Alberta reported 285 new COVID-19 cases and three deaths Monday, with the Edmonton Zone now making up more than half of the province’s total active cases.
The latest figures bring the total number of active cases in the province to 1,132 and the number of deaths to 224. The three new deaths, which were all men, happened in the North, South and Calgary Zones. They did not occur in a continuing-care home. Two were in their 60s and one in his 80s.
On the Alberta government website, 177 cases are shown under Friday’s date, however, 74 of those were from before Aug. 14 and have only now been reconciled, bringing the new number of active cases recorded that day to 103. Eighty-six cases were recorded on Saturday, and 96 on Sunday.
The province doesn’t provide updates over the weekend, and cases are reported the business day after they are counted.
The Edmonton Zone currently has the most active cases of the virus at 593, which is an increase of 96 from the previous update on Friday. The number of cases in Central Zone also increased by four to 85.
Calgary, South and North Zones all saw a minor decrease and are currently sitting at 300, 42 and 102, respectively.
The province is also dealing with a number of outbreaks in the Edmonton area.
Alberta government spokeswoman Sherene Khaw said Alberta Health Services (AHS) is currently investigating 13 confirmed cases connected to the Bible Pentecostal Church in Edmonton.
“Anyone who attended the Bible Pentecostal Church in Edmonton between July 26 and Aug. 12 (or who is a close contact of an attendee) should book a COVID-19 test online and continue to monitor for symptoms,” she said.
Meanwhile, McDonald’s Canada reported two Edmonton-area employees tested positive over the weekend. In a news release, the company said one employee tested positive on Aug. 15 after working on Aug. 11 from 5 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the 1296 Webber Greens Drive location. The store was closed Saturday and reopened on Sunday after being cleaned.
Another employee, who last worked at the 369 St. Albert Trail location in St. Albert between 1 p.m. and 8 p.m., tested positive on Sunday. The store is currently closed.
There are currently 11 outbreaks at long-term care, support living and other facilities in the area with the deadliest still being at the Good Samaritan Society Southgate Care Centre, which has reported 29 deaths in total. This is in addition to the entire city of Edmonton being placed on the province’s watch list.
The province also reported 11,056 people have recovered while 45 remain in hospital, 10 of those being in intensive care. Alberta has completed more than 829,000 tests.
Alberta has the highest rate of active cases in the country at 26 per 100,000 population, according to the federal government. The next highest rate was in Quebec at 18 and in Manitoba at 17. Ontario’s rate is six.
In Canada, there have been 122,872 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 9,032 deaths, according to the federal government. Globally, there have been 21.2 million confirmed cases and 761,000 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.
