Two additional cases of COVID-19 have been linked to Harmony Beef in Rocky View County.

There have now been a total of 38 cases linked to the facility, 12 of which have reportedly recovered.

The first case was identified back in March and Dr. Deena Hinshaw explains why an outbreak wasn't declared at the facility until last week.

"That single case did not spread. There was containment measures that were put in place," Hinshaw says. "The total number of cases that were reported was relatively small up until just last week when there were additional cases identified and then outbreak measures were put in place with additional testing." 

Meantime, there have been 946 COVID-19 cases confirmed to date in workers at the Cargill facility in High River. 798 (84 per cent) have recovered. At JBS in Brooks, 566 cases have been confirmed in workers, 434 of which (76 per cent) have recovered.

Hinshaw says public health officials, Occupational Health and Safety, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and others have been working together to protect worker safety at the plants and help limit the spread of COVID-19.

She says a number of safety measures have been put in place at each facility. Read more HERE. 

Hinshaw also provided an update on the total provincial numbers. Based on 3,494 tests, 70 new cases of COVID-19 have been identified in Alberta in the past 24 hours, for a new total of 5,963.

The number of recoveries continues to increase, with 3,552 of the total having recovered. However, the number of deaths has also risen by six, for a total of 112.

As 'Phase One' of the province's relaunch strategy could start at early as next week, Hinshaw says they continue to monitor the number of new cases, as well as the number of hospitalizations due to COVID-19. There are currently 82 Albertans receiving treatment in hospital for COVID-19, 19 of which are currently in the ICU.