Today’s coronavirus news: Ontario schools will offer online learning option for entire 2021-2022 school year; Canadian pharmacists worried NACI advice will stoke vaccine hesitancy

The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Tuesday. Web links to longer stories if available.

1:12 p.m. Ontario says students can opt to take all their classes online when the new school year begins in September.

The province says the option will be available for the entire 2021-2022 school year and it will be providing more information to parents in the coming months.

The government says it will increase funding to school boards by $561 million next year to help address continued pandemic-related costs.

It says it will spend a total of $25.6 billion on the education system in 2021-2022 - an increase of 2.2 per cent over the previous year.

The province says it will allow boards to access their reserves, as it did last year, to help address pandemic costs.

It will also extend $1.6 billion in COVID-19 supports to boards, including millions to upgrade ventilation, support learning recovery, and allow for flexible staffing.

The government says it will also continue funding for the purchase of personal protective equipment, COVID-19 testing and replacement of devices.

It cautions, however, that boards should only budget for half of those resources during the first half of the year, and that the remaining funding depends on vaccine distribution and public health advice.

All schools are currently teaching students online as Ontario remains under a stay-at-home order.

The province reported 2,791 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday and 25 more deaths linked to the virus.

Health Minister Christine Elliott said there are 931 new cases in Toronto, 653 in Peel Region, and 275 in York Region. The data is based on over 33,700 tests.

1:10 p.m. Ontario government announces up to $1.6 billion for school boards help with COVID costs for the upcoming school year. Includes allowing boards to again dip into reserves. Boards were initially told to budget for the fall assuming no extra pandemic funds.

12:40 p.m. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged Canadians to get their COVID-19 shots as soon as they can, one day after an arms-length advisory body said people might want to wait for preferred" vaccines that aren't connected with a risk of very rare blood clots.

Trudeau welcomed how there is a range of advice on the science of the coronavirus, but said the bottom line" is that all vaccines approved in Canada are safe and effective" and that mass vaccination is one of the key tools" to end the pandemic.

The impacts of catching COVID are far greater and far deadlier... than potential side effects, which although serious, are rare," Trudeau said during a press conference on Parliament Hill Tuesday.

The reality is, the way we get through this pandemic is to get vaccinated with whatever vaccine is offered to us as quickly as possible."

On Monday, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) created confusion and concern after the committee's vice chair, Dr. Shelley Deeks, declared mRNA shots are preferred" to more traditional, viral vector vaccines made by AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, which the committee recommended only for people who are 30 or older.

12:10 p.m. Canada's chief public health officer says there have been 1.2 million cases of COVID-19 in the country including over 24,300 deaths linked to the virus.

Dr. Theresa Tam says Canada is making progress nationally, but there are a few "tricky spots."

She says the decline in national cases has slowed, with an average of 7,900 cases reported daily, and the number of people experiencing critical or severe illness is high.

Tam says more than 1,450 people are being treated in intensive care units every day and an average of 47 deaths are being reported daily.

11:51 a.m. Health officials on Prince Edward Island are reporting one new case of COVID-19 Tuesday.

Chief medical officer of health Dr. Heather Morrison says the latest case involves a person in their 50s who travelled outside of Atlantic Canada.

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

Morrison says further analysis has found two recent cases on P.E.I. were the variant of interest first detected in India.

She says the Island has also had 15 cases of the B.1.1.7 variant, which was first reported in the United Kingdom.

Despite the relatively low number of COVID-19 cases on P.E.I., Morrison is calling for continued caution, noting there were 900 new cases in Atlantic Canada in the last week.

11:42 a.m. (will be updated) Canada is receiving a shipment of Moderna vaccine a week earlier than expected.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada is picking up its next shipment of Moderna vaccine tonight in Europe.

He says by tomorrow morning, a million Moderna doses will be on the ground in Canada.

Trudeau also says this week, just like every week in May, Canada is receiving two million doses from Pfizer-BioNTech alone.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged Canadians to get their COVID-19 shots as soon as they can, one day after NACI, arms-length advisory body, said people might want to wait for preferred" vaccines.

11:36 a.m. The Quebec government is reporting 797 cases of COVID-19 as well as 16 additional deaths due to the pandemic.

Hospitalizations increased by six to 594, while the number of people in intensive care rose by four to 155.

