Today’s coronavirus news: Ontario pledging to vaccinate all nursing home residents in hot zones by Jan. 21; Province is reporting 3128 cases of…

KEY FACTS

10:15 a.m.: Ontario reporting 3,128 cases, 51 more deaths

8:23 a.m.: More than 22 Loblaw employees at 12 York Region stores test positive

5:17 a.m.: New survey says nearly half of Canadians visited with family or friends over winter holidays

The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Tuesday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.

4:15 p.m.: The Hamilton Paramedic Service has declared a COVID-19 outbreak at one of its bases after three workers tested positive for the virus.

The City of Hamilton says the affected employees last worked at the Limeridge base between Dec. 28 and Jan. 1.

It says the employees used personal protective equipment and there is no known unprotected contact with the public.

The city says there are no interruptions to service or operations as a result of the outbreak.

In November, Ottawas paramedic service faced an outbreak after two cases of COVID-19 were reported.

In the same month, Niagara Public Health declared an outbreak within Niagara EMS after six employees tested positive for the virus.

3:54 p.m.: The Canadian Armed Forces is dealing with a COVID-19 outbreak in Latvia, where an unspecified number of troops have tested positive for the illness while guarding against Russian aggression in the region.

The Department of National Defence confirmed on Tuesday that military personnel at Camp Adazi near the Latvian capital of Riga have contracted COVID-19, though it would not provide specific numbers, for operational security reasons.

Canada has 540 soldiers in Latvia, where the Canadian military has been leading a NATO battlegroup that includes troops from nine other countries as a check against Russian incursions into eastern Europe and the Baltics.

Media reports have indicated that troops from some of those other countries have also tested positive for COVID-19, and that NATO and Latvian officials were scrambling to contain the outbreak.

The Canadian Armed Forces reported Tuesday that 732 military members have tested positive for COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic in March, an increase of 56 since last week.

Thirty-two still had the illness, more than double the 15 that were reported last week.

The infections in Latvia follow an outbreak among Canadian military personnel in Kuwait at the beginning of December. Canada has hundreds of troops in the Middle East participating in the U.S.-led fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

2:55 p.m.: The head of the Ontario Medical Association says the risk COVID-19 poses to pregnant and breastfeeding women is higher than the risk of taking a vaccine against the virus that causes it.

Dr. Samantha Hill, a cardiac surgeon in Toronto, says because pregnant and breastfeeding women haven't been included in clinical trials yet she is worried the message many pregnant women are getting is to not get vaccinated.

She echoes concerns raised last month by the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada, and reiterated in a statement from the Ontario Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Tuesday.

2:40 p.m.: British Columbias chief veterinarian says a mink farmer decided to euthanize the remaining 1,000 animals on his Fraser Valley operation after some of the mink tested positive for COVID-19.

Dr. Rayna Gunvaldsen says the operator was not ordered by the provincial government to euthanize the animals as more tests are underway to determine the extent of the presence of COVID-19.

The first farm where the virus spread to mink also had eight workers who tested positive and Gunvaldsen says both farms remain under quarantine.

She says there are no other reports of COVID-19 at B.C.s eight other mink farms.

Alan Herscovici, a spokesman for the Canada Mink Breeders Association, says imposing strict quarantine and biosecurity measures at mink farms for about two weeks appears to limit the spread of COVID-19 to other animals.

After COVID-19 was diagnosed on the first farm, the B.C. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals called for a moratorium on mink farming in the province.

2:35 p.m.: Several Ontario school boards urged students and staff to be patient Tuesday as internet outages affected online classes on the second day of the winter term.

Public and Catholic boards in Kingston, the Windsor area, Halton Region and the Ottawa area all issued notices on social media flagging potential problems with remote schooling as a result of a number of outages.

They said multiple internet providers, including Cogeco, were reporting their services were down.

2:30 p.m. (updated): All long-term care residents, workers and essential caregivers in COVID-19 hot spots will be vaccinated by Jan. 21, the Ontario government said Tuesday as it faced criticism over the slow pace of the vaccine rollout.

The pledge covers those living and working in nursing homes in Toronto, Peel Region, York Region and Windsor-Essex, but the province did not offer a timeline for the rest of the seniors homes in the province.

The province also announced Tuesday that it will start administering COVID-19 vaccines in Ontarios Indigenous communities later this week. ORNGE air ambulances will assist with efforts to bring the vaccine to 31 fly-in communities in the north.

