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Alberta made right decision to remove COVID-19 measures says Kenney

Red Deer up to 31 cases of COVID-19
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Premier Jason Kenney says two-thirds of Albertans are now fully vaccinated and over three quarters have received their first dose. (File photo by The Canadian Press)

Alberta is reporting 527 COVID-19 cases over the past four days.

The province now has 2,176 active cases of the virus, with 90 people in hospital, including 23 in the ICU and an average test positivity rate of 3.35 per cent.

Alberta also identified another 71 cases of COVID-19 variants of concern, bringing the total active variant caseload to 978.

Speaking at a film and television tax credit press conference Tuesday, Premier Jason Kenney said province’s decision to remove more COVID-19 measures, including dropping provincial mask mandates and requiring close contacts of cases to isolate, as well as no longer requiring positive cases to isolate after Aug. 16.

“We do expect cases to go up and go down, Dr. (Deena) Hinshaw has said, as have I, that we expect after lifting public health restrictions that we would see an increase in cases just as we have in other provinces and jurisdictions around the world,” Kenney said.

“Both Dr. Hinshaw and I have said we expect to see an increase in cases in the fall based on seasonality. That will likely be concurrent with an increase in flu and cold cases as well.

“We now have two-thirds of Albertans fully vaccinated and over three quarters who have received at least their first dose.”

Alberta has administered 5.3 million doses of the vaccine, with 76 per cent of eligible Albertans having one dose and 65.8 per cent fully vaccinated.

The Central zone has 133 active cases of COVID-19, with six people in hospital and one in the ICU.

Red Deer is up to 31 active cases of the virus, up 15 from Friday’s reporting, according to geospatial mapping on the province’s website. The city has 5,752 recovered cases of COVID-19 and 43 deaths.

Lacombe has 15 active cases of the virus, Mountain View County has 13 and both Lacombe County and Clearwater County have 11 each. Red Deer County has 10 and Sylvan Lake has nine.

The City of Camrose has four, Camrose County has three and both Kneehill County and Olds have two active. The City of Wetaskiwin and Drumheller each have one.

On the local geographic area setting, Wetaskiwin County, including Maskwacis has six. Rimbey, including parts of Lacombe County and Ponoka County has six and Ponoka, including East Ponoka County has one.



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