Two more cases of U.K. variant found in Alberta

Third health-care employee dies

Alberta has identified two more patients with the highly transmissible COVID-19 variant first seen in the U.K.

Alberta Health spokesman Tom Mcmillan said Wednesday both cases are linked to recent travellers who are now quarantining. There is no evidence that there is further spread of the virus in the community.

“The public health measures that are currently in place in Alberta are also protective against this variant,” said Mcmillan in an email.

There have been three cases of the variant detected in Alberta.

The new strain of COVID-19 spreading in the United Kingdom caused Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to put a temporary halt on flights from that country into Canada.

The Alberta government announced in December that travellers returning to the province from the United Kingdom must complete a full two-week quarantine, even if they were part of the

Overall new case numbers, hospitalizations, and ICU admissions for COVID-19 are still very high in our province.

rapid-test pilot program in Calgary. They also encouraged everyone who had recently been to the U.K. to get tested for COVID-19, whether or not they were showing symptoms.

The new strain appears to spread easily from person to person but has not been shown to present deadlier symptoms than the original COVID-19.

Meanwhile, the province recorded 1,123 new cases of COVID-19 Wednesday after completing 16,127 tests. A total of 25 deaths linked to COVID-19 were reported in the province Wednesday, bringing the total number of fatalities during the pandemic to 1,193.

Data provided online shows a third health-care worker has died with COVID-19. Two workers in the Calgary Zone and one in the Edmonton Zone have died during the pandemic.

Wednesday was the third day in a row the province has recorded more than 20 deaths. Alberta recorded 26 deaths on Tuesday and 96 on Monday, which included counts from Dec. 30 to Jan. 3.

There are 13,450 active infections in Alberta, 39 more than the previous day. Hospitalizations dropped by eight people Wednesday to 911 patients, including 141 in intensive care, one more than on Tuesday.

Alberta's chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw said Tuesday that numbers from the holidays show daily case counts have stabilized but also warned fewer tests have been completed in recent weeks.

“We are seeing a stabilization in cases with occasional days of low new cases due to lower testing volumes. But overall new case numbers, hospitalizations, and ICU admissions for COVID-19 are still very high in our province,” said Hinshaw.

The Edmonton Zone continues to be a hot spot for the virus with 5,673 active cases and 479 people in hospital. By comparison, the Calgary Zone has 4,706 cases and 254 COVID-19 patients receiving treatment.

There are 78,849 active cases of COVID-19 across the country, the latest numbers from Health Canada show.