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721 new COVID-19 cases, five additional deaths reported Monday

Central zone has 2,183 active cases
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The Government of Alberta identified 721 new COVID-19 cases Monday.

There are now 21,288 active cases of the virus in the province, to go along with the 196,246 recovered cases.

Five new deaths, including a man in his 80s in the Central zone, were reported Monday. The provincial death toll is now 2,148.

Every area of Alberta is struggling to contain the virus, said Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health on Monday.

She said Alberta’s average positivity rate for the last seven days is 10.7 per cent.

“That is near the highest point it has ever been in this pandemic and rates in every zone have been increasing over the past several months,” she said.

“We are starting to see the beginning of the impact of new public health measures. In the last week, positivity rates have remained stable or even decreased slightly in many zones – unfortunately, except for North zone.”

The City of Red Deer has fallen to 655 active cases, which is 48 fewer cases than Sunday, according to an interactive map featuring regional active cases on the provincial government’s website.

With that setting, Red Deer County has 184 active cases, Lacombe County has 143, the City of Lacombe has 102, Sylvan Lake has 114, Mountain View County has 69, Olds has 59, Clearwater County has 76 and Stettler County has 72.

The City of Wetaskiwin has 71, Wetaskiwin County has 37, Ponoka County has 142, the City of Camrose has 73 active cases, Camrose County has 16, Kneehill County has 30, Drumheller has 18 and Starland County has none.

Overall the Central zone has 2,183 active cases, while the Calgary zone has 9,912, the Edmonton zone has 4,930, the North zone has 3,192 and the South zone has 1,039. The locations of 32 active cases are unknown.

Provincially, 678 people are currently hospitalized by COVID-19, with 181 of those individual in an intensive care unit. In the Central zone, 64 are hospitalized – 12 of those individuals are in an ICU.

The government announced drive-in events are now allowed in Alberta.

Hinshaw urged Albertans to take the virus seriously.

“As was said last year, we don’t need to fear COVID-19, but we must respect it. I urge Albertans to be thoughtful and appropriately critical of what you see on any social media or other platform.

“Take a moment to asses the accuracy and consider the source of any information that you read before you believe it or pass it along. Look for information from a reputable source, which ideally can be confirmed by multiple other reputable sources. By doing so you will help stop the spread of misinformation and help keep us all safer.”



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Sean McIntosh

About the Author: Sean McIntosh

Sean joined the Red Deer Advocate team in the summer of 2017. Originally from Ontario, he worked in a small town of 2,000 in Saskatchewan for seven months before coming to Central Alberta.
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