On the same day Premier Jason Kenney announced Alberta would be moving ahead with Phase 2 of its relaunch sooner than expected, the province confirmed an additional 27 new cases of COVID-19.
As of Tuesday afternoon, there were 46 people in Alberta hospitals with COVID-19 and six of those people were in the ICU.
Lower than expected hospitalizations are one of the factors Kenney pointed to that he said allowed Alberta to introduce Phase 2 of the province’s reopening plan sooner than expected.
There have been two additional COVID-19 deaths since Monday, Alberta Health said Tuesday. That brings Alberta’s total number of COVID-19 deaths to 151.
As of Tuesday, there were 356 active cases of COVID-19 in the province and 6,272 people have recovered.
Edmonton is seeing a bit of a surge in COVID-19 cases. On Tuesday, there were 112 active cases in the Edmonton zone.
To date, Alberta has completed 303,689 COVID-19 tests.
When Kenney and Alberta’s chief medical officer of health announced Tuesday that the province was moving ahead with Phase 2 of its reopening plan, they said it would include some activities that weren’t expected to be included until Phase 3.
“We have made it to Stage 2 earlier than expected because we remained vigilant,” Dr. Deena Hinshaw said.
Stage 2 will begin on Friday.
The province also announced Alberta campgrounds would be opening at full capacity.