Alberta sees 257 new COVID-19 cases, 35 new variant cases

The site to book immunizations online will be down briefly on Wednesday morning.

Tuesday afternoon, Dr. Deena Hinshaw announced the web-based booking tool for COVID-19 immunizations will be unavailable from 2-4 a.m., to allow for upgrades to improve capacity.

“The time frame for the upgrade was chosen to cause the least disruption to the online booking process for Albertans,” the chief medical officer of health said.

“Access to Health Link 811 will not be affected and remains readily available.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Access to Health Link 811 will not be affected and remains readily available."

Hinshaw also announced that 257 new cases of the novel coronavirus had been detected in the province. With 5,864 tests completed in the past 24 hours, the resulting positivity rate was 4.5 per cent.

1:18 Alberta identifies 257 new COVID-19 cases, 2 more deaths related to the disease Tuesday

The province counted 35 new cases of COVID-19 variants, pushing the variant total to 492. COVID-19 hospitalizations in the province are at 261, with 51 Albertans in ICU.

More than 245,000 vaccine doses have been administered, with 88,000 Albertans receiving two doses for full immunization.

Two more deaths in Alberta were linked to COVID-19 in the past day.

A man in his 80s connected to the outbreak at Symphony Senior Living Aspen Ridge died in the Central zone, and a woman in her 40s died in the North zone.

Hinshaw also said Alberta could follow B.C.’s lead in delaying the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine for four months, longer than the manufacturer recommends.

3:47 Hinshaw clarifies COVID-19 restrictions for fitness facilities in Step 2

“We need to make sure that we’re keeping up with that emerging evidence and one of the things that’s really encouraging that is coming out of real-world experiences with using the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, is seeing high levels of protection from the first dose that lasts for several months,” she said.

Alberta’s top doctor said she and her team are looking at the best science and evidence, in combination with conversations from other health authorities across Canada, to make a decision on possibly delaying second vaccine doses.

“We expect that we will be making a decision soon on that topic.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We expect that we will be making a decision soon on that topic."

Hinshaw also said the province has not yet received its final allocation and shipment dates of the newly-approved AstraZeneca vaccines, but expects that information will be available soon.