(Source: Alberta Health)

By Troy Gillard

FRIDAY UPDATE

Red Deer and area see slight drop in active COVID-19 cases

Dec 4, 2020 | 3:54 PM

Alberta reported another 1,828 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday.

That’s out of 17,186 tests over last 24 hours as the provincial positivity rose to about 10.5 per cent, which is a new high.

“This positivity rate is a grim milestone and one that should concern us all,” said Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health.

She said millions of Albertans have risen to the challenge of limiting the spread and supporting each other, calling them the majority in the province and asking them to keep doing what they’ve been doing.

“If you have not been following the rules, or if you know that your behaviour could be safer, this is the time to change it.”

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There are now 18,243 active cases in the province, an increase of 500. The number of recoveries sits at 46,018, an increase of 1,313.

There are now 533 Albertans in hospital because of COVID-19, an increase of 22, including 99 in ICU, two more than Thursday.

Alberta reported 15 more deaths related to the novel coronavirus on Friday to bring the total to 590.

Red Deer saw its number of active cases fall by seven on Friday to 281. Recovered cases are up 20 to 395 as the total number of cases attributed to the city rose by 14 to sit at 678.

Red Deer County saw its active case count drop by six to sit at 68, while Sylvan Lake saw its active cases drop by two to 68.

Clearwater County (Rocky Mountain House) now has 48 active cases, an increase of five.

Lacombe County held steady with 46 active cases, while Lacombe added one for a total of 44.

Ponoka County saw its active case rise by six on Friday to 167.

Mountain View County is up two to 23 active cases, Olds remains with 24, and Kneehill County remains with 12. Starland County dropped two more active cases and now has four, while the County of Stettler added one more active case to sit with 18.

There are now 1,251 active cases of COVID-19 in the Central zone, same as Thursday. There are 39 hospitalizations in the zone, an increase of two, including five in ICU.

Provincial case counts by zone:

– Edmonton Zone: 8,578 active cases and 17,877 recovered

– Calgary Zone: 6,666 active cases and 19,399 recovered

– Central Zone: 1,251 active cases and 1,996 recovered

– North Zone: 1,012 active cases and 3,201 recovered

– South Zone: 630 active cases and 3,411 recovered

– 106 active cases and 134 recovered cases in zones to be confirmed.

Currently, 415 schools in Alberta (about 18 per cent) are on alert or have outbreaks, with 1,581 cases in total. Of those, 194 schools are on alert, with 301 total cases. Outbreaks are declared in 221 schools, including 99 on watch, with a total of 1,280 cases. So far, in-school transmission has likely occurred in 269 schools. Of these, 130 have had only one new case result, the province says.

The CEO of Alberta Health Services said Friday that their contingency plans for dealing with rising COVID-19 case numbers include creating low-acuity inpatient mobile medical units in Calgary and Edmonton.

“While there is not a current need, it is clear that Alberta’s health-care system is under significant stress given the increasing numbers of COVID-19 cases in the province and AHS must prepare for all scenarios,” said Dr. Verna Yiu.

Yiu said the plan is part of AHS’ ongoing, proactive pandemic response planning and is one of several initiatives to ensure the health-care system can meet growing demand caused by COVID-19.

Planning work is underway for staffing the potential units, said Yiu.

AHS is also working to bolster its contact tracing teams. There are more than 900 contact tracers in Alberta and the aim is to double that number by the end of 2020.

Last month the province changed contact tracing for past cases due to a growing backlog.