The province reached a milestone on Saturday, with the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations falling below 500.

This is encouraging news as we enter the month of June and a possible move to Stage 2 of easing of restrictions on June 10.

Last week, officials announced that a move to Stage 2 is dependant on a hospitalization benchmark of fewer than 500, given that 60 per cent of Albertans are now vaccinated.

Over the weekend Dr. Deena Hinshaw took to Twitter to encourage Albertans to keep the momentum going. "Our case numbers continue to decline so please keep making good choices," says Hinshaw. She added that our current actions will affect our numbers in the days and weeks to come.

Over the last 24 hours, 391 new COVID-19 cases have been identified with a positivity rate of  6.1 per cent. Of those, 209 cases are Variants of Concern.

There are currently 446 people in hospital including 138 in intensive care. Sadly, five new deaths were reported over the past 24 hours.

Less than one week ago Cochrane reached a pivotal point with less than 100 active COVID cases. Those numbers continue to trend significantly downward to our current active case count of 29.

Rocky View County also reached a turning point over the weekend, with active cases falling to the double digits for the first time in months. The county now accounts for 92 active cases of COVID-19.