Alberta hit a milestone in the fight against COVID-19 Wednesday.
The province announced it had administered 101,123 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine since it arrived in the province.
Alberta’s chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw said that 11,362 Albertans have received both doses of the vaccine.
Hinshaw reported an additional 459 cases of COVID-19 over the past 24 hours. There are now 8,203 active cases in the province. She said the province has completed over 12,000 COVID-19 tests in the past 24 hours and the test positivity rate is 3.6 per cent. There were also 12 new deaths over the past 24 hours from the virus.
There are 604 people in hospital due to COVID-19, including 110 in intensive care.
Hinshaw applauded Albertans for their efforts fighting the virus, saying that at one point there were nearly 1,000 people in hospital because of COVID-19.
“Despite the decline of new and active cases across the province, there still is a lot of pressure on our health care system,” Hinshaw said.
“While hospitalizations are declining, the health care system is still feeling the strain today, which impacts anyone who needs care, regardless of if it is because of COVID or any other reason.”
Hinshaw indicated that COVID-19 restrictions need to stay in place “a little while longer” as a measure to keep providing proper health care services to Albertans.
“I know these measures are profoundly impacting many people and I understand the desire of some to move forward now and hope that things turn out okay,” she said, adding the province hopes to update Albertans soon on the easing of current restrictions.
Central zone has 712 active cases of COVID-19, with 49 people in hospital and seven in the ICU.
Red Deer sits at 162 active cases of the virus.
In the municipality setting on the government’s geospatial mapping for COVID-19 cases, where regions are defined by metropolitan areas, cities, urban service areas, rural areas, and towns with approximately 10,000 or more people, Red Deer County has 32 active cases.
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Lacombe has 20 active and Lacombe County sits at 28. Sylvan Lake has 21 active and Olds has just nine active cases.
Clearwater County has 54 active, Mountain View County has 19 active and Kneehill County has four active. Drumheller has eight active.
The County of Stettler has four active, Flagstaff County has three active and Starland County has 13 active.
Camrose sits at 43 active cases of the virus, while Camrose County has seven active.
The City of Wetaskiwin has 22 active cases.
According to the local geographic area setting, Wetaskiwin County, including Maskwacis has 192 active cases. East Ponoka County has 19 active. Rimbey, which includes West Ponoka County, and parts of Lacombe County has three active.
Currently, 288 schools or about 12 per cent, are on alert or have outbreaks, with 554 cases in total.
Outbreaks have been declared in 15 schools, with a total of 126 cases.
In-school transmission has likely occurred in 53 schools. Of these, 41 have had only one new case occur as a result.
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