Three more COVID-19 deaths in province, 64 new cases reported over past two days

Alberta reported three more deaths from COVID-19 over the past 48 hours and 64 new cases of the illness.

The province did not update its COVID-19 numbers on Sunday, so the latest information released on Monday included statistics for the past two days.

The total number of deaths in the province has now hit 149.

The most recent deaths were a woman in her 70s, a man in his 80s and a man in his 90s, all of whom were residents at Extendicare Hillcrest in Calgary.

There are 355 active cases in Alberta, with 44 people in hospital, including six in ICU beds.

Six cases have now been linked to a Sofina Foods processing facility in Edmonton, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta's chief medical officer of health, said at a news conference on Monday.

Those six people and their close contacts are all isolating at home, Hinshaw said.

"With AHS's support, the facility has moved swiftly to implement all outbreak protocols," she said. "Site-wide employee testing is now being arranged, and we will continue to closely monitor the situation.

"These cases are part of a small jump in COVID numbers in Edmonton, some of which are related to ongoing spread from several social events where transmission happened over the past few weeks," Hinshaw said.

"The information that I have at this time is that one event had 10 cases, another had eight, and then from those two gatherings, again, it's sort of that outward spread from those who attended and then went on, unfortunately, to expose others."

Remain vigilant, Hinshaw says

There were 106 active cases in the Edmonton zone on Monday, up from 76 on Saturday.

Hinshaw said public health officials have recently seen examples of pockets of spread, suggesting that people think they can relax precautions as a result of the slowdown in cases.

"And I think that you know, whether it's complacency or whether it's the natural human tendency to only focus on what's right in front of us, I think that's why we need to always be reminding people that this is not over, that the low numbers are a result of the work we've done together, that COVID has not gone away.

The province's relaunch plans will be successful only if people continue to work together to make sure those numbers remain low, she said.

Since daily case numbers have declined recently in Alberta, Hinshaw said, people may be tempted to believe they no longer need to take precautions.

"Unfortunately, this is not the case. It is critical that all of us continue to take steps to protect our communities."

Protesters should get tested

Hinshaw encouraged all those who attended protests this weekend to go for COVID-19 testing, whether or not they have symptoms.

"Contact tracing would be extremely difficult in large crowds such as this, so please also be mindful of your actions in the coming two weeks. Pay particular attention to staying two metres away from others and wearing a face mask if that is not possible."

Hinshaw said she has reached out to organizing groups to see what steps could be taken to make future protests safer for participants.

"As we start to see small increases in cases in some of our communities, we need to think creatively about how we hold space for voices that need to be heard, while not risking the low case counts that we have collectively worked so hard to achieve."

Alberta laboratories have now completed more than 300,000 tests for COVID-19.

Asymptomatic test results

Testing has been made available to all Albertans, including those with no symptoms. Since May 12, Hinshaw said, 14,853 asymptomatic people have been tested, yielding only six positive results, she said.

Albertans can likely expect an announcement this week about updated plans for Stage 2 of the province's COVID-19 relaunch strategy.

Stage 2 had been set to begin on June 19.

But Premier Jason Kenney said last week that if the number of active cases continues to decline, his government may be able to speed up plans to move into that next phase of the relaunch.

Only seven new cases were reported on Friday, the lowest total since March 12. But on Saturday, that number jumped to 40.

More than 6,600 Albertans have recovered from COVID-19.