(The Canadian Press)

By Troy Gillard

RED DEER WITH 255 ACTIVE CASES

Alberta adds COVID-19 units to vaccine priority list; 1,183 new cases reported Friday

Jan 8, 2021 | 4:02 PM

The provincial government has announced that vaccine appointments will be offered to health-care workers in medical, surgical and COVID-19 units in Alberta starting immediately.

This means about 3,300 COVID unit staff and 15,400 medical and surgical unit staff are now eligible for the vaccine.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, has also issued a directive allowing doctors, nurses and pharmacists who are not Alberta Health Services (AHS) employees to deliver the vaccine.

“There are many regulated health practitioners who are authorized and have the knowledge, skill and competence to issue a vaccine,” Hinshaw said. “This directive will help us empower as many of our dedicated health-care workers as possible to join the broader team and help immunize Albertans.”

As of Jan. 7, the province says 37,686 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Alberta (852.3 doses per 100,000 population).

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Alberta reported another 1,183 cases of COVID-19 on Friday.

That’s out of 16,765 test results over the past 24 hours for a positivity rate of seven per cent.

There are now 13,628 active cases in Alberta, up 330 from Thursday.

The province reported another 829 recoveries on Friday to bring Alberta’s total to 94,783.

The number of Albertans hospitalized due to COVID-19 has reached 851, a decrease of 20. That includes 135 people in intensive care, a decrease of four.

Another 24 deaths from COVID-19 were reported Friday to bring Alberta’s total to 1,241.

In Red Deer, the number of active cases as of Friday sits at 255, up three from Thursday. There have been 1,334 recoveries, an increase of 15, as the total number of COVID-19 cases attributed to the city rose by 18 to 1,597.

Red Deer County has 54 active cases of COVID-19 as of Friday, a decrease of two, while Sylvan Lake has 40, an increase of four.

There are 47 active cases in Clearwater County (Rocky Mountain House), an increase of eight.

Lacombe County has 36 active cases, an increase of two, and the city of Lacombe has 41, down one.

Ponoka County saw its active case count go from 428 on Thursday to 467 on Friday, an increase of 39.

Mountain View County has 28 active cases, down five, Olds has 39, up two, and Kneehill County is up one to 12. The County of Stettler has six active cases, unchanged from Thursday.

The Central Zone as a whole has 1,460 active cases as of Friday, an increase of 79 over the past 24 hours, and 90 hospitalizations, a decrease of two, including 18 who remain in intensive care at Red Deer Regional Hospital.

There have been 52 deaths in the zone from COVID-19 including one reported on Friday – a man in his 80s who passed away Dec. 4 (case included comorbidities).