Five new cases at Edmonton hospital, 37 across province

EDMONTON Five more cases of COVID-19 have been reported in an outbreak at Edmonton’s Misericordia Community Hospital.

Alberta Health Services says nine patients and seven staff in two units have now tested positive for the infection.

One patient death was reported Thursday.

“Outbreak protocols have been implemented at the hospital to ensure the ongoing protection of patients, staff and visitors. Surgical capacity has been reduced and the site is currently only conducting urgent, emergent and oncology surgeries at this time. A total of 28 elective surgeries were postponed today, and 13 will be completed,” AHS spokesman Kerry Williams stated in an email Friday.

Covenant Health is testing all patients in the two units hit with an outbreak, and all staff who work in or who were present in the unit are being tested, even if they don’t have symptoms, AHS says. Alberta confirmed an additional 37 cases of COVID-19 and no new deaths on Friday.

Data on Alberta Health Service’s website shows nearly 50 per cent of the province’s 509 active cases are in the Edmonton Zone (241), while just over 40 per cent are in the Calgary Zone (208). There are 688 recovered cases of COVID-19 in the Edmonton Zone, and 4,933 in the Calgary Zone. Across Alberta, 154 people have died and 7,225 recoveries have been made from the disease.

Edmonton is not on the province’s watch list.

The northeast region, which currently has 36 active cases, was removed from the list Wednesday.

It maintains the highest local case rate with 40.5 per 100,000 people. Mill Woods West comes in second (35.2), followed by Eastwood (30.3) and Woodcroft East (29.8). The average case rate in the City of Edmonton is 21.8 per 100,000 people.

A majority of people who have COVID -19 in the province are under 40 years of age, Alberta chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw said Thursday.

She also noted that four people under 30 without any underlying conditions were hospitalized at that time.

Just over three-quarters of Alberta’s COVID -19 deaths throughout the pandemic have been in long-term care settings, according to a recent review of data, Hinshaw said this week.

A total of 422,351 tests have been completed in Alberta.

People who do not have symptoms of COVID-19 will also soon be able to be tested at pharmacies, Health Minister Tyler Shandro said Thursday.

Surgical capacity has been reduced and the site is currently only conducting urgent, emergent and oncology surgeries.