190 new confirmed COVID-19 cases in Alberta, 3 new deaths

In the last 24 hours, Alberta Health has confirmed 190 new COVID-19 cases in the province, bringing Alberta’s total to 5,355. Of those, 2,161 people have recovered.

Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, provided the updated figures Thursday afternoon. She also reported an additional three deaths.

Two of those – a man in his 80s and a man in his 90s – were at the Agecare Sunrise Gardens assisted living facility in Brooks, Alta. The other was a woman in her 90s from the Edmonton zone.

However, Alberta’s death toll has only climbed by two to 89 because Hinshaw said a previous death thought to be related to COVID-19 turned out to be unrelated.

“Each of these lives matters. The clarification provided about the counts is simply due to our commitment to transparency, but it is not meant to imply some deaths matter more than others,” she said.

To date, there have been 148,937 COVID-19 tests performed in Alberta, with 5,051 tests being done in the last 24 hours.

As of Thursday, there have been 908 cases at the Cargill meat plant, with 631 of those people having recovered. As for the JBS Plant in Brooks, there have been 333 confirmed cases to date.

“While we continue to work to prevent transmissions in these outbreaks, we have seen low numbers maintained in most of the province,” Hinshaw said. “We cannot let up on outbreak control, but we can celebrate to what we have accomplished.”

Also at Thursday’s news conference, Premier Jason Kenney provided the plan to reopen the province. There is a three-stage approach that Kenney said is being driven by the numbers reported in the province.

Hinshaw warned Albertans that just because a relaunch plan has been released, it doesn’t mean it’s time to relax the rules that were brought into place as the pandemic hit Alberta.

“Our fight is far from over, we must continue to use common sense to protect each other and help prevent the spread,” she said.

“Today’s the beginning of the next phase of protecting each other and we will continue to need each other more than ever in the days ahead.”

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Hinsahw encourages Albertans to continue washing their hands, maintaining physical distance and to stay home if they’re feeling unwell.