By Troy Gillard

alberta sets new record

Red Deer adds two more active COVID-19 cases

Oct 8, 2020 | 4:06 PM

Red Deer has picked up two active cases of COVID-19 for the second day in a row, and now sits with a total of seven.

The overall number of cases in the city is now 115, which includes 108 recoveries.

Red Deer County is down to two active cases as of Thursday, while Sylvan Lake and Olds continue to have one each. Mountain View County has five active cases and the County of Stettler has two. Lacombe has three active cases and Lacombe County has two.

Ponoka County continues to see a rise in active cases and now has 12. On Thursday an outbreak was declared at Ponoka Secondary Campus after a second case of COVID-19 was confirmed at the Grades 7-12 school.

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The Central zone as a whole now has 39 active cases which is an increase of nine over the past 24 hours.

Province-wide, there are 364 new cases reported in Thursday’s update – a new single record.

The total number of COVID-19 cases across the province stands at 19,718. There are 1,910 active cases, up 187 from Wednesday, and 17,338 recovered cases, up 175.

There are currently 77 Albertans in hospital, 13 in ICU. There have been 283 deaths, up two from Wednesday.

The province conducted 16,408 tests in the past 24 hours.

276 of the new infections reported Thursday were in the Edmonton Zone and 50 were in the Calgary Zone.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the province’s chief medical officer of health, says thousands of cases have been identified in the Edmonton Zone in the last couple of weeks, which impacts every part of the region.

As a result, she announced three voluntary measures for the Edmonton Zone that are meant to limit the spread of COVID-19:

– Family and social gatherings should be limited to no more than 15 people. This does not impact places like schools, theatres, and places of worship assuming organizers are ensuring all COVID-19 guidance is closely followed

– Face masks should be worn in all indoor workspaces unless you are separated in a private office, in a cubicle, or by another appropriate barrier

– People should not have more than three cohorts. This could include a work cohort, a family cohort, and a sport cohort. Young children in childcare settings can be part of four cohorts.

Dr. Hinshaw says hospitals in Edmonton have the capacity to meet the needs of patients, but they are moving forward with these measures to ensure things do not get worse.

“These measures are not being taken lightly but are necessary to prevent the spread of COVID-19 from continuing to escalate.”

“While these voluntary measures are focused on the Edmonton Zone, everyone in the province should take note. We should all take precautions to limit the virus’ spread to our friends, family, and loved ones.”

(With file from David Opinko)