WESTLOCK — Two more people have contracted COVID-19 in the Westlock area since Monday.
This latest reporting puts the area (Town of Westlock, Westlock County and the Village of Clyde) at 25 active cases of 33 recorded since the start of the pandemic and an infection rate of 182.2 per 100,000 people, the third highest in the province behind the City of Cherstermere and Jasper.
Of the active cases, 10 are in schools: seven at R.F. Staples School, two at Westlock Elementary School and one at Eleanor Hall School in Clyde.
After cases rose to 23 active on Monday, town council adopted a face coverings bylaw, making masks mandatory in all public places and on public transit. Barrhead, which has remained at eight active cases, also has a similar bylaw but it won’t be activated yet.
Town of Barrhead councillors are waiting until the province puts the area on an enhanced measures list to trigger the bylaw.
Alberta now has 4,793 active COVID-19 cases. Close to half of them are in the Edmonton zone, where 2,245 people are infected. Hospitalizations in the province also grew to 125 people; 19 of them are in ICU.
Since Monday, six people have died; the death toll in Alberta reached 313 today.
Alberta’s chief medical officer Dr. Deena Hinshaw announced new measures for the cities of Edmonton and Calgary on Monday. There’s a mandatory 15-person limit on social gatherings, and people are asked to wear masks at all times indoors, except when alone, and keep their cohorts to no more than three.
