Alberta counts nearly 1,000 new cases over Thanksgiving weekend

There is no change in the number or status of cases in Medicine Hat. The city remains at three active cases, 79 recovered and two deaths for a total of 84 cases.

There are currently 97 Albertans in hospital, 13 in ICU. There have been 286 deaths, an increase of four from Friday.

The province conducted 58,183 tests in the past 96 hours – 16,193 on Oct. 9, 13,874 on Oct. 10, 16,657 on Oct. 11 and 11,459 on Oct. 12.

Chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw said Alberta Health Services is watching Alberta’s health system carefully to ensure that hospitalizations and ICU admissions remain within the province’s capacity.

She also said she is concerned by the rise in cases, particularly in the Edmonton Zone where there are 1,440 active cases at the moment.

“As I noted last week, due to the long incubation period of COVID-19 it will be at least a week or two before we start to see the impact of the voluntary measures announced last week for the Edmonton Zone,” Hinshaw said.

She added that data shows rising case counts in schools are in line with rising case counts elsewhere and there has been a significant increase in testing among school-age chilldren.

“As I have said before, one of the best ways to limit cases in schools, hospitals and continuing care is to limit transmission within the community,” she said. “COVID-19 is a difficult virus to contain and the more cases and spread we see in our communities, the more likely it becomes that we will see it in other places as well.”

She encouraged everyone, particularly those in the Edmonton Zone, to be extra diligent with the health measures that have become commonplace in the past seven months – washing your hands, staying physically distant, mask-wearing when that’s not possible and staying home when sick.

Beginning Wednesday testing at AHS assessment centres will be by appointment only. Hinshaw said the testing will be quicker and more efficient and reduce crowding in lines.

Hinshaw also said contact tracers are finding more people are reluctant to share information about where they may have been exposed to the virus, where they’ve been while infectious and who they may have been in contact with since.

She said it is understandable people are frustrated at how the virus has affected their daily lives.

“Unfortunately, choosing not to work with contact tracers does not make that better, it makes it worse. If we are not able to trace contact and prevent the virus from spreading, the impacts will continue to grow.”

On Tuesday there are 88 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.

No local schools are classified as having outbreaks on the provincial website.

The website Support Our Students is tracking instances of cases in schools across the province. Elm Street School and Herald School were added to the list on Oct. 5, and Ecole St. John Paul II has been on it since late August.

Three schools in Taber were added to the list on Tuesday after they were alerted that a person affiliated with them tested positive for COVID-19 over the weekend.

There 1,990 cases in the South Zone There are 160 active cases and 1,804 recovered. There are currently four COVID-19 cases in hospital in the South Zone, none in the ICU. There have been 26 deaths in the zone.

Cypress County has totaled 33 cases – all recovered.

The County of Forty Mile has 42 total cases. There are three active cases and the rest are recovered.

The MD of Taber has 44 total cases — all recovered.

Special Areas No. 2 has 17 total cases, four active cases and the rest recovered.

Brooks has 1,134 total cases —four active and 1,124 are recovered. Brooks has recorded nine deaths.

The County of Newell has a total of 35 cases — three active cases, 30 recovered and there have been two deaths.

The County of Warner has 65 total cases. There are three active cases, 61 are recovered cases and there has been one death in the county.

The City of Lethbridge has a total of 274 cases. There are 101 active cases, 171 recovered and there have been two deaths. Lethbridge County has 96 cases, 40 active cases and the rest recovered.

The figures on alberta.ca are “up-to-date as of end of day Oct. 12, 2020.”

Saskatchewan reported 140 new cases of COVID-19 over the long weekend, five in the South Zones.

Saskatchewan has a total of 2,174 cases, 238 considered active. There are 1,911 recovered cases and there have been 25 COVID-19 deaths in the province.

With the rise in cases over the weekend, Saskatchewan will reduce the maximum allowable gathering size for private home gatherings as of Friday to 15 from the current limit of 30.

by Chris Brown

Alberta counts nearly 1,000 new cases over Thanksgiving weekend

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