Hinshaw says ‘situation is still serious’ as Alberta adds 1240 COVID-19 cases – CTV Edmonton

Hinshaw says ‘situation is still serious’ as Alberta adds 1240 COVID-19 cases – CTV Edmonton

EDMONTON —
Alberta’s top doctor announced 1,240 new cases of COVID-19, the lowest one-day count since Nov. 27, and nine more deaths Monday afternoon.

The province’s positivity rate is at 6.8 per cent after Alberta Health Services conducted 18,306 tests on Sunday.

The R-value for the province is 0.92, while Edmonton and Calgary’s are 0.89 and 0.97, respective, Dr. Deena Hinshaw said.

“The positive signs that I mentioned on Friday have continued through the weekend, but our situation is still serious,” the chief medical officer of health said. “Our case numbers are still extremely high and our health care system remains under severe strain.”

Of the 19,165 Albertans diagnosed with COVID-19, 795 are in hospital and 151 of them in intensive care.

“This week we must redouble our efforts and celebrate this early trend downwards by continuing the action that will eventually bring our hospitalization and ICU numbers low enough to support access to the system for all health care needs.”

Alberta has reported 91,459 cases and 860 deaths since March.

Hinshaw will give another update Tuesday afternoon.

Published at Mon, 21 Dec 2020 22:58:00 +0000