WESTLOCK — The Westlock area has recorded three new COVID-19 case since yesterday’s update.
There are 14 active cases of 165 recorded since the start of the pandemic. One person has died, a 90-year-old man at the Westlock Continuing Care Centre, and 150 others have recovered.
The area includes the Town of Westlock, Westlock County and the Village of Clyde.
The outbreak at the Continuing Care Centre is still ongoing.
The province has administered 96,506 doses of the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines as of yesterday. All residents and staff at the province’s 357 long-term care and designated supported living have received the first dose of the vaccine.
Some residents in mixed facilities will have to wait for their first dose of the vaccine because of the shortage. At Smithfield Lodge in Westlock, a mixed facility where some residents are long-term care, all healthcare workers and residents have been vaccinated.
Health minister Tyler Shandro said Tuesday that the province will focus on administering the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine in light of the Pfizer-BioNTech shortage announced last week. Residents in long-term care are receiving priority for the second dose.
Canada will not be receiving any new doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine next week. The Belgian plant is undergoing upgrades that’ll increase its vaccine production capacity.
This will likely delay the province’s plan to begin Phase 2 of first dose immunizations, currently scheduled for February. All seniors over the age of 75 are part of the next phase.
In Alberta, 678 new cases were reported today out of 14,000 tests for a positivity rate of 4.8 per cent. There are 10,256 active cases in the province, the second highest rate of active cases per capita in Canada.
Sixteen more people have died which brings the death toll in Alberta to 1,500. Hospitalizations sit at 726, with 119 of them in ICU.
Despite the declining numbers, Dr. Hinshaw said no measures will be eased today since the healthcare system is still under strain. Hospitalizations today are just as high as they were Dec. 8, when the measures were first announced.
However, seeing the decline is “good news” and proof that the restrictions are working.
There are 282 cases in schools across Alberta. Four schools are on outbreak with five or more cases, and 178 on alert. In-school transmission has occurred in 23 schools, with 20 recording only one case. None of the schools in the Westlock area have two or more COVID-19 cases.
Hinshaw explained that on average, there are 80 new cases in school-aged populations per day this week, compared to 140 cases on average in the same age group the week before school started.
Supporting students so they can be in class provides a great benefit to our society and it underscores the need to keep reducing community transmission to protect our schools.”
Andreea Resmerita, TownandCountryToday.com
Watch Dr. Hinshaw's Jan. 21 COVID-19 update:
