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Alberta Health reports 341 new COVID-19 cases, 1 more death on Saturday

Click to play video: 'Alberta marks one year since province’s first COVID-19 case'
Alberta marks one year since province’s first COVID-19 case
Joel Senick takes a look back at some of the major milestones in Alberta’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic – Mar 5, 2021

Alberta Health confirmed 341 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday.

One more death was reported to Alberta Health in the last 24 hours: a woman in her 80s linked to the outbreak at Aspen House in the Edmonton zone. The case included comorbidities.

The province now has 4,649 active cases, 128,974 recoveries and 1,914 deaths.

As of Saturday, the Calgary zone has 1,659 active cases, the Edmonton zone has 1,154, the North zone has 958, the Central zone has 511 and the South zone has 353. There are 14 cases in unknown zones.

An additional 36 U.K. variant cases were confirmed Saturday, bringing the total variant cases to 599. Of that total, 589 are the U.K. variant and 10 are the South African variant.

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There are 247 people in hospital, with 42 of them in intensive care.

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The 341 new cases came from 8,142 tests, which equals a provincial positivity rate of 4.11 per cent, according to Alberta Health spokesperson Tom McMillan.

As of March 5, the province said 282,674 vaccine doses had been administered and 90,824 Albertans had been fully immunized.

Discarded personal protective equipment, gloves and masks, used for protection against COVID-19, in a parking lot in Calgary, Alta., on Wednesday, March 3, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS IMAGES/Larry MacDougal

COVID-19 is still a threat

Dr. Deena Hinshaw said Saturday that community transmission impacts everyone, and each person has a responsibility to prevent the disease’s spread.

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She explained that the number of active cases in school-aged Albertans has declined significantly since classes resumed on Jan. 11, showing that “health measures we have in place are largely effective at reducing in-school transmission.”

However, Hinshaw cautioned that COVID-19 is still very much a threat.

“When cases rise in the community, we see cases rise in younger people too,” Hinshaw said. “That’s why we all must do our part to keep COVID-19 out of schools. This includes making safe choices outside of school, during the hours before and after class.”

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