Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, will provide an update today on efforts to further clamp down on the province’s third wave of COVID-19.
Hinshaw is expected to speak at 3:30 p.m. MT. Watch it live here.
On Wednesday, the province announced a return to in-classroom instruction for the vast majority of Alberta K-12 students.
With the exception of those in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo — where the rate of active cases remain high — all Alberta students will return to their classrooms following the long weekend.
Students in Wood Buffalo will continue learning online until at least May 31. Hinshaw said it’s safe for children to return to school, citing a sharp decline in cases among school-aged children as numbers in the wider community started to drop.
The province shuttered K-12 classrooms earlier this month as cases across the province surged. The move to online learning was one measure in a bundle of tougher public-health restrictions introduced to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Alberta’s overall active case count has since started to drop but hospitalization rates and severe outcomes from the disease remain elevated.
Alberta reported 908 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday for a total of 18,813 active cases across the province.
Hospitals were treating 685 patients with the illness, including 185 in ICU. Another six deaths were reported.
The province has now administered more than 2.27 million vaccine doses.
