While there were no reported deaths related to COVID-19 Saturday, Alberta saw provincial cases jump by 40, compared to just seven new cases the day before.
Active cases in the province now sit at 336, meaning there were eight more additional cases than recoveries since Friday. In total, 7,138 Albertans have been confirmed to have the disease and 146 people have died, the province said.
The Edmonton zone saw a significant rise in active cases in Saturday’s update. That zone now has 76 active cases, compared to 57 Friday.
The Edmonton zone’s recovered cases are now at 505, with one more recorded recovery than the day before. So far, 13 people in the Edmonton zone have died from the virus.
The Calgary zone now has 223 active cases, compared to 238 the day before. There have been 4,606 recoveries, which amounts to a gain of 30 recoveries since Friday. There have been a total of 107 deaths in the Calgary zone.
In other parts of the province, active cases now sit at: 18 in the South zone, 17 in the North zone, zero in the Central zone and two cases in an unknown zone.
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There are 29 active cases and 688 recovered cases at continuing care facilities; 112 residents have died, Alberta Health said.
The number of hospitalized Albertans remained unchanged since Friday, with 44 people in hospital and six of them in intensive care.
The province will not be providing an additional numbers update until Monday.
Alberta launches biorepository for COVID-19 samples
The province announced Friday that it had launched a biorepository program that will collect and store COVID-19 samples in special refrigeration equipment at two hubs: one at the University of Alberta and another at the University of Calgary.
The samples will be used in studies being led by Alberta scientists that focus on a variety of subjects, including drugs, antibody testing and genome sequencing.
The storage system has no risk to public health, according to the Alberta government.
“Research in how to test for, treat and prevent COVID-19 is essential to our healthy future,” said Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro in a news release Friday.
“I commend all the partners on collaborating to make this happen and I assure all Albertans that the biorepository poses no risk to public health.”
The project cost $300,000 and was built through a partnership between Calgary Health Trust, University Hospital Foundation, Alberta Cancer Foundation, Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation, Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation and the Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation.
Alberta Health Services and Alberta Precision Laboratories will fund operations and maintenance.