Five more people have died due to COVID-19, including three at the site of Alberta’s deadliest outbreak.
Three women in their 90s who were residents at Edmonton’s Good Samaritan Southgate Care Centre have died, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw said in a Tuesday update.
Twenty-four deaths have been reported in the long-term care home, making it the deadliest outbreak in the province. The facility has recently had 62 active instances: 42 citizens and 20 workers. Fourteen citizens and 12 workers have recovered.
Hinshaw expressed fear and condolences to those affected by the outbreak, and said he was pressured by the importance of collective action to prevent spread.
“Unfortunately, this virus spreads in close contact. Many recent instances and deaths in this epidemic were exposed weeks ago,” Hinshaw said.
Alberta Health Services has provided on-site staff and meets with facility leaders for outbreak management. Alberta Health spokesman Tom McMillan said citizens and asymptomatic staff undergo weekly testing, and a test is conducted with the first sign of any symptoms.
There are 61 active cases at Alberta’s continuing care facilities. To date, 865 cases have recovered and 146 facility residents have died.
The other two deaths reported Tuesday were a woman in her 70s from the Central Zone and a man in his 80s from the South Zone — neither of whom were linked to continuing care.
Meanwhile, 65 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in the province.
Two weeks ago, Hinshaw warned that rising daily case numbers should act as a wake-up call, but she said the most recent data is encouraging.
Recently, there are 1,191 active instances across the province, up from 1,430 active instances reported on July 27, when Hinshaw said “the curve is no longer flat,” and less than the total of 1,386 reported on Friday. Eighty-five more people are hospitalized, 23 of them in resuscitation.
The province will not provide updated figures over the weekend. AHS registered 97 instances on Friday, 67 instances on Saturday, 74 instances on Sunday. The figure for Monday, 65 instances, was reported on Tuesday, as daily figures reflect the number of new instances reported on the last calendar day.
“We have had a response from Albertans in general to follow more of the public health guidance than perhaps they were before,” said Hinshaw, who also noted positive reports of mask use.
Earlier on Tuesday, the province announced that the mask would be mandatory for students in grades four through 12 and for all school staff in non-unusual spaces when the categories are resumed in person. In preparation for September, Hinshaw said parents now teach their children to wear a mask safely.
The Misericordia Community Hospital, which connected to a total of 58 COVID-19 cases and 10 deaths, continues to function as a component of a “COVID-19 epidemic in a complete facility” with its emergency decomposition temporarily closed. No new instances similar to the outbreak have been known since July 17, according to the latest Covenant Health update.
Since the onset of the pandemic, 11,146 cases have been confirmed, 9,754 Albertans have recovered and 201 have died.
Across Canada, there were 117,792 cases of COVID-19 and 8,958 deaths, for Health Canada. Globally, there were 18,142,718 instances and 691,013 deaths for the World Health Organization.
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