COVID-19 news today: Ontario reports 318 new cases as province prepares for Pfizer vaccine delay

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Toronto is scaling up doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to compensate for a delay in shipment of Pfizer-BioNTech shots to Ontario.

The city says the province’s anticipated weekly Pfizer vaccine shipment of more than 162,000 doses destined for Toronto immunization clinics will be delayed.

A representative for Health Minister Christine Elliott says Ontario’s Pfizer delivery for this coming week is behind by two to three days.

Toronto says to ensure every booked appointment is honoured at city-run immunization clinics over the coming weeks, public health officials are increasing the administration of Moderna vaccines.

Toronto Public Health says its vaccination partners around the city are making similar adjustments.

Elliott spokeswoman Alexandra Hilkene says Ontario received over one million doses of Moderna on Friday and will use them to supplement the delayed Pfizer doses around the province.

The province is also reporting 12 more deaths linked to the virus.

Elliott says there are 51 new cases in Waterloo, 49 in Peel Region, and 45 in Toronto. She says there were also 26 new cases in Ottawa and 20 in Hamilton.

The Ministry of Health says 266 patients are in hospital with the virus – 333 in intensive care and 208 on a ventilator.

Today’s data is based on nearly 21,100 tests completed.

Elliott says 184,251 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine were administered since Saturday’s report, for a total of more than 12.5 million shots.

Health minister urges Quebeckers to get proof of vaccination as restrictions ease

Health Minister Christian Dubé is encouraging Quebeckers inoculated against COVID-19 to get their proof of vaccination if they haven’t done so already.

In a tweet this morning, Dubé posted a link to the provincial government’s website where vaccination validation can be obtained.

Meanwhile, three new regions will move to the green or least restrictive level of the provincial pandemic response plan on Monday: Bas-Saint-Laurent, Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean and Mauricie-Centre-du-Quebec.

The zone change will ease restrictions including limits on gatherings in homes, which can now host up to 10 people from three different addresses. In yellow zones, only two families are permitted.

The changes come as Quebec continues its downward trajectory of COVID-19 infections, logging 103 new cases today.

Case numbers have been on a general decline since mid-April when daily counts routinely topped 1,500.

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