What you need to know about COVID-19 in Alberta on Tuesday, May 26
Province delays plan to have 30% of surgeries privately performed by 2023
The latest:
- Thousands of potential layoffs in the Alberta health-care sector are on hold again as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. The new agreement reached this week among public sector unions and the province means bargaining won't resume until September, and job protection provisions will remain in place until then.
- The Alberta government is delaying its plan to move some publicly funded procedures to facilities run by private, for-profit companies, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- As of Monday, restaurants, bars and salons in Calgary can join the rest of the province in Phase 1 of reopening their establishments.
- Alberta confirmed 22 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday. There was one additional death, a woman in her 80s at JB Wood Continuing Care Centre in High Prairie, bringing the total deaths in the province to 139.
- There are 714 active cases in the province, 561 of which are in Calgary.
- There were three new outbreaks in the Calgary zone, at Ecco Recycling (five cases), a Walmart distribution warehouse (two active cases and seven recovered) and West Coast Reduction, which does food waste recycling (two active cases and five recovered).
- The Alberta government has scaled back the provincial COVID-19 news conferences it had been offering every weekday and is now only holding them on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
What you need to know today in Alberta:
Alberta will allow private businesses to buy personal protective gear, including masks and gloves, from the province at fair market prices until June 30, but after that they'll need to secure their own suppliers.
Here's the regional breakdown of cases on Tuesday:
- Calgary zone: 561 active cases, 4,123 recovered.
- South zone: 80 active cases, 1,146 recovered.
- Edmonton zone: 49 active cases, 462 recovered.
- North zone: 19 active cases, 200 recovered.
- Central zone: 3 active case, 95 recovered.
- Unknown: 2 active case, 22 recovered.
There are 45 people in hospital and five in intensive care. A total of 242,781 tests have been completed.
What you need to know today in Canada:
Quebec reported its sixth consecutive daily decrease in the number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 on Monday, as retail stores across the Montreal area reopened.
COVID-19 appears to be infectious for only the first eight days after patients experience symptoms, Winnipeg researchers conclude in a study.
As Brazil and India struggle with surging coronavirus cases, a top health expert is warning that the world is still very much in the middle of the pandemic, dampening hopes for a speedy global economic rebound
As of 10:40 a.m. ET on Tuesday, Canada had 85,998 confirmed and presumptive coronavirus cases, with 44,911 of those considered recovered or resolved.
A CBC News tally of deaths attributed to coronavirus based on provincial data, regional health information and CBC's journalism stood at 6,637.
Self-assessment and supports:
Alberta Health Services has an online self-assessment tool that you can use to determine if you have symptoms of COVID-19.
The province says Albertans who have returned to Canada from other countries must self-isolate. Unless your situation is critical and requires a call to 911, Albertans are advised to call Health Link at 811 before visiting a physician, hospital or other health-care facility.
If you have symptoms, even mild, you are to self-isolate for 10 days from the onset of symptoms.
You can find Alberta Health Services' latest coronavirus updates here.
The province also operates a confidential mental health support line at 1-877-303-2642 and addiction help line at 1-866-332-2322, available from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week.
Online resources are available for advice on handling stressful situations and ways to talk with children.
There is a 24-hour family violence information line at 310-1818 to get anonymous help in more than 170 languages, and Alberta's One Line for Sexual Violence is available at 1-866-403-8000, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.