Premier Doug Ford acknowledged the governments vaccine rollout plan had hit a couple of bumps in the road but expressed confidence that the Jan. 21 deadline would be met.

The news came on a day that the province reported 22 more long-term care resident deaths, bringing the total to 2,865 since the start of the pandemic.

So far, approximately 50,000 long-term care home residents have received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, while nearly 3,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine have also been administered.

The province said Tuesday it has received 95,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 53,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine.

The government said it has established 44 immunization sites to deliver the vaccines across the province and expects two million doses to arrive throughout the winter.

Were ramping up, Ford said. I just look forward to getting more vaccines, thats what we need.

2:30 p.m.: Quebecs manufacturing association is warning about major damage to the sector should the province impose a strict COVID-19 lockdown similar to what occurred last spring.

Veronique Proulx, CEO of Manufacturiers et Exportateurs du Quebec, reacted Tuesday to multiple media reports saying Premier Francois Legault is set to close non-essential manufacturing businesses to help stop the spread of COVID-19.

The worst scenario for us would be to go back to the same situation we had last spring, Proulx said in an interview. She said Quebec manufacturers lost $4 billion in sales when they were shut during the first wave of the pandemic and said she expects a similar situation if manufacturers are forced to close again.

2 p.m.: Health Minister Christine Elliott tweeted that more than 50,000 vaccines have been administered to Ontarians.

This includes vaccinations administered to nearly 26,000 health-care workers in long-term care and retirement homes, more than 20,000 health-care workers and nearly 1,000 residents.

2 p.m.: A hospital network in London, Ont., says its storing bodies in a mobile unit after its morgue reached capacity.

The London Health Sciences Centre says new processes due to the pandemic have meant more time is needed to secure arrangements for bodies.

It says that has led to the need for more interim body holding solutions.

The hospital network says its morgue, which serves as a regional forensic pathology unit for southwestern Ontario, can hold up to 28 bodies at a time.

Chief information officer Glen Kearns says the use of a mobile unit is a temporary measure and one that is being used for the second time since the pandemic began.

He says the hospital network expects its morgue capacity issues to be resolved within days.

The hospital network says its morgue holds bodies for the period of time when coroners and families work together to make arrangements for the care of a loved ones body after death.

1:40 p.m.: Health authorities in Nova Scotia reported three new cases of COVID-19 today as they rolled out the provinces immunization plan.

With 2,720 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine administered between Dec. 16 and Jan. 2, the province said it plans to make the vaccine available to 75 per cent of the eligible population by the end of September.

Over the next four months, the province plans to give the vaccine to health-care workers, long-term care residents and their caregivers, and all adults over the age of 75.

Nova Scotia is now dealing with 19 active cases of COVID-19.

1:40 p.m.: Nunavuts chief public health officer says first doses of a vaccine against COVID-19 are to be given Wednesday to residents at Iqaluits elders home.

Elders and front-line health care staff are Nunavuts first priority for the Moderna vaccine, which arrived in the territory last week.

Dr. Michael Patterson says vaccines will be rolled out through focused inoculations and community clinics.

Patterson says nurses will vaccinate elders in care homes, while the public will be able to walk in or make an appointment at community clinics.

Community clinics are to begin Monday and will open first in Arviat, Gjoa Haven, Igloolik and Cambridge Bay.

So far, Nunavut has received 6,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine and expects a second shipment before the end of the month.

Patterson says he expects all eligible Nunavut residents to be vaccinated by the end of March.

There are no active cases of COVID-19 in the territory where 265 people have recovered from the infection.

1:25 p.m.: Canadas chief public health officer says she has asked the national vaccine advisory panel to investigate if there is merit to delaying second doses of COVID-19 vaccines in a bid to get more people vaccinated faster with first doses.

The request comes after the United Kingdom said it will delay the second doses of vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca, up to 12 weeks.

Pfizer-BioNTechs product is supposed to be given in two doses 21 days apart, and AstraZenecas in two doses 28 days apart.

Health Canada has not yet authorized AstraZenecas vaccine candidate but approved Pfizer-BioNTechs on Dec. 9 and another from Massachusetts-based biotech firm Moderna on Dec. 23.

