By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

saturday update

Red Deer smashes active COVID-19 cases record, now at 615

Apr 24, 2021 | 4:36 PM

Red Deer has set a new pandemic record for active cases of COVID-19 with 615.

The new high is up 51 from Friday, and breaks the past benchmark of 574 set on Feb. 24. At that time, roughly 40 per cent of the city’s active cases were attributable to an outbreak at the Olymel pork processing plant.

At the peak of Red Deer’s first wave, there were 434 active cases on Dec. 19. The second wave maxed out at 574 on Feb. 24, as noted, and the third wave continues as active cases have risen ever since dipping to 93 on March 16.

There were 209 on April 1, and 391 a week ago. The active case count has more than doubled since it was 275 on April 13.

There have been 3,299 recoveries, an increase of 22 as the total number of cases attributed to Red Deer rose by 73 to 3,950. The number of deaths in Red Deer linked to COVID-19 is 36, with none reported today. The most recent was reported April 15.

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Over the last seven days, Red Deer has added 372 cases, 148 recoveries and zero deaths.

Meantime, Alberta confirmed 1,592 cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, for a total of 180,369 confirmed since the start of the pandemic 14 months ago.

The one-day total is out of 17,725 test results over the past 24 hours for a positivity rate of ~9.0.

The number of active cases in the province is 19,702, up 236, while recoveries are up to 158,603.

There are 584 Albertans in hospital due to COVID-19, up 35 from Friday, including 129 in intensive care, up four.

Five additional COVID-19 deaths were reported to Alberta Health in the last 24 hours to bring the province’s total as of Saturday to 2,064. They each occurred on April 22 or 23.

Four were in Calgary Zone, involving a male in his 60s, a male in his 50s, a female in her 50s and a female in her 70s. One death in Edmonton Zone involved a female in her 90s at the Grey Nuns Community Hospital.

VARIANTS

As of Saturday, there have been 23,577 total variant cases of COVID-19 identified in the province, with 1,132 added today (included in the overall one-day total). There are 11,999 active variant cases, up 261. That means 60.9 per cent of all active COVID-19 cases in the province are variants of concern, up half a percentage point from yesterday.

In the last day, two more deaths from variants have been recorded for a total of 66. Those are included in the overall and one-day death toll.

A total of 2,673 variant cases have been identified in Central Zone, all but 28 of them the B.1.1.9 variant. The remainder are the P.1 variant.

Alberta has administered 1,361,365 doses of COVID-19 vaccine as of April 23. A total of 267,195 Albertans have been fully vaccinated.

**Provincial 7-day change data is below

Active cases across Central Zone as of Saturday(one-day and seven-day change), and total deaths (seven-day change)

Red Deer County: 138 (+3, +34), 4 deaths (–)

Sylvan Lake: 66 (+10, +12), 2 deaths (–)

Lacombe County: 88 (+3, +16), 1 death (–)

City of Lacombe: 114 (+9, +44), 1 death (–)

Ponoka County: 144 (-8, -32), 13 deaths (–)

Maskwacis: 35 (-7 over one week), 17 deaths (–) – *one-day change unavailable

Clearwater County: 54 (-6, +32), 3 deaths (+1)

Brazeau County: 79 (+5, +30)

Mountain View County: 83 (-2, +14), 1 death (–)

Olds: 93 (+1, +28), 1 death

Kneehill County: 42 (+6, +1), 3 deaths (–)

County of Stettler: 27 (+1, +9), 2 deaths (–)

The Central Zone has 2,105 active cases as of Saturday, an increase of 70. There are 49 hospitalizations, down four, and five people are receiving intensive care for COVID-19 at Red Deer Regional Hospital, the same as yesterday. The zone has had 131 deaths as a result of COVID-19, none of which were reported today.

