Everything you need to know about COVID-19 in Alberta on Monday, May 3

The latest COVID-19 numbers:

• Alberta Premier Jason Kenney announced Monday that teachers, child-care workers and school support staff are now eligible to be vaccinated.
• He also said an announcement on when all adults would be eligible for immunization would come soon.
• However, Kenney faced hard questions on Monday over whether he could have acted sooner — as the province is now facing the highest case numbers and positivity rates of the pandemic, and the highest in Canada or the United States.
• The premier says stronger health measures will be announced Tuesday.
• On Monday, Alberta again reported its highest total of active cases since the pandemic began, with 23,608 active cases.
• Alberta reported 2,012 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday. 
• The province's testing positivity rate is now 13.2 per cent, its highest ever. 
• The province has the highest active case rate in Canada and the United States, with 518 active cases per 100,000 people — more than twice that of the case rate of 252 in Ontario.
• There are now 658 people in hospital with COVID-19, including 154 people in intensive care. 
• Four more people have died, for a total of 2,090 deaths.

Former Alberta chief medical officer of health calls for hard lockdown in province

4 years ago

Duration 9:03

Dr. James Talbot says more restrictive measures to control the spread of COVID-19 should have been taken weeks ago. 'We've already lost ground. There's no more time to wait', he said.

• The latest R-value reported for the province was 1.12, significantly higher than last week's R-value of 1.04, meaning the virus is spreading to more people for each confirmed case. 
• The premier said Monday that Alberta has had stringent health measures in place and "that we can have, on paper, the hardest lockdown imaginable, and if a critical percentage of the population — a large share of the population — isn't following that, it doesn't matter."
• 171,212 Albertans have recovered from COVID-19. 
• Currently, 808 schools, about 33 per cent of all schools in Alberta, are on alert or have outbreaks. In-school transmission is believed to have occurred in 678 schools.
• Due to an increase in the number of Albertans in the Calgary zone requesting a COVID-19 test, it may take three to five days from the time someone makes a request to when testing occurs, AHS said last week.
• Alberta Health Services opened a temporary walk-up testing site in northeast Calgary on April 30. The site is located at the McKnight Westwinds Park and Ride lot, located at 6200 36 Street N.E.

(Note the latest daily count of new cases in the above chart will usually vary slightly from the net new cases Alberta Health announces each day. For more on why, click here.)

The latest on restrictions and reopenings:

• Alberta Health Services says it is exploring its legal options after hundreds attended a rodeo near Bowden, about 30 kilometres south of Red Deer, to protest COVID-19 restrictions. It took place on private land after the town's agricultural society revoked its permit.

Hundreds in Alberta defy public health orders as COVID-19 cases surge

4 years ago

Duration 3:22

Despite restrictions on gatherings in Alberta, hundreds defied the rules at protests and even a rodeo. Meanwhile, Premier Jason Kenney faces calls to take more action as he suspended the provincial legislature.

WATCH | Robb Stuart, the mayor of Bowden, Alta., tells David Common on Power & Politics that those who flouted health restrictions at a rodeo outside his town should be held accountable.

'This thing was so above and beyond what was expected'

4 years ago

Duration 2:08

Robb Stuart, the mayor of Bowden, Alta., tells David Common on Power & Politics that those who flouted health restrictions at a rodeo outside his town should be held accountable.

• On April 30, the provincial government implemented new public-health measures in hot spots across the province where there are more than 350 active cases per 100,000 people and at least 250 total active cases.
• The list of targeted communities includes Edmonton, Calgary, Fort McMurray, Red Deer, Grande Prairie, Airdrie, Lethbridge, and Strathcona County.
• All junior and senior high schools in the targeted communities will move to at-home learning starting May 3, though some had already shifted to online learning.
• Indoor fitness and indoor sports were shut down in these communities as of April 30.
• The mandatory restrictions will remain in effect for a minimum of two weeks, Kenney said. 
• People who are ticketing for failing to comply with health measures now risk being unable to renew their driver's licences or complete other transactions at registry services if they don't pay their fines, the premier also announced Friday.
• Alberta is cutting back scheduled surgeries in its two major cities and the northern part of the province to make room for a possible influx of COVID-19 hospitalizations.
• Alberta Health Services (AHS) said beginning April 27 and for the next two weeks, up to 30 per cent of surgeries in the Calgary, Edmonton and North zones would be postponed, as well as some non-urgent procedures and ambulatory appointments.
• On May 1, the province stopped screening all positive tests for variants of concern, in order to maintain required lab capacity for COVID-19 testing. Variant screening will now target populations with a higher risk of being infected with a variant, or a higher risk of spreading variant strains. Alberta Health Services said most people are receiving test results within 24 to 48 hours. 

