EDMONTON -- The total number of active cases in Alberta is growing as the third wave continues to spike.
In a limited update delivered Saturday on Twitter, Dr. Deena Hinshaw said the province completed over 18,800 tests and identified another 2,042 infections – the fifth highest amount of cases reported in one day since the pandemic began.
The province’s positivity rate is now 11 per cent after it spiked at 13.2 per cent on May 2.
There are now 661 people in hospital, including 148 in ICU.
The Calgary and Edmonton zones lead hospitalizations with 241 and 238 people, respectively.
The North zone has 93 hospitalizations while the Central zone has 55 and the South zone has 34.
Both Edmonton and Calgary zones have 57 people in ICU while the North zone has 18. The Central and South zone have nine and seven people in ICU, respectively.
Two additional Albertans died from COVID-19, raising the province’s total number of deaths to 2,108 people.
Over 1.53 million Albertans have received one vaccine dose while approximately 314,504 people are fully immunized – roughly 6.9 per cent.
The Calgary zone leads the province with over 11,178 active cases. The Edmonton zone has 5,900 while the North zone has 3,780. The Central zone has 2,917 active cases of COVID-19 while the South zone has 1,355. Twenty-five cases have an unknown zone of origin.
The North zone had the highest amount of new cases since the last update on Friday, with 127 reported cases.
The Calgary zone gained 115 new cases of COVID-19, while Edmonton had 74 new cases since Friday. The Central and South zone had 57 and 20 new infections, respectively.
The R-value average for the province is 1.12. Values over one indicate COVID-19 continues to spread.
The Edmonton zone’s R-value is 0.99 while Calgary’s is 1.16. The rest of Albert has a value of 1.18.
