By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

saturday update

Red Deer over 900 active COVID-19 cases, Alberta surpasses 25,000

May 8, 2021 | 4:28 PM

After a one-day drop on Friday for the first time since April 7, Red Deer’s active COVID-19 case count rose on Saturday from 886 to a record 911.

In the last week, the active caseload in the city has risen just over 24 per cent after going up 19 per cent the previous week and 57 per cent two weeks ago.

Recoveries sit at 3,973, an increase of 50 as the total number of cases attributed to Red Deer rose by 75 to 4,921. The number of deaths in Red Deer linked to COVID-19 remains 37.

Red Deer’s active case rate is now 856.2 per 100,000 people, 10th highest in the province.

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Province-wide, Alberta confirmed 2,042 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, including 406 variant cases of concern. That’s out of 18,809 test results for a positivity rate of 10.9 per cent.

Active cases in the province total 25,155, up 305, with variants make up 47.6 per cent (11,963).

Recoveries are up to 179,894.

There are 661 Albertans in hospital due to COVID-19, up two from Friday, including 148 in intensive care, down two.

Two additional deaths linked to COVID-19 were reported to Alberta Health in the last 24 hours to bring the province’s total to 2,108. The latest deaths include:

· May 3 – A man in his 60s in North zone. There are no known comorbidities at this time.

· May 7 – A woman in her 80s in Central zone. The case included comorbidities.

Alberta has administered 1,846,554 doses of COVID-19 vaccine as of May 7. A total of 314,504 Albertans have been fully vaccinated. More vaccination data is here.

VARIANTS

As of Saturday, there have been 38,214 total variant cases of COVID-19 identified in the province, with 4-406 added today (included in the overall one-day total). There are 11,963 active variant cases, down 875. That means 47.6 per cent of all active COVID-19 cases in the province are variants of concern, down almost six per cent from yesterday.

A total of 4,312 cases have been identified in Central Zone, all but 110 of them the B.1.1.7 variant. The remainder includes one case of the B.1.351 version and 109 of the P.1 variant.

Alberta has administered 1,846,554 doses of COVID-19 vaccine as of May 7. A total of 314,504 Albertans have been fully vaccinated.

More vaccination data is here.

**Provincial 7-day change data is below

CENTRAL ZONE

Active cases across Central Zone as of Saturday (one-day and seven-day change), total deaths (seven-day change), and rate/100,000 people

Red Deer County: 226 (+5, +36), 6 deaths (+2) – 680.9

Sylvan Lake: 164 (+5, +46), 2 deaths (–) – 962.8 (6th highest)

Lacombe County: 186 (–, +32), 2 deaths (–) – 843.4 (12th highest)

City of Lacombe: 160 (-2, -7), 2 deaths (–) – 851 (11th highest)

Ponoka County: 188 (+5, +38), 13 deaths (–) – 683.1

Maskwacis: – *one-day change unavailable

Clearwater County: 65 (+1, -12), 4 deaths (+1) – 321.3

Brazeau County: 89 (+8, +2), 0 deaths – 529.6

Mountain View County: 97 (–, +11), 1 death (–) – 420.5

Olds: 110 (-2, -4), 1 death (–) – 884.7 (9th highest)

Kneehill County: 65 (+5, +14), 3 deaths (–) – 597.9

County of Stettler: 140 (+10, +50), 3 deaths (–) – 1118.2 (5th highest)

The Central Zone has 2,917 active cases as of Saturday, an increase of 16. There are 55 hospitalizations, down three, and nine people are receiving intensive care for COVID-19 at Red Deer Regional Hospital. The zone has had 139 deaths, with one reported today.

Over the last seven days, Central Zone has added 1,905 cases, with the active caseload going from 2,542 to 2,917.

Hospitalizations have gone up from 51 to 55, while the number of patients in ICU at Red Deer Regional has gone from eight to nine.

Notable ongoing Central Zone outbreaks (weekly change)

1) Safe Harbour shelter: 62 cases (+4), 12 active (-2) and 55 recovered (+11)

2) Olymel: 548 cases (+9), 7 active (+2) and 531 recovered (+2) with 3 deaths (–)

3) iRecover (Tees): this week’s data is unavailable (Last week: 23 cases, 8 active and 15 recovered)

4) Canadian Premium Meats (Lacombe): 32 cases (+10), 26 active (+5) and 6 recovered (+5)

5) Kids 3 Blackfalds: 13 cases (–), 4 active (-9) and 9 recovered (+9)

6) Bowden Institution: 38 cases (+12), 26 active (+6) and 15 recovered (+9)

7) Little Star Playschool (Blackfalds)-NEW: 5 cases, 4 active and 1 recovered

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

Total: 207,157 (+13,990) – Previous week: (+12,798)

Active: 25,155 (+2,651) – Previous week: (+2,802)

Recovered: 179,894 (+11,314) – Previous week: (+9,977)

Hospitalized: 661 (+15) – Previous week: (+62)

ICU: 148 (-4) – Previous week: (+23)

Deaths: 2,108 (+25) – Previous week: (+19)

B.1.1.7 cases: 35,969 (+5,418)

B.1.351 cases: 128 (+34)

P.1 cases: 2,111 (+775)

B.1.617 cases: 6 (+5)

Total variant cases: 38,214 (+6,232)

Variant percentage of all active cases: 47.6% (-14.5)

Vaccine doses administered: 1,846,554 (+247,888) – 7-day average: 35,412 (+1,655)

Two doses administered: 314,504 (+14,575)

Tests completed: 4,301,676 (+124,636) – 7-day average: 17,805 (-30)

People tested: 2,080,850 (+37,974)

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

Alberta Health summary for Red Deer: 12 (-2 from last week) schools on ALERT, 7 (+6) schools on OUTBREAK, 7 (+1) schools on OUTBREAK TIER 2

Red Deer – West Park Elementary (OUTBREAK declared)

Sylvan Lake – Ecole Fox Run School (OUTBREAK declared)

Three Hills – Prairie Christian Academy (OUTBREAK declared)

Red Deer – Annie L. Gaetz Elementary (OUTBREAK declared)

Bashaw – Bashaw School – 2 new cases

Penhold – Penhold Crossing Secondary – 2 new cases

Stettler – Stettler Elementary – 1 new case (OUTBREAK)

Stettler – Wm E. Hay Senior Secondary – 4 new cases (OUTBREAK TIER 2)

Castor – Gus Wetter School – 2 new cases

Sundre – Sundre High School – 1 new case (ALERT)

Sylvan Lake – Steffie Woima Elementary – 4 new cases (ALERT)

Data related to schools is compiled from SupportOurStudents.ca and Alberta.ca/covid19.