian to get a shot by June."

Meanwhile, Manitoba's government is looking across the border to fulfil some of its vaccination needs. Premier Brian Pallister said he is finalizing a deal with North Dakota to have teachers and other education workers vaccinated in that state.