By Chris Brown

11 new cases in city, 2,211 in province

Active COVID-19 cases down in Medicine Hat; Hinshaw says new measures ‘absolutely necessary’

May 6, 2021 | 4:02 PM

The province’s top doctor says that even as they are becoming more available to Albertans vaccines alone are not enough to stop the third wave of COVID-19.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw says she knows that any restriction can have its own impact on people’s health and wishes that these were not necessary.

“But they are. These restrictions are absolutely necessary if we are to reduce community transmission and stop cases from getting out of control,” she said during her Thursday update.

She said the first and second waves showed how quickly cases can spread and the more rapid the spread the more difficult it is to bend the curve back down.

She said that happened even before the province was hit with the more infectious variants.

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“We don’t yet know if we have hit the peak of new cases. Our provincial r-value of 1.12 last week tells us cases are continuing to grow. That’s why implementing the measures now is so critical,” she said. “We all need to significantly reduce the number of interactions we have in-person every day in every part of our lives.”

She said cases have risen to the point that they simply cannot target one sector or group.

“Whether it is social gatherings, faith services, esthetics locations or fitness classes, each activity involves Albertans mingling in person and risks exposure to the virus, Hinshaw said.

Other jurisdictions have bent the curve as more people have been vaccinated.

“This will happen here too as more and more of us step up to get vaccine and form part of a protective wall around our communities so we don’t have to go through these types of widespread restrictions again,” said Hinshaw.

There are 228 active cases of COVID-19 in Medicine Hat on Thursday.

Medicine Hat now has had 999 total cases – the 228 active, 753 recovered and there have been 18 deaths.

There are 11 new cases in the city and 18 new recoveries in the city today.

Across Alberta, there are 24,497 active cases, up 341 from Wednesday, and 176,536 recovered cases, up 1,870.

Alberta’s total cases from the start of the pandemic is 203,135.

There have been 37,329 variant cases ID’d in the province, 536 new today. There are 1,928 in the South Zone.

13,549 active cases (55.3 per cent of total) have been identified as variants of concern.

There are 2,211 total new cases in the province today.

There are now 654 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, 146 of which are in ICU, and 2,102 deaths.

The province completed 19,909 tests in the past 24 hours.

The positivity rate is about 11.1 per cent.

Alberta has administered 1,732,582 of vaccine at the latest update.

Hinshaw’s next update will be early next week.

She said that more than 100,000 Albertans over the age of 30 booked vaccine appointments today, the first day they were eligible. On Monday bookings will be open to anyone born in 2009 or earlier.

There are 11,049 cases in the South Zone. There are 1,321 active cases and 9,608 recovered. The death total in the zone is at 120.

An AHS spokesperson told CHAT News on Thursday that AHS South Zone currently has 32 COVID-19 positive individuals in hospital. There are 21 at Chinook Regional Hospital in Lethbridge, with five of those in the ICU. Medicine Hat Regional Hospital has 10 inpatients. The Brooks Health Centre has one inpatient.

St. Mary’s School has announced five cases of COVID-19 have been identified at the school; it is on AHS Alert status. The school has moved to online learning until May 17.

Alexandra Middle School, CAPE School and Notre Dame Academy have also moved to temporary online learning due to COVID-19 cases. Notre Dame is on AHS Outbreak status and CAPE is on AHS Alert status.

Over the weekend cases were identified at three schools in the Medicine Hat Public School Division – River Heights Elementary School, Crescent Heights High School and Dr. Ken Sauer School.

There are now four cases at River Heights, three at Crescent Heights and two at Ken Sauer.

AHS notified officials late Monday of a new infection at Crestwood school as well, and another new infection was announced on Wednesday morning. The school is on AHS Alert status.

AHS lists River Heights, Crescent Heights, Ken Sauer and Medicine Hat Christian School on Alert status. CAPE School is also on AHS Alert status.

Two cases have been identified at Mother Teresa School.

Previously, cases have been identified at St. Francis Xavier School and at Ecole St. John Paul II School in the Catholic division.

Prairie Rose Public Schools has announced confirmed cases connected to Bow Island Elementary School and Irvine School. Irvine School is on Outbreak status.

Alberta Health Services also informed Prairie Rose on Tuesday of one case each for Margaret Wooding school in Redcliff and the Burdett school.

They are on Alert status.

There are also positive COVID-19 cases Seven Persons School, which is on Alert status.

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

Eagle Butte High School and Connaught School reported cases more than one month ago.

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

The province-wide reproductive value from last week is 1.12. It is 1.16 in Calgary Zone, 0.99 in Edmonton Zone and 1.18 in the rest of Alberta. These figures are updated each Monday.

Cypress County has totaled 236 cases – 26 active cases and the rest recovered.

The County of Forty Mile has 152 total cases. There are 10 active cases, 139 recovered and there have been three deaths.

The MD of Taber has 530 total cases — 58 active cases, 466 recovered and there have been six deaths.

Special Areas No. 2 has 85 total cases – 12 active cases, 72 recovered and there has been one death.

Brooks has 1,424 total cases — 44 active cases and 1,366 are recovered. Brooks has recorded 14 deaths.

The County of Newell has a total of 185 cases — 11 active cases, 172 recovered and there have been two deaths.

The County of Warner has 382 total cases. There are 127 active cases, 252 are recovered cases and there have been three deaths in the county.

The City of Lethbridge has a total of 4,423 cases. There are 451 active cases, 3,936 recovered and there have been 36 deaths. Lethbridge County has 1,086 cases, 184 active cases, 890 recovered and there have been 12 deaths.

The figures on alberta.ca are “up-to-date as of end of day May 5, 2021.”

Read the full May 6 update from the province here.

Saskatchewan has a total of 42,376 cases, 2,158 considered active. There are 39,717 recovered cases and there have been 501 COVID-19 deaths in the province.

Saskatchewan has delivered 480,910 doses of vaccine.