Active COVID-19 cases continue to grow in the City of Wetaskiwin and County of Wetaskiwin.
As of the Government of Alberta’s COVID update on Tuesday April 20, 2021, the City of Wetaskiwin has 141 active cases.
The County of Wetaskiwin, separated from the city on municipality setting on the provincial COVID-19 aggregate data map, has 63 active cases.
Maskwacis Health Services is reporting 46 active cases in Maskwacis.
Following a brief closure after multiple staff members tested positive for COVID-19, the County of Wetaskiwin office re-opened to the public Monday April 19.
The province is also reporting an outbreak at the Home Hardware Western distribution centre in Wetaskiwin.
Four Schools within Wetaskiwin County remain under outbreak status according to the Government of Alberta’s data.
Three schools remain at alert outbreak status, which is classified as two to four active cases. Falun School, Norwood School and Centennial School are all under this status. Wetaskiwin Composite High School is currently under the outbreak status of 10 or more positive cases.
All four schools remain open, with only impacted classrooms in quarantine.
Tuesday the province also reported an additional 1,345 cases of COVID-19.
Alberta currently has 18,481 active cases of the virus with 476 people in hospital, 105 of which are in intensive care.
At Tuesday’s announcement Alberta’s chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw reported that there are 816 new variant of concern cases and that variants now make up 56.9 per cent of the province’s active cases.
Hinshaw explained that the B.1.1.7 variant (UK) is now the dominant strain of COVID-19 in Alberta.
“Transmission is much easier and can happen faster than ever before,” she said.
As cases continue to grow, so does the rate of the province’s vaccine rollout. More than 27,000 bookings were made Tuesday as the province expanded AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccinations to anyone over the age of 40.
Premier Jason Kenney said during the announcement that 67,900 appointments have been booked Alberta wide over the next 10 days.
shaela.dansereau@pipestoneflyer.ca
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