COVID-19

More than 390,000 Albertans aged five to 11 can get vaccinated as early as Friday (Nov.26).

Premier Jason Kenney, minister of health Jason Copping, and chief medical officer of health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, were in attendance at Tuesday's COVID-19 update to announce the next step in Alberta's vaccine rollout. 

According to Copping, parents can book first-dose Pfizer vaccine appointments starting Wednesday at 8 a.m.

Manitoba's five-day COVID-19 rate has lowered.

There are 183 new COVID-19 cases Thursday, bringing the total number of cases to 67,275.

New cases by health region include:

• 60 in Southern, 46 people not fully vaccinated
• 44 in Prairie Mountain, 33 people not vaccinated
• 38 in Winnipeg, 18 people not vaccinated
• 34 in Northern, 18 people not vaccinated
• seven in Interlake-Eastern, four people not fully vaccinated

Manitoba's five-day test positivity rate is 5.5 per cent, and Winnipeg's rate is 2.5 per cent.

Public health officials advise 12 new deaths in people with COVID-19 are being reported today:

Staff with the Northwestern Health Unit are reporting one new case of COVID-19 in our catchment area.

Today’s case is located in the Dryden / Red Lake region, bringing northwestern Ontario’s total number of active cases to 15. Active cases include 9 in Kenora, 3 in Dryden / Red Lake, 2 in Rainy River and 1 in Sioux Lookout.

Follow up with the person involved and their contacts has started according to protocol. Anyone who is identified as a contact for this case will be contacted directly.

People living on the streets face more and more danger each day, but they are also met with compassion from street outreach workers trying to keep up.

Outreach workers are expecting another difficult winter in Winnipeg as addiction struggles and violence on the street continue to be high.

"There is kind of this feeling (that) things aren't quite as safe on the streets in Winnipeg as they used to be," Union Gospel Mission's senior chaplain Mark Kelm says, who started ministering with UGM eight years ago.

Two additional Cochrane schools have been added to the status list:

Manachaban and RancheView schools are on alert status with 2-4 cases along with Bow Valley High, Elizabeth Barrett, and Glenbow schools. 

Fireside remains with an outbreak status of 10+ cases. 

The province reported 464 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, November 24. 

Hospitalizations decreased by five to 470 while ICU admissions are one fewer at 97. 

Sadly, another four deaths have been reported bringing the total in the province to 3,231. 

COVID-19 exposures at Valleyview Public School have been ruled an outbreak by the Northwestern Health Unit.

Leadership with the Keewatin-Patricia District School Board says they’ve been advised by the NWHU that spread within Valleyview’s closed classroom cannot be ruled out, and it's now been reclassified to an outbreak.

A COVID-19 outbreak is defined as having two or more lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases in students and/or staff within a 14-day period, where at least one case could have been acquired within the school setting.

Manitoba's Chief Public Health Officer is encouraging Manitobans to get the flu shot to reduce the demand on Manitoban hospitals.

As of Wednesday morning, there are 147 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of cases to 67,092. Out of Wednesday's new cases, 79 people are not vaccinated, 64 are fully vaccinated, and four people are partially vaccinated.

"Almost all cases diagnosed in Manitoba are that Delta variant, Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin says in a Wednesday press conference.

Walk-in appointments were once popular at a supersite, but now, the province says the RBC Convention Centre supersite is no longer doing them after a spike in another interest at the site.

Starting today, the downtown supersite will be vaccinating people on an appointment-only basis. This comes after the high demand for COVID-19 vaccines for youth aged five to 11.