By Troy Gillard

TUESDAY UPDATE

Red Deer down to 256 active COVID-19 cases

Jan 5, 2021 | 3:59 PM

Alberta reported another 843 cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday.

That’s out of 10,301 test results over the past 24 hours for a positivity rate of 8.2 per cent.

There are now 13,411 active cases in Alberta, a decrease of 428 from Monday.

The province reported 245 recoveries over the past day to bring the total to 91,799.

The number of Albertans hospitalized due to COVID-19 has reached 919 an increase of 14. That includes 140 people in intensive care, an increase of four.

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Another 26 deaths from COVID-19 were reported on Tuesday to bring Alberta’s total to 1,168.

In Red Deer, the number of active cases as of Tuesday sits at 256, a decrease of five from Monday and the city’s lowest total since Nov. 30 (236). There have been 1,285 recoveries, an increase of 19, as the total number of COVID-19 cases attributed to the city rose by 14 to 1,548.

The number of deaths in Red Deer from COVID-19 remains at seven.

Red Deer County has 60 active cases of COVID-19 as of Tuesday, a decrease of three, while Sylvan Lake has 35, a decrease of four.

There are 38 active cases in Clearwater County (Rocky Mountain House), a decrease of four.

Lacombe County has 36 active cases, an increase of three and the city of Lacombe has 41 unchanged from Monday.

Ponoka County saw its active case count go from 512 on Monday to 475 on Tuesday, a decrease of 37.

Mountain View County has 31 active cases, down three, Olds has 32, down four, and Kneehill County has 10, down two. The County of Stettler also has 10 active cases.

The Central Zone as a whole has 1,431 active cases as of Tuesday and 99 hospitalizations, including 16 in intensive care. There have been 48 deaths in the zone from COVID-19 including one reported on Tuesday – a male in his 90s linked to the outbreak at Coronation Long Term Care. The case included comorbidities.

Health Minister Tyler Shandro confirmed on Tuesday that a second health care worker in Alberta has died from COVID-19 – a continuing care worker in her 50s in the Edmonton zone.

Shandro says the province has delivered more than 26,000 vaccines to Albertans.

“AHS is doing a superb job of that rollout and I want to thank the staff who are giving out shots and the AHS management team,” said Shandro, adding AHS will ramp up its efforts to vaccinate even more Albertans as supply ramps up. “Our commitment has been the same from the start. We’ll get the vaccines out as soon as we get them in.”

According to the government, the province has administered 57 per cent of its vaccines into the arms of Albertans.

Starting this week, Phase 1A will include immunization of health-care workers and home care and emergency departments.

Shandro says the hope is to begin Phase 1B in February. That will include seniors age 75 and older, residents 65 and older on First Nations reserve communities, Metis settlements and health-care workers on medical, surgical and COVID-19 units or operating rooms.

The health minister also announced the death of a second health-care worker in the province, a woman in her 50s who worked in the Edmonton Zone.

A new online appointment tool has been launched for eligible health-care workers to book their immunization and AHS is actively recruiting staff to join its team of immunizers.

(With file from Chris Brown – CHAT News Today)