More ground being gained on the "vaccine-versus-variants leg of marathon" every day: Dr. Theresa Tam

Canada is now recording an increase in new COVID-19 cases because of the spread of the variants.

No province has been spared from these variants, but some continue to ease anti-pandemic restrictions.

Chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam says more ground is being gained on the "vaccine-versus-variants leg of this marathon" every day.

Federal Procurement Minister Anita Anand says a half-million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca's vaccine will arrive tomorrow.

Three-hundred thousand of those doses expire in just a few weeks' time but Tam says all vaccines should be administered as soon as they arrive.

She says the first shipment of the version of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India is on the way, part of about 945,000 total vaccine doses slated for arrival this week.