By Troy Gillard

MONDAY UPDATE

Alberta reaches five-month high in active COVID-19 cases, Red Deer down to four

Oct 5, 2020 | 4:25 PM

While the numbers in Red Deer remain quite low, active cases of COVID-19 in Alberta are the highest they’ve been in nearly five months.

The province has 1,783 active cases as of Monday – the most since 1,811 active cases were reported on May 8.

More than half of Alberta’s active cases, 982, are in the Edmonton zone.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw says the rise of new cases in Edmonton is concerning and the province is monitoring to see what is causing the increase.

“We are looking closely at what is driving the increase in cases. We are speaking with local public health and the city to determine if additional measures should be recommended in Edmonton to bring transmission down,” the province’s chief medical officer of health said.

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The Central zone sits with just 22 active cases as of Monday, including one person in hospital with the virus.

Red Deer is down to four active cases while recoveries have reached 108 as the city has now had 112 cases of the novel coronavirus.

There are no longer any active cases in Red Deer County. The city of Lacombe has two active cases while Lacombe County has one. Ponoka County has four active cases as of Monday, as do the County of Wetaskiwin and Drayton Valley. Mountain View County and the County of Stettler each have two active cases. The town of Olds has one.

Overall, there are 578 new cases of COVID-19 across the province in Monday’s update. There were 97 cases confirmed on Friday, Oct. 2 followed by 263 on Oct. 3 and another 218 on Oct. 4.

The province completed 45,998 tests over those 72 hours.

The total number of COVID-19 cases across the province stands at 18,935. There are 1,783 active cases, up 225 from Friday, and 16,872 recovered cases, up 345.

There are currently 62 Albertans in hospital because of COVID-19, including 14 in ICU. The province is reporting eight additional deaths from COVID-19 since Friday.

Meantime, a case of COVID-19 has been diagnosed in an individual at Ponoka Secondary Campus. Principal Kathy McTaggart confirmed the case in a letter to parents and guardians on Sunday.

To date, only two Red Deer schools have had confirmed COVID-19 cases – Escuela Vista Grande on Sept. 8 and Lindsay Thurber Comprehensive High School on Sept. 17.

“As of today, AHS has confirmed that 43 schools that previously had alerts have had no transmission & students and staff are back in class. There are active alerts or outbreaks in 149 schools, which is about 6% of all schools in Alberta,” Hinshaw shared in her update. “These schools have 319 active cases. This includes 65 schools on outbreaks, including 10 on the watch list. An outbreak is two confirmed cases in a school. It doesn’t mean that school is unsafe. In-school transmission has likely contributed to one or more cases in only 18 schools.”