By Troy Gillard

record total continues to grow

Red Deer surpasses 700 active COVID-19 cases

Apr 27, 2021 | 4:24 PM

The record number of active COVID-19 cases in Red Deer continues to rise.

Tuesday’s numbers from the province show 709 active cases in the city, up 26 from Monday.

Recoveries are up 24 to 3,381 as the total number of COVID-19 cases attributed to Red Deer went up 50 to 4,126.

Red Deer’s death toll from COVID-19 remains 36.

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Red Deer’s rate of 666.5 active cases per 100,000 people is higher than both Edmonton and Calgary.

Province-wide, Alberta reported another 1,539 cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, including 812 variant cases of concern. That’s out of 13,743 tests for a positivity rate of 11.1 per cent.

Active cases in the province now sit at 20,712, an increase of 102 and the second-highest total of the pandemic, with 63.2 per cent of Alberta’s active cases being variants.

“No one source or section is driving the spread we are seeing. It would be simpler if there were just one cause,” Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health said Tuesday. “Instead, the virus is spreading through all of us and the many in-person get-togethers, meetups and other interactions that we have with other people every day.”

There are 635 Albertans in hospital because of COVID-19, an increase of 19, including 143 in intensive care, down two.

Seven new deaths stemming from COVID-19 were reported over the past 24 hours. As well, 14 deaths previously linked to the virus were removed from the provincial total leaving it at 2,067.

Elsewhere locally as of Tuesday (by municipality):

Red Deer County: 169 active cases (+6)

Sylvan Lake: 89 (+2)

Lacombe County: 113 (+4)

City of Lacombe: 140 (+4)

Ponoka County: 148 (-7)

Clearwater County: 67 (–)

Brazeau County: 81 (-4)

Mountain View County: 96 (+6)

Olds: 112 (–)

Kneehill County: 46 (+3)

County of Stettler: 49 (+17)

The Central Zone has 2,367 active cases as of Monday, a one-day increase of 26. There are 55 hospitalizations, down two, and six people are receiving intensive care for COVID-19 at Red Deer Regional Hospital.. The zone has had 132 deaths as a result of COVID-19, unchanged from Monday.

Hinshaw did note on Tuesday a drop in the province’s reproductive rate for the virus from 1.09 last week to 1.04 this week.

“It’s good to see growth rates have declined… but our numbers are still very high and it’s important to underline that cases are still growing,” she cautioned. “Simply put we are now heading in the wrong direction.”

Alberta has now administered 1,468,785 doses of COVID-19 vaccine, with 26 per cent of Albertans having received at one dose and six per cent (284,870) now fully vaccinated.

Currently, 712 Alberta schools, about 29 per cent, are on alert or have outbreaks, with 4,271 cases in total. There are 434 schools are on alert, with 921 total cases. Outbreaks are declared in 278 schools, with a total of 3,350 cases. In-school transmission has likely occurred in 577 schools.