ATHABASCA - With most of the province's mandatory restrictions to stop the spread of COVID-19 coming into effect Dec. 13, active case counts continue to rise across the Athabasca region.
Active case rates tend go up and down throughout the week, but were definitely on the upswing last week, rising from 26 active cases on Dec. 7, to 32 as of Dec.13. The active case rate per 100,000 within the borders of Athabasca County, which also includes stats from the Town of Athabasca and Village of Boyle, stands at 242.5 with a population of 13,196.
As active cases rise, so does the recovery rate. On Dec. 7, there had been 32 recoveries for a total of 58 overall cases — as of Monday, that rose to 51 recovered and 83 total cases.
The temporary face-covering bylaw adopted by both the Town of Athabasca and Athabasca County was activated at a rate of 50, but with the new restrictions introduced by the province Dec.8, face-coverings are now mandatory everywhere you go.
After having more active cases than the rest of the county at a time, the Boyle area now only accounts for six active cases. Twenty-seven have also recovered, for a total of 33 cases since March.
The Boyle area, in the southeast portion of the county, is also bordered to the southeast by Smoky Lake County whose numbers now sit at 91, with an active case rate per 100,000 of 1080.7. There has also been one reported death.
H.A. Kostash School in Smoky Lake is also classified as having an outbreak with more than five individuals testing positive. Aspen View Public Schools oversees the school, along with Thorhild Central School which has it's own outbreak with two to four people testing positive there.
Thorhild County itself now has 15 active cases and 11 recovered.
To the southwest in Westlock County, the number of active cases rose to 29 Monday. The active case rate is now at 212.1 per 100,000 residents. One man has died as a result of the virus there, and in the County of Barrhead, the map shows two deaths in that area, and the number of active cases has now risen to nine.
To the west of Athabasca County, the M.D. of Lesser Slave River has 20 active cases and 68 recovered — a big drop from the previous weekend. The M.D. of Opportunity is at 11 active cases with 70 recoveries and a rate of 165.5. To the east, there are 68 active cases within the borders of Lac La Biche County, all but one is within the Hamlet of Lac La Biche. There were also two deaths last week.
On Dec. 13, the province reported 1,717 new cases in Alberta in the previous 24 hours, along with 22 additional deaths, bringing those numbers to 20,565 and 719 respectively. There are now 681 people hospitalized, and 136 of those are in intensive care.
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