News Advertiser

COVID-19 Weekly Regional Update

Michelle Pinon
News Advertiser

While the number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise significantly in Calgary and Edmonton, the regional numbers have remained relatively unchanged over the past month.

There were 4,477 active cases of COVID-19 in the province. On Oct. 23, 364 new cases were identified, on Oct. 24, 572 new cases were identified, on Oct. 25, 504 new cases were identified.

There were 118 people in hospital with 16 in intensive care. To date, 20,949 Albertans have recovered from COVID-19. There were seven additional deaths reported since Oct. 23. Alberta labs have now performed 1,744,042 tests on 1,245,294 Albertans. The testing positivity rate is about four percent.

Of particular note, the Edmonton Zone reported 1,549 active cases, the Calgary Zone had 1,549 cases making up the majority of new cases.  New mandatory and voluntary measures were put in place to contain the spread in those two cities which reduced the number of people allowed at social and family gatherings to 15 people.

Throughout the region the numbers according to local geographic area were: 10 cases, 2 active cases, 8 recovered cases, and 0 deaths in Veg/Minburn County. There were: 18 cases, 0 active cases,17 recovered cases, and 1 death in Two Hills County. There were: 15 cases, 4 active cases, 11 recovered cases, and 0 deaths in Lamont County. There were: 24 cases, 4 active cases, 20 recovered cases, and 0 deaths in Beaver County West. There were: 74 cases, 0 active cases, 74 recovered cases, and 0 deaths in Beaver County East.

Currently, about 11 per cent of schools are on outbreak or alert, with 680 confirmed cases in these schools. Of those, 159 schools are on alert, with 191 total cases. Outbreaks are declared in 101 schools, including 39 that are on watch. There are 489 total cases linked to these schools. In-school transmission has occurred in 79 schools. Of these, 45 have had only one new case result. A total of 111 schools have been removed from the alert list.