Alberta reports 430 new cases of COVID-19 and 13 more deaths

Alberta reported 430 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday and 13 more deaths from the illness.

Across the province there were 4,545 active cases, with 307 patients being treated in hospitals, including 56 in ICU beds.

The 13 deaths reported Wednesday by Alberta Health were confirmed over the past 24 hours — five happened in December, six in early January and one in early February. One death happened on Monday.

Three of the deaths were linked to outbreaks at seniors homes or continuing-care centres.

Laboratories completed 9,467 tests over the past 24 hours, with a positivity rate of about 4.6 per cent.

As of Tuesday, 186,572 doses of vaccine have administered.

Public health officials reported another 22 cases of a more-contagious variant of the coronavirus first identified in the United Kingdom. A total of 316 cases of variant B.1.1.7 has now been identified in Alberta, along with seven cases of variant B.1.351, first identified in South Africa.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the province's chief medical officer of health, posted on Twitter about a new health order aimed at protecting residents in long-term care or supportive living settings from coronavirus variants. The new order puts in place stronger outbreak protocols in supportive living, long-term care and hospice sites if a variant case is detected.

Full details on the new health order are available online.

The regional breakdown of active cases was:

• Calgary zone: 1,564
• North zone: 942
• Edmonton zone:  925
• Central zone: 759
• South zone: 353
• Unknown: two

A total of 1,866 people have now died from the illness in Alberta since the pandemic began last March.