Red Deer has added four more active cases of COVID-19 and now has 35.
The number of recoveries held at 111 as the city’s overall case count rose to 146.
An outbreak remains in effect for Hunting Hills High School where five confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus have been confirmed as of Friday morning.
Red Deer County remains with five active cases of COVID-19 as of Friday and Sylvan Lake held steady with two.
The city of Lacombe has added two more active cases and now has 12. Lacombe County also added two more for a total of nine active cases.
Ponoka County now sits with 39 active cases of the virus, an increase of eight from Thursday, and remains under a COVID-19 watch.
The County of Stettler now has seven active cases and Mountain View County has nine. The town of Olds has four.
Alberta reported 332 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, the third-highest single-day count our province has had since the onset of the pandemic.
The total number of COVID-19 cases across the province stands at 21,775. There are 2,836 active cases, up 98 from Thursday, and 18,651 recovered cases, up 234.
There are 117 Albertans are hospital due to the virus, the most the province has had at any one time, with 11 in intensive care.
No new deaths were reported Friday leaving Alberta’s total at 288.
The province conducted 14,155 tests for COVID-19 over the past 24 hours.
Dr. Deena Hinshaw said outbreaks in hospitals, mainly in Calgary and Edmonton, is one of the reasons for the climbing number of hospitalizations.
“As our community transmission goes up, so too does the risk of introducing the virus into our acute care and continuing care facilities, where our most vulnerable community members are,” she said. “This is another reminder we all have a role to play in stopping the spread.”
Calgary, which has 686 active cases, a rate of 50.9 per 100,000, is now on the “Watch” list, said the chief medical officer of health.
“We have recently seen several outbreaks in that city linked to social gatherings, and this is yet another reminder that no region is immune from this virus and that one case can quickly lead to many if restrictions are not followed.”
Hinshaw said she is not recommending additional measures for Calgary, but is watching the situation closely.
She also said she remains concerned about the Edmonton Zone, which currently has 54 per cent of the active cases in the province. With about two weeks between actions and outcomes, Hinshaw said she anticipates seeing signs next week whether the voluntary measures introduced for Edmonton last week were successful.
She also urged all Albertans to get their flu shot.
“Last winter almost 8,500 Albertans contracted the flu, and ultimately 41 died,” she said, adding that about one in three Albertans got their flu shot last year. “This was more than in 2018-19, but we can and must do better this year.”
The flu shot will be readily available in participating pharmacies, doctor’s offices and health clinics across the province starting Monday.
Hinshaw said the shot won’t prevent COVID-19, but will reduce the chances of getting sick with the flu and spreading that to others.
“We can’t yet prevent COVID-19 with a vaccine, but we can stop the flu from taxing our health system.”
Hinshaw’s next in-person update will be on Tuesday.
(With file from Chris Brown – CHAT News Today)
