WESTLOCK — Active COVID-19 cases continue to remain below 10 in the Westlock area.
No new cases have been recorded since Friday. There are eight active cases in the area of 170 recorded since the start of the pandemic. One person has died, a 90-year-old man at the Westlock Continuing Care Centre, and 161 others have recovered.
The area includes the Town of Westlock, Westlock County and the Village of Clyde.
In Alberta, 268 new cases were reported today out of about 7,900 tests for a positivity rate of 3.5 per cent. There are 6,912 active cases in the province.
Fifty-seven cases of the COVID-19 variants first identified in the UK and South Africa have been reported to date — 50 for the UK variant, and seven for the South African variant. Most were travelers, and six cases have been identified as close contacts.
Eight cases of the UK variant in five different households have no links to travel identified. Four of the cases were linked to one daycare. Children of returning travelers who returned to class while infectious has led to three classes from two Calgary area schools to be placed in self-isolation.
“The families involved in these situations did not intentionally break any rules and should not be blamed or shamed. … There is no evidence right now that there has been any spread of these variants at these schools,” Alberta’s chief medical officer Dr. Deena Hinshaw said.
Alberta Health Services is continuing to expand its ability to detect the two variants.
There are 556 people in hospital, including 97 in ICU. Thirteen people have died since yesterday, between the ages of 27 and 93, which brings the death toll in the province to 1,660.
“Thankfully, our cases, deaths and hospitalizations are continuing to trend down. This is encouraging, but at the same time, we must remain vigilant,” said Dr. Hinshaw, especially about the two variants.
Sixteen per cent, or 305 Albertan schools are on alert or outbreak with a total of 726 cases. None of the schools in the Westlock area have two or more cases.
The province has administered 107,438 doses of the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines as of yesterday. Of those, 17,191 people have received both doses.
Measures will be relaxed starting Monday.
Restaurants, bars, pubs and gyms will be allowed to reopen in a limited capacity. The new plan for easing restrictions is based on number of hospitalizations and staggers activities and businesses that can reopen.
Andreea Resmerita, TownandCountryToday.com
Watch Dr. Hinshaw's Feb. 2 COVID-19 update:
