By Troy Gillard

tragic milestone

Red Deer records first death from COVID-19

Dec 18, 2020 | 4:44 PM

Red Deer has recorded its first COVID-19 death.

Friday’s update from the province shows that the death of a woman in her nineties on Dec. 16 is linked to the COVID-19 outbreak at the Points Living West seniors’ facility in Red Deer that was declared on Dec. 2.

It’s one of 25 new deaths related to COVID-19 in Alberta reported over the past 24 hours. That brings the province’s total to 815.

Alberta reported a total of 1,413 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday. That’s out of 19,538 tests for a positivity rate of 7.4 per cent.

The number of active cases in the province now sits at 19,607, which is a decrease of 304 and the lowest total since Dec. 5.

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There have now been 67,159 recovered cases in the province, an increase of 1,646.

There are now 759 Albertans in hospital because of COVID-19, a decrease of four, including 141 in ICU, an increase of three.

Alberta’s chief medical officer of health said despite the fact there are some positives to take from the latest numbers, “our fight is far from over.”

“We expect that hospitalizations and ICU admissions will continue to rise in the coming weeks as these are lagging indicators, meaning that it takes several weeks before changes in our case counts are seen in the demands felt in our acute care system,” Dr. Deena Hinshaw said Friday.

She stressed that the continued strain on Alberta’s health system will increase in the days ahead.

“But what these numbers show us is that together we have the power to protect our communities and to change our future,” she said, adding the positive indicators seen now can be reversed in a matter of days if people stop doing their part. “It is up to us to continue this momentum.”

Red Deer’s active case count rose by one on Friday to 418. The number of recoveries has risen by 30 to 755 as the total number of cases attributed to the city rose by 32 to 1,174.

Red Deer County saw its active case count fall by one to sit at 99, while Sylvan Lake saw its drop by five more to sit at 33.

Clearwater County (Rocky Mountain House) saw its active case count fall by 10 to a total of 54.

Lacombe County has 46 active cases as of Friday, another decrease of five. The city of Lacombe’s active case count sits at 26, a decrease of one.

Ponoka County saw its active case count rise by 20 to sit at 264.

Mountain View County has 33 active cases, a decrease of one, Olds has 27, an increase of one, and Kneehill County is up by three to 23. Starland County has no active cases, while the County of Stettler is down one to 20.

There are now 1,473 active cases across the Central zone, an increase of 11 from Thursday, and 75 hospitalizations, an increase of nine. There are five people in the zone currently in intensive care, an increase of one.

The Central zone has reported a total of 30 deaths related to COVID-19, including two over the last 24 hours.