Active cases in Edmonton area creep up

Almost 75 per cent of eligible Albertans have been vaccinated, but pace is slowing

Active cases of COVID-19 in the Edmonton area are slowly creeping up although the rate and number of cases is still low.

By Friday there were 121 active cases in the Edmonton Zone, which includes the city of Edmonton and the surrounding region. Cases started rising slightly over the last two days after hitting a low of 113 on Wednesday.

The city of Edmonton has 91 of these cases with an active case rate of 9.1 per 100,000 people. For comparison, the city of Calgary has 236 active cases at a rate of 17.3.

The slow rise comes as the total active cases in Alberta began slowly crawling upward Thursday for the first time since the peak of the third wave in early May, and two weeks after the province lifted nearly all public health restrictions.

Alberta had 579 total active cases by Friday, up one from the day before. Another 41 cases of COVID -19 were reported provincewide and two more people have died.

Hospitalizations rose by three to 110 while ICU numbers dropped by three to 28.

But some cities and counties in around Edmonton don't have any cases at all.

Fort Saskatchewan and Leduc county have zero cases, according to the latest provincial data. St. Albert, Stony Plain and Wetaskiwin have just one case each. The city of Leduc has two and Spruce Grove has three.

Meanwhile, the continued low case count in Alberta comes as vaccinations are rising, though at a slower rate than when the rollout began.

Just under three-quarters of eligible Albertans 12 and up have had at least one COVID -19 vaccine, at 74.5 per cent by Friday. Of this age group, 57.9 per cent had two.

Nearly all of Alberta's COVID -19 cases this year — 95.3 per cent — were in people who were unvaccinated, or who were diagnosed within two weeks of their first shot. It takes about 14 days to develop immunity.

Alberta's own experience, according to the provincial data, shows COVID-19 vaccines are safe: just 0.016 per cent of all doses in Alberta since Jan. 1, 2021 resulted in a negative reaction, and in most cases the reaction was not severe.

Alberta has two vaccine lotteries to encourage inoculation.