(dreamstime.com)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

WEDNESDAY UPDATE

Central Zone tops 13% testing positivity over last day

Aug 18, 2021 | 4:10 PM

*Editor’s note: The province released daily data on Tuesday, Aug. 17, but rdnewsNOW did not publish an update. Data below is primarily presented as a two-day change.

There are 118 active cases of COVID-19 in Red Deer, up 22 over the last two days.

The city went from 96 to 106 yesterday.

Red Deer also added 33 new cases in the last 48 hours, and stands at 5,955 total for the entire pandemic.

Recoveries are up 11 over the last two days to 5,794, while Red Deer’s death toll stemming from COVID-19 remains 43, with the last fatality reported July 6.

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Active cases across Central Zone (two-day change)

Red Deer County: 23 (+6)

Sylvan Lake: 38 (+7)

Lacombe County: 33 (+10)

Lacombe: 15 (+2)

Ponoka County: 38 (+8)

Brazeau County: 16 (+2)

Clearwater County: 24 (+6)

Mountain View County: 24 (+6)

Olds: 16 (+4)

Kneehill County: 11 (+1)

County of Stettler: 19 (-1)

The Central Zone as a whole has 479 active cases, up 86 from Monday. There are 18 hospitalizations, up three, and four people are in the ICU at Red Deer Regional Hospital, equal to Monday. There have been 172 deaths in the zone linked to COVID-19, with one reported in the last two days.

The zone’s most recent one-day testing positivity rate (Aug. 17) is 13.28 per cent, with 693 tests done. That is the highest one-day positivity rate for Central Zone since May 24 (14.63%)

Yesterday, the reported one-day positivity rate for Aug. 16 was 9.51 per cent with 389 tests done. The rolling seven-day average is 9.64 per cent.

PROVINCIAL NUMBERS

Across the province, Alberta reported 678 new cases on Wednesday out of 9,215 test results for a seven-day positivity rate of 6.95 per cent. There were also 407 new cases reported Tuesday.

Active cases are up 579 to 5,933. Of those, at least 4,806 are variants of concern, or about 81 per cent of all active cases.

There are 184 Albertans in hospital because of COVID-19, up 23 from Monday, and 48 in intensive care, up five.

Of the 136 in hospital, but not in ICU, 104 are unvaccinated, 10 have one dose, and 22 are fully vaccinated. Of the 48 in ICU, 43 are unvaccinated and two have one dose.

Sadly, the province’s death toll stemming from COVID-19 is now 2,338, with two reported today. Three were reported yesterday.

VACCINATIONS

As of Aug. 17, a total of 5,459,338 doses have been administered, up 15,575 over the last two days.

Of Alberta’s 12+ population, 77.0 (+0.2) per cent has received at least one dose (65.5% total population), while 68.2 (+0.3) per cent of the 12+ population is now fully vaccinated (58.2% total population).

In Red Deer, 62,188 (67.8% eligible/58.5% total) people have received at least one dose, up 155 over two days. Meanwhile, 55,548 (60.6%/52.2%) are fully vaccinated, up 288.