No new cases in Medicine Hat, city down to 40 active COVID-19 cases

“What’s more our positivity rate has averaged 4.5 per cent over the last seven days. That’s a sharp drop from the average of 11. 7 in early May. Most importantly Alberta’s average positivity rate is declining in all zones, which indicates that progress is being made province-wide.”

Responding to concerns about the B.1.617 Delta variant, Hinshaw said it’s not new to the province and was first identified here in a sample taken April 8. Since then 197 cases of the variant have been identified in Alberta. The majority are most likely the substrain B.1.617.2, she said.

There are 16 cases identified in patients on two units at Calgary’s Foothills Medical Centre and four health-care workers have tested positive. Hinshaw says they are two separate outbreaks and all but one case was hospital-acquired.

She said spread is being watched, and cautioned that of all variants of concern identified last week only five per cent were the B.1.617 strain.

“Research is still emerging for this variant with respect to vaccine effectiveness,” said Hinshaw. “Current evidence seems to show that first doses are somewhat less effective. They still appear to provide some protection and the good news is that two doses are virtually as effective against B.1.617 as any other strain.”

She said that underlines the effectiveness of second doses and they are looking at speeding up the administration of second doses.

There are 40 active cases of COVID-19 in Medicine Hat on Tuesday.

Medicine Hat now has had 1,241 total cases – the 40 active, 1,179 recovered and there have been 22 deaths.

There are no new cases in the city today and three new recoveries.

55.7 per cent of Hatters have received at least one dose of vaccine.

Across Alberta, there are 4,431 active cases, down 272 from Monday, and 222,776 recovered cases, up 412.

Alberta’s total cases from the start of the pandemic is 229,458.

There are 139 total new cases in the province today. Seventy-four cases were identified as variants of concern.

There are now 336 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, 85 of which are in ICU, and 2,251 deaths.

The province completed 3,443 tests in the past 24 hours.

The positivity rate is about 4.2 per cent.

Alberta has administered 3,123,226 doses of vaccine at the latest update.

Hinshaw said she’s not concerned about Alberta’s summer reopening plan because it’s a gradual one. On large-scale events Calgary Stampede she says they’ve been working together on ways to mitigate risk of significant spread.

“It’s not going to be the Stampede as typically would happen; most of it’s outdoors. Again there are measures in place to limit the chance of further spread,” said Hinshaw, but that even moving into Stage 3 people still need to think about managing risks.

Hinshaw also reminded Albertans of the importance of disclosing any COVID-19 symptoms if you are experiencing them when seeking health care. She said not doing so puts the care team and other vulnerable patients at risk.

There are 217 active cases and 12,057 recovered in the South Zone. The death total in the zone is at 130.

An AHS spokesperson told CHAT News on Monday AHS South Zone currently has 24 COVID-19 positive individuals in hospital. There are 13 at Chinook Regional Hospital in Lethbridge, with three of those in the ICU. Medicine Hat Regional Hospital has 10 inpatients, with one of those in the ICU. The Taber Health Centre has one inpatient.

The province-wide reproductive value from last week is 0.74. It is 0.73 in Calgary Zone, 0.75 in Edmonton Zone and 0.73 in the rest of Alberta. These figures are updated each Monday.

St. Francis Xavier School is on AHS Outbreak status.

Regionally, Brooks Composite High School and Eastbrook Elementary School in Brooks are on Outbreak status. St. Joseph’s Collegiate in Brooks is on Alert status.

Schools remain on Outbreak and Alert status until there is no new confirmed case for 28 days.

Cypress County has totaled 295 cases – 11 active cases and the rest recovered. The vaccination rate for all ages is 46 per cent.

The County of Forty Mile has 157 total cases. There are two active cases, 152 recovered and there have been three deaths. The vaccination rate for all ages is 27.1 per cent.

The MD of Taber has 571 total cases — five active cases, 560 recovered and there have been six deaths. The vaccination rate for all ages is 33.3 per cent.

Special Areas No. 2 has 103 total cases – seven active cases, 95 recovered and there has been one death.

Brooks has 1,497 total cases — 14 active cases and 1,468 are recovered. Brooks has recorded 15 deaths.

The County of Newell has a total of 240 cases — 17 active cases, 221 recovered and there have been two deaths. The vaccination rate for all ages is 43.8 per cent, including Brooks.

The County of Warner has 464 total cases. There are 15 active cases, 446 are recovered cases and there have been three deaths in the county. The latest vaccination rate for all ages is 41.4 per cent.

The City of Lethbridge has a total of 4,823 cases. There are 61 active cases, 4,724 recovered and there have been 38 deaths. Lethbridge County has 1,252 cases, 26 active cases, 1,214 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 June 7, 2021.”

Read the full June 8 update from the province here.

Saskatchewan has a total of 47,517 cases, 1,053 considered active. There are 45,913 recovered cases and there have been 551 COVID-19 deaths in the province.

Saskatchewan has delivered 816,124 doses of vaccine.

by Chris Brown

No new cases in Medicine Hat, city down to 40 active COVID-19 cases

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