By GILLIAN SLADE on May 2, 2020.
gslade@medicinehatnews.com@MHNGillianSlade As of Friday morning… The south zone continues to lead the province with the highest number of COVID-19 cases per capita. The south zone has a population of 306,577 and the number of COVID cases expected to be announced on Friday will top 1,200. Based on the population of Brooks, a total of 5.8 per cent of residents there have COVID-19. Of all the lab tests for COVID processed for the south zone, 7.97 per cent are positive. In Calgary that rate is 5.48 per cent, the north zone 1.87 per cent, Edmonton 1.06 per cent and central 0.61 per cent. People hospitalized with COVID-19 in the entire south zone reached five on Friday. There are four in Medicine Hat Regional Hospital and two of those were in the ICU. There is also one patient at Chinook Regional Hospital in Lethbridge. Alberta Health has also revealed the number of health-care workers who have tested positive for COVID-19. Across the province there have been 516 in total, 167 are still active cases and 349 have already recovered. There have been no deaths in this category. For the south zone only there have been 28 cases, 20 active, eight recovered. Of the five people in the south zone that have died from COVID-19, Alberta Health has revealed that three were males and all more than 80 years old. One was a woman between 70 and 79 years of age and another male between the ages of 40 and 49. Here is how the numbers changed in the month of April: April 1 there were 871 cases in the province, 62 were in hospital and 20 in ICU. There had been 11 deaths. In the south zone there were 12 cases, no people in hospital and no deaths. April 30 there were 5,355 cases in the province, 90 in hospital and 22 in ICU. There were 89 deaths. In the south zone there were 946 cases, four in hospital, two in ICU and five deaths. 13