by Morinville News Staff
Alberta reported another 67 cases of COVID-19 in the province in the last 24 hours, bringing the new provincial total to 486. Twenty-seven Albertans are reported to have recovered from the illness.
In her daily update Thursday, Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, said she believes 34 of the province’s cases may be community transmitted as opposed to being travel related. That is an increase of one from yesterday. The majority of total COVID-19 cases (62%) are in the Calgary Zone.
Hinshaw said there are currently 21 Albertans hospitalized with COVID-19, ten of those are in Intensive Care Units (ICU). Since the beginning, there have been 28 hospitalizations, with 11 admissions to an ICU.
There have been no additional deaths reported. A second death related to the illness, a woman in her 80s living in the McKenzie Towne Continuing Care Centre in Calgary, was reported Tuesday. The woman developed symptoms on March 22 and died on March 23. The first death was a man in his 60s in the Edmonton Zone who had preexisting conditions.
A COVID-19 outbreak was confirmed March 24 at the Nelson Home, a Calgary group home for persons with developmental disabilities. Two care workers and a resident have tested positive for COVID-19, and two other residents have been tested with no results available yet. All individuals are self-isolating. To date, 17 cases have been identified in staff and residents of continuing care facilities, including 14 in McKenzie Towne Long Term Care, one case in Rosedale on the Park and two at Shepherd’s Care Kensington Village.
Hinshaw said the number of recovered cases is now 27, an increase of 24 from the three that has been reported for about the past week.
As those numbers are included in the total number of cases to date, there are currently 459 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Of the 459 confirmed cases, 4.5% are currently hospitalized and 2.1% are in an ICU. The recovery rate as per today’s numbers is 5% of the total confirmed cases to date.
But Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer, in response to a media question on the low overall percentage of Albertans with the illness, said flattening the curve needs to remain a priority.
“It is clear there are cases in the community we have not detected,” Hinshaw said. “We need to be really cautious about these numbers as they are only the ones we’ve identified.”
Hinshaw reminded Albertans there are no vaccines as yet to cure COVID-19. “If we don’t take action now—if we wait until our hospitals are overwhelmed, it’s too late.”
Local Numbers
Alberta Health’s geographical data for March 26 shows there are currently five cases of COVID-19 in Sturgeon County West, which includes Bon Accord and Morinville, as well as surrounding rural areas. That number is an increase of one from the four reported Wednesday. There are no cases of COVID-19 reported in Sturgeon County East.
Up-to-the-minute information on COVID-19 in Alberta is available at https://www.alberta.ca/coronavirus-info-for-albertans.aspx?.
