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Westlock COVID-19 update: 21 active, 147 total

Second healthcare worker dies of COVID-19
COVID 147 web
The provincial government's geospatial COVID-19 tracker, updated Jan. 5, 2021.

WESTLOCK — The Westlock area sits at 21 active COVID-19 cases today, of 147 recorded since the start of the pandemic.

One person has died, a 90-year-old resident at the Westlock Continuing Care Centre, and 125 others have recovered.

In Alberta chief medical officer Dr. Deena Hinshaw’s first COVID update of 2021, she said that while cases are dropping, hospitalization rates are still worrisome.

In the last 24 hours, 843 new cases of COVID-19 were identified and 10,300 tests performed. The province sits at an 8.2 per cent positivity rate, which is a decrease from mid-December.

“We were on a bad course in mid-December and we changed it,” said Health minister Tyler Shandro.

There are 919 people in hospital, 140 of them in ICU.

Health minister Tyler Shandro also confirmed the death of a second healthcare worker from COVID-19, a 50-year-old woman in the Edmonton zone. She is among the 26 new deaths in the last 24 hours.

The death toll in Alberta has reached 1,168.

Vaccines moving smoothly

To date, Alberta Health Services has administered 26,269 vaccines — about 3,000 yesterday, and they’re expecting another 3,000 to be done today — announced Shandro. The health minister said they’re on track with the numbers they expected mid-December.

Phase 1A of the rollout is set for this month. According to the government, they will be expanding immunizations across the province (outside the major urban areas). Home care workers, health care workers in emergency departments and all residents of long term care and designated supported living are included in this phase.

News staff is still waiting for details from the ministry on the vaccine rollout for this area.

Phase 1A is supposed to be completed by the end of January. Phase 1B, set for February, will include all seniors 75 or older, First Nations and Metis persons over 65, and healthcare workers in medical, surgical and COVID-19 units or operating rooms.

Hinshaw said 13,000 more Pfizer doses are on the way to the province.

“The rollout of the vaccines is a function of the supplies that we receive,” Shandro said, since delivery dates and amounts outside of the province’s control.

The province has another five days’ worth of vaccines in stock at the current rate, he added.

Both Hinshaw and Shandro dismissed rumours that vaccines are being deliberately wasted or tampered with.

Extending measures not decided yet

Shandro said no decision has been made yet on whether to extend the measures they announced mid-December.

They’re set to expire Jan. 12.

“The reliability of some of the holiday testing has to be looked at in a particular way because not as many people wanted to get tested during the holidays,” Shandro said.

In a Facebook post earlier today, premier Jason Kenney announced that schools will be reopening Jan. 11. Students are currently learning from home for the first week of school.

Andreea Resmerita, TownandCountryToday.com

Watch Dr. Hinshaw's COVID-19 update for Jan. 5, 2021:

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