Dr. Deena Hinshaw delivered her latest COVID-19 update on Monday (Gov't. of Alberta live stream)

By Troy Gillard

MONDAY UPDATE

Hinshaw encourages all demonstrators to go for COVID-19 testing

Jun 8, 2020 | 3:36 PM

Alberta’s chief medical officer of health is encouraging everyone who attended anti-racism demonstrations across the province over the past several days to get tested for COVID-19.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw commended those who wore masks and stayed two metres away from each other while at anti-racism events over the past week.

“The freedom to protest is a critical one and yet we face a challenge in this time of pandemic to do so without risking super spreader events,” Hinshaw said during her latest news conference on Monday.” I want to encourage all those who attended this weekend to go for COVID-19 testing whether or not you have symptoms.”

Large protests have been happening in cities across Alberta in the wake of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis after his neck was knelt on for over nine minutes by police officer Derek Chauvin. Three such protests have taken place in Red Deer with the most recent one on Saturday drawing several hundred attendees.

Contact tracing is difficult in events like these where many people are standing close together, so protesters are also asked to closely monitor their activities over the next couple of weeks.

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Dr. Hinshaw has been in contact with some of the organizers of these protests to discuss how they can be structured in the future to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and other illnesses.

Hinshaw shared updated COVID-19 numbers on Monday covering the past 48 hours as no update was shared on Sunday.

She said Alberta has now seen 6698 recoveries from the novel coronavirus, an increase of 42 from Saturday.

There are now 355 active cases in the province which is 19 more than two days ago.

Forty-four people remain in Alberta hospitals because of COVID-19. Six of them are in intensive care.

The provincial lab has now completed more than 300,000 tests. Out of 11,025 done over the last two days, 64 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed for a total of 7,202.

Three additional deaths from the virus were reported on Monday for a total of 149.

Dr. Hinshaw said that since asymptomatic testing began on May 12 14,853 tests have been completed with six of them coming back positive.

A new outbreak is being monitored after six cases were confirmed at a food processing facility in Edmonton.

The number of confirmed cases in the Central zone has been revised yet again and now sits at 87. At this time last week that number was 98. There remain no active cases or hospitalizations in the zone.

The number of cases that can’t be attributed to a particular zone (AKA “Unknown” cases) in the province has risen to 65.

Red Deer region confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Monday:

City of Red Deer – 35 (revised from 37)

Red Deer County – 12 (revised from 15)

Sylvan Lake – 2 (same)

Lacombe County – 3 (same)

City of Lacombe – 2 (same)

Ponoka County – 2 (same)

Clearwater County 1 (revised from 2)

County of Stettler – 3 (revised from 2)

Mountain View County – 4 (revised from 9)

Source: Alberta Health