Airdrie reported its 17th death from COVID-19 on Feb. 2, nearly a year after the virus first arrived in the province.
According to airdrie.ca, 69 cases of COVID-19 are currently active in the city, and there have been 1,764 total cases in Airdrie since the pandemic began. As of Feb. 1, 1,678 Airdronians had recovered from the virus.
École francophone d'Airdrie was added to the Alberta government's COVID-19 school status map, mearning there are currently four Airdrie schools with virus outbreaks. George McDougall High School remains under "outbreak" status, meaning the school currently has 10 or more active cases. On the east side of the city, Bert Church High School is listed under "alert" status, meaning two to four cases have been reported there since in-class learning resumed in early January. St. Veronica School and École francophone d'Airdrie are also listed under "alert" status.
Elsewhere in Airdrie, the Bethany Care Centre remains the sole local local facility on the government's list of COVID-19 outbreaks. According to the retirement home's daily bulletin, one employee is confirmed to still have the virus as of Feb. 2.
Outside of Airdrie city limits, Rocky View County has 42 active cases as of Feb. 1. Outbreaks are currently reported at three facilities in Balzac, including the Harmony Beef meat processing plant, the Wal-Mart logistics centre and the Amazon Fulfilment Centre.
On the east side of the county, Chestermere is now at 47 active cases, while out west, Cochrane is reporting 10 cases.
Chestermere Lake Middle School and Prairie Waters Elementary School have all been listed under "alert" status on the government's COVID-19 school status map, meaning two to four active cases are reported there. Chestermere High School is listed under "outbreak" status, having reported five to nine cases.
Provincially, 268 new cases of COVID-19 were identified on Feb. 1 – the lowest number of new daily cases since mid-October 2020, and the first time fewer than 300 were reported in a single day since Oct. 12, 2020. The new cases mean there have been a total of 124,831 cases of COVID-19 in Alberta. Of the total cases, 6,912 are active, 116,259 people have recovered, 556 patients are in hospital and 97 Albertans are in intensive care units. In total, 1,660 deaths have been reported in the province due to the virus.
As of Feb. 1, 107,438 doses of COVID-19 vaccine had been administered in Alberta. To date, 17,191 Albertans have been fully immunized with two doses of a vaccine. Fifty-three adverse events following immunization have been reported to Alberta Health and Alberta Health Services (AHS).
Dr. Deena Hinshaw said during her Feb. 2 daily update that the Province has recorded 50 cases of the COVID-19 variant identified first in the U.K., and seven cases of the variant first identified in South Africa, bringing a total of 57 variants of concern.
"The vast majority of these cases – all seven of the variants first identified in South Africa and 36 of the cases of variants first identified in the UK – are in returning travellers," she said. "An additional six cases have been detected in close contacts of returning travelers. However, eight of the 57 cases that we’ve detected in five different households have no links to travel yet identified. Investigations are underway to determine the source of these cases."
Hinshaw said what has been identified is a link between four of these cases to a daycare outbreak.
"This link was just identified today, and work is underway to notify parents and staff of this facility that the outbreak at this location may be at least partially caused by a variant strain," she said. "This is concerning, but it does mean that we have a better chance of controlling spread when we understand the linkages between cases."
