Today Alberta has 19,500 recoveries from COVID-19, with almost 850 since Friday and 257 since yesterday. 

There are 323 new cases being reported from over 13,000 tests, with 3,203 active cases in the province, 50% of which are in Edmonton.  

One more Albertan has died, for a total of 293. Currently, 116 people are in the hospital with 16 of these in intensive care. Dr. Hinshaw is still concerned by the rise in hospitalizations, which is at a rate of 3.1% cumulative in the last two weeks.  

Grande Prairie saw an additional ten cases of COVID-19 reported today, with two recoveries. There are currently 57 active cases in the City, with 126 recoveries. 

There was no change in the County, which has seven active cases and 65 recoveries. 

One more person recovered in Clear Hills County, while one new case was found in the MD of Greenview.  

Four new cases were identified in the MD of Spirit River. There are now 13 active cases in the area, which puts it on the province’s watch list. No additional measures will be put in place yet. 

Mackenzie County did not have any new cases identified today, and the outbreak at the Heimstaed Seniors Lodge in La Crete has been declared over. There are currently six active cases in the County, with 394 recoveries and 13 deaths.  

Region totals: 

Dr. Hinshaw announced another shift in COVID-19 testing today. Since the last shift in September, which started the move away from asymptomatic testing, the labs have still been having a hard time keeping up.  

She says they will be pressing pause on all asymptomatic testing on those who have no known exposure. AHS will keep testing those with symptoms, who are close contacts but without symptoms and those connected to outbreaks. Appointments for asymptomatic testing will be kept that are already made up to Nov 4. 

Dr. Hinshaw says only 0.011% of the more than 659,000 asymptomatic tests completed in the last seven months have come back positive. With about one in 1,000 being positive, these asymptomatic cases with no known exposure are not driving our numbers. 

Dr. Hinshaw believes the shift will help get results faster where it counts. 

Watch the full update here: