(CPAC livestream)

By Troy Gillard

surging numbers continue

Active COVID-19 cases in Red Deer up to 116

Nov 16, 2020 | 5:03 PM

Red Deer now has 116 active cases of COVID-19 as the province surged past the 10,000 mark on Monday.

The number marks a new record for the city and an increase of 22 from Friday.

Red Deer has seen 217 recoveries with the total number of cases attributed to the city now listed at 333.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw said during her latest update Monday afternoon that the province recorded 20 deaths from the novel coronavirus over the past 24 hours. That brings Alberta’s total to 427.

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One of the latest deaths was a man in his 80s from the Central zone.

Overall, Alberta added 860 new cases of COVID-19 over the past 24 hours out of about 12,000 test results, according to Hinshaw, for a 7 per cent positivity rate.

Active cases are up to 10,031 from 9,618 as of Sunday.

Alberta has recorded 29,731 recovered cases as of Monday.

There are 264 Albertans are in hospital because of the virus, an increase of two, including 57 in ICU, a decrease of one.

“The measures in place right now are literally a matter of life and death,” said Hinshaw, addressed questions about COVID hospitalizations and ICU numbers compare to increases seen in regular flu season and why the current acute care burden is so challenging.

“This is not an influenza season. This is a global pandemic that requires each one of us to pull together to protect our communities, families and friends,” she said.

Hinshaw said there have been 49 acute care COVID outbreaks in just seven and a half months, with 42 deaths linked to these outbreaks. She said the worst acute care outbreak numbers related to influenza in the past five years are 40 outbreaks with 13 deaths in a full year.

She said it’s important to remember several differences between COVID and influenza.

Differences include the extraordinary measures needed to prevent spread in hospital. She said they enhance safety but also limit capacity, including much more aggressive isolation policies for patients confirmed to have COVID, those showing symptoms that could be COVID and those who have had a COVID exposure need to be in an isolation space.

Staff availability is another big impact on capacity due to strict isolation and quarantine requirements for those confirmed to have COVID, those showing symptoms that could be COVID and those who have been exposed to COVID.

“COVID is more dangerous than influenza both at an individual and population level,” said Hinshaw.

Elsewhere across the Central zone, Red Deer County now has 14 active cases of COVID-19, up four from Friday, while Sylvan Lake holds steady with eight.

Lacombe has 22 active cases, an increase of two from Friday, whereas Lacombe County has 11, up four.

Ponoka County continues to see a surge in active cases and now has 89.

Rocky Mountain House (Clearwater County) remains with six active cases as of Monday. Mountain View County sits with 14, Olds remains with one and Kneehill County is down to seven. Starland County and the County of Stettler each have one active case.

(With file from Chris Brown – CHAT News Today)