Today Alberta is seeing 130 new cases of COVID-19 from 9,547 completed tests. There are now 1,415 active cases, and 226 more people have recovered, bring that total to 12,653. 

Currently, 46 people are in the hospital, which is four less than yesterday. Nine of these are in intensive care. There’s been no new deaths, leaving the total at 242.  

In Grande Prairie, one new case was confirmed, and two people recovered. Four people recovered in the County of Grande Prairie.  

Big Lakes County had one case removed today. Clear Hills county has one new case and two more recoveries. C8ounty of Northern Lights had one new recovery. Mackenzie County identified six new cases and three people recovered. The MD of Spirit River had five new cases identified today.  

Area totals: 

In her update today, Dr. Hinshaw discussed a new public health order to revise some restrictions at continuing care facilities.  

The new order will hopefully allow facilities to adapt to the needs of residents when COVID-19 numbers are low. Dr. Hinshaw says this is something they’ve heard from residents, operators and families that is needed. 

One change is in quarantine requirements if a resident leaves a facility. The old order requires a 14-day quarantine on return, no matter how long the resident was gone or what they were doing. The new order will adjust the quarantine requirements based on the risk of the outing, whether it is low, medium, or high risk.

Outings that were high risk still require a resident to quarantine, but lower or moderate risk will have less stringent precautions applied, like needing to wear a mask at all times once they have returned, or enhanced symptom monitoring.

Volunteers may also be allowed back on site, depending on what the facility chooses, while providing volunteers with guidance for maintaining safety. 

Dr. Hinshaw says they’ve also heard facilities have had staffing challenges with the screening requirements for staff and visitors. The new order will allow volunteers to help with this process. It doesn’t remove screening requirements, including those of staff, visitors and for known exposures. Staff are still restricted from working at more than one facility.

The order was given today, but will come in effect Sept. 17 to allow operators time to implement the changes.  

The new order is available HERE.

Watch the full update here: