EDMONTON -- Alberta reported 332 cases of COVID-19 and no new deaths on Friday.
There are now 2,836 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the province, with 1,268 in the city of Edmonton and 686 in Calgary.
Calgary joins Edmonton in the province’s watch list with a 50.9 case rate per 100,000 residents.
“We have recently seen several outbreaks in [Calgary] linked to social gatherings and this is yet another reminder that no region is immune from this virus and that one case can quickly lead to many if restrictions are not followed,” Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw said.
Hinshaw is not recommending restrictions to the Calgary zone right now but said she’s is in contact with local officials and monitoring the spread.
As for Edmonton, Hinshaw continues to be concerned about the capital region’s COVID-19 spread and asks Edmontonians to follow her voluntary restrictions this weekend to stop transmission.
“Follow them every day in whatever you are doing. First, please limit all family and private social gatherings to a maximum of 15 people. The fewer people you have, the lower the risk of exposure or transmission.”
Once again she also asked Edmontonians to wear masks at work and to not have more than three cohorts.
For the second time this month, Alberta did not report deaths connected to COVID-19 Friday.
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Hinshaw confirmed the outbreak at Edmonton’s Mazankowski Heart Institute and announced an outbreak at the Leduc Community Hospital where two patients tested positive for the coronavirus.
There are 117 patients in hospitals across the province, with 11 of them in ICU.
“The recent outbreaks we have seen in hospitals are one of the reasons for the high hospitalization numbers that we are now seeing,” Hinshaw said. “As community transmission goes up, so too does the risk of introducing the virus into our acute care and continuing care facilities where our most vulnerable community members are.”
Two-hundred Alberta schools have a total of 489 cases of COVID-19. Ninety-one of them are under outbreak, including 22 under the watch category.
Alberta has reported 21,775 cases and 288 deaths since March.
