Capping off a week of local COVID-19 cases dropping daily, Airdrie reported 80 active cases of the virus on Jan. 28, a decrease of one from the day previous.
According to airdrie.ca to date, there have been 1,749 cases in Airdrie since the pandemic began. Of those, 1,653 people have recovered and 16 deaths have been reported.
Three Airdrie schools remain listed on the provincial COVID-19 school status map. George McDougall High School continues to have 10 or more positive cases after an outbreak of the virus there was first reported on Jan. 15. On the east side of the city, Bert Church High School has been added to the list under "alert" status, meaning two to four cases have been reported there since in-class learning resumed. St. Veronica School has also been listed under "alert" status.
Elsewhere in Airdrie, the Bethany Care Centre remains the sole local facility on the government's list of COVID-19 outbreaks. According to the retirement home's daily bulletin, one resident and two employees were confirmed to still have the virus as of Jan. 28.
Outside of Airdrie, Rocky View County (RVC) is reporting 62 active cases, which is a decrease of two from the day previous. On the east side of the county, Chestermere is now at 57 active cases, an increase of five from the previous day. Out west, Cochrane remains at 20 active cases.
In Chestermere, three schools are on the COVID-19 school status map; Chestermere Lake Middle School and Prairie Waters Elementary School have both been listed under "alert" status, meaning two to four active cases are reported there. Chestermere High School has been added under "alert" status.
Provincially, 461 new cases were identified on Jan. 28, meaning there have been a total of 122,821 cases of COVID-19 in Alberta. Of the total cases, 8,041 are active, 113,741 people have recovered, 591 patients are in hospital and 112 Albertans are in intensive care units. In total, 1,606 deaths have been reported in the province due to the virus, including seven new deaths reported on Jan. 28.
As of Jan. 27, 102,524 doses of COVID-19 vaccine had been administered in Alberta. To date, 12,672 Albertans have been fully immunized with two doses of a vaccine. Thirty-two adverse events following immunization have been reported to Alberta Health and Alberta Health Services (AHS).
During the Province's daily COVID-19 update on Jan. 28, Health Minister Tyler Shandro slammed the federal government for its handling of the vaccine rollout, as another delayed shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was announced.
"We're ready and we're able to push ahead as fast as the vaccines come, but they're not coming," he said. "We were already at a standstill this past week doing no new first doses because of the cut in the supply from Pfizer. that's why I'm so frustrated by the news today, the latest in a series of unfulfilled promises from the federal government. Ottawa continues to fail us and to fail all Albertans."
Shandro said for the third time this month, the federal government has notified them through "bureaucratic channels" that Alberta's Pfizer vaccine allocation would be delayed yet again.
"This is a grim situation that seems to be getting worse with every passing week," he said.
Earlier this month, according to Shandro, the Alberta government was told its share of vaccines would be reduced between 20 and 80 per cent over four weeks. Later, he said the Province learned it would receive none at all in the last week of January.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Alberta would still receive its full promised allotment of 468,000 doses in the first quarter.
"The message we received from the federal government was don't worry, be happy," Shandro said, adding the federal government informed the Province would receive 63,000 fewer doses in the first quarter.
"That means 63,000 Albertans will have to wait for their turn to get protected," he said.
