Province tops 100,000 positive COVID-19 tests, 63 active cases in city

Across the province, there are 14,555 active cases, down 230 from Tuesday, and 84,827 recovered cases, up 1,499.

Alberta’s total number of COVID-19 cases from the start of the pandemic is 100,428.

There are 1,287 new cases in the province today.

There are now 921 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, 152 of which are in ICU, and 1,046 deaths.

The province completed 14,741 tests in the past 24 hours.

The provincial positivity rate is 8.7 per cent.

On Wednesday, Sheila Veeder, a resident of the Riverview Care Centre in Medicine Hat, was the first long-term care resident in Alberta to receive the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw’s next in-person update will be on Jan. 5. Online reporting will take a break from Dec. 31 to Jan. 3, she tweeted this week.

Medicine Hat remains on the provincial “Watch” list and is in enhanced status, as is the entire province. 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 63 active cases among 68,057 people puts it at a rate of 92.6.

Cypress County with a rate of 62.4 on seven active cases is also on the “Watch” list.

Brooks (88.1 rate), Lethbridge (104.1) Lethbridge County (126.8) and the MD of Taber (84.8) are also on the list.

The County of Newell with a rate of 24.7 on two active cases is no longer on the list.

There are 4,983 cases in the South Zone. There are 296 active cases and 4,629 recovered. The death total in the zone is at 58.

On Tuesday, an AHS spokesperson told CHAT News there are currently 10 COVID-19 positive patients in hospital in the South Zone with one in the ICU. Chinook Regional Hospital has seven inpatients with one of those in the ICU. Medicine Hat Regional Hospital has three inpatients.

On Wednesday there are 294 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 Brooks, an outbreak is listed at Christ the King Academy and Holy Family Academy is on the Watch list.

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

Cypress County has totaled 142 cases – seven active cases and the rest recovered.

The County of Forty Mile has 113 total cases. There are zero active cases, 111 recovered and there have been two deaths.

The MD of Taber has 312 total cases — 16 active cases, 290 recovered and there have been six deaths.

Special Areas No. 2 has 37 total cases – four active, 32 recovered and there has been one death.

Brooks has 1,344 total cases — 17 active and 1,313 are recovered. Brooks has recorded 14 deaths.

The County of Newell has a total of 138 cases — two active cases, 134 recovered and there have been two deaths.

The County of Warner has 142 total cases. There are zero active cases, 140 are recovered cases and there have been two deaths in the county.

The City of Lethbridge has a total of 1,407 cases. There are 103 active cases, 1,296 recovered and there have been eight deaths. Lethbridge County has 429 cases, 32 active cases, 393 recovered and there have been four deaths.

The figures on alberta.ca are “up-to-date as of end of day Dec. 29, 2020.”

Saskatchewan confirmed 147 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday.

Saskatchewan has a total of 15,160 cases, 2,949 considered active. There are 12,057 recovered cases and there have been 154 COVID-19 deaths in the province.

by Chris Brown

Province tops 100,000 positive COVID-19 tests, 63 active cases in city

Our Community