The province administered another 50,379 vaccine doses in the past 24 hours and added 1,762 from previous days to its tally, for a total of 3,308,542 total doses given to date.

Health Minister Christian Dube says at least 75 per cent of Quebecers age 55 to 59 have now booked their first shots, but that the province wants to surpass that target in order to maximize herd immunity.

11:30 a.m. The Canadian Pharmacists Association says advice from a national panel on vaccines is unhelpful and likely to make it harder to get enough people in the country vaccinated to end the pandemic.

The National Advisory Committee on Immunization set off a firestorm of fear and anger Monday after saying mRNA vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are "preferred" because viral-vector vaccines from Oxford-AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson carry a remote risk of blood clots.

NACI, a panel of physicians and other vaccine experts, provided non-binding advice to provinces that the viral-vector vaccines should only be used on people over the age of 30, who are at higher risk of getting COVID-19.

Phil Emberley, a veteran pharmacist and acting director of professional affairs for the national pharmacists group, says he is "disappointed" with NACI's statements and is worried the advice will make more Canadians hesitate to get vaccinated.

He says when you weigh the risks that come with COVID-19 against the risks of any of the vaccines Canada has authorized, preventing the virus is always the better choice.

Emberley says he got the AstraZeneca vaccine himself three weeks ago and has no regrets or concerns that he should have held out for a different vaccine.

10:50 a.m. Education Minister Stephen Lecce will make an announcement Tuesday at 1 p.m. He'll be joined by Robin Martin, Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Health, and Katherine Hay, President and CEO of Kids Help Phone.

10:40 a.m. Quebec health officials unveiled the city's first drive-thru COVID-19 vaccination site today in a parking lot at Montreal's Trudeau International Airport.

Health Minister Christian Dube was on hand as regional health authorities demonstrated how people will be vaccinated without leaving their car.

The operation is expected to be running by May 17, administering 4,000 shots per day, and it could serve as a blueprint for similar sites elsewhere in the province.

Dube says people are eager to get vaccinated, and each time the province opens a new age eligibility, appointments are quickly scooped up.

Authorities opened up appointments to those between 45 and 49 years of age on Monday,

With two million Pfizer-BioNTech doses expected in May alone, Dube urged as many Quebecers as possible to get a shot this month.

If we can vaccinate two million people in May, it means we could accelerate the second dose, which was due after June," Dube told reporters at the airport.

10:30 a.m. Premier Doug Ford has issued a statement to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau regarding border measures.

In the last two weeks, we have sent the federal government three urgent letters requesting immediate action on the borders. The premier also appealed directly to the Prime Minister last Thursday."

To date we have received no formal response to our requests and there has been no indication that any further action is coming to stop the importation of variants into Canada."

10:15 a.m. (updated) Ontario is reporting 2,791 new cases of COVID-19 today and 25 more deaths linked to the virus.

Health Minister Christine Elliott says there are 931 new cases in Toronto, 653 in Peel Region, and 275 in York Region.

She also says there are 147 new cases in Durham Region and 128 in Hamilton.

Tuesday's data is based on over 33,700 tests completed.

The Ministry of Health says that 2,167 people are hospitalized because of the coronavirus, with 886 in intensive care and 609 on ventilators.

Ontario says 88,871 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine were administered since Monday's report, for a total of more than 5.4 million doses given in the province.

10:10 a.m. The president of the European Union's executive arm says a quarter of all EU residents have now received a first dose of coronavirus vaccine.

After a slow start to its vaccination campaign, the European Union has sped up the pace of immunization as vaccine supplies in the 27-nation region increased in recent weeks.

Vaccination is gaining speed across the EU: we have just passed 150 million vaccinations," Ursula von der Leyen said in a message posted on Twitter. A quarter of all Europeans have had their first dose. We'll have enough doses for vaccinating 70% of EU adults in July."

9 a.m. Ontario Ministry of Education Deputy Minister Nancy Naylor will hold a media briefing to provide an update on school planning for September at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday.

8:45 a.m. The European Union started delivering EU-funded coronavirus vaccines Tuesday to the Balkans, a region that wants to join the 27-nation bloc but where China and Russia have already been supplying the much-needed shots and making political gains.

