By Canadian Press

The latest news on COVID-19 developments in Canada for Tuesday, May 25

May 25, 2021 | 10:12 AM

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

12 p.m.

Ottawa is preparing to help Manitoba with health workers and more medical equipment as the province continues to see unsustainable surges of COVID-19.

The province has the worst new infection rate across North America, and some doctors in the province are asking for a province-wide stay-at-home order as hospitals get overwhelmed.

Jim Carr, Winnipeg MP and cabinet’s special representative for the Prairies, says the province’s health care system “is reaching its limit.”

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Ottawa is deploying epidemiologists and interviewers to help with contact tracing, and Carr says health workers, the military and additional personal protective equipment are being prepared as well.

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11:10 a.m.

Quebec is reporting 346 new cases of COVID-19 today and six more deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus, none of which occurred in the past 24 hours.

Health officials say hospitalizations dropped by nine, to 415, and 101 people were in intensive care, a drop of one.

The province says it administered 50,934 doses of vaccine Monday, for a total of more than five million; more than 55 per cent of Quebecers have received at least one dose.

Quebec officially opened vaccination today to residents 12 and up.

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11 a.m.

Nunavut is reporting one new case of COVID-19 today.

There are now 13 active cases left in the territory, 12 in Iqaluit and one in Kinngait.

There were 30 recoveries over the weekend, shrinking the territory’s case count.

An outbreak was declared in mid-April and Iqaluit has been under a strict lockdown ever since.

Schools, non-essential businesses and workplaces remain closed in Iqaluit.

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10:30 a.m.

Ontario reports there are 1,039 new cases of COVID-19 in the province today after there were 1,446 new cases on Monday.

The Ministry of Health did not release its daily report on the Victoria Day holiday.

Today’s new case count is the lowest since since March 6 when it was 990.

Ontario says that eight people died from the virus on Sunday and 33 died on Monday.

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8:45 a.m.

Moderna says it will ask Canada to authorize its vaccine for kids between 12 and 17 years old after a study of its mRNA vaccine in teenagers shows it to be both safe and effective. 

The Massachusetts-based vaccine maker says it will submit the study results to international regulators in early June.

The company says the study of 3,700 kids in that age group found no cases of COVID-19 among the kids who got two doses of the vaccine. The youth got the same size doses as adults, four weeks apart.

The company says there were no serious safety issues, and the side-effects mirrored those seen in adults, with headache, fatigue, pain and chills the most commonly reported issues after the second dose.

More than two dozen countries, including Canada, have greenlighted the vaccine for use in adults, but thus far Pfizer-BioNTech is the only vaccine available in Canada for youth.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 25, 2021.

The Canadian Press

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version incorrectly reported that today’s case count in Ontario was the lowest since March 16.