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UPDATED: Red Deer has nine active COVID-19 cases

Number of cases increased by 107 Friday
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Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the province’s chief medical officer of health, says the government “expected” to eventually see examples of transmission within Alberta schools. Photo by CHRIS SCHWARZ/Government of Alberta

The number of active COVID-19 cases in Alberta Health Services’ central zone continues to fall.

There are now 24 confirmed active cases in the central zone, according to the government of Alberta’s latest update on Friday. This is five fewer cases than Thursday.

While the overall number of active cases has decreased in the central zone, Red Deer has one more than on Thursday – the city now has nine.

Lacombe County, Ponoka County, Mountain View County and the City of Wetaskiwin each have two active cases, while Sylvan Lake has one.

Many central Alberta communities have no confirmed active cases, including Olds, Red Deer County and Clearwater County.

Provincially, the number of cases increased by 107 on Friday. There are now 1,424 active and 14,702 recovered cases in Alberta. Forty-four are in hospital due to the virus, with seven of those individuals in intensive case. There are no COVID-related hospitalizations in the central zone.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the province’s chief medical officer of health, has announced AHS has identified the first case of COVID-19 “likely transmitted” within a school.

Friday, Hinshaw said a case of the virus at Waverly School in Edmonton seems to be the source of another case.

“As I mentioned yesterday, even with the cautious approach we’ve been taking, we expected that we would eventually see some examples of transmission in schools,” Hinshaw said, adding the Edmonton school did nothing wrong in this incident.

Anyone else who has potentially been in close contact with a case, has or will be contacted by AHS.

There is no evidence to suggest the school will need to transition into a different learning model, or that other staff and students are at risk, Hinshaw said.

There have been 78 cases of people attending an Alberta school while infectious – 57 of 2,415 schools in the province have reported an infectious case.

“Identifying in-school transmission potential quickly and taking action is crucial to limiting the spread and keeping schools safe,” said Hinshaw.

“This is another reminder that COVID-19 is part of our new normal. As I’ve previously mentioned, the more cases we see in a community, the more likely we are to see COVID-19 in schools.”

There are 711 active cases in Edmonton, which is the most of any AHS zone. There are 450 in the Calgary zone, 197 in the north zone, 38 in the south zone and four located in an unknown area.

There have been 255 deaths due to COVID-19 in Alberta, while 9,201 have died nationally.



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Sean McIntosh

About the Author: Sean McIntosh

Sean joined the Red Deer Advocate team in the summer of 2017. Originally from Ontario, he worked in a small town of 2,000 in Saskatchewan for seven months before coming to Central Alberta.
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