By Troy Gillard

THURSDAY UPDATE

Alberta expands COVID-19 testing; Red Deer records new active case

Jun 25, 2020 | 3:58 PM

Alberta is continuing to expand testing for COVID-19.

Health Minister Tyler Shandro announced Thursday that a limited number of community pharmacies will begin to offer testing to Albertans without symptoms and no known exposure to COVID-19. This is in addition to the COVID-19 testing already offered by Alberta Health Services.

“Alberta is a world leader in testing, and this will further expand our capacity,” said Shandro. “By gradually expanding COVID-19 testing in community pharmacies, we continue to put safety first as we reopen the economy and get Albertans back to work. This is a key part of Alberta’s relaunch strategy and will help us continue protecting Albertans from this virus.”

Over the next few days, a group of 20 community pharmacies located primarily in Edmonton and Calgary will begin to offer throat swab testing to be sent to Alberta Precision Labs for analysis.

The province says the number of pharmacies initially conducting COVID-19 testing is being limited to ensure the processes and flow of test materials and data is working well before expanding further. Additional pharmacies are planning to offer testing in the coming weeks.

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The announcement of expanded testing comes as Alberta reported 26 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday out of over 6,300 new test results.

The number of active cases in the province is now 506, which is down from 538 in Wednesday’s report.

A total of 7,191 Albertans have now recovered from the virus.

There are 38 Albertans in hospital because of the virus, with eight of them in intensive care.

An additional death from the virus was reported on Thursday to bring Alberta’s total to 154. Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer, said the death was related to a COVID-19 outbreak at the Misericordia Community Hospital in Edmonton.

One day after being declared free of active COVID-19 cases, Red Deer again has an active case as of Thursday and has now seen 36 cases overall.

The Central Zone as a whole has three active cases as of Thursday. The other two are located in Drumheller and Beaver County.