Medicine Hat spared from new regional restrictions; 182 active COVID-19 cases in city

All indoor fitness and sports activities are prohibited effective tomorrow, junior and senior high school students will move to online learning on Monday.

“I know it’s been a long road. I know many people will not want to take another step in this direction of more stringency. But we must. AHS and law enforcement will continue taking enforcement and issuing fines for non-compliance,” says Premier Jason Kenney. “And to ensure Albertans take these fines seriously we are adding additional backstops with stronger fine collection and actions with restrictions registry services.”

Kenney says could include not being able to renew your driver’s license if you haven’t paid a fine.

“This is for the people who aren’t taking the pandemic seriously and continue to put others at risk by not following the public health orders in place,” he says.

Kenney says the restrictions in the hotspots will be in place for at least two weeks. Curfews may also be implemented where active case rates are 1,000 or more per 100,000 people and the local government requests it.

Kenney says the vast majority of transmission continues to be happening at home and at social activity.

“If you need to, go back and study once again what the restrictions are that are in place. Please follow them so we do not have to come in with yet another round of even tougher restrictions,” says the premier.

He said Albertans need to step up to the plate in the next few weeks.

There are 182 active cases of COVID-19 in Medicine Hat on Thursday.

Medicine Hat now has had 883 total cases – the 182 active, 683 recovered and there have been 18 deaths.

There are 22 new cases in the city and 10 new recoveries in the city today.

Across Alberta, there are 21,385 active cases, up 447 from Wednesday, and 165,627 recovered cases, up 1,599.

Alberta’s total cases from the start of the pandemic is 188,727.

There have been 29,250 variant cases ID’d in the province, 1,329 new today. There are 1,416 in the South Zone.

13,680 active cases (62.9 per cent of total) have been identified as variants of concern.

There are 2,048 total new cases in the province today.

There are now 632 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, 151 of which are in ICU, and 2,075 deaths.

The province completed 20,582 tests in the past 24 hours.

The positivity rate is about 10 per cent.

Alberta has administered 1,528,569 of vaccine at the latest update.

Chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw delivered today’s update from home for precautionary reasons. She says a COVID test came back negative but that she has a sore throat.

Health Minister Tyler Shandro says while additional restrictions are being in put in place, the province continues to focus on getting as many people vaccinated as possible.

More than 650,000 Albertans eligible in the rest of the Phase 2C and 2D vaccine rollout will be able to book appointments starting April 30.

More than 2.8 million Albertans will be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine.

There are 10,280 cases in the South Zone. There are 1,060 active cases and 9,098 recovered. The death total in the zone is at 118.

An AHS spokesperson told CHAT News on Thursday that AHS South Zone currently has 27 COVID-19 positive individuals in hospital. There are 20 at Chinook Regional Hospital in Lethbridge, with seven of those in the ICU. Medicine Hat Regional Hospital has seven inpatients, with two of those in the ICU.

St. Michael’s School remains on AHS Outbreak status after reporting five cases in late March.

Alexandra Middle School is moving Grades 8 and 9 to online learning for one week effective immediately, the Medicine Hat Public School Division announced Thursday. At least two cases of COVID-19 have been identified at the school and more than half of its classroom teaching staff are in quarantine.

The division announced a second case of COVID-19 has also been identified at Medicine Hat Christian School this week.

On Friday, the Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education announced Notre Dame Academy will transition to online learning from April 26-May 7. Four cases were identified at the school last week and more than a dozen teachers are quarantining. The school is also on AHS Outbreak status.

One case was also identified last week at St. Francis Xavier School and at Ecole St. John Paul II School, says the division.

AHS lists St. Mary’s School on Alert status.

Medicine Hat Public School Division has announced cases at three schools last week. Additional cases were identified at Crescent Heights High School and River Heights Elementary School late on Wednesday.

Crescent Heights is on Outbreak status and River Heights is on Alert status.

Prairie Rose Public Schools announced a confirmed case connected to Bow Island Elementary School on April 19, adding to a growing list of Prairie Rose schools with cases.

Three positive cases of COVID-19 were connected to Irvine School two weekends ago. These cases are in addition to one case connected to Irvine School on the previous weekend. Irvine School is on Outbreak status.

There are also positive COVID-19 cases Seven Persons School in Cypress County. It is on AHS Alert status.

Ecole Connaught School has confirmed two variant cases. The first case was identified on March 31, the second on April 3.

Sixty-nine students from Eagle Butte High School were in quarantine after a positive case was confirmed at the school three weeks ago. The individual was later confirmed to have a variant strain of the virus.

Brooks Junior High School is on AHS Outbreak status and Brooks Composite High School and Eastbrook Elementary School in that city are on AHS Alert status.

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

The province-wide reproductive value from last week is 1.04. It is 0.98 in Calgary Zone, 1.10 in Edmonton Zone and 1.05 in the rest of Alberta. These figures are updated each Monday.

Cypress County has totaled 227 cases – 45 active cases and the rest recovered.

The County of Forty Mile has 144 total cases. There are 10 active cases, 131 recovered and there have been three deaths.

The MD of Taber has 488 total cases — 39 active cases, 444 recovered and there have been five deaths.

Special Areas No. 2 has 77 total cases – four active cases, 72 recovered and there has been one death.

Brooks has 1,405 total cases — 37 active cases and 1,354 are recovered. Brooks has recorded 14 deaths.

The County of Newell has a total of 179 cases — eight active cases, 169 recovered and there have been two deaths.

The County of Warner has 303 total cases. There are 79 active cases, 221 are recovered cases and there have been three deaths in the county.

The City of Lethbridge has a total of 4,163 cases. There are 409 active cases, 3,718 recovered and there have been 36 deaths. Lethbridge County has 968 cases, 129 active cases, 828 recovered and there have been 11 deaths.

The figures on alberta.ca are “up-to-date as of end of day April 28, 2021.”

Read the full April 29 update from the province here.

Saskatchewan has a total of 40,824 cases, 2,408 considered active. There are 37,929 recovered cases and there have been 487 COVID-19 deaths in the province.

Saskatchewan has delivered 421,981 doses of vaccine.

by Chris Brown

Medicine Hat spared from new regional restrictions; 182 active COVID-19 cases in city

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