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Alberta sets new daily record for vaccines administered

Hinshaw reminds Albertans to be cautious of COVID-19 ahead of long weekend
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Alberta’s chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw is recommending Albertans stay close to home over the May long weekend. (Photography by Chris Schwarz/Government of Alberta)

Alberta administered 77,043 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine Thursday, a new daily high.

The province has now given out more than 2.4 million doses of the vaccine and 46.1 per cent of the population has at least one dose.

That comes as Alberta Health reported 732 new cases Friday, based on 10,130 tests, for a test positivity rate of 7.2 per cent. Alberta is down to 16,577 active cases of the virus, after reporting nearly 25,000 two weeks ago.

Red Deer has 523 active cases of COVID-19, down 25 from Thursday’s total. The city has 5,429 total cases, with 4,867 recovered and 39 deaths.

Across the province, there are 638 people in hospital, including 177 in the intensive care unit.

The Central zone is down to 1,814 cases of COVID-19, with 66 people in hospital including 15 in ICU.

Although COVID-19 numbers continue to drop in all areas of the province, chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw said there needs to be a bit more caution over the long weekend.

“We know that Albertans are always keen to get out on the May long weekend, as the first weekend of summer. What’s really critical is that Albertans consider if they are able to do the activities they love, as close to home as possible. That’s the preferred option,” Hinshaw said Thursday.

“Minimizing contact with others and if we’re able to those kinds of things this weekend, it gives us the best possible chance at being able to hit those targets… in terms of reaching the lower case counts and higher vaccination rate so we can have a wider opening.

“So when we get to the July long weekend, we hopefully will not be needing to have this kind of significant restriction.”

When looking at the province’s geospatial mapping for COVID-19 cases on the municipality setting, regions are defined by metropolitan areas, cities, urban service areas, rural areas and towns with approximately 10,000 or more people; smaller regions are incorporated into the corresponding rural area.

With that setting, Red Deer County has 138 active cases of the virus, Lacombe County has 112 active and Clearwater County sits at 78 active.

Lacombe has 96 active and Sylvan Lake has 90, while Olds sits at 40 active. Mountain View County sits at 52 active, Kneehill County has 24 active and Drumheller has 13 active.

Camrose County sits at 13 active cases and the County of Stettler has 51.

Camrose is at 59 active cases and Wetaskiwin has 49 active.

On the local geographic area setting, Wetaskiwin County, including Maskwacis has 96 active. Ponoka, including East Ponoka County, has 45 active cases. Rimbey, including parts of Lacombe County has 43 active.



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