St. Albert's active case count for COVID-19 rose marginally over the past week, with nearly as many people recovering from the virus as contracting it.
Technical problems with Alberta's reporting system, which delayed updates to a COVID-19 map showing statistics by community, were fixed over the weekend. Before Monday, St. Albert's numbers had not been updated since Nov. 3.
On Monday, the updated numbers showed St. Albert has 97 active cases of COVID-19. The numbers are up to date as of end-of-day Sunday.
Forty-three people recovered from COVID-19 since Nov. 3, and 47 more have tested positive. The city has now had 374 people test positive since the start of the pandemic, with 274 having recovered. Three people have died, according to the province’s data map. According to Alberta Health Services (AHS), three deaths are linked to an outbreak at the St. Albert Retirement Residence as of Nov. 3, though only one of those is reflected on the province's website.
Alberta recorded 644 new cases of COVID-19 over the last 24 hours on Nov. 9, bringing the province’s total to 7,965 active cases. Seven more people have died from the virus, bringing the total number of people who have died in Alberta from COVID-19 to 369.
Almost 40 per cent of those currently diagnosed with COVID-19 stem from the Edmonton zone with 3,175 active cases and 9,276 recoveries.
There are 192 Albertans in hospital with COVID 19, including 39 in intensive care. Almost 26,000 Albertans have recovered.
As for schools, there are active alerts or outbreaks at 285 schools, or 12 per cent of schools in the province, with 911 cases in total.
Dr. Deena Hinshaw did not announce any new restrictions during Monday’s news conference, but said the continued high daily case count is concerning. Hospitalization rates have not crossed the five per cent mark, but cases have crossed the 50 per cent metric for ICU capacity, Hinshaw said.
“The rate of increase and rising hospitalizations are extremely concerning to me. We are assessing measures closely; if needed, we do not need to wait 14 days before recommending additional measures,” Hinshaw said.
“COVID-19 does not play favourites. We have seen this virus spread from one case to dozens in a few days, and from a few hundred to almost a thousand in a week. If you have not gotten sick, and you do not know anyone who has, then you must do everything possible to keep it that way.”
Monday’s data comes after the province reported its third-highest one-day increase in COVID-19 cases to date, with 727 new cases on Sunday.
On Saturday, the province announced its highest-ever single-day increase with 919 new cases recorded.
With Remembrance Day and Diwali events set for this week, Hinshaw asked for Albertans to keep gatherings as small as possible outside the home with no more than 15 people in total. Connect with others virtually when possible, and wear masks indoors with anyone outside your cohort.
Hinshaw encouraged Albertans to download the province’s ABTraceTogether app, which is integrated with the provincial contract tracing system.
