Airdrie has reported five additional recoveries of COVID-19 overnight, bringing the city's active case total to 61.
There have been a total of 1,842 cases locally since the pandemic began, according to airdrie.ca. That means 1,764 Airdronians have recovered from the virus, while 17 deaths have been reported.
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Across the province, 415 new cases of COVID-19 were identified on Feb. 18. The new cases mean there are 4,887 active cases in Alberta, and there have been a total of 130,030 cases since the pandemic began.
According to the provincial government, 123,338 Albertans have recovered from COVID-19, 362 patients are in hospital and 55 Albertans are in intensive care units. In total, 1,805 deaths have been reported in Alberta due to the virus.
Cases are currently confirmed in five Airdrie schools. According to the provincial COVID-19 status map, Bert Church High School is still listed under "outbreak" status, with five-to-nine cases of the virus. St. Veronica School, École francophone d'Airdrie and Herons Crossing School are listed under "alert" status, meaning they have reported two to four cases each. Good Shepherd School was added to the list under "alert status" over the long weekend.
Locally, the Bethany Care Centre remains the sole local local facility on the government's list of COVID-19 outbreaks. However, according to the retirement home's daily bulletin, there were no longer any residents or employees reported to have COVID-19, as of Feb. 16.
Rocky View County (RVC) is reporting 35 active cases as of Feb. 18 – the same number as the previous day. COVID-19 outbreaks in RVC are reported at five facilities in Balzac, including the Harmony Beef meat processing plant, the Wal-Mart logistics centre, the Amazon Fulfilment Centre, the Sobeys Distribution Centre and Dexterra Group.
In RVC, Khalsa School Calgary Educational Foundation is on the COVID-19 school status map under "alert" status. Springbank Middle School has also been added to the list under "alert" status.
On the east side of the county, Chestermere is reporting 42 active cases – a drop of 12 from the previous day – while out west, Cochrane is up to 10 cases, which is one more than the day before. In Chestermere, Rainbow Creek Elementary School is listed under "alert" status on the government's COVID-19 school status map, while Chestermere High School and Chestermere Lake Middle School are listed under "outbreak" status. Prairie Waters Elementary School is no longer listed as a source of outbreak.
As of Feb. 17, 155,532 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Alberta. To date, 58,674 Albertans have been fully immunized with two doses of a vaccine. Eighty-one adverse events following immunization have been reported to Alberta Health and Alberta Health Services (AHS).
During her briefing on Feb. 18, Alberta's chief medical health officer Dr. Deena Hinshaw spoke about a situation regarding an Edmonton area church that has resulted in charges being laid for a pastor.
"For months, Alberta Health Services has attempted to proactively work with this church through education and conversations to make sure that church leadership understood the health measures in place and the rationale behind them," she said. "These attempts to reach out and provide support and education were not successful in bringing the church into alignment with COVID-19 prevention requirements, and enforcement activities then escalated to fines and subsequent orders from AHS that the church follow COVID-19 protocols to protect their community."
Hinshaw said she understands the RCMP decided to take the Pastor into custody as a result of repeated violations of public health orders.
"The pastor was scheduled to be released, but I am told he did not confirm that he would comply with conditions of his release set by the court," she said. "The judicial process, including conditions for release, are determined by the courts. They are not determined by Alberta Health or Alberta Health Services. While this situation is unfortunate, I want to stress that this is a rare incident."
