Medicine Hat has suffered another COVID-19 death, one of 25 reported today across the province.
There are 78 active cases of COVID-19 in Medicine Hat.
The city now has had 397 total cases – the 78 active, 313 recovered and there have been six deaths.
There is one new case in the city in Friday’s update and six recoveries.
Across the province, there are 19,607 active cases, down 258 from Thursday, and 67,159 recovered cases, up 1,656.
Alberta’s total number of COVID-19 cases from the start of the pandemic is 87,581.
There are 1,413 new cases in the province today.
There are now 759 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, 141 of which are in ICU, and 815 deaths.
The province completed 19,538 tests in the past 24 hours.
The provincial positivity rate is 7.4 per cent.
Dr. Deena Hinshaw said this has been another tough week.
“A difficult week in a difficult year,” she said. “However we are starting to see some early positive signs in our province.”
She said Tuesday saw the lowest daily new case total since Nov. 26, and the active case count today is the lowest it has been since Dec. 5.
The positivity rate is on a downward trend since the high of 10.97 per cent on Dec. 3.
Even with those positives, Hinshaw said “our fight is far from over.”
“We expect that hospitalizations and ICU admissions will continue to rise in the coming weeks as these are lagging indicators, meaning that it takes several weeks before changes in our case counts are seen in the demands felt in our acute care system,” she said.
The continued strain on the health system will increase in the days ahead, said the chief medical officer of health.
“But what these numbers show us is that together we have the power to protect our communities and to change our future,” she said, adding the positive indicators seen now can be reversed in a matter of days if people stop doing their part. “It is up to us to continue this momentum.”
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 78 active cases among 68,057 people puts it at a rate of 114.6.
Cypress County with a rate of 98.1 on 11 active cases is also on the list.
Brooks (202.1 rate), the County of Newell (210.1), Lethbridge (189.9) Lethbridge County (174.4) and the MD of Taber (111.3) are also on the list.
All those regions are also in enhanced status.
There are 4,703 cases in the South Zone. There are 511 active cases and 4,139 recovered. The death total in the zone is at 53.
An AHS spokesperson told CHAT News on Friday AHS South Zone currently has 13 COVID-19 positive individuals in hospital. There are four at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital, with one of those in the ICU. Chinook Regional Hospital in Lethbridge has nine inpatients, with three in the ICU.
On Friday there are 297 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 and at Holy Family Academy.
The website Support Our Students is tracking instances of cases in schools across the province.
Cypress County has totaled 135 cases – 11 active cases and the rest recovered.
The County of Forty Mile has 113 total cases. There is one active case, 110 recovered and there have been two deaths.
The MD of Taber has 296 total cases — 21 active cases, 269 recovered and there have been six deaths.
Special Areas No. 2 has 33 total cases – eight active, 24 recovered and there has been one death.
Brooks has 1,330 total cases — 39 active and 1,277 are recovered. Brooks has recorded 14 deaths.
The County of Newell has a total of 136 cases — 17 active cases, 117 recovered and there have been two deaths.
The County of Warner has 142 total cases. There are six active cases, 134 are recovered cases and there have been two deaths in the county.
The City of Lethbridge has a total of 1,311 cases. There are 182 active cases, 1,122 recovered and there have been seven deaths. Lethbridge County has 402 cases, 44 active cases, 355 recovered and there have been three deaths.
The figures on alberta.ca are “up-to-date as of end of day Dec. 17, 2020.”
Read the full Dec. 18 update from the province here.
Saskatchewan confirmed 245 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, 14 in the South Zones.
Saskatchewan has a total of 13,077 cases, 3,736 considered active. There are 9,234 recovered cases and there have been 107 COVID-19 deaths in the province.
