By Chris Brown

nine new cases in city, 908 in province

More restrictions to be eased at seniors’ homes; active COVID-19 cases down in city

May 19, 2021 | 3:45 PM

The province is making changes to the public health measures at continuing care facilities.

The chief medical officer of health said during the Wednesday update that more than half of all Albertans aged 12 years and up have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine and most in care facilities are fully vaccinated.

“We are able to safely ease some restrictions to increase the quality of life, health and wellbeing of residents,” said Dr. Deena Hinshaw.

Care homes will move to a vaccination-based approach to assessing any additional precautions for new residents and residents returning from off-site outings.

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As of May 31, new residents or those returning from same-day or overnight outings will no longer need to quarantine. Residents will undergo health assessment screening and precautions will be based on their vaccination status.

“Fully vaccinated individuals require no additional precautions. Partially-vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals will need to provide twice-daily symptom checks for 14 days,” said Hinshaw.

In certain instances, individuals will still need to quarantine regardless of vaccination status, including if they don’t pass the health screening upon return and if they are returning from international travel. As well, those who are a close contact of a confirmed case of COVID-19 or if they have symptoms will also have to quarantine.

Any resident who returns from a unit within a health-care facility that is on an outbreak will also have to quarantine.

Hinshaw there will be no easing of measures before the long weekend and encouraged everyone to follow the public health measures.

“The future is in our hands. The more that we step up right now the better our summer will be,” she said.

There are 155 active cases of COVID-19 in Medicine Hat on Wednesday.

Medicine Hat now has had 1,152 total cases – the 155 active, 978 recovered and there have been 19 deaths.

There are nine new cases in the city today and 15 new recoveries.

48.1 per cent of all Hatters 12 years and up have received at least one dose of vaccine.

Across Alberta, there are 18,813 active cases, down 1,200 from Tuesday, and 200,496 recovered cases, up 2,102.

Alberta’s total cases from the start of the pandemic is 221,467.

There have been 42,108 variant cases ID’d in the province, 517 new today. There are 2,345 in the South Zone.

There are 908 total new cases in the province today.

There are now 685 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, 185 of which are in ICU, and 2,158 deaths.

The province completed 10,392 tests in the past 24 hours.

The positivity rate is about 9.1 per cent.

Alberta has administered 2,271,955 of vaccine at the latest update.

There are 11,930 cases in the South Zone. There are 925 active cases and 10,880 recovered. The death total in the zone is at 125.

The province-wide reproductive value from last week is 0.84. It is 1.16 in Calgary Zone, 0.82 in Edmonton Zone and 0.85 in the rest of Alberta. These figures are updated each Monday.

Crescent Heights High School, Monsignor McCoy High School, Crestwood School, Elm Street School, Dr. Ken Sauer School, Notre Dame Academy, St. Mary’s School remain on AHS Outbreak status.

Mother Teresa School, River Heights Elementary School, Medicine Hat Christian School and CAPE School are on Alert status.

Regionally, Brooks Composite High School, Brooks Junior High School, Christ the King Academy in Brooks and Duchess School are on Outbreak status. Eagle Butte High School and Eastbrook Elementary School in Brooks are on Alert status.

Cypress County has totaled 267 cases – 31 active cases and the rest recovered. The vaccination rate for all ages is 38.5 per cent.

The County of Forty Mile has 155 total cases. There are three active cases, 149 recovered and there have been three deaths. The vaccination rate for all ages is 20.6 per cent.

The MD of Taber has 562 total cases — 38 active cases, 518 recovered and there have been six deaths. The vaccination rate for all ages is 27.2 per cent.

Special Areas No. 2 has 92 total cases – seven active cases, 84 recovered and there has been one death.

Brooks has 1,463 total cases — 42 active cases and 1,406 are recovered. Brooks has recorded 15 deaths.

The County of Newell has a total of 211 cases — 28 active cases, 181 recovered and there have been two deaths. The vaccination rate for all ages is 35.8 per cent, including Brooks.

The County of Warner has 434 total cases. There are 56 active cases, 375 are recovered cases and there have been three deaths in the county. The vaccination rate for all ages is 33.8 per cent.

The City of Lethbridge has a total of 4,692 cases. There are 281 active cases, 4,374 recovered and there have been 37 deaths. Lethbridge County has 1,201 cases, 129 active cases, 1,060 recovered and there have been 12 deaths.

Not all the areas on the vaccination data map match the case count map.

The figures on alberta.ca are “up-to-date as of end of day May 18, 2021.”

Read the full May 19 update from the province here.

Saskatchewan has a total of 44,982 cases, 1,786 considered active. There are 42,674 recovered cases and there have been 522 COVID-19 deaths in the province.

Saskatchewan has delivered 615,459 doses of vaccine.