(Source: Alberta Health)

By Troy Gillard

MONDAY UPDATE

Red Deer up to 236 active COVID-19 cases

Nov 30, 2020 | 3:45 PM

Alberta announced another 1,733 cases of COVID-19 on Monday.

That’s out of 20,499 tests completed over the past 24 hours for a positivity rate of nearly 8.4 per cent.

There are now 16,454 active cases in the province, an increase of 762. The number of recoveries sits at 41,182, an increase of 963.

453 people are in hospital, an increase of 18, including 96 in intensive care, an increase of one.

Another eight deaths from COVID-19 were reported to bring Alberta’s total to 541.

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Red Deer has 236 active cases of COVID-19 as of Monday, an increase of 45. There have now been 344 recovered cases, an increase of 10, as the total number of cases attributed to the city rose by 55 to 580.

Red Deer County has 71 active cases as of Saturday, an increase of seven, while Sylvan Lake added nine to sit with 57.

Lacombe County has 48 active cases, an increase of six, while Lacombe has 39, an increase of 11.

Clearwater County (Rocky Mtn. House) added three more active cases for a total of 34.

Ponoka County held steady with 250 active cases.

Mountain View County has 18 active cases after adding three on Monday, Olds held steady with 21, and Kneehill County dropped three to sit with 13. Starland County remains with four, while the County of Stettler is up four for a total of 10 active cases.

There are now 1,238 active cases in the Central zone, an increase of 137, with 33 hospitalizations, including five in intensive care.

“Like all Albertans, I am alarmed by the rising case numbers reported today and over the weekend,” said chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw.

She said she expects that cases and hospitalizations will continue to rise over the next several days due to the 10- to 14-day incubation period of the virus. But that doesn’t have to be the case as we get closer to Christmas.

“The actions we all take this week will help shape how the virus is spreading in the lead up to the holidays,” Hinshaw said.

She said the curve must be bent and the number of active cases lowered now to protect each other and the health system.

“The more we can support each other to keep going, while acknowledging the difficulty of these days, the better off we will all be,” she said.

Hinshaw said there’s no silver bullet for COVID-19 but different measures – physical distancing, wearing masks and proper hand hygiene – help and will need to be continued for months to come.

“I need every Albertan to focus on how they can change their lives right now to protect their communities.”

Currently, 376 schools (about 16 per cent) are on alert or have outbreaks, with 1,405 cases in total. Of those, 181 schools are on alert, with 270 total cases. Outbreaks are declared in 203 schools, including 88 on watch, with a total of 1,135 cases. So far, in-school transmission has likely occurred in 235 schools. Of these, 120 have had only one new case result. Based on data available to date, 264 schools have been removed from the alert list.

There are 719 active and 2,455 recovered cases at long-term care facilities and supportive/home living sites across Alberta.

To date, 343 of the province’s 541 reported deaths (63 per cent) have been in long-term care facilities or supportive/home living sites.