Alberta adds 358 COVID-19 cases, 1 death since Friday

EDMONTON -- Alberta's chief medical officer of health reported 358 cases of COVID-19 since Friday after more than 30,000 tests.

The province added 119 cases of the coronavirus on Friday, 102 on Saturday and 137 on Sunday.

Active cases increased to 1,459 with more than half of them — 747 — in the Edmonton zone.

The city of Edmonton, with 650 infections and an active case rate of 63.6 per 100,000 residents, is still under the province's watch.

Hospitalizations increased slightly over the weekend to 51 patients with nine of them in intensive care, but Dr. Deena Hinshaw says that remains "well within" the health system's capacity.

One more Albertan, a patient at the Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary, died as a result of COVID-19 over the weekend.

The facility is experiencing an outbreak with 18 cases in 14 patients and four staff in three different units, and Hinshaw expects more cases to arise after more testing.

COVID-19 IN SCHOOLS

The list of Alberta schools where students and staff have attended while infectious with the coronavirus continues to grow, but Hinshaw is keeping the number in perspective.

Hinshaw reported two more schools where COVID-19 was likely spread: Vimy Ridge School in Edmonton, now under watch with six cases, and Springfield Elementary School in Peace River.

"This is not unexpected and is not a cause for alarm…we will see some cases where this happens in classrooms," she said.

• 34 cases of COVID-19 reported at Edmonton schools over the weekend

As of Monday, there are 126 cases of COVID-19 at 81 schools in Alberta after five school alerts ended. Nineteen of the schools are considered outbreaks, with two or more cases.

"It is important to remember that only three per cent of all schools in the province have had any COVID-19 exposure to date, and of all those schools that have had one or more exposures, transmission has only been identified in about three per cent of those, so overall, only just over one school in the thousand has had a transmission episode in the last three weeks," Hinshaw said.

Alberta has reported 16,739 cases, 15,024 recoveries and 256 deaths since March.