Above is the April 8 briefing from the Chief Medical Officer Dr. Deena Hinshaw, scheduled for 3:30 p.m.
by Morinville News Staff
Alberta added another 50 COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, bringing the provincial total to 1,423, 60.43% of which are in Calgary Zone. Of the 1,423 total cases, 206 are suspected of being community acquired.
Recoveries in the province have risen to 519 an increase of 72 since Monday’s update during the Premier’s address. The new provincial total of 1423 includes the 519 recoveries and 29 deaths.
Recoveries now represent 36 per cent of the province’s total confirmed cases, while deaths represent roughly 2 per cent of the total confirmed cases.
Alberta continues to test higher per capita than any other North American jurisdiction. To date, Alberta has conducted 68,762 tests, of which 1645 were done in the past 24 hours. Testing in Alberta was down to roughly 1100 per day Sunday and Monday, about half of the normal 2000 plus tests conducted each day. Testing has been consistently in the 2 per cent positive range.
Premier Jason Kenney said the lower numbers do not mean the virus is on the decline. Fewer people are currently getting tested than the capacity to test, which is why Dr. Hinshaw expanded who will be tested.
Dr. Deena Hinshaw said she was expanding testing to anyone in the Calgary Zone with symptoms and also any essential worker and anyone whose worksite has not been closed to public access who has symptoms including coughing and sneezing.
There are currently 44 Albertans in the hospital with 16 of those in Intensive Care Units. To date. To date, there have been 95 hospitalizations and 32 admissions to ICU.
Alberta saw another three deaths on Tuesday, all from the Calgary zone, including one at the McKenzie Towne Center Continuing Care facility. Total deaths in Alberta to date are 29.
Sturgeon County & St. Albert Numbers
Alberta Health’s geographical data for April 8 shows nine cases in Sturgeon County and its municipalities, five of whom have recovered. There have been no COVID-19 deaths in Sturgeon. St. Albert has 27 cases, of which nine have recovered. St. Albert also has had no COVID-19-related deaths.
Please note, MorinvilleNews.com is not able to determine how many cases are specific to Morinville. The Chief Medical Officer has made it clear that Alberta Health will not reveal details beyond the geographical areas outlined in the daily update identifying Sturgeon East and Sturgeon West.
Up-to-the-minute information on COVID-19 in Alberta is available at https://www.alberta.ca/coronavirus-info-for-albertans.aspx?.
Local information on Morinville’s handling of the pandemic is online at http://morinville.ca/covid19.