The European Commission last month announced that 651,000 Pfizer-BioNTech doses will be delivered to Serbia, Bosnia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania and Kosovo in weekly instalments from May to August. The vaccines are funded from a 70 million euro package ($85 million) adopted by the Commission in December.

Most of the Balkan countries have struggled to get coronavirus vaccines, except for Serbia, which had launched a successful inoculation campaign mainly thanks to millions of doses of China's Sinopharm and Russia's Sputnik V shots, which have so far not been approved by EU's drug administrator.

Following on the footsteps of Serbia, the other Western Balkan nations have been turning to China and Russia for vaccines as EU nations faced their own vaccine delays.

China's and Russia's vaccine exports to Serbia and elsewhere came with soft-power messages, with politicians praising mutual friendship and criticizing the EU for not coming to the rescue when it was needed the most.

8:30 a.m. The Indian Premier League was suspended indefinitely after players or staff at three clubs tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday as nationwide infections surged.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India issued a statement saying local authorities and tournament officials decided unanimously to postpone IPL 2021 season, with immediate effect."

The BCCI does not want to compromise on the safety of the players, support staff and the other participants," the BCCI said. These are difficult times, especially in India. We have tried to bring in some positivity and cheer, however, it is imperative that the tournament is now suspended and everyone goes back to their families and loved ones in these trying times."

The first cases involving players inside the IPL's biosecure bubble forced Monday's game between Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore to be postponed. The count grew on Tuesday when two Chennai Super Kings staffers and a Sunrisers Hyderabad player also returned positive tests.

The IPL staged 29 games without spectators, at least one every night since April 9, despite India's stretched health system being pushed to the brink by another major wave of the virus.

Star players from all over the world compete in the lucrative Twenty20 tournament, which was forced by the pandemic to the United Arab Emirates last year.

The suspension could cause travel problems for players, with countries such as Australia temporarily barring travellers from India. Britain has imposed quarantine on incoming travellers.

8:15 a.m. Refusing to apologize for what a scathing report called Ontario's slow and reactive" response to the deadly threat of COVID-19 in nursing homes, Long-Term Care Minister Merrilee Fullerton says she did not expect a 100-year pandemic against an unknown virus."

Fullerton blamed previous governments for the poor condition of the nursing home system in her first public comments since the Long-Term Care COVID-19 Commission - appointed last summer by Premier Doug Ford - issued its final report Friday night.

We were trying to move fast for government and COVID-19 was moving faster," the former family doctor told a news conference Monday, pledging to fix the problems in long-term care and speed decision-making.

I think, collectively as a society, we need to do some soul-searching and understand why it took a pandemic to address the capacity issues in long-term care, the staffing issues in long-term care," Fullerton replied when asked if she would issue an apology to thousands of families devastated by the debacle.

Peoples' lives must not have been lost in vain. This must be the tipping point."

The commission found critical decisions came too late" and an inadequate" emergency response system left nursing homes more vulnerable than they should have been, paving the way for a parade of sickness and death" that killed almost 4,000 residents and a second wave more deadly than the first.

Read the full story from the Star's Rob Ferguson

8 a.m. In one pivotal moment, the confusion of adolescence clashed with the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic for 13-year-old Mia Xuan. She started her period last April, just weeks into the pandemic's first wave.

Her body changed. And so did the world around her. With the province's stay-at-home order extended until May 20 and the return to in-person teaching postponed indefinitely, intimate conversations between friends during recess or extracurriculars are no longer possible. This comes at a time when demand for children's mental health services has soared across the province with more kids reporting anxiety, stress and depression than ever before.

For kids going through puberty, an already stressful time can become even more so.

For Mia, it's awkward to talk about personal things by message or phone call. She prefers to talk in person with a friend, someone who can understand her emotions and feel the same," said Mia's mom, Hui Xing. With the fact now we're in a pandemic, this is not possible."

Mia hasn't been able to enjoy some of her favourite hobbies, like joining her Grade 8 friends for a soccer game, since the province shut outdoor recreational amenities April 16. The lack of access to communal activities and in-person support has been especially challenging for Mia and her age group as they process physical and emotional changes.

Read the full story from the Star's Maria Sarrouh

7:50 a.m. As the May long weekend approaches, Toronto businesses are waiting for a signal from the provincial government that they'll be able to open.

Burned by several last-minute openings and closures over the previous months, restaurants are particularly wary of the upcoming long weekend, which begins right after the current stay-at-home order is scheduled to end on May 20.

