Province reports 39 new cases, one death

The province recorded 39 new cases of COVID -19 and one additional death on Monday, according to the latest update from Alberta Health.

The total number of cases stands at 6,683, including 1,036 cases that are active while 5,519 people have recovered. There are 65 people hospitalized with the virus, including nine in intensive care units.

The latest death was a woman in her 70s, a resident of a continuing-care home in the Calgary zone. A total of 128 deaths have been recorded in the province.

Continuing-care facilities across the province have 93 active cases while 596 people have recovered. Ninety-four residents at these facilities have died.

There have been 626 confirmed cases in health care workers in Alberta. Of those, 80 are active and 546 have recovered.

The Calgary zone continues to have the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the province, with 4,603 confirmed and 836 active. Ninety-two people have died.

Meanwhile, in the Edmonton zone, 518 cases have been recorded, 58 of them active. Twelve people in the zone have died.

According to Alberta Health, the average age of those who have died from COVID -19 in the province is 82. The average age for people hospitalized with the virus is 61 years and the average age for those admitted to an intensive care unit is 60 years.

Of the total confirmed cases, 23 per cent have been in people aged 40 to 49 years old. Women make up 48 per cent of the province’s cases, while men make up 52 per cent.

In the last 24 hours, 3,458 tests for COVID -19 have been completed. There have been 199,237 people tested for the virus and 216,536 tests performed by the lab.

On Friday, chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw announced she would be scaling back her daily COVID-19 updates.

This week, she will be providing an update on Tuesday and Thursday. The following week, she is scheduled to have updates on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The province will continue to send out a situation report on the virus every day, whether or not Hinshaw is slated to speak.

“The pandemic is far from over. However, in consideration of the reduced number of cases overall and the fact we have begun to resume operations under Stage 1 of Alberta’s relaunch strategy, I made the recommendation to scale down the frequency of my availabilities,” Hinshaw said Friday.

If there is an “event of significance,” a media availability will be scheduled.

In Canada, there are 77,295 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 5,805 deaths, the latest numbers from Ottawa show. Globally, there are 4,628,903 confirmed cases and 312,009 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.