Alberta recorded 1,136 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday and five additional deaths from the disease.
A total of 679 new variant cases of concern were identified on Monday.
Variants now make up about 51.3 per cent of all active COVID-19 cases in the province.
The total number of active cases of COVID-19 has risen to 14,849 in Alberta. Of those, 6,802 are in the Calgary zone, 3,688 are in the Edmonton zone, 1,970 are in the North zone, 1,311 are in the Central zone, 949 are in the South zone and 129 are not linked to any particular zone.
In the last 24 hours, Alberta labs completed about 12,300 tests. The province’s positivity rate is 9.1 per cent.
Four of the five deaths reported to Alberta Health in the past 24 hours were in the Edmonton zone. A man in his 50s, a woman in her 60s and a man in his 70s, all with comorbidities died. A woman in her 70s with no known comorbidities also died.
A woman in her 80s linked to the outbreak at The Hamlets at Red Deer in the Central zone also died. Her case included comorbidities, according to Alberta Health.
Alberta’s death toll from COVID-19 has now hit 2,018.
As of April 11, Alberta had administered 932,258 doses of COVID-19 vaccine, and 176,941 Albertans had been fully vaccinated with two doses.
Monday also marked the opening of rapid flow-through COVID-19 vaccination sites at the Edmonton Expo Centre and the Telus Convention Centre in Calgary. Premier Jason Kenney announced earlier Monday that both sites would be open by appointment only, offering the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to those 55 to 64 years old.
Calgary’s site proved particularly popular, with people lined up out the doors and down the street.
Kenney once again reiterated Monday that Alberta is in a race between variants and the vaccine, with the variants currently taking the lead.
“Right now, the variants are winning that race,” he said.
“The third wave is hitting us hard and cases continue to rise sharply.”
The premier said Alberta’s COVID-19 numbers are going up “at a pretty alarming pace,” and on track to hit 2,000 average daily cases in the near future, and 20,000 active cases.
“Based upon the active case to hospitalization ratio, that would imply about 500 to 600 people in hospital.”
On Monday, there were 390 people in hospital with COVID-19, 90 of whom were being treated in intensive care.
Alberta Health said Monday that 47 per cent of hospitalizations are people with variants of concern.
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