Alberta COVID-19 hospitalizations dip below 100 for first time since October

For the first time since October, fewer than 100 people are hospitalized with COVID -19 in Alberta.

Ninety-eight people are currently hospitalized across the province with the virus, a decrease of two from Monday.

Of those, 27 are in intensive care units. That number is unchanged from the previous day.

The last time the province saw hospitalizations below 100 was before the start of the second wave of the pandemic on Oct. 10, 2020, when 98 people were also hospitalized and there were 14 people in ICU.

There were 69 new cases of COVID-19 reported in the province on Tuesday, after 5,010 tests were completed for a positivity rate of 1.4 per cent. There are currently 606 active cases, an increase of one.

In the Edmonton Zone, which includes the city of Edmonton and surrounding municipalities, there are 117 active cases of COVID-19, a decrease of 12. In the city of Edmonton, there are 96 active cases, a decrease of six.

There were 17 new cases of COVID-19 variants of concern identified on Tuesday, all of which were the Delta variant.

There are now a total of 1,087 cases of the Delta variant identified in Alberta, while there has been 45,748 cases of the Alpha variant, 172 cases of the Beta variant, and 2,801 cases of the Gamma variant.

Two more deaths raised the provincial death toll to 2,318.

Meanwhile, as of end-of-day Monday, a total of 5,078,635 doses of COVID -19 vaccine have been administered, an increase of more than 22,500.

Of Albertans aged 12 and older who are eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine, 74.8 per cent have received one dose, or 63.7 per cent of the total population.

Of the eligible Albertans, 60.2 per cent are fully vaccinated with two doses, an increase of 0.5 per cent, or 51.2 per cent of the total population.