A written statement from Pfizer says ultimately alternative dosing decisions are up to local health authorities, but that the company has no evidence protection after the first dose remains in place after 21 days.

Tam says the National Advisory Committee on Immunization is being asked to provide analysis on what is known about the dosing regimens and what should be considered in deciding whether or not to delay the second doses.

1:20 p.m.: Prince Edward Island is reporting one new case of COVID-19, one day before pandemic-related restrictions are set to be eased across the province.

Chief medical officer of health Dr. Heather Morrison said today the new case involves a female under the age of 19 who had travelled outside the province.

Morrison says there are four active reported infections on the Island.

Starting Wednesday at 8 a.m., limits on indoor private gatherings will be increased to a household plus ten people while restrictions on organized gatherings such as concerts will be eased.

Morrison and Premier Denis King, however, say the Island will not re-enter the Atlantic bubble, in which free travel for residents of the region is allowed, until at least Jan. 25.

They say they are monitoring the rising number of cases elsewhere in the country, and say the extra weeks outside the bubble will give authorities more time to administer vaccines.

1:10 p.m.: An Ontario field hospital built during the start of the pandemic will begin taking patients this week as a worsening wave of COVID-19 infections pushes the health-care system to its limits.

The Burlington facility on the grounds of Joseph Brant Hospital was ready to treat patients as of Monday, the hospital said. Hospitals in the region were working Tuesday to identify patients ready for transfer.

The field unit was built in April as part of the hospital networks capacity plan the first of several to go up across the province during the pandemic.

12:55 p.m.: Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc says the federal government will look at just about any measure to discourage people from travelling internationally.

But he says Canada doesnt want to join the short list of countries that require government approval for travel, with measures such as exit visas.

He says the federal government has been crystal clear since early last year that travelling abroad during the COVID-19 pandemic is a bad idea.

Starting Thursday, Canada is requiring incoming air travellers to present evidence of a recent negative COVID-19 test before being allowed to board a plane, though questions remain about how that will work in places where such tests arent readily available.

LeBlanc says the government hasnt ruled out applying such a rule to non-essential travellers arriving at land borders.

12:53 p.m. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday that she has agreed with state governors to extend the countrys current lockdown by three weeks until Jan. 31.

Merkel said they also are tightening curbs on social contacts, in line with measures imposed at the beginning of the pandemic in March. And they called for new restrictions on movement for people living in areas with particularly high infection rates.

The decision came as new coronavirus cases and deaths are running at stubbornly high levels, and officials remain uncertain what effect the Christmas and New Year holidays have had on the situation.

12:49 p.m. The head of the World Health Organization said Tuesday that he is disappointed that Chinese officials havent finalized permissions for the arrival of team of experts into China to examine origins of COVID-19.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a rare critique of Beijing, said members of the international scientific team have begun over the last 24 hours to leave from their home countries to China as part of an arrangement between WHO and the Chinese government.

Today, we learned that Chinese officials have not yet finalized the necessary permissions for the teams arrival in China, he told a news conference in Geneva.

Im very disappointed with this news, given that two members had already begun their journeys and others were not able to travel at the last minute, but had been in contact with senior Chinese officials, he said.

Tedros said he had made it clear that the mission was a priority for the U.N. health agency, and that he had been assured that China is speeding up the internal procedures for the earliest possible deployment.

We are eager to get the mission underway as soon as possible, he said.

The experts, drawn from around the world, are expected to visit the city of Wuhan that is suspected as the place that the coronavirus first emerged over a year ago.

12:40 p.m. Health officials in Newfoundland and Labrador are reporting one new case of COVID-19.

Authorities say the case involves a man between 20 and 39 years old and his infection is related to international travel.

Officials say there are now 11 reported active COVID-19 infections in the province, with one person in hospital due to the virus.

12:32 p.m. With cases of COVID-19 soaring and more seriously ill patients in hospitals, Dr. Theresa Tam says Canadians have to stick together and follow public health orders and advice.

The federal governments chief public health officer says those instructions are only useful if theyre followed.

More than 16,000 people have died of COVID-19 and the Public Health Agency of Canada says more than 77,000 people are actively sick with it.

Canadian authorities have detected nine cases of a variant of the virus that was first detected in the United Kingdom and seems to spread more easily.

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Today's coronavirus news: Ontario pledging to vaccinate all nursing home residents in hot zones by Jan. 21; Province is reporting 3128 cases of...