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328 new cases of COVID-19 have been identified in the past 24 hours in Alberta based on 7,541 tests. The provincial test positivity rate is approximately 5.0 per cent.
A total of 15 more COVID-19 related deaths have been reported over the last two days. The number of lives lost to the virus in the province during the pandemic is now up to 1,827.
321 individuals are hospitalized due to COVID-19 with 53 of them in intensive care units.
Therer are 4,758 active cases of the virus in Alberta with 1,669 in the Calgary Zone, 1,115 in the Edmonton Zone and 766 in the Central Zone.
There are 39 active cases in Red Deer County, while Mountain View County is up by 7 from Friday’s update to its new total of 17.
There are 22 active cases in Innisfail, Sylvan Lake has 17 active cases of COVID-19, while Rocky Mountain House is down to 7.
The Didsbury/Carstairs/South Mountain View County area is up by 6 from Friday’s update to 16 active cases.
The Three Hills/Highway 21 area has 6, Olds is down to 2, Sundre is reporting 1, and Crossfield is now the lone area in the region with zero active cases.
Alberta continues to monitor variant strains of COVID-19 with a total of 278 cases reported as of February 20th including 55 in the Central Zone. 9 new cases of the United Kingdom variant have been confirmed in the last 24 hours.
More than 124,000 (124,478) Albertans have recovered from COVID-19.
Vaccine distribution is underway with over 169,000 (169,441) doses administered as of February 20th.
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Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro says he believes it’s safe to move forward with the province’s staged reopening plan as COVID-19 case numbers trend downward.
Alberta reported 328 new infections in its latest update on Friday, a much-improved situation from late last year when there were some days with new case totals over 1,800.
Shandro says he’s optimistic despite worrisome new COVID-19 variants that are more contagious.
(Contains content from The Canadian Press)
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