The province of Alberta today (May 23) reported the fewest new cases of the coronavirus that we've had in several weeks.  

Just 18 new cases were revealed today as the province gave its daily report on the COVID-19 pandemic.  The number came out of 3,981 tests that were completed in the past 24 hours.  The provincial lab has now performed 232,774 tests.

The new cases, combined with 5,689 Albertans who have recovered, brings the total number of active cases down to 814.

48 Albertans remain in hospital, a drop of six from yesterday's number.  Six of them are still in intensive care.

Another senior in a long term care facility in the Calgary zone was the only Albertan to succumb to the virus today.  That now makes 135 in the province who have died, 98 in the Calgary zone.  101 of the deaths in Alberta have been residents of long term care.

In Airdrie the numbers continue to head in the right direction with another resident of the city recovering from the virus and no more active cases to report.  That means that 41 Airdronians have recovered while just 5 people are still fighting COVID's effects.  The numbers for Rocky View County are unchanged with 5 active cases and 38 recoveries among the 43 reported cases.

Outbreaks are still underway at the Amazon Fulfillment Centre at Balzac, the Harmony Meat Packing plant in Rocky View County, and at Cascades Recovery, the facility that normally handles Airdrie's blue bin material.  The city has sourced another recycling facility in the interim to take on its recycling duties.

The number of COVID-19 cases in the country is now approaching 83,000.  The coronavirus has taken the lives of 6,278 Canadians.