COVID-19 rages in some provinces

The national decline in COVID-19 case counts is slowing to a crawl, Canada’s chief public health officer warned Monday as several provinces continued to battle surging waves of the virus.

While there were signs of hope that Ontario and Quebec were making progress on Monday, provinces to the east and west continued to struggle.

Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister said Monday that his province is in the midst of a third wave of COVID-19 despite a long fight to stave it off.

“We’re in a race between the variants and the vaccines, and more must be done to ensure the variants don’t win,” he said as he announced expanded financial assistance for businesses.

The province recently brought in a number of new public health restrictions, and on Sunday it announced that schools in the Winnipeg and Brandon areas will be moving online beginning Wednesday until at least May 30.

COVID-19 case numbers have also been high in Nova Scotia, which closed its provincial boundaries to non-essential travel on Monday to try to limit the spread. Nova Scotia’s travel rules are in force until at least the end of the month, and an application process for most travellers will be introduced by May 14.

While the total number of new infections across Canada has been declining across the country since mid-april, Canada’s chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam said disease activity is “elevated or increasing” in many jurisdictions, threatening the overall progress.

“The latest national-level data show the decline in national case counts has slowed to a less than 2 per cent decrease over the past week, with an average of 7,749 cases being reported daily” for the week of April 30 to May 6, Tam said in a statement.

Health officials in Iqaluit, meanwhile, sounded the alarm about rising COVID-19 cases in the city’s shelters and correctional facilities after at least 18 positive tests in those settings. A seniors home in the city was also evacuated over the weekend after a staff member tested positive for COVID-19.

Ontario’s hospitalizations and active cases continued a slow decline, as the province announced it is now receiving enough vaccine to allow health-care workers to begin booking their second shots in the coming days.

Quebec announced Monday that it has given second vaccine doses to all longterm care residents, as it reported just 662 new cases.

New Brunswick, meanwhile, announced that the only part of the province that had been under the orange alert level of the province’s COVID-19 response plan would be moved to yellow at midnight.

Canada is scheduled to receive two million doses of the Pfizer-biontech COVID-19 vaccine this week.