A COVID-19 outbreak has been declared at Red Deer Regional Hospital. (rdnewsNOW file photo)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

new numbers expected monday

Two COVID-19 outbreaks declared in Red Deer

Jul 24, 2020 | 4:27 PM

Two COVID-19 outbreaks have been declared in Red Deer at the Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre and the Waskasoo Kiwanis Towers retirement home.

Alberta Health Services says enhanced visitor restrictions have been implemented at the hospital after two units were impacted by positive cases confirmed on July 16 and 21.

Effective immediately, visitors will only be permitted in end-of-life situations, when accompanying pediatric patients, or for those patients who have cognitive or mobility impairments.

“We are taking this situation extremely seriously and have taken swift action,” says Kimberly Storey, AHS Senior Operating Officer for RDRHC. “Restricting visitors is not a decision we’ve made lightly. We recognize the benefit to our patients when they’re able to have friends and family come visit them.”

Storey says this is a necessary step to reduce the risk of transmission throughout the facility. Contract tracing is ongoing to identify all individuals who have had close contact with the two confirmed cases, and all patients and staff on those two units are being swabbed and tested. AHS believes risk to patients, physicians and staff is minimal.

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The hospital remains open and all services are operational, including the ER, surgeries and all inpatient and ambulatory care. While the visitor restrictions are in place, a release says, one Designated Family/Support Person may accompany a patient who is under the age of 18, and in situations where a patient has cognitive or mobility restrictions.

All people entering the hospital will be greeted by a health screener.

Meantime, Alberta Health spokesperson Tom McMillan says the outbreak at Waskasoo Kiwanis Towers was declared after two COVID-19 cases were confirmed there. McMillan says widespread testing at the facility in response to the confirmed cases may lead to those numbers growing.

Province-wide, with another 111 cases of COVID-19 confirmed on Friday Alberta shot past the 10,000 case mark.

The province now has 10,086 total cases — 1,341 active cases, an increase of 48, and 8,567 recovered cases, an increase of 61.

Friday’s update shows there are 95 Albertans currently in hospital due to COVID-19, 19 of which are in ICU. There have been 178 total deaths.

The province conducted 8,735 tests in the past 24 hours.

In Central Zone, the number of active cases as of Friday is 167. There are 29 people hospitalized in the zone, including five in intensive care. The zone has seen 128 recoveries from COVID-19 to date.

The number of active cases in Red Deer fell by three on Friday to a total of nine. Red Deer has now seen 43 recoveries from the novel coronavirus.

Elsewhere, the number of active COVID-19 cases in the County of Stettler has risen to 29, five more than Thursday’s report.

Red Deer County and Sylvan Lake are each seeing five active cases (increase of one for both) while Lacombe County has nine active cases.

Rocky Mountain House has two active cases as of Friday (both are new). There are seven active cases in Ponoka County, 11 in Kneehill County and the County of Paintearth, and 15 in Starland County.

The full map of active cases can be found here.
https://www.alberta.ca/stats/covid-19-alberta-statistics.htm