By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

sunday update

Red Deer with highest active caseload of COVID-19 since March 2

Apr 18, 2021 | 4:08 PM

The number of active COVID-19 cases in Red Deer sits at 449, up 58 from Saturday.

That total is the highest amount in the city since there were 459 on March 2. Red Deer’s active caseload dipped to 93 on March 16 and has risen steadily ever since. It’s also increased nearly 85 per cent in just the last seven days.

Red Deer has only risen past its current active caseload once, and that was on the way to a pandemic peak of 574 which occurred on Feb. 24. At the time, an outbreak at Olymel accounted for about 40 per cent of all active cases.

Over the past day, Red Deer added 76 new cases for 3,654 total, while recoveries went up 18 to 3,169. There have been 36 deaths, none of which were reported today.

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Meantime, Alberta added 1,516 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday with a positivity rate of ~9.8 per cent and 15,343 tests completed. That positivity rate is about 0.7 per cent higher than yesterday. Of the day’s new cases, 800 are variants.

Overall active cases now total 17,935, up 628, and of those, 9,768 are variants of concern. Variants make up 54.5 per cent of all active cases, the same as yesterday. Variants have also caused 53 deaths, up one.

Of active cases confirmed to be a variant, 4,151 are in Calgary Zone, 2,809 are in Edmonton Zone, 1,187 are in Central Zone, 1,156 are in North Zone, and 438 are in South Zone.

There have been 16,627 confirmed variant cases to date, with 16,428 (+801) of the B.1.1.7 version, 31 (-1) of B.1.351 and 168 (–) of P.1. Recoveries from variant cases total 6,806 since the first one was detected in this province in December.

Meantime, three additional COVID-19-linked deaths were reported to Alberta Health in the last 24 hours to bring the province’s total to 2,040. One happened April 16 in South Zone involving a male in his 70s linked to the Trinity Reformed Church outbreak, while two more occurred April 17 involving a male in his 60s in South Zone and a male in his 70s in Edmonton Zone.

There are now 451 Albertans in hospital due to COVID-19, up six from Saturday, including 103 in intensive care, up nine.

Alberta has administered 1,147,048 doses of COVID-19 vaccine as of April 17, up 25,147 over the past day, while 227,770 Albertans are fully immunized, up 7,298.

Active cases across Central Zone

Red Deer County: 112 (+8)

Sylvan Lake: 57 (+3)

Lacombe County: 66 (-6)

City of Lacombe: 78 (+8)

Ponoka County: 177 (+1)

Clearwater County: 23 (+1)

Brazeau County: 57 (+8)

Mountain View County: 78 (+9)

Olds: 68 (+3)

Kneehill County: 40 (-1)

County of Stettler: 19 (+1)

The Central Zone has 1,849 active cases as of Sunday, a one-day increase of 115. There are 49 hospitalizations, up four, and four people are receiving intensive care for COVID-19 at Red Deer Regional Hospital, the same as yesterday. The zone has had 129 deaths as a result of COVID-19, none of which were reported today.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, will give her next update after the weekend.

RELATED: Saturday’s numbers for Red Deer and Alberta, including 7-day change figures