COVID-19 Trends emergin g from the South Zone

While the number of Albertans testing positive for COVID-19 is nothing like it was in early April, with more than 100 new cases a day, there are some interesting trends in this region.

The County of Warner is an example of how quickly things can change in a relatively small geographical area. Less than two weeks ago the county was an example of how it was possible to have zero cases of COVID.

For three days at the end of June, Alberta Health reported one active case in the County of Warner and then it jumped to 21 and the next day to 39 and then 41.

Sadly this week the first

19 related death that took place there was reported by Alberta Health. It was a male more than 80 years old who passed away on July 3.

While Brooks put the south zone on the map with many cases in early April, the numbers stabilized after a couple of months and there is now only one active case in that city.

In late April and early May, the active cases of COVID in Medicine Hat was considerably more than in Lethbridge. On Thursday Alberta Health reported 10 active cases in Medicine Hat and nine in Lethbridge.

Cypress County also has nine active cases of a total of 30 positive cases, 21 being fully recovered.

After about a week with no cases in hospital in the south zone, earlier this week there were three cases and on Thursday it dropped to two with no cases in ICU.

Cardston is another area where a few cases were reported in early May and then the numbers slowly increased to a total of 44 with 37 now fully recovered and only six cases still active.

Taber had been stable with a couple of cases for months but currently has 9 active cases and three recovered.

Numbers across the province: The number of people in hospital dropped to 46 on

Thursday after hovering around 55 earlier in the week. On May 3 that number was 90. There are seven people in ICUs currently and in early May that number was 22.

The really big increase has been in the Edmonton area. On May 10, Edmonton had a total of 497. By June 10 the number was 623 and a month later (Thursday July 9) 1179.