Notable ongoing Central Zone outbreaks

iRecover (Tees): 20 active, 0 recovered

Bowden Institution: 10 active, 1 recovered

Prairie College (Three Hills): 8 active, 15 recovered

First Baptist Church (Olds): 4 active, 7 recovered

Home Hardware Western Distribution Centre (Wetaskiwin): 3 active, 10 recovered

Royal Oak Village (Lacombe): 3 active, 0 recovered

Drumheller Institution: 2 active, 229 recovered

Olymel (Red Deer): 1 active, 525 recovered, 3 deaths

Sundial Growers (Olds): 1 active, 11 recovered

Lacombe Pentecostal Church: 0 active, 18 recovered

Private group home (Red Deer): 0 active, 5 recovered

West Park Lodge (Red Deer): 0 active, 2 recovered

More seven-day change figures (updated by rdnewsNOW each Saturday)

Alberta

Total: 180,369 (+11,090)

Active: 19,702 (+2,395) – previous week: +3,620

Recovered: 158,603 (+8,668)

Hospitalized: 584 (+139) – previous week: +96

ICU: 129 (+35) – previous week: +10

Deaths: 2,064 (+27) – previous week: +25

Positivity rate: ~9.0 per cent (~-0.1 per cent)

B.1.1.7 cases: 22,816 (+7,189)

B.1.351 cases: 67 (+35)

P.1 cases: 693 (+525)

B.1.617 cases: 1 (last week unavailable)

Total variant cases: 23,577 (+7,750)

Variant percentage of all active cases: 60.9% (6.4%)

Vaccine doses administered: 1,361,365 (+239,464)

Two doses administered: 267,195 (+46,723)

Tests completed: 4,052,195 (+112,505)

People tested: 2,007,583 (+31,926)

Central Zone

Total: 14,784 (+1,172)

Active: 2,105 (+371)

Recovered: 12,548 (+799)

Deaths: 131 (+2)

Hospitalized: 49 (+4)

ICU (all at Red Deer Regional): 5 (+1)

Variant cases: 2,673 (+811)

Active variant cases: 1,396 (+264)

Central Zone school cases announced since last Saturday (April 17)
*alert = 1-4 cases, outbreak = 5-9 cases, outbreak tier 2 = 10+ cases

Alberta Health summary for Red Deer: 7 schools on ALERT, 2 schools on OUTBREAK, 4 schools on OUTBREAK TIER 2

Red Deer – Lindsay Thurber Comprehensive High School – multiple new cases (OUTBREAK TIER 2 – all classes online until further notice)

Devon – Riverview Middle School (ALERT)

Red Deer – Mattie McCullough Elementary (ALERT)

Clive – Clive School (ALERT)

Olds – Ecole Olds High School – 8th confirmed case (OUTBREAK – all grade 11s and 12s learning online until April 30)

Stettler – Stettler Elementary – one new case

Eckville – Eckville Elementary – one new case

Drayton Valley – H.W. Pickup School (ALERT – all grade 7s and 8s learning online until May 7)

Sylvan Lake – Ecole H.J. Cody High – multiple new cases (All classes online until April 30)

Consort – Consort School – one new case

Bentley – Bentley School – multiple new cases (ALERT)

Blackfalds – St. Gregory the Great Catholic School – two new cases (OUTBREAK – all grade 6-9 students learning online until April 30.

Olds – Ecole Deer Meadow – one new case

Red Deer – G.W. Smith School – two new cases (ALERT)

Red Deer – Escuela Vista Grande (ALERT)

Coronation – Coronation School (ALERT – all grade 6-12 students learning online until May 4)

Sylvan Lake – Ecole Mother Teresa – multiple new cases (OUTBREAK TIER 2)

Drayton Valley – Frank Maddock School (OUTBREAK TIER 2 – all students learning online until May 5)

Lacombe – Ecole Secondaire Lacombe Composite High (OUTBREAK TIER 2)

Red Deer – Annie L. Gaetz Elementary – one new case

Red Deer – Notre Dame High – multiple new cases (OUTBREAK TIER 2 – all students learning online until May 3)

Red Deer – Gateway Christian (ALERT)

Red Deer County – Spruve View Elementary (OUTBREAK)

Devon – Devon Christian School (ALERT)

Lacombe Christian (OUTBREAK)

—

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

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