Cochrane continues to hold on to lower active case numbers with four active cases which is an increase of two over the weekend. Rocky View County has dropped from 38 to 31 active cases.

As for the province, Dr. Deena Hinshaw says, " You have heard me say many times that we need to achieve a balance between minimizing the risk of COVID 19 and minimizing the risk of harms of restrictions. This requires us to keep the spread of COVID 19 manageable. We have now crossed the tipping point and are losing the balance we have been seeking." The weekend's numbers tell the story clearly. On average 480 cases per day were reported over the weekend. 

  • Friday saw 364 new cases after over 16,000 tests 
  • Saturday over 17,000 tests identified 572 new cases, a provincial record  
  • Sunday 504 cases with nearly 12,700 tests performed 
  • There are 118 people in hospital with 16 in ICU 
  • Sadly, seven more deaths were recorded

Hinshaw says Alberta is in a crucial phase right now and need to reduce the rate of growth that is being seen in Edmonton and now in Calgary too.

One of the challenges of rising cases is it adds pressure to COVID response and one of those being affected is contact tracing. AHS is adding staff and working on new strategies. Hinshaw announced, "Effective today if a positive case attended an event while infectious AHS will now contact the organizer and provide them with written notification that can be directly emailed to all event attendees." Event organizers will be asked to send the email within 24 hours of receiving the notice. 

Hinshaw announced new public health measures for the cities of Calgary and Edmonton which sees a mandatory 15 person limit on all social gatherings in the two cities. It applies to gatherings where people are mixing and mingling such as dinner parties, birthday parties and other social events such as weddings and funeral receptions. It does not effect structured events such as dining in restaurants. 

Calgary is asked to take voluntary action to prevent spread by wearing masks in all indoor work spaces and reducing the number of close connections and limiting to three cohorts.