Heading into the weekend, the number of active COVID-19 cases in the County of Barrhead has dropped to four, but two new cases have been identified in Woodlands County and the number of cases remain high in Whitecourt.
The geospatial map that lists COVID-19 cases in municipalties across Alberta now states there are four active cases of COVID-19 in the County of Barrhead, along with 45 recoveries and two deaths.
In Woodlands County — which has generally been free of the virus since the start of the pandemic — there are now two active cases and two recoveries for a total of four.
In the Town of Whitecourt, there are 25 active cases, along with 90 recoveries and one death.
Lac Ste. Anne County has a total of 61 active cases. Ten residents have died and 301 have recovered.
Earlier this afternoon, Health Minister Tyler Shandro announced that more than 74,000 vaccines had been administered to Albertans, including acute care physicians and staff, respiratory therapists, health care workers in Intensive Care Units (ICU), staff in long-term care and designated supportive living facilities, and seniors living in those facilities.
"Since early on, Alberta has been a national leader in the vaccine rollout," he said.
However, Shandro also reported that a "bottleneck" had developed due to Pfizer — one of two main suppliers of the vaccine — re-tooling a production line at its European facility. As such, the international supply of vaccines will be temporarily reduced in the coming weeks.
"Such delays and issues are possible when global supply chains are stretched and pushed," he added.
He said that next week, the amount of vaccines received by Canada will be reduced by 20 to 80 per cent. It remains to be seen how Alberta will be affected, but Shandro confirmed there will be an impact.
"It will take longer to complete immunization of the priority health care workers that are currently part of Phase 1," he said. "It will also delay our ability to start immunizing all seniors over the age of 75, and all Indigenous seniors who are 65 and older."
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