Alberta reports 1,407 new COVID-19 cases over weekend as province tops 5,000 active cases

Alberta reported 1,407 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, compiling three days of data over the weekend.

The 1,407 cases were detected from Friday to Sunday:

• 392 cases on Aug. 15; 5,328 tests with a 7.47 per cent positivity rate
• 451 cases on Aug. 14; 7,159 tests with a 6,44 per cent positivity rate
• 564 cases on Aug. 13; 8,002 tests with a 7.16 per cent positivity rate

Active cases have now climbed to 5,354, an increase of 916 from the province's last update on Friday. The province last had more than 5,000 cases on June 4, as cases were trending downwards.

Here's how active cases break down across the province:

• Calgary zone: 1,989
• Edmonton zone: 1,431
• South zone: 765
• North zone: 759
• Central zone:  393
• Unknown: 17

The province reported that 1,215 cases of coronavirus variants of concern were detected. There are currently 4,354 active cases of variants in Alberta — about 81 per cent of the total.

Since early July, the highly infectious delta variant has made up most cases of variants of concern detected in the province.

There were 161 people being treated in hospital for COVID-19 as of Monday's update, an increase of nine over the weekend. Of those, 43 are in intensive care. 

Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta's chief medical officer of health, noted on her Twitter that of people admitted to regular hospital beds, 76.3 per cent were unvaccinated and 7.5 per cent partially vaccinated.

Of those in the ICU, 90.7 per cent were unvaccinated and 4.7 per cent were partially vaccinated.

As of Monday's update, 76.7 per cent of eligible Albertans have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 67.5 per cent have had both shots.

One additional death from COVID-19 was reported — an Edmonton zone woman in her 30s who died on Aug.15.

A total of 2,333 Albertans have now died due to the disease.