In the past week Alberta has seen more than 1,000 new recovered cases of COVID-19, now with only 1,963 active cases reported.
Chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw began her daily press conference Friday by changing what she talked about first – recovered cases instead of new cases. There are now 4,020 recovered COVID cases, up from 2,942 a week earlier.
Another death at a continuing care facility was also announced, bringing the total fatality count from the disease in Alberta to 115.
Locally, Brooks saw seven new cases but 77 new recoveries. That city now has 525 active cases and 509 recovered; Hinshaw said 96 active cases remain tied to the JBS meat packing plant.
Medicine Hat registered no new cases for the fifth straight day in a row, with eight active cases remaining of the 33 in total.
The government announced no daily briefings for Saturday or Sunday, another departure in light of the tapering of this wave of the pandemic. Alberta plans to open a wave of the economy next Thursday, May 14, provided its testing capacity and overall case numbers are good enough.
Eighty people remain in hospital provincially, with five of those in Medicine Hat Regional Hospital as of Thursday afternoon. Two of the five were in the intensive care unit.
