Airdrie's active COVID-19 numbers continue to drop, as 61 were reported on March 17, but numbers have recently climbed province-wide
According to numbers updated daily on Airdrie.ca, there have been 1,975 total cases of the virus reported in the city so far. To date, 1,897 Airdronians have recovered from COVID-19 and 17 deaths have been reported.
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Cases are still confirmed at two schools in Airdrie. According to the provincial COVID-19 status map, R.J. Hawkey Elementary School is listed under "alert" status, meaning it has reported two to four cases, while Northcott Prairie School has been listed under "outbreak" status, with five to nine active cases.
No Airdrie-based facilities are currently on the Alberta government's list of COVID-19 outbreaks.
Across the province, according to alberta.ca 505 new cases were identified as of March 17, with a test positivity rate of 4.8 per cent. The new numbers mean there were 5,084 active cases in Alberta as of March 17, and there have been a total of 140,127 cases since the pandemic began.
According to the reported provincial numbers, 133,086 Albertans have recovered from COVID-19 as of March 17, while 264 patients were in hospital with the virus and 43 Albertans are in intensive care units as of that date. In total, 1,957 deaths have been reported in Alberta from COVID-19.
The provincial numbers show a slight increase in active cases, hospitalizations and ICU numbers compared to recent weeks, when hospitalizations were in the 250s, ICU admissions were in the mid-30s and active cases were kept below 5,000.
The Alberta government is slated to announce on March 26 whether or not it will be entering Step 2 of its 'A Path Forward' plan to ease public health restrictions. The threshold for entering Step 2 is 300 hospitalizations due to COVID-19.
“As we’re looking at all of our options, it’s critical that we learn from other jurisdictions and that we watch what has happened in other parts of the world as variant cases have risen sharply and we need to factor that in as one of many considerations as decisions are made,” said Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta's chief medical officer of health.
Outside of Airdrie, cases have either climbed or remained steady compared to earlier this week. Rocky View County (RVC) reported 45 active cases as of March 17, up 15 since March 15. Four schools in RVC are on the provincial COVID-19 status map; Khalsa School Calgary Educational Foundation in Conrich, Springbank Middle School and Edge School in Springbank are all listed under "outbreak" status, with five to nine active cases.
On the east side of the county, Chestermere reported 40 active cases as of March 17 – an increase of 12 from March 15.
Cochrane has reported 22 active cases of the virus as of March 17. Four schools are listed and have confirmed COVID-19 cases. Bow Valley High School is experiencing an outbreak of the virus with more than 10 cases confirmed. Elizabeth Barrett Elementary School, Fireside School and Cochrane High School are also listed on the government's COVID-19 school status map, with two to four active cases.
Regarding variant COVID-19 cases, Alberta identified 91 additional cases of variants of concern – a record daily high – on March 17, bringing the provincial total to 1,188. These include 1,169 cases of the B.1.1.7 variant (which originated in the United Kingdom) and 17 cases of the B.1.1351 South African variant. There have also been two reported cases of the Brazilian variant.
On the vaccination front, 418,663 doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered in Alberta as of March 17, according to government figures. To date, 92,378 Albertans are fully immunized with two doses of a vaccine.
