Photo: The Canadian Press

There are signs of hope that Ontario and Quebec are making progress in the fight against COVID-19, even as provinces to the east and west continue to struggle.

Ontario's hospitalizations and active cases continued a slow decline today, as the province announced it is now receiving enough vaccine to allow health-care workers to begin booking their second shots in the coming days.

Quebec announced today that it has given second vaccine doses to all long-term care residents, as it reported just 662 new cases.

While cases and hospitalizations have been slowly declining in the two biggest provinces, they have spiked in Alberta, Manitoba and Nova Scotia.

Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister said today that his province is in the midst of a third wave of COVID-19 and has to act strongly to reduce it.

The province brought in a number of new public health restrictions in recent days and announced Sunday that schools in the Winnipeg and Brandon areas will be moving online beginning Wednesday until at least May 30.

COVID-19 case numbers have also been high in Nova Scotia, which closed its provincial boundaries to non-essential travel earlier today to try to limit the spread.