COVID-19 in Alberta: 14 weekend deaths reported Monday as province readies to lift most restrictions

Alberta reported 14 more deaths due to COVID-19 over the weekend as the province readies to remove most of its COVID-19 health measures on Tuesday.

Monday’s data report included numbers from Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The deaths were spread across several days and were of individuals ranging in age from in their 40s to more than 80 years old. They bring the total number of COVID-19 deaths in Alberta since the start of the pandemic up to 3,912.

• Infographics: COVID-19 in Alberta by the numbers
• COVID-19 in Edmonton: Numbers broken down by neighbourhood
• Infographics: COVID-19 cases in Calgary

Since the start of the month, 295 Albertans have died due to COVID-19, including 40 in the past seven days, though both numbers will rise in the coming days as historical data is revised and updated.

The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations continues to trend downwards with 1,224 COVID-19 patients in hospital, including 83 in intensive care units.

There are now just over 9,000 known active cases in Alberta after 1,435 new cases were confirmed over the weekend. Limits to testing capacity and eligibility mean the actual numbers of new and active cases are many times higher.

Alberta is set to move to Step 2 of its reopening plan on Tuesday which will see the removal of gathering and capacity limits as well as masking rules in most settings.

Masks must still be worn on public transit, continuing and acute care settings as well as within Edmonton as the city’s own mask bylaw remains in effect.

Calgary's equivalent bylaw will end Tuesday.

Unvaccinated Albertans are outnumbered nearly four-to-one by those who have had at least a first shot of vaccine, but remain many times more likely to experience a severe outcome due to COVID-19 including hospitalization or death.

Alberta has now administered close to 8.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, with 80.8 per cent of the population having had at least one dose and 75.9 per cent having had two shots.

The next data update is scheduled for Tuesday.