When the latest stay-at-home order was announced, Enza Ruscillo looked at her mother and father and began to cry.

Ruscillo operates the T&M Sidewalk Cafe on the Danforth with her parents, who have owned the business for more than 50 years.

The business has been through a roller-coaster of a year, said Ruscillo, as it pivoted to being a market and restaurant and has been through many closures and openings as government restrictions changed.

Just over a month ago, when the government gave restaurants a day to shut down after only two weeks with patios open, Ruscillo said the business lost thousands of dollars, as it had ordered produce and alcohol with optimism for the weeks ahead.

Read the full story from the Star's Rosa Saba

7:40 a.m. With more and more Ontarians approaching eligibility for their second COVID-19 vaccine based on the recommended 16-week gap, many might be wondering: can I take a different vaccine the second time around?

And will it make a difference?

The short answers are no, not at this time, and maybe. But a study underway in the United Kingdom could provide answers this week to a question with global implications for how vaccines are being rolled out.

The study at the University of Oxford is primarily researching the potential risks or unwanted side effects of mixing different types of vaccines for the first and second doses, technically known as a heterologous prime-boost. Some are hoping the study could explain if using different types of vaccines for separate doses could actually make our immune response stronger.

The immune system has two main weapons: neutralizing antibodies and T cells, and the different vaccines boost them in different ways, explained Dr. Rob Kozak, a clinical microbiologist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.

Read the full story from the Star's Omar Mosleh

7:30 a.m. When getting vaccines into as many arms as possible is the goal, the more communication the better.

Inspired by a tweet showcasing a similar program in the U.S., Zain Manji and Ashish Yelekar set out to add another tool to the vaccine toolbox": A text-messaging service that sends a list of your three closest vaccination sites directly to your phone.

We just asked ourselves why isn't this in Canada yet?' " Manji told the Star in a phone interview Monday.

With backgrounds in engineering and coding, launching the messaging service proved an easy task for Manji and Yelekar. Manji, co-founder of Lazer Technologies, has previously worked alongside companies to build web and mobile products.

The pair challenged themselves to see how quickly they could get the system up and running - and set it up within four hours.

Those interested in using the service text 1-833-356-1683 with their postal code. Users then receive a nearly instantaneous response with the three closest vaccination sites, their phone numbers and addresses.

The suggested sites should mirror what is listed on the province's COVID-19 website, Manji said.

Read the full story from the Star's Jenna Moon

7:20 a.m. You would be forgiven for thinking this whole vaccine rollout business is confusing, Canada, because it is. Chaotic, confusing and contradictory.

Questions about COVID-19 vaccinations - Where to get a first shot? How long to wait for a second shot? Does your second dose need to be the same vaccine as your first? Which restrictions will ease once you are vaccinated? - are all taking on new urgency as the national rollout picks up speed this week.

Adding to the confusion, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) said Monday that Johnson & Johnson's single-dose Janssen vaccine, like AstraZeneca's double-dose vaccine, is safe for use by people over 30 if they can't wait for one of the two preferred" vaccines, the mRNA made shots by Pfizer and Moderna.

All four vaccines are approved by Health Canada as safe and effective for people aged 18 and over, based on clinical trial evidence.

But as millions of vaccines were jabbed into arms, the real-world" picture shifted slightly for the viral vector vaccines made by AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.

Read the full story from the Star's Tonda MacCharles

6:27 a.m.: Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven wealthy industrialized nations are gathering Tuesday in London - their first face-to-face meeting in more than two years - to grapple with threats to health, prosperity and democracy.

Host country Britain has warned that the increasingly aggressive activities of Russia, China and Iran pose a challenge to democratic societies and the international rule of law.

U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said Britain's presidency of the G-7 this year is an opportunity to bring together open, democratic societies and demonstrate unity at a time when it is much needed to tackle shared challenges and rising threats."

Top diplomats from the U.K., the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan are holding two days of talks with an agenda that includes the coup in Myanmar, the Tigray crisis in Ethiopia and the precarious situation in Afghanistan, where U.S. troops and their NATO allies are winding down a two-decade deployment.

6:26 a.m.: The Indian Premier League was suspended indefinitely on Tuesday after players or staff at three clubs tested positive for COVID-19 as nationwide infections surged.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India issued a statement saying local authorities and tournament officials took the decision unanimously to postpone IPL 2021 season, with immediate effect."

