Alberta confirms 1,516 new COVID-19 cases, 3 more deaths on Sunday

Alberta Health reported 1,516 new COVID-19 cases and three deaths from the disease on Sunday.

The province said the deaths involved a man in his 70s in the South zone linked to the outbreak at Trinity Reformed Church in Lethbridge, a man in his 60s in the South Zone and a man in his 70s in the Edmonton zone. All three cases included comorbidities.

The new cases came from 15,343 tests, which means a provincial positivity rate of 9.8 per cent, according to Alberta Health.

The government said 451 people are hospitalized, with 103 of them in intensive care.

The 1,516 new cases include 800 new variant cases. The active variant case total is at 9,768, representing 54.5 per cent of all active cases.

The province has 17,935 active cases, 150,820 recoveries and 2,040 deaths.

As of Saturday, the Calgary zone had 7,879 active cases, the Edmonton zone had 4,788, the North zone had 2,441, the Central zone had 1,849 and the South zone had 905. There were 73 cases in unknown zones.

As of April 17, Alberta Health said 1,147,048 vaccine doses had been administered.

Health officials said traffic has been increasing at Alberta’s two largest vaccination sites in Edmonton and Calgary.

There was a steady stream of traffic outside Edmonton’s Expo Centre Sunday, which is open for walk-ins for those aged 55 to 64. The AstraZeneca vaccine is available at the centre.

As of Friday, about 97,000 doses of AstraZeneca were administered in Alberta out of the 280,000 doses the province received.

On Saturday, Alberta chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw said discussions have been taking place about expanding eligibility for AstraZeneca to other age groups.

READ MORE: Alberta reports first AstraZeneca-linked blood clot

Alberta Health also announced Saturday a man in his 60s had the first confirmed case of a blood clot connected to the AstraZeneca vaccine in Alberta and the second in Canada.

The man’s identity was not released to protect patient confidentiality, but Alberta Health reported he is receiving treatment and is recovering after being diagnosed with a case of vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT) after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine.

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