By Chris Brown

10 new cases in city, 1,738 in province

Medicine Hat has 95 active COVID-19 cases, province launches new COVID campaign

Dec 11, 2020 | 4:06 PM

There are 95 active cases of COVID-19 in Medicine Hat.

The city now has had 361 total cases – the 95 active, 261 recovered and there have been five deaths.

There are 10 new cases in the city in Friday’s update.

Across the province, there are 20,161 active cases, down two from Thursday, and 55,947 recovered cases, up 1,722.

Alberta’s total number of COVID-19 cases from the start of the pandemic is 76,792.

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There are 1,738 new cases in the province today.

There are now 684 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, 123 of which are in ICU, and 684 deaths.

The province completed 20,957 tests in the past 24 hours.

The provincial positivity rate is 8.3 per cent.

Concerned that Albertans may be tuning out the messaging from the government and Alberta Health Services after nine months, a new marketing campaign has been launched.

These ads feature a personified character representing COVID-19 at gatherings and various other social situations,” said Dr. Deena Hinshaw. “Our goal is to get people’s attention, to help them see common situations from a different perspective and as a result to influence their behaviour.”

Hinshaw explained the campaign uses humour and that they must use every tool at their disposal to reach Albertans, adding lives depend on bending down the curve and reducing the spread.

Taglines in the videos include “Nobody loves a house party more than COVID” and “Nobody loves a holiday gathering more than COVID.”

The province’s chief medical officer of health, said AHS is also working on ways to combat misinformation regarding vaccines that has grown since Health Canada began approving vaccines this week.

Hinshaw announced changes to restrictions around on-site designated support people in acute care facilities.

As of Monday, access in Alberta Health Services acute care settings will be designated to just one designated support person for each patient in ambulatory care, emergency departments, urgent care, maternity and post-partum and other in-patient areas, she said.

Access will be limited to up to two designated support persons for each patient in critical care, pediatrics and the neo-natal intensive care unit.

She said there are some exemptions and encouraged people to contact the care team directly or visit ahs.ca/visitation before entering.

The restrictions are needed to stop spread of the virus and keep people safe, said Hinshaw.

She also said that vaccines will not be mandatory, but that all AHS will make all information regarding vaccine safety available to people.

Medicine Hat remains on the provincial “Watch” list and is in enhanced status. In enhanced status, risk levels require enhanced public health measures to control the spread and are informed by local context.

Regions are placed on the province’s “Watch” list when they have a rate of more than 50 active cases per 100,000 population. Medicine Hat’s 95 active cases among 68,057 people puts it at a rate of 139.6.

Cypress County with a rate of 107 on 12 active cases and the County of Forty Mile with a rate of 77.6 on five active cases are also on the list.

Brooks (155.5 rate), the County of Newell (222.4), Lethbridge (234.4) Lethbridge County (249.7) and the MD of Taber (243.9) are also on the list.

All those regions are also in enhanced status.

There are 4,445 cases in the South Zone. There are 612 active cases and 3,782 recovered. The death total in the zone is at 51.

On Friday, an AHS spokesperson told CHAT News AHS South Zone currently has 22 COVID-19 positive individuals in hospital. There are eight at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital, with one of those in the ICU. Chinook Regional Hospital in Lethbridge has 14 inpatients, with three in the ICU.

On Friday there are 293 schools in the province where outbreaks have been declared. Alberta Health’s threshold for declaring an outbreak in school is two cases being in a school while infectious within 14 days.

In the city, Crescent Heights High School is listed as having an outbreak.

In Brooks, an outbreak is listed at Christ the King Academy.

The website Support Our Students is tracking instances of cases in schools across the province.

Cypress County has totaled 129 cases – 12 active cases and the rest recovered.

The County of Forty Mile has 112 total cases. There are five active cases, 105 recovered and there have been two deaths.

The MD of Taber has 286 total cases — 46 active cases, 235 recovered and there have been five deaths.

Special Areas No. 2 has 28 total cases – six active, 21 recovered and there has been one death.

Brooks has 1,311 total cases — 30 active and 1,267 are recovered. Brooks has recorded 14 deaths.

The County of Newell has a total of 128 cases — 18 active cases, 108 recovered and there have been two deaths.

The County of Warner has 138 total cases. There are 22 active cases, 114 are recovered cases and there have been two deaths in the county.

The City of Lethbridge has a total of 1,216 cases. There are 232 active cases, 977 recovered and there have been seven deaths. Lethbridge County has 385 cases, 63 active cases, 319 recovered and there have been three deaths.

The figures on alberta.ca are “up-to-date as of end of day Dec. 10, 2020.”

Read the full Dec. 11 update from the province here.

Saskatchewan confirmed 246 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, 22 in the South Zones.

Saskatchewan has a total of 11,475 cases, 4,547 considered active. There are 6,853 recovered cases and there have been 75 COVID-19 deaths in the province.