Alberta reports 1,433 additional COVID-19 infections Friday, 5 more deaths

Alberta reported 1,433 new COVID-19 infections on Friday, along with five additional deaths linked to the virus.

The province had a total of 23,873 active cases with 713 people being treated in hospital and 177 of them needing ICU care.

Officials also recorded 399 new cases of COVID-19 variants, bringing the total of variants in the province’s active cases to 6,389.

Each of the additional five COVID-19 deaths included comorbidities. They included three men in the Central zone: one in his 60s, one in his 70s and one in his 80s. A woman in her 90s in the Calgary zone and a man in his 80s in the Edmonton Zone also died.

2:41 Albertans now require COVID-19 mask exemption letter from medical professional

The Calgary zone had 11,367 of the province’s active cases. There were 5,278 active cases in the Edmonton Zone, 2,500 in the Central zone, 3,496 in the North Zone and 1,216 in the South zone. There were 16 cases not linked to a particular zone.

1:44 Has Alberta’s 3rd wave of COVID-19 peaked?

As of Friday’s update, 2,086,589 doses of COVID-19 vaccine had been administered to Albertans. Approximately 39.4 per cent of the population of Albertans have received at least one shot of vaccine.

On Thursday, Alberta Health announced anyone with a medical exemption to the province’s mandatory mask public health order would need to carry a letter of proof from a medical practitioner.