WESTLOCK — Two more people have tested positive for COVID-19 in the Westlock area since yesterday.
This brings the total cases recorded in the Town of Westlock, Westlock County and the Village of Clyde to 70 since the pandemic started. Seventeen cases are active and 53 people have recovered. No deaths have been recorded.
Across the province, 1,265 new cases were identified in the last 24 hours out of 15,000 tests for an 8.1 per cent positivity rate.
There are 13,719 active cases in the province, which leaves Alberta with the most amount of cases across the province. Ontario has 12,917 active cases and Quebec 10,819.
Hospitalizations rose to 355, and 71 people are in ICU. Four more people have died and the death toll reached 500 people in Alberta, a “tragic milestone,” said chief medical officer Dr. Deena Hinshaw.
Alberta Health Services will be increasing acute care and ICU capacity, Hinshaw announced.
“In the coming weeks, they plan to make available more than 2,000 acute care beds and up to 400 ICU beds to be allocated for patients with COVID-19 across the province if they are needed. In some cases, these will be new beds, in other cases these beds are existing hospital spaces that will be made available as patients are moved into continuing care beds in the community.”
AHS will be transferring patients out of acute care to continuing care, moving them to other units in the province, repurposing clinical areas for ICU, or further reducing non-urgent surgeries.
AHS limits visitors
In communities on the enhanced measures list — Athabasca and Westlock included — or units on outbreak, AHS has new visitation limits starting today:
- Maternity and postpartum: one designated family or support, plus doula or surrogate
- Pediatrics, ICU, critical care: two designated family or support
- End of life: one designated; any other visitor must be prearranged with site or unit
“We recognize that these restrictions can be difficult for patients, family, loved ones, staff and physicians, but these temporary measures are being implemented to help reduce exposure and spread of the virus in AHS facilities,” Hinshaw said.
The extent to which the visitor limits apply varies from site to site, depending on capacity. More details can be found here, under “Outbreaks and High Community Transmission."
