By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

friday update

Active COVID caseload again trending upward provincially

Dec 17, 2021 | 4:06 PM

Red Deer now sits at 89 active cases of COVID-19, up three from Thursday.

The city’s active case load has been as high as 93 and as low as 76 since falling below 100 on Dec. 3 — two weeks ago.

Meantime, the city’s total number of recorded cases is up 10 to 9,512 in the last day, while recoveries are up seven to 9,339.

Red Deer’s death toll stemming from COVID-19 is 84 with none reported today.

The Central Zone as a whole has 493 active cases as of Friday, down six from Thursday. There are 63 hospitalizations, down five, with six people receiving intensive care at Red Deer Regional Hospital, down three.

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The Central Zone has had 409 deaths linked to COVID-19, with none reported today.

Active cases across Central Zone (one-day change)

Red Deer County: 27 (-6)

Sylvan Lake: 5 (–)

Lacombe County: 25 (+2)

Lacombe: 9 (-3)

Ponoka County: 16 (+1)

Brazeau County: 15 (-1)

Clearwater County: 29 (+2)

Mountain View County: 32 (+1)

Olds: 15 (–)

Kneehill County: 7 (+1)

County of Stettler: 100 (–) >> outbreak of 30+ cases at Stettler Elementary (per Alberta Health)

PROVINCIAL NUMBERS

Across Alberta, another 553 new cases of COVID-19 were announced Friday out of 9,694 tests.

Active cases across the province are up 219 to 4,431.

Of those, 3,113 are variants of concern. There have now been a total of 173 recorded cases of the Omicron variant, up from 119 yesterday.

The seven-day positivity rate is 4.49 per cent, up from 3.75 per cent one week ago.

There are 344 Albertans hospitalized due to the virus, down eight, including 68 in intensive care, down two.

The province’s death toll is now listed as 3,286, meaning one more death has been reported since yesterday.

VACCINATIONS

Alberta has delivered 7,251,484 vaccine doses as of Dec. 16, up 27,829 in the last day.

Of the 5+ population, 83.4 per cent has received at least one dose (78.3% total population), while 77.1 per cent is now fully vaccinated (72.4% total population).

A total of 594,730 booster (third) shots have been administered, up 23,367.

*Local numbers below now reflect percentages based on the number of people in Red Deer who are 5+, which recently changed from 12+, therefore numbers may be lower than they had been; the Government of Alberta says 100,446 people in Red Deer are eligible for vaccination, with a population of 106,420.

In Red Deer, 76,361 (76.0% eligible/71.8% total population) people have received at least one dose, up 49.

Meanwhile, 71,680 (71.4% eligible/67.4% total population) residents are fully vaccinated, up 50.