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Two more COVID-19 deaths in Red Deer, as active cases rise slightly

Five of the 11 additional deaths reported Friday were in the Central zone
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Red Deer has 785 active cases of COVID-19. (Black Press file photo)

Alberta reported 11 new deaths from COVID-19, five of which were in the Central zone.

Three of the deaths were men in their 70s, one was a man in his 80s and the other was a man in his 90s. Overall, 2,622 people have died from the virus in Alberta since the start of the pandemic.

Two of those new deaths were in Red Deer as active COVID-19 cases jumped slightly Friday.

The city reported 18 more cases Friday and sits at 785 active, the third-highest total in the province. Red Deer has 7,557 total cases, with 6,715 recovered and 57 deaths.

In Red Deer, about 63.2 per cent of the eligible population has one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 55 per cent are fully vaccinated.

Provincially, 82.3 per cent of eligible Albertans have at least one dose and 73.4 per cent are fully immunized.

Those positive provincial vaccination numbers come as Alberta reported 1,651 new cases of the virus Friday, on 16,848 tests for a test positivity rate of about 10 per cent.

About 25 per cent of new cases are in individuals who are fully vaccinated and 69 per cent are unvaccinated individuals.

The province has 20,040 active cases of the virus, with 1,061 people in hospital, including 243 in intensive care. Of the more than 1,000 people in hospital, 804 are unvaccinated and 220 are fully vaccinated.

Nearly 3,400 kids under the age of 20 have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since Sept. 23, about 40 per cent of Alberta’s cases over the past seven days.

Alberta Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw said Thursday that the province is still not reconsidering how they report COVID-19 cases in schools.

“Schools are a location that we have looked at the evidence from other jurisdictions, our own evidence from our previous pandemic experience and what other provinces have reported,” she said.

“What we see is that large scale transmission is not common, that schools are impacted by community transmission, but are not locations that drive community transmission outwards.

“Our current framework that does not require mandatory quarantine or does not require close contact tracing, means that disclosure of individually identifying health information, as would happen if individual case notifications would happen in schools, would be a violation of an individuals privacy and their rights under the health information act.”

The Central Zone sits at 3,716 active cases, with 189 people in hospital, including 25 in the ICU.

According to geospatial mapping on the government’s website, Red Deer County has 348 active cases, Clearwater County has 304, Lacombe County has 211, Mountain View County has 157, Stettler County has 153, the City of Lacombe has 139, Sylvan Lake has 140 and Olds has 89.

Wetaskiwin County, including Maskwacis, has 247 active COVID-19 cases, while Rimbey, including West Ponoka County and partial Lacombe County, has 128 and Ponoka, including East Ponoka County, has 104.

The City of Camrose has 87 active cases, Kneehill County has 87, Camrose County has 42 and Drumheller has 30.