Two recent COVID-19 victims were announced Wednesday, after Alberta went five straight days without an increase to its death toll.
One was a woman in her 90s from Extendicare Hillcrest, and the other a woman in her 80s from Intercare Chinook Care Centre.
The two long-term care victims increase the province’s death toll 145, which includes 111 residents in LTCs.
Nineteen new cases were also identified in the past 24 hours in Alberta, raising the total case count to 7,076.
Of those cases, there are 6,537 patients who have recovered, up by 50 since Tuesday. Of its 344 active cases, 255 are located in the Calgary zone.
Across the province, there are 48 people in hospital (down by three), which includes six in intensive care.
Since the start of the pandemic, health officials have completed 266,301 tests for COVID-19. Alberta’s chief medical health officer Dr. Deena Hinshaw said they’ve seen an increase in people coming in for testing since they opened it to everyone.
Because of encouraging signs officials have seen in their case trends, the second phase of the province’s relaunch could occur ahead of schedule, said Hinshaw.