Airdrie is reporting 60 active cases of COVID-19 as of Feb. 9, on a day the provincial total of new daily cases reached its lowest number in four months.
According to the airdrie.ca, there have been a total of 1,797 cases locally, with 1,720 Airdronians having recovered from the virus and 17 deaths being reported.
Provincially, case counts and hospitalizations continue to decrease. Just 195 new cases of COVID-19 were identified on Feb. 8 – the first time the number of new daily cases dipped below 200 since early October 2020.
The new cases mean there have been a total of 127,231 cases across the province since the pandemic began. Of the total cases, 5,831 are active – a drop from nearly 6,200 the day prior. Meanwhile, 119,678 Albertans have recovered from COVID-19, 427 patients are in hospital and 78 Albertans are in intensive care units.
In total, 1,722 deaths have been reported in the province due to the virus, including 12 additional deaths reported on Feb. 9.
Cases continue to impact five Airdrie schools that currently remain on the provincial COVID-19 status map. Bert Church High School and George McDougall High School are still 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, meaning they have reported two to four cases each.
Around the city, 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. 9.
Outside of Airdrie, Rocky View County (RVC) is reporting 37 active cases as of Feb. 8 – a drop from 43 the day before. 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 has been added to the COVID-19 school status map under "alert" status.
On the east side of the county, Chestermere is now at 59 active cases, while out west, Cochrane is down to just six cases.
A number of Chestermere schools 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.
As of Feb. 8, 124,325 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Alberta. To date, 32,690 Albertans have been fully immunized with two doses of a vaccine. Fifty-nine adverse events following immunization have been reported to Alberta Health and Alberta Health Services (AHS).
On Feb. 9, Alberta reported one new case of the COVID-19 variant that originated in the United Kingdom, bringing the province's total number of variant cases to 104. Of the total cases, 46 are not linked to travel.
Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw said during her daily update on Tuesday she knows there are concerns about one of these more contagious variants becoming the dominant strain in the province.
"This is a serious worry for me, too," she said. "However, I also think it is important to keep the new numbers that we report in context."
Hinshaw said he first variant case in Alberta was identified retrospectively in a sample originally taken on Dec. 15, 2020 from a returning traveler. From that day to now, she said there have been 104 positive variant cases identified among all the samples that have been taken.
“Variant cases made up a quarter of a per cent of all the cases identified from Dec. 15 onward,” she said.
"At the same time, more than 43,000 cases of COVID-19 strain were detected in our province."
According to Hinshaw, since labs began testing most if not all positive samples, the average per cent of all cases that are variants of concern is higher at 1.4 per cent. Specifically, between Jan. 30 and Feb. 5, she said there were 38 variant cases and 2,703 non-variant cases.
"This does not in any way minimize the threat that these variants pose, or the impact they will have if we let them spread widely," she said. "However, so far, variants are still very rare and we are working hard to try to keep it that way."
