Active cases continue to fall in Athabasca region

ATHABASCA - The number of active cases of COVID-19 in the Athabasca region continues its downward trend, falling from 32 to 27 in the last 48 hours, and down from 38 last Sunday.

On Jan. 15, the Government of Alberta's geospatial map reported an active case rate of 204.6 per 100,000 residents in Athabasca County, the Town of Athabasca, and the Village of Boyle, where the population of the three municipalities of 13,196. That's down from 242.5 on Sunday.  

Recoveries have increased to 146 for a total of 173 cases since the pandemic was declared in March.

Active cases in the Boyle area are down as well, reporting 12 today, down from 15 on Wednesday, and 18 last Sunday. There have been 59 total cases in all.

There have been zero deaths reported in the Athabasca region.

The Boyle area, which is considered its own geographical area within Athabasca County, is bordered to the southeast by Smoky Lake County, whose numbers have been very high for the last two months, reaching over 500 total cases at this point, along with four deaths, one more than was reported Wednesday. Total cases now sit at 518, with 77 active cases, and an active case rate per 100,000 at 914.4, up from 819.4 Wednesday, with 8,421 residents.

Thorhild County to the south, has now reached zero cases after having seen 35 recoveries.

Westlock County reports 15 active cases and 141 recoveries, with a single death reported; County of Barrhead sits at four active cases with 45 recoveries and two deaths; while the M.D. of Lesser Slave River, to the west has 28 active cases and 120 recoveries.

To the north, in the M.D. of Opportunity, active cases have fallen to 60, and there have been 169 recoveries there. The active case rate sits at 902.8 per 100,000 residents and a population of 6,646. East of Athabasca County in Lac La Biche County, there are 63 active cases, all within the Hamlet of Lac La Biche, along with 189 recoveries, as well as three outside the hamlet. There have also been five deaths.

On Sunday, Dec.13, the province implemented mandatory restrictions on gatherings and face-coverings to offset the number of active cases being reported across the province. Those restrictions were extended until Jan. 21 last week, but yesterday some of those restrictions were called off. The temporary face-covering bylaw adopted by both the Town of Athabasca and Athabasca County was activated mid-November, at an active case rate of 50, but the provincial public health orders introduced Dec. 8, override the municipal bylaws. 

The province reported 785 additional cases since yesterday, along with 13 more deaths. There are now 12,189 active cases in Alberta, and 101,779 recoveries since March.There are also 796 people in hospital, and 124 of those are in intensive care.