WESTLOCK — No new cases of COVID-19 have been identified in the Westlock area since yesterday’s update.
There are seven active cases in the area of 176 recorded since the start of the pandemic. Two people have died, including a 90-year-old resident at the Westlock Continuing Care Centre, and 167 others have recovered.
The area includes the Town of Westlock, Westlock County and the Village of Clyde.
In Alberta, 195 new cases were reported today out of about 7,000 tests for a positivity rate of 3.2 per cent. There are 5,831 active cases in the province.
There are 97 cases of the variant first identified in the UK, and seven of the variant first identified in South Africa.
“So far, variants are still very rare, and we are working hard to keep it that way,” said Alberta’s chief medical officer Dr. Deena Hinshaw.
About 1.14 per cent of the positive cases this month have been of either variant.
There are 427 people in hospital, including 78 in ICU. Twelve people have died since yesterday which brings the death toll in the province to 1,722.
Thirteen per cent, or 315 schools are on alert or outbreak with a total of 866 cases recorded since Jan. 11. Of those, 115 cases were acquired in school — 77 schools have had in-school transmission and 61 schools have only had one case as a result. None of the Westlock area schools have two or more active cases.
On average, 58 new cases per day were recorded in school-aged populations last week, compared to 131 per day the week before school started in-person, meaning schools are not a driver of community spread, said Hinshaw.
“While any new case is concerning, this is a positive trend. It continues to show what we have seen here in Alberta since in-person learning began in September: cases rise and fall in children and youth as the rates of community transmission increase and decrease.”
The province has administered 124,325 doses of the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines as of yesterday. Of those, 32,690 people have received both doses.
Dr. Hinshaw will give her next update Wednesday, Feb. 10.
Andreea Resmerita, TownandCountryToday.com
Watch Dr. Hinshaw's Feb. 9 COVID-19 update:
