Alberta adds 77 new cases in day, highest in months
Calgary zone has the most new cases as Alberta reports 77 infections
Alberta reported 77 new COVID -19 cases Friday, the biggest single-day jump in case numbers for the province in more than two months.
The last time Alberta recorded more new cases of the novel coronavirus was on May 9, when public-health officials reported 85 cases of the disease.
The new cases are spread out around Alberta, with the province’s Calgary zone having the most new cases, with 30. The Edmonton and South zones come next, with 23 and 14 new cases respectively.
The spike brings Alberta’s total to 8,596 since the province first discovered someone infected with the coronavirus in early March. Of those cases, 592 remain active, an uptick from 584 Thursday.
The 77 new cases come from about 7,800 tests — or, about a one per cent positive test rate.
Alberta’s death toll from COVID-19 is now 160, down from 161 Thursday after the province determined that one previously reported death — a patient at Edmonton’s
Misericordia Community Hospital — did not have the coronavirus as a contributing cause.
For suspected coronavirus-related deaths, Alberta Health’s policy is to announce the death when the virus is the suspected cause, before a formal review is completed. Five patients have now died of COVID-19 at Misericordia and more than 30 staff and patients have been infected as the facility has effectively gone into lockdown.
As of Friday, there are 50 Albertans in hospital with the coronavirus, nine of whom are in intensive-care units — an uptick in both metrics from Thursday.
Additionally, 7,844 Albertans have now officially recovered from COVID -19, about 91 per cent of total infections.
Elsewhere Friday, a Calgary firm filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of families of workers at the site of Alberta’s largest COVID -19 outbreak.
Guardian Law Group filed the $4-million action against Cargill Ltd., the company the operates the meat-packing plant in High River where two of the facility’s approximately 2,200 employees died of COVID -19 and nearly 1,000 more were infected.
The lawsuit is not for Cargill workers but instead for family members and close contacts of employees who allegedly suffered harm because of negligence from Cargill, explained Mathew Farrell, a lawyer involved with the case.
“Cargill didn’t do enough and didn’t take reasonable measures to ensure the safety of its employees, and ultimately that means ensuring the safety of their family members and close friends, those interacting with them on a daily basis, and a lot of those people got sick,” Farrell said. “We need to make sure that this entity answers for the wrong they did to all the people that they harmed.”
The suit alleges an array of failures by Cargill in dealing with its COVID-19 outbreak, including asking employees to continue working despite testing positive for the virus, threatening discipline against employees who asked to stay home sick and not implementing standard containment measures like masking or social distancing.
Allegations in the lawsuit have not been proven in court.
When reached Friday, Cargill spokesman Daniel Sullivan declined to comment, saying the company did not yet have time to formulate a response to the lawsuit, but said “keeping people safe is core to our values.”
In May, Guardian filed another class-action lawsuit related to a COVID -19 outbreak targeting the Mckenzie Towne Continuing Care Centre, where 21 residents died of the coronavirus.
Meanwhile Alberta Health announced a new meat-industry coronavirus outbreak Friday, at the Friesen Livestock headquarters in Medicine Hat, where five have tested positive for COVID -19, including four active cases.
Another outbreak announced Friday was at the Calgary warehouse for retailer FGL Sports, where 15 cases have been confirmed, with 13 of those cases remaining active.