Today’s COVID-19 update showed 358 new cases in the province. Friday had 119 from more than 12,400 tests, Saturday had 102 from about 9,700 and Sunday had 137 from more than 12,700 tests. 

Hospitalizations are up six from Friday at 51, with nine of these in intensive care. Dr. Hinshaw says this is well within our system’s capacity and hospitalizations have been generally declining or stable since peaking at 93 on July 22. 

One new death was reported, at the Foothills Medical Facility in Calgary. The total is now 256. 

There were 322 more recoveries from the virus over the weekend and Alberta’s total is now 15,024. Active cases are now at 1,459, up slightly from Friday.  

Locally, Grande Prairie had one new case reported and the County had two. There are a combined 13 cases in the City and County. Grande Prairie has now had close to 100 cases, with 89 recoveries to date.  

Recoveries were reported in the County of Northern Lights, Mackenzie County, the MD of Peace, the MD of Spirit River and Northern Sunrise County. Saddle Hills County’s one case has now recovered. One new case was found in each the County of Northern Lights, Mackenzie County and Northern Sunrise County. 

Area numbers: 

Dr. Hinshaw says that they have been continuing to monitor schools and five school alerts have ended, with those self-isolating back on site and no transmission happening in the schools.  

There are 82 active alerts in Alberta schools, with a total of 126 cases of individuals who had been at school. There are 19 active outbreaks, with six of these being reported today. Dr. Hinshaw reminds Albertans that a school outbreak is defined as two people being present at a school while infectious within a two-week period of each other. She is not worried about the cases numbers in schools at this time.  

Only 3% of all schools in province have had any COVID-19 exposures to date, three weeks into school. About 3% of those that had exposure had transmission as well. This is just over one in 1000 schools with a transmission episode. 

Two of the outbreaks have more than five cases, with six each. These schools, one in Calgary and one Edmonton, are on the province’s watch list. Dr. Hinshaw says this just represents numbers, not ongoing risk. 

Two more schools were added to the list of probably transmission on-site. One of these is Springfield Elementary School (SES) in Peace River. The other is in Edmonton. SES is in the 2-4 cases category. Anyone potentially exposed has been or will be contacted directly. 

Dr. Hinshaw says this is not unexpected and not a cause for alarm; there will be some transmission in classes. She says they are working with schools and Alberta Health Services to prevent broad spread.

Watch the full update here: