By Chris Brown

five new cases in city, 875 in province

No new restrictions, premier pleads with Albertans to follow current ones

Apr 1, 2021 | 4:45 PM

Premier Jason Kenney issued a plea to Albertans ahead of Easter weekend and with new daily cases and positivity rates at their highest in two months.

“Please, please follow Alberta’s health restrictions and guidelines this weekend and in the weeks to come. Please remember that there is a ban on socializing indoors except for with members of your household group or your two close contacts if you’re single.”

“Not gathering inside is the single most important thing that we can all do at this time.”

Asked about additional restrictions, Kenney said of many people not following the restrictions in place now, “if they’re not complying with the current restrictions, they’re not likely to comply with additional restrictions.”

The door has not been closed on additional targeted measures in the future.

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The premier said all the leading indicators show Alberta is now in a significant new wave of COVID 19.

“How bad that wave will be is up to all of us. How many hundreds or thousands of people it sends to hospitals how many surgeries it forces us to cancel and how many lives it takes is all up the decisions that we make now,” he said.

The premier says that the way numbers are going the know “with great certainty” that there will be close to 500 COVID patients in hospital just two weeks from now.

“If growth continues on its current pace that will turn into about a thousand people in hospital a month from now and so on,” he said.

The growth is primarily being driven by the UK variant (B.1.1.7).

Chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw said the variants are not only more contagious, but also in the case of B.1.1.7 more likely to cause severe illness, which means an even higher percentage of younger cases likely to need hospital care.

“In the second wave an average of 500 people under 75 in hospital with 119 needing ICU care and five dying each day,” she said.

The average age of hospitalization is 62, the average age of those needing ICU care is 58, Hinshaw said.

She warned that if cases aren’t kept low now it will take longer to see the benefits of the vaccine and Albertans could still be dealing with the pandemic into the summer months.

The province is modifying reporting for the long weekend, and for April 2-4 only preliminary data will be shared online. Full reporting will resume on April 5.

There are 28 active cases of COVID-19 in Medicine Hat on Thursday.

The city now has had 594 total cases – the 28 active, 549 recovered and there have been 17 deaths.

There are five new cases in the city today and no new recoveries

Across the province, there are 8,653 active cases, up 303 from Wednesday, and 138,560 recovered cases, up 568.

Alberta’s total cases from the start of the pandemic is 149,207.

There have been 4,377 variant cases ID’d in the province, 322 new today. There are 278 in the South Zone.

2,820 active cases (32.6 per cent of total) have been identified as variants of concern.

There are 875 total new cases in the province today.

There are now 292 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, 59 of which are in ICU, and 1,994 deaths.

The province completed 13,610 tests in the past 24 hours.

The positivity rate is about 6.5 per cent.

Alberta has delivered 653,010 doses of vaccine.

The day of Hinshaw’s next in-person update was not provided.

An outbreak is listed on the provincial website at the Valleyview long-term care facility in Medicine Hat. The outbreak was opened on Feb. 12. It’s the only local outbreak currently listed.

There are 8,207 cases in the South Zone. There are 864 active cases and 7,237 recovered. The death total in the zone is at 106.

An AHS spokesperson told CHAT News on Thursday that AHS South Zone currently has 33 COVID-19 positive individuals in hospital. There are 28 at Chinook Regional Hospital in Lethbridge, with six of those in the ICU. Medicine Hat Regional Hospital has four inpatients, with one in the ICU. The Cardston Health Centre has one inpatient.

St. Michael’s School is on AHS Outbreak status after reporting five cases this week.

Ecole Connaught was informed of one positive individual with the virus, and some students, staff and close contacts are in quarantine.

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

The province-wide reproductive value is 1.09. It is 1.12 in Calgary Zone, 1.10 in Edmonton Zone and 1.04 in the rest of Alberta. These figures are updated each Monday.

Cypress County has totaled 155 cases – nine active cases and the rest recovered.

The County of Forty Mile has 128 total cases. There are seven active cases, 118 recovered and there have been three deaths.

The MD of Taber has 408 total cases — 61 active cases, 341 recovered and there have been six deaths.

Special Areas No. 2 has 64 total cases – six active cases, 57 recovered and there has been one death.

Brooks has 1,367 total cases — three active cases and 1,350 are recovered. Brooks has recorded 14 deaths.

The County of Newell has a total of 162 cases — two active cases, 158 recovered and there have been two deaths.

The County of Warner has 181 total cases. There are four active cases, 174 are recovered cases and there have been three deaths in the county.

The City of Lethbridge has a total of 3,224 cases. There are 512 active cases, 2,682 recovered and there have been 30 deaths. Lethbridge County has 700 cases, 132 active cases, 560 recovered and there have been eight deaths.

The figures on alberta.ca are “up-to-date as of end of day March 31, 2021.”

Read the full April 1 update from the province here.

Saskatchewan has a total of 33,789 cases, 1,949 considered active. There are 31,404 recovered cases and there have been 436 COVID-19 deaths in the province.

Saskatchewan has delivered 200,633 doses of vaccine.