Airdrie confirmed three cases over night as the city's active total is up to 65.
There have been a total of 1,849 cases locally since the pandemic began, according to airdrie.ca. Of the total cases 1,767 Airdronians have recovered from the virus, while 17 deaths have been reported.
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Across the province, 273 new cases of COVID-19 were identified on Feb. 21. The case numbers mean there were 4,675 active cases in Alberta as of that date, and a total of 131,336 cases since the pandemic began.
According to the Province, 124,818 Albertans have recovered from COVID-19, 324 patients are in hospital and 53 Albertans are in intensive care units. In total, 1,843 deaths have been reported in Alberta due to the virus.
Cases are currently confirmed in six 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, Good Shepherd School, École francophone d'Airdrie and Herons Crossing School are listed under "alert" status, meaning they have reported two to four cases each. Ecole Edwards Elementary School was added to the list over the weekend having reported two to four active cases.
Rocky View County (RVC) was reporting 19 active cases as of Feb. 21 – A drop of three cases from 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.
Around the County, 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 RVC, Chestermere reported 34 active cases as of Feb. 21 – a drop of five from the previous day – while out west, Cochrane dropped to. 11 cases, which was one less than the previous day. 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.
As of Feb. 21, 173,539 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Alberta. To date, 69,362 Albertans have been fully immunized with two doses of a vaccine. Since vaccincations in the province started, 98 adverse events following immunization have been reported to Alberta Health and Alberta Health Services.
Dr. Deena Hinshaw addressed easing further restrictions during her daily update on Feb. 22.
"For the past week, the R value [reproductive number] for the province was 1.03," she said. "This includes 0.93 in the Edmonton Zone, 0.95 in the Calgary Zone, and 1.13 for the rest of the province. As you know, any time that our reproductive number is greater than one it means our cases are rising."
According to Hinshaw, the province is below the hospitalizations threshold could move Alberta into Step 2 of easing restrictions, but Hinshaw said case numbers are rising.
"With that in mind, we will be taking the full three weeks to assess the data and assess the best way forward," she said. "No decisions on moving to Step 2 will be made prior to March 1 at the earliest. We are being cautious as it is too early to say if this recent increase is significant or but a temporary pause in the strong downward trend we have seen over the past several months."
