By Josh Hall and Sheldon Spackman

friday update

COVID-19 hospitalizations down from 517 to 475, Red Deer records 22nd death

Feb 5, 2021 | 4:25 PM

Alberta is reporting 396 news cases of COVID-19 today, bringing the total number of active cases in the province now to 6,407 – down 181 from yesterday.

With 9,989 tests conducted over the past 24 hours, the province’s positivity rate is approximately 3.9 per cent.

Since the start of the pandemic, 126,068 cases of coronavirus have been identified in Alberta, with 117,968 of those recovered.

There are 475 Albertans currently in hospital with COVID-19, down 42 from Thursday, while 89 patients are in ICU, down four from yesterday.

Nine more deaths have also been reported over the past 24 hours, bringing the virus’ death toll in our province to 1,693.

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One of those deaths was reported in the Alberta Health Services (AHS) Central Zone, a male in his 60s on Feb. 3. The case included comorbidities. The death is believed to be in Red Deer, which increased one to 22 total deaths today.

As of Feb. 5, Alberta has detected 71 cases of the variant first identified in the United Kingdom and seven cases of the variant first identified in South Africa, making for a total of 78 variant cases in the province– an increase of 10 from Thursday.

Elsewhere, 114,066 doses of vaccine have been administered as of February 4.

In Red Deer, active cases jumped from 206 to 220 over the last day. On Jan. 24, there were 158, but they have steadily increased nearly every day since then. The city also added 24 new cases in the last day while recoveries increased just nine to 1,708.

As mentioned, Red Deer has now recorded 22 deaths from COVID-19.

One of those deaths was at the local Olymel plant, which occurred on Jan. 28. Alberta Health confirms to rdnewsNOW that there have been 156 cases linked to the outbreak at Olymel. Of those, 80 are active.

There are 21 active cases in Red Deer County, up one, while Sylvan Lake is down two to 31.

In Lacombe County, there 28 active cases, up one, and the city of Lacombe remains at 16.

In Ponoka County, there are now 104 active cases, down four. Maskwacis also tweeted out a positive update Thursday evening.

There are 40 active cases in Clearwater County, down two, and there are four in Brazeau County, the same as yesterday.

Mountain View County has eight and Olds has three, each the same as a day ago. Kneehill County and County of Stettler also remain steady with two and five active cases, respectively.

Central Zone has now tallied 9,086 total cases, while active cases are down three to 642. There are 31 people in hospital, down seven, and six people are in ICU (all in Red Deer), down one.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw did not hold a live update on Friday. Her next one is scheduled for Monday.

More information is at www.alberta.ca/covid19.