The BCCI does not want to compromise on the safety of the players, support staff and the other participants," the BCCI said. These are difficult times, especially in India. We have tried to bring in some positivity and cheer, however, it is imperative that the tournament is now suspended and everyone goes back to their families and loved ones in these trying times."

The first cases involving players inside the IPL's biosecure bubble forced Monday's game between Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore to be postponed. The count grew on Tuesday when two Chennai Super Kings staffers and a Sunrisers Hyderabad player also returned positive tests.

6:21 a.m.: COVID-19 infections and deaths are mounting with alarming speed in India with no end in sight to the crisis and a top expert warning that the coming weeks in the country of nearly 1.4 billion people will be horrible."

India's official count of coronavirus cases surpassed 20 million Tuesday, nearly doubling in the past three months, while deaths officially have passed 220,000. Staggering as those numbers are, the true figures are believed to be far higher, the undercount an apparent reflection of the troubles in the health care system.

The country has witnessed scenes of people dying outside overwhelmed hospitals and funeral pyres lighting up the night sky.

Infections have surged in India since February in a disastrous turn blamed on more contagious variants of the virus as well as government decisions to allow massive crowds to gather for Hindu religious festivals and political rallies before state elections.

Infections in India are rising faster than anywhere else in the world, a solemn reminder the pandemic is far from ending.

6:20 a.m.: The World Health Organization is set to decide this week whether to approve two Chinese vaccines for emergency use against COVID-19, a top WHO official says.

Such an approval would mark the first time that a Chinese vaccine had ever been granted a so-called emergency use listing from the U.N. health agency, and would trigger a broader rollout of Chinese vaccines that are already being used in some countries other than China.

Mariangela Simao, assistant director-general for access to medicines, vaccines and pharmaceuticals, says some final arrangements" remain to be made before the crucial word from a WHO technical advisory group comes on the Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines.

We expect that we'll have both decisions by the end of this week," she said.

WHO has said it expects a decision on the Sinopharm vaccine to come first, and Sinovac afterward.

We know that some countries depend on this decision to proceed with their vaccination," Simao said.

6:19 a.m.: More people will be allowed at indoor and outdoor spectator events and indoor religious services if there are designated COVID-19 vaccination sections, under new guidance issued by Washington Gov. Jay Inslee.

The change that took effect Monday affects capacity at sporting events, graduations and other events for counties in the second and third phases of the state's economic reopening plan.

A vaccination card or other documentation that proves vaccination status will be needed for access to vaccination sections.

While previously there were only limited circumstances where spectator events were allowed to reach 50% capacity, under the new guidance, outdoor facilities may add vaccinated sections until their total capacity - including vaccinated and unvaccinated sections - is at 50% or 22,000 people, whichever is lower. There can be no more than 9,000 unvaccinated people at the outdoor event.

For indoor facilities, vaccinated sections can also be added until their total capacity is 50% maximum, though the maximum number must not exceed 2,000 people, and the number indoor unvaccinated spectators varies depending on the size of the room and what phase of the state's economic opening plan a county is in.

6:19 a.m.: Isolated North Korea is warning its people to brace for a prolonged struggle against the coronavirus, claiming that broadening outbreaks and muddled immunization programs in other countries show vaccines aren't the ultimate solution.

The column published by Pyongyang's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper came amid questions on when and how vaccines would arrive in North Korea.

The UN-backed program to ship COVID-19 vaccines worldwide said in February that North Korea could receive 1.9 million vaccine doses in the first half of this year. However, COVAX has since warned of global shortages because the Serum Institute of India, which is licensed to produce the AstraZeneca vaccine, is putting its supplies into domestic demand while India's virus caseload is surging.

The North has claimed a perfect record in keeping out COVID-19, but outside experts have doubted the claim, given its poor health infrastructure and a porous border it shares with China, its economic lifeline.

The state newspaper took an apparent shot at India's anti-virus campaign without naming the country. It said a certain nation that had exported vaccines it produced while publicly insisting that it considers the evil virus as defeated," was now experiencing an explosive surge.

The cases of other countries provide further proof that vaccines aren't an all-around solution," the newspaper wrote.

