By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

sunday update

Red Deer once again with 200+ active COVID-19 cases

Mar 28, 2021 | 4:16 PM

The number of active COVID-19 cases in Red Deer as of Sunday sits at 207, up 14 from Saturday.

There have been 2,857 recoveries, an increase of four as the total number of cases attributed to Red Deer rose by 18 to 3,098. The number of deaths in Red Deer linked to COVID-19 is 34, with the last one tallied March 23, linked to an outbreak at Red Deer Regional Hospital.

Over the last seven days, Red Deer has added 131 cases, 46 recoveries and one death, while the active case count has risen from 123 to 207. The last time active cases went down was March 16 when there were 93.

Alberta Health confirmed this weekend there are five active cases linked to an outbreak at Olymel in Red Deer, with 523 cases confirmed and three deaths there since November. The five currently active cases were all identified since Saturday, March 20 when Alberta Health reported the outbreak had reached zero active cases.

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Meantime, Alberta confirmed 644 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, for a total of 146,340 confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic.

The one day total is out of 11,953 test results over the past 24 hours for a positivity rate of ~5.4 per cent, ~0.4 per cent lower than yesterday.

The number of active cases in the province is 7,698, up 332, while recoveries are up 309 to a total of 136,659.

There are 277 Albertans in hospital due to COVID-19, down six from Saturday, including 63 in intensive care, down two.

Three additional COVID-19 deaths were reported to Alberta Health in the last 24 hours to bring the province’s total as of Sunday to 1,983. One death occurred on Nov. 29 in Edmonton Zone involving a male in his 60s. The two others occurred March 26 involving a female in her 80s from Calgary Zone and a female in her 70s from North Zone.

As of Sunday, there have been 3,068 total variant cases of COVID-19 identified in the province, 3,043 of which are the U.K. variant. The overall total is 235 higher than Saturday.

A total of 427 variant cases, up 19, have been identified in Central Zone, all of them the U.K. variant.

Alberta has administered 594,723 doses of COVID-19 vaccine as of March 27, up 17,500 in the last day. A total of 96,447 Albertans have been fully vaccinated.

Active cases across Central Zone as of Sunday (one-day and seven-day change), and total deaths (seven-day change)

Red Deer County: 28 (+1, +10), 3 deaths (–)

Sylvan Lake: 33 (-1, +13), 2 deaths (–)

Lacombe County: 46 (–, +4), 1 death (–)

City of Lacombe: 40 (-3, -1), 1 death (–)

Ponoka County: 121 (+7, +9), 12 deaths (–)

Clearwater County: 11 (+1, -15), 1 death (–)

Brazeau County: 14 (+1, +7)

Mountain View County: 16 (+2, +4), 1 death (–)

Olds: 14 (–, +4)

Kneehill County: 10 (+4, +6), 3 deaths (–)

County of Stettler: 7 (–, +1), 2 deaths (–)

The Central Zone has 700 active cases as of Sunday, an increase of 30. There are 33 hospitalizations, the same as yesterday, and five people are receiving intensive care for COVID-19 at Red Deer Regional Hospital, down one. The zone has had 122 deaths as a result of COVID-19, none of which were reported today.

More seven-day change figures (updated by rdnewsNOW each Sunday)

Alberta

Total: 146,340 (+4,406)

Active: 7,698 (+1,727)

Recovered: 136,659 (+2,659)

Hospitalized: 277 (-5)

ICU: 63 (+16)

Deaths: 1,983 (+20)

Positivity rate: ~5.4% (+~0.5%)

UK (B.1.1.7) variant cases: 3,043 (+1,462)

S. Africa (B.1.351) variant cases: 20 (+2)

Brazilian (P.1) variant cases: 5 (+3)

Total variant cases: 3,068 (+1,467)

Vaccine doses administered: 594,723 (+134,867)

Two doses administered: 96,447 (+3,211)

Tests completed: 3,676,148 (+78,684)

People tested: 1,896,884 (+23,214)

Central Zone

Total: 11,396 (+395)

Active: 700 (+125)

Recovered: 10,574 (+268)

Deaths: 122 (+2)

Hospitalized: 33 (-3)

ICU (all at Red Deer Regional): 5 (-1)

Variant cases: 427 – all U.K. (+165)

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

Sylvan Lake – Ecole Mother Teresa – multiple new cases, half of which are B.117 (U.K.) variant – Grades 6-9 moving online March 24-April 1 (return to class April 12 after spring break) (OUTBREAK)

Red Deer – Ecole Secondaire Notre Dame High School – one new case (ALERT)

Red Deer – Ecole Barrie Wilson – one new case (ALERT)

Ponoka – St. Augustine School – one new case (OUTBREAK)

Red Deer – Fairview School (OUTBREAK)

Red Deer – Mountview Elementary School – one new case (ALERT)

Red Deer – Lindsay Thurber Comprehensive High School – one new case (OUTBREAK Tier 2)

Red Deer – Eastview Middle School – one new case (ALERT)

Red Deer – Central Middle School – one case (ALERT)

Sylvan Lake – C.P. Blakely Elementary – one case (ALERT)

Sylvan Lake – Our Lady of the Rosary School – two new cases (ALERT)

Lacombe – Ecole Secondaire Lacombe Composite High – one new case (OUTBREAK Tier 2)

Red Deer – Parkland CLASS – two or more cases (ALERT)

Ponoka – Ponoka Secondary Campus – all students learning online from March 16-April 5 (OUTBREAK Tier 2)

Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, will give her next update on Tuesday.