COVID-19 cases are showing no signs of slowing down in Alberta.
The province added another 582 cases of the virus Friday, the most since May 21, and Alberta now has the most active cases in Canada at 4,438. Alberta’s COVID-19 test positivity rate is 6.2 per cent.
As a result of the rising cases, the province reversed course on its decision to end most COVID-19 measures as of Aug. 16 and pushed that decision back six weeks until Sept. 27.
Overall, there are 152 people in hospital infected with COVID-19, including 37 in the ICU. Of the 110 non-ICU patients, 73.9 per cent are unvaccinated and 8.8 per cent partially vaccinated. Of the 37 in ICU, 89.2 per cent are unvaccinated and 5.4 per cent partially vaccinated. There was also one new death reported over the past 24 hours, bringing Alberta’s death toll to 2,332 since the start of the pandemic.
The province also identified 593 new variant of concern cases, with 587 being reported as the Delta variant. Alberta now has 3,575 active variant cases.
On the vaccine front, Alberta has administered more than 5.4 million doses of the vaccine, with 76 per cent of those who are eligible receiving at least one dose of the vaccine and 67 per cent of that population is fully vaccinated.
The Central zone also climbed above 300 active cases to 313, up 21 from Thursday’s reporting. There are 15 people in hospital, including four in the ICU.
Red Deer’s case numbers continue to rise, with 85 active cases in the community, up nine from Thursday according to geospatial mapping on the province’s website.
Sylvan Lake has 28 active cases of the virus, Red Deer County and the County of Stettler each have 17. Both Lacombe and Lacombe County have 16 active, Clearwater County has 15 active cases and Mountain View County has 14.
The City of Wetaskiwin has 12, Camrose has 11, Knehill County and Olds each sit at seven and Camrose County has four.
On the local geographic area setting, Wetaskiwin County, including Maskwacis has 25 active cases, while Rimbey, including West Ponoka County and parts of Lacombe County has 12. Ponoka, including East Ponoka County has two.