6:18 a.m.: Camp Kawartha is celebrating its 100th year in 2021. But this year may also be its last.

Because of the pandemic, Kawartha has been largely unable to operate.

Summer camps like Kawartha are racking up deficits as they plan for a camp season that may not happen. Without more financial support, if they can't open for a second year in a row, many may never open again, they say.

Last year, camp looked like a big empty field," Kawartha executive director Jacob Rodenburg said. It had to be closed.

Read the full story from the Star's Rosa Saba.

6:15 a.m.: Kuwait's government is barring unvaccinated residents from travelling abroad starting later this month, the latest attempt to tame the spiralling coronavirus outbreak in the Gulf Arab sheikhdom.

The Cabinet decision, to take effect May 22, sparked instant anger and confusion, coming just after health authorities announced that global vaccine supply shortages would force them to delay distribution of second vaccine doses. Those who received the first Pfizer-BioNtech dose must wait six weeks for their second, and Oxford-AstraZeneca recipients must wait 3-4 months.

The government said those unable to get the shot for any reason would be exempt from the new travel ban. Already, authorities have banned the entry of expatriates into the Gulf state, stranding many foreign workers and their families abroad.

Kuwait is grappling with a surge in virus cases despite its vaccination campaign and tough restrictions, including a prolonged nightly curfew. The country has recorded over 277,800 infections and 1,590 deaths.

6:12 a.m.: Albertans are getting ready to hear new public health restrictions today as the province's leaders deal with the highest COVID-19 case rates in the country.

Premier Jason Kenney says he will be announcing a new round of tougher restrictions, prompted by a weekend rodeo which openly defied public health rules.

Kenney told reporters yesterday he was angered by the No More Lockdowns" rodeo at Bowden, and said the next few weeks are critical.

Alberta had 23,608 active COVID-19 cases Monday - the highest rate of infection in Canada.

There were 658 people in hospital, including 154 in intensive care.

Kenney said last week that new laws weren't necessary but, days later, instituted new regulations in so-called COVID-19 hot spots.

6 a.m.: The National Advisory Committee on Immunization is coming under fire after contradicting the advice Canadians have been receiving for weeks to take the first vaccine against COVID-19 that they're offered.

NACI said Monday that the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are preferred" and that Canadians should weigh the risks of waiting for one of them before deciding whether to take a more immediate jab of either of the other two approved for use in Canada.

The Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca vaccines have been linked to a new and extremely rare blood-clotting syndrome.

Because of that, Dr. Shelly Deeks, vice-chair of the committee, said someone working from home in a province where there is not much disease might want to wait for a shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.

But she said it would be a very different risk-benefit analysis for someone working in a manufacturing plant without personal protective equipment in a province where COVID-19 is spreading like wildfire.

NACI's advice appears to contradict Health Canada's long-standing recommendation that the best vaccine is the first one available.

Some doctors took to social media to denounce NACI's latest advice, warning that the committee is sowing confusion and exacerbating vaccine hesitancy.

4 a.m.: The latest numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Canada as of 4 a.m. ET on Tuesday May 4, 2021.

There are 1,243,242 confirmed cases in Canada (83,544 active, 1,135,356 resolved, 24,342 deaths). The total case count includes 13 confirmed cases among repatriated travellers.

There were 7,546 new cases Monday. The rate of active cases is 219.82 per 100,000 people. Over the past seven days, there have been a total of 55,325 new cases. The seven-day rolling average of new cases is 7,904.

There were 42 new reported deaths Monday. Over the past seven days there have been a total of 332 new reported deaths. The seven-day rolling average of new reported deaths is 47. The seven-day rolling average of the death rate is 0.12 per 100,000 people. The overall death rate is 64.05 per 100,000 people.

There have been 31,897,888 tests completed.

4 a.m.: The latest numbers on COVID-19 vaccinations in Canada as of 4 a.m. ET on Tuesday May 4, 2021.

In Canada, the provinces are reporting 226,014 new vaccinations administered for a total of 14,051,490 doses given. Nationwide, 1,136,877 people or 3.0 per cent of the population has been fully vaccinated. The provinces have administered doses at a rate of 37,075.879 per 100,000.

There were 90,500 new vaccines delivered to the provinces and territories for a total of 14,952,634 doses delivered so far. The provinces and territories have used 93.97 per cent of their available vaccine supply.