Thursday, November 12, 2020


  ALBERTA,USA

Alberta records seven COVID-19 deaths for three consecutive days

Alberta’s COVID-19 death toll climbed to 383 on Wednesday after another seven deaths were reported for the third consecutive day.
© Provided by Calgary Herald Rivera Mount Royal Care Centre on 9th St. and 18th Ave. SW. Alberta Health Services has confirmed 66 residents at the centre have contracted COVID-19 since October 18th. Wednesday, November 11, 2020. Brendan Miller/Postmedia

An additional 672 COVID-19 infections were also reported. Due to Remembrance Day, the province did not update its COVID-19 data on active case counts.

As of Tuesday, there were 8,090 active cases in the province after an additional 713 infections were identified.

The province is dealing with another rash of care home outbreaks as numbers spike.

At least 66 residents at the Mount Royal Care Centre in Calgary have contracted COVID-19 since Oct. 18, according to Revera, the agency that oversees the facility. Six of those patients have since died and 17 have recovered.

Additionally, 29 staff members have tested positive and are in self-isolation.

Dr. Rhonda Collins, Revera’s chief medical officer, said in a statement Tuesday the agency is working closely with Alberta Health Services to respond to the outbreak.

“All residents are isolated to their rooms and monitored closely for symptoms twice daily,” said Collins. “All staff are screened at the beginning and end of their shifts and are required to wear an appropriate mask and eye protection in the home.”

She said staff have also enhanced cleaning procedures, disallowed visitors from entering the care home and are serving meals in the residents’ rooms.

Several other care homes operated by Revera are experiencing COVID-19 outbreaks, including the South Terrace Continuing Care Centre in Edmonton, where there have been 66 confirmed cases in residents and another 66 among staff, according to the agency. Ten residents have died.

The province did not update its outbreak locations Wednesday, but there were 42 sites in the Calgary zone under watch as of Tuesday. Nineteen of those are connected to acute, long-term and supportive-living facilities.

Deaths announced Wednesday include a woman in her 80s connected to the outbreak at Spruce Lodge in northeast Calgary and, in the Edmonton Zone, two women in their 80s and a man in his 70s, two of which are connected to outbreak sites.

Additionally, a woman in her 60s from the South Zone, a woman in her 70s from the North Zone and a man in his 90s linked to the outbreak at Mayerthorpe Extendicare in the North Zone have died.

There were 217 people in hospital and 46 in intensive-care units, up from 207 and 43, respectively, on Tuesday.

The province did not provide laboratory testing data in Wednesday’s update “due to technical issues.” Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, is scheduled to address the province on Thursday with additional details.

In her public update on Monday, Hinshaw warned Albertans that provincial COVID-19 numbers are concerning and public compliance with health guidelines is necessary to reduce the effect on health services.

“This is a critical juncture and we need to get our cases down to below 100 cases per day in our big cities,” she said, adding that the growth rate is troubling in major cities and even more so in smaller communities.

“We can only change this by working together.”
Calgary’s border communities differ on mask mandates as cases rise

Two of Calgary’s border communities have enacted mask mandates in recent days as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations surge across the province.

Airdrie officials introduced a mask bylaw on Friday, with 239 active cases in the community as of Tuesday. Cochrane town council similarly enacted a mask mandate on Tuesday after hitting 15 active cases.

Both communities are now dealing with divided opinions among residents.

Cochrane Mayor Jeff Genung said the town’s social media accounts and emails have been flooded with positive and negative reactions from locals.

“While a mask might be an inconvenience, I’m not going to debate the science with people. Even if the mask just reminds them that we are dealing with a serious pandemic, then it’s doing its job,” Genung told Postmedia.

“To get through this we need to be more compassionate, kind and forgiving with each other. But, unfortunately, in a lot of cases, I’m seeing the opposite.”

The division is also clear in Airdrie. Almost half of the people who responded to the bylaw said they were against masks, said Mayor Peter Brown.

Unlike other border communities, the City of Chestermere has yet to mandate mask-use despite having one of the highest active case rates per capita of any region in Alberta. The community had 80 active cases on Tuesday.

“Masks are not currently mandatory across the province, but we are going to be revisiting the idea of implementing a temporary mandatory mask bylaw for Chestermere in the near future,” Mayor Marshall Chalmers told Postmedia, adding the city is “eager to follow all directives issued by the provincial health authority.”

While Albertans are encouraged to wear non-medical masks in public places, the province has not made face coverings mandatory to curb the spread of COVID-19.

— With files from Stephanie Babych and the Canadian Press



COVID-19: Alberta records 672 new cases, seven additional deaths

© Provided by Edmonton Journal For several weeks, Alberta has been climbing towards new daily records of COVID-19 cases.


Alberta has recorded 672 new active cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday.

Seven deaths were also reported bringing the province’s death toll to 383.

There are now 217 people in the hospital, up 10 from Tuesday and 46 people in intensive care, three more since Tuesday’s update.

Due to Remembrance Day, no other COVID-19 data was available from the province.

Deaths announced Wednesday include two women in their 80s and a man in his 70s, two of which are connected to outbreak sites in the Edmonton Zone, and a woman in her 80s connected to the outbreak at Spruce Lodge in Calgary.

Additionally, a woman in her 60s from the South Zone, a woman in her 70s from the North Zone and a man in his 90s linked to the outbreak at Mayerthorpe Extendicare in North Zone have died.

As of Tuesday, the Edmonton zone had the highest level of hospitalizations due to COVID-19 in the province. That same day Canada’s active case count was over 40,000 with a total of 10,632 deaths related to COVID-19.

Edmonton Public Schools Tuesday said that a single case at Mill Creek School, Northmount School, Elizabeth Finch School and S Bruce Smith School.

Edmonton Catholic announced two cases at St. Edmund School and a single case at Our Lady of the Prairies School, St. Francis Xavier School and Archbishop O’Leary School.

On Monday Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw said that Edmonton and Calgary need to reduce their daily infection rates to below 100.

“The rate of increase and rising hospitalizations are extremely concerning to me. We are assessing measures closely,” said Hinshaw on Monday.

On the same day, a group of Alberta doctors released an open letter to Alberta Premier Jason Kenney to implement a two-week “circuit breaker” lockdown expressing concerns over rising case numbers and how that will affect the quality of health care in Alberta.

Kenney has previously spoken against locking down the province for a second time but said if daily numbers don’t decrease the province would have no choice but to bring in more stringent measures.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there were a total 490,478 news cases reported globally in the last 24 hours bringing the world total to 51,251,715. Additionally, according to WHO, there have been 8,570 reported deaths in the last 24 hours bringing the cumulative death total to 1,270,930.

– With files from Alanna Smith and Dylan Short


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