The latest on vaccines:

• Albertans eligible in the rest of the Phase 2C and 2D vaccine rollout are able to book appointments as of April 30.
• Albertans in the final groups of Phase 2 include front-line disability workers and workers in group homes and other supportive living sites, workers at locations with potential for large outbreaks, police officers and provincial sheriffs, all Albertans aged 50 and older, and all First Nations, Métis and Inuit (FNMI) persons aged 35 and older.
• The province is also expanding the number of people eligible due to underlying health conditions. As of April 27, those born between 2006 and 2009 with qualifying conditions can book appointments for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
• Vaccination clinics began April 29 at two of Canada's largest beef-packing plants in southern Alberta. Both the Cargill plant, which is near High River south of Calgary, and JBS Canada in Brooks were hit hard by COVID-19 outbreaks last year.
• Alberta plans to vaccinate about 15,000 workers at all of the province's 136 meat-packing plants, using a combination of on-site and community locations. 
• Alberta is altering the COVID-19 vaccine eligibility rules for residents of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo and Banff — and will redirect a large shipment of COVID-19 vaccine to both areas.
• Calgary firefighters are now able to get COVID-19 vaccine shots after the city designated them as medical first responders.
• Alberta Health said Friday that the vast majority of doses of the province's supply of AstraZeneca-Oxford have now been administered or booked. Existing bookings will be honoured.
• The province had received about 270,000 doses which were all shipped to pharmacies and AHS for use. Ottawa has not informed the province of any future shipments.
• Alberta Health says there are still appointments available at some participating pharmacies. AHS walk-in clinics in North Zone, in both Fort McMurray and Grand Prairie, are open until Sunday.
• There are no appointments for AstraZeneca available through AHS via online booking or by calling 811. 
• 1,640,303 vaccine doses have been administered in Alberta, including Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca-Oxford.
• 301,398 Albertans have been fully immunized (2 doses).

The latest on more dangerous variants:

• On Saturday, the province stopped screening all positive tests for variants of concern, in order to maintain required lab capacity for COVID-19 testing. Variant screening will now target populations with a higher risk of being infected with a variant, or a higher risk of spreading variant strains. Alberta Health Services said most people are receiving test results within 24 to 48 hours. 
• Alberta announced its first COVID-19 case linked to the B1617 variant on April 22, the variant fuelling the case surge in India.
• There were 1,900 new cases involving variants of concern reported on Monday — the highest number of new variant cases reported in a single day.
• About 63.8 per cent of active cases have been identified as variants of concern, but not all cases are being screened for variants.
• There are 15,054 active variant cases, while 19,868 people have recovered and 92 people had died from variant infections.
• Alberta had 33,099 cases linked to variant B117, first detected in the United Kingdom, 106 cases linked to variant B1351, first detected in South Africa, and 1,808 cases linked to the variant P1, which was first identified in Brazil.

See which regions are being hit hardest:

Here is the detailed regional breakdown of active cases as reported by the province on Monday:

• Calgary zone: 9,942 active cases, up from 9,556 active cases reported on Saturday (68,006 recovered).
• Edmonton zone: 6,033, down from 6,088 (62,384 recovered).
• North zone: 3,478, up from 3,308 (17,506 recovered).
• South zone: 1,261, up from 1,216 (9,345 recovered).
• Central zone: 2,807, up from 2,677 (13,953 recovered).
• Unknown: 87, up from 75 (18 recovered).

You can see active cases by local health area on the following interactive map. Scroll, zoom and click on the map for more information:

Find out which neighbourhoods or communities have the most cases, how hard people of different ages have been hit, the ages of people in hospital, how Alberta compares to other provinces and more in: Here are the latest COVID-19 statistics for Alberta — and what they mean.

Here are the latest Alberta COVID-19 stories:

How Alberta compares to other provinces and territories: