By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

SATURDAY UPDATE

Red Deer’s active cases edge up, AHS fills thousands of vaccine appointments

Jan 16, 2021 | 4:09 PM

Red Deer now has 210 active cases of COVID-19, an increase of nine over the past 24 hours.

The city peaked at 434 active cases on Dec. 19.

On Saturday, Alberta Health reported 11 new cases in Red Deer for a total of 1,691 cases since the pandemic began. There were just two new recoveries for 1,468 since March.

The city has recorded 13 deaths, though none in the last day, with the first locally reported by Alberta Health on Dec. 18.

Normandeau School is also reporting yet another case linked to the community there, with a letter going home Friday night saying that school administration is working with AHS to determine close contacts.

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Normandeau School shut down Dec. 7, before the Christmas break and several days earlier than all others across the division because of a COVID-19 outbreak which caused around half of all students and staff to go into isolation.

It’s no longer listed as under watch status on the Government of Alberta website.

Provincially, there are 717 new cases being reported Saturday. With just 178 more recoveries, active cases jump to 12,713, an increase of 524.

There were 15 new deaths reported Saturday as well, putting the total to 1,417 since March.

That includes two in Central Zone — one male in his 70s with unknown comorbidities, and a male in his 80s at the Drumheller Health Centre (Acute Care) where there is an outbreak. That case had comorbidities.

With the exception of one on Jan. 1, the remainder of the 15 deaths reported Saturday occurred between Jan. 12-15.

There are 765 people in hospital, down 31, and ICU admissions are down two to 122.

Doses of vaccine administered total 81,561, with about 7,500 between Jan. 14-15, and there have been 16 adverse events.

On Saturday, Alberta Health Services tweeted that all weekend appointments for COVID-19 immunizations for eligible health care workers had been filled. It was earlier this week that Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, tweeted that there were just 800 of 16,000 weekend appointments filled, and encouraged health care workers to check their email for an invitation to book one.

In Central Zone, there are now 1,209 active cases, an increase of 54. There are 69 people in hospital, down seven, and 11 are in ICU, down two. There have been 68 deaths.

Red Deer County has 46 active cases, up four, and Sylvan Lake has 35, up one.

In Lacombe County, there are 29 active cases, up one, and the city of Lacombe has 27, down three.

Ponoka County has 366 active cases, which are primarily occurring in Maskwacis. That total is up 21.

Clearwater County, which includes Rocky Mountain House, has 84 active cases, up six.

Brazeau County, which includes Drayton Valley, has 31 active cases.

Mountain View County has 22 active cases, Kneehill County has nine, and County of Stettler has six.

For more information, visit Alberta.ca/covid19.