EDMONTON -- Another 1,731 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Alberta as the number of ICU admissions set a new record.
Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the province’s top doctor, reported the cases in a limited update on Twitter Sunday.
ICU admissions increased from Friday’s pandemic high of 152 to 155 on Sunday.
The number of people in hospital with COVID-19 increased slightly from 646 on Saturday to 648 on Sunday.
There are now 22,920 total active cases of COVID-19 in the province – a pandemic record for Alberta. Of those cases, 62 per cent are variants of concern.
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The Calgary zone has 9,556 of those active cases. The Edmonton zone has 6,088 active cases while the North zone has 3,308. The Central and South zone have 2,677 and 1,216 active infections, respectively.
Of the 1,731 cases reported Sunday, 1,132 were variants of concern with 990 being the B.1.1.7 variant first identified in the United Kingdom, 130 of the P.1 variant first identified in Brazil, and 12 of the B.1.351 variant first identified in South Africa.
The Calgary zone leads the province for hospitalizations with 243 while the Edmonton zone has 235. The North and Central zones have 81 and 53 people in hospital, respectively. The South Zone has 36 hospitalizations.
Over 16,600 tests for COVID-19 were completed in Alberta, translating to a positivity rate of 10.29 per cent.
Alberta has had a positivity rate of over 10 per cent for the last four days and the province’s rolling average for test positivity is at a pandemic high of 10.64 per cent.
Three new deaths from COVID-19 in Alberta were reported Sunday.
More young people are testing positive for COVID-19, with those in the age range of 30 to 39 leading, followed by 20 to 29 year olds and 10 to 19 year olds.
As of Sunday, 169,892 people had recovered from COVID-19 in the province.
Saturday marked the first day the province changed its testing protocols for COVID-19. All samples will no longer be tested for variant of concern cases and only certain targeted populations will be screened for variant infections.
READ MORE: Variant testing in Alberta scaled back as case rates continue to increase
As of Saturday, over 1.62 million vaccines for COVID-19 have been administered in Alberta, with 29.5 per cent of the population receiving at least one dose and 6.7 per cent fully immunized.
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On Sunday, the Alberta legislature paused its spring session for two weeks due to the rise in COVID-19 cases, a move the official opposition “adamantly oppose.
READ MORE: Alberta legislature suspends spring session due to rising cases of COVID-19
