By Troy Gillard

Alberta in "danger zone," says Hinshaw

Red Deer remains with 39 active COVID-19 cases as provincial numbers continue rising

Oct 20, 2020 | 4:08 PM

For the first time in two weeks, there has been no daily increase in the number of active COVID-19 cases in Red Deer.

Our city has 39 active cases as of Tuesday, unchanged from Monday according to the latest numbers from Alberta Health.

The number of recoveries from the virus in Red Deer has reached 115.

Red Deer County remains with seven active cases while Sylvan Lake no longer has any after having two for the past several days.

Lacombe County remains with 10 active cases and the city of Lacombe still has nine.

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In Ponoka County, the number of active cases is down to 43 from 46, but the county remains under a provincial COVID-19 Watch. The majority of the county’s active cases are in Maskwacis, where schools remain closed for a second straight week in a bid to prevent further spread of the virus in the community.

There are seven active cases in the County of Stettler (down one), six in Mountain View County (down two) and four in the town of Olds (unchanged).

As a whole, the Central Zone has 145 active cases as of Tuesday, a decrease of three, and three hospitalizations.

As for schools in Red Deer, a COVID-19 watch (school outbreak declared with 5 or more cases where disease could have been acquired or transmitted in the school) remains in effect for Hunting Hills High School where five cases have been confirmed. École Secondaire Notre Dame High School reported its first case last week. West Park Elementary School reported its first case on Friday, as did Westpark Middle School and Annie L. Gaetz Elementary on Saturday. Central Middle School reported its first case on Monday.

Red Deer College announced Monday that two cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed among members of its community.

There were 323 new cases in Alberta reported in Tuesday’s update.

The total number of COVID-19 cases across the province stands at 22,996. There are 3,203 active cases, up 65 from Monday, and 19,500 recovered cases, up 257.

There are currently 116 Albertans in hospital, 16 in ICU. There have been 293 deaths, an increase of one from Monday.

The province conducted 13,003 tests in the past 24 hours.

“I would say right now we are in a danger zone, where the coming weeks will really tell that story about whether we are able collectively to bend that curve downward, by following all of that guidance that’s already out there, that’s up online,” Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, said Thursday.

“Or, if we start to tip the wrong way, and see our hospitals fill up, and impair our ability to do elective surgeries, impair our ability to offer services that our health-care system needs to be able to offer to others that are not COVID-related.”

Hinshaw said the province is not yet at that point where the health system is not able to cope, “but we are getting closer.”