Airdrie has reported 59 active cases of COVID-19 locally, up one since Feb. 6.
According to the airdrie.ca, there have been a total of 1,794 cases locally, with 1,718 Airdronians having recovered from the virus and 17 deaths being reported.
As of Feb. 8, bars and restaurants reopened provincially with reduced capacities and health measures in place. Additionally, indoor fitness facilities are now permitted to offer one-on-one personal training services and school/minor sports teams will be able to resume practice sessions in groups of 10 or fewer people. Games and inter-team competition are still prohibited, however.
There are currently five outbreaks of COVID-19 in local schools. Bert Church High School and George McDougall High School are listed under "outbreak" status, with five to nine cases of COVID-19 each. St. Veronica School, École francophone d'Airdrie and Herons Crossing School are listed under "alert" status, which means they have reported two to four cases each.
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 was confirmed to still have the virus as of Feb. 7.
Outside of Airdrie, Rocky View County (RVC) is reporting 43 active cases as of Feb. 8. 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.
In RVC, Khalsa School Calgary Educational Foundation has been added to the COVID-19 school status map under "alert" status.
On the east side of the county, Chestermere is now at 55 active cases, while out west, Cochrane is down to just six cases.
Some Chestermere schools also continue to be impacted by the virus. Prairie Waters Elementary School and Rainbow Creek Elementary School are listed under "alert" status on the government's COVID-19 school status map, while Chestermere High School and Chestermere Lake Middle School have been listed under "outbreak" status.
Provincially, 269 new cases of COVID-19 were identified on Feb. 7. The new cases mean there have been a total of 127,036 cases province-wide since the pandemic began. Of the total cases, 6,196 are active, 119,130 people have recovered, 432 patients are in hospital and 76 Albertans are in intensive care units. In total, 1,710 deaths have been reported in the province due to the virus.
On Feb. 8, Alberta reported 25 new cases of the COVID-19 variant that originated in the United Kingdom, bringing the province's total number of variant cases to 96. Of the total cases, 46 are not linked to travel.
As of Feb. 7, 120,357 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Alberta. To date, 28,991 Albertans have been fully immunized with two doses of a vaccine. Fifty-eight adverse events following immunization have been reported to Alberta Health and Alberta Health Services (AHS).
While Alberta is now below the hospitalization threshold to begin level two of its provincial easing of public health restrictions, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw's said during her daily update on Feb. 8, that easing restrictions is designed to be revisited on a three-week basis. That means further health restrictions will not be lifted until March 1.
"We deliberately built in a minimum of three weeks between steps to allow us to monitor our hospitalizations, as well as our positivity rate, new case numbers, and overall growth rate, to ensure that we’re not seeing a rise in transmission linked to activities that have been opened," she said.
"This is especially important now that we have seen some cases of the more contagious variant strains in our province. We need to keep a close eye on these cases and take further action to prevent spread if we see these numbers grow"
