Twenty-five more St. Albertans were diagnosed with COVID-19 over the Easter long weekend and 19 more recovered from the virus, provincial data shows.
On Monday, the province's data showed St. Albert sitting at 110 active cases, up from the 104 reported on Thursday.
Sturgeon County added another 13 active COVID-19 cases over the long weekend, climbing from 27 on Thursday to 40 by Monday.
Morinville has 14 active cases, more than doubling the amount of active cases from Thursday, which was six.
Across the province, almost 4,000 new cases of COVID-19 were added over the long weekend, with 1,081 new cases recorded on April 1; 1,071 on April 2; 948 on April 3; and 887 on April 4.
Another 1,933 variant cases were found over the four-day period and an outbreak of the P.1 variant first identified in Brazil was announced. Some 39 per cent of active cases are now variants.
The P.1 outbreak started from a traveller returning to Alberta from outside of the province and three work sites across the province have been impacted, Alberta Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw wrote Monday on Twitter.
Hinshaw said the spread was confined to three work sites in the Central and North zones where employees travelled between sites. Between the three sites, 26 cases of COVID-19 have been identified, with three cases identified as the P.1 variant, but Hinshaw said they expect more cases of the variant to emerge as they continue to screen COVID-19 samples.
A separate and unrelated P.1 outbreak was identified at a workplace in the Calgary zone, with five COVID-19 cases associated with it and one confirmed case of the P.1 variant.
“I am concerned about the rising cases, including variants, in our province. Please keep making safe choices and limit in-person interactions whenever possible to help prevent the spread of COVID-10 province-wide,” Hinshaw stated in