WESTLOCK — The Westlock area has recorded two new COVID-19 cases since Friday.
There are 17 active cases of 159 recorded since the start of the pandemic. One person has died, a 90-year-old man at the Westlock Continuing Care Centre, and 141 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.
Long-term care and designated supportive living facilities in the North zone have completed vaccinations for residents and healthcare staff earlier this week. Immunization was expanded Monday to include emergency medical technicians and paramedics.
The province has administered 85,935 doses of the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines as of yesterday. Alberta Health Services will be making decisions about Phase 2 vaccinations in the coming weeks, once more details about incoming vaccines are available.
The second dose for people who were immunized in Phase 1 will be delivered if they have pre-booked their appointments in the 3–4-week interval or if they live in long-term care or designated supportive living. People who made appointments for their first dose this week will likely receive their second doses within six weeks.
However, completing vaccinations under Phase 1 will take longer — the phase was supposed to end this month — after Pfizer announced that Canada that will see a temporary reduction in its vaccine supply. The production facility in Puurs, Belgium, which supplies Canada, is expanding from an overall production of 1.3 billion doses to 2 billion. This will affect all countries that receive their supply from the European plant.
In Canada, it means 20 per cent fewer doses next week, 80 per cent the week after that, and 50 per cent the next two weeks. Pfizer announced that it plans to increase deliveries mid-February. Numbers for Alberta’s allocation aren’t available yet.
On Friday, Alberta Health minister Tyler Shandro said the news is “a blow” to the province’s vaccination plans, but delays are inevitable when systems are stressed.
“This is out of our control, but it will impact our vaccination schedule. … It will take longer to complete immunization of the priority workers who are currently under Phase 1.”
Residents and healthcare workers in long term care and designated living facilities will still receive their first dose of either vaccine by Monday, but other groups under Phase 1 will likely be affected by the shortage.
In Alberta, 1,467 cases were reported over the weekend — 750 today out of 11,484 tests and 717 yesterday out of 12,439 tests — for a positivity rate of 6.5 per cent reported today and 5.6 per cent yesterday. There are 12,189 active cases in the province.
There are 12,234 active cases in the province.
Thirty-four more people have died — 19 reported today and 15 yesterday — which brings the death toll in Alberta to 1,436.
Hospitalizations sit at 738, with 123 of them in ICU.
COVID-19 measures will be eased starting Monday: outdoor gatherings of up to 10 people will be permitted, personal and wellness services will be allowed to reopen by appointment only, and 20 people will be allowed to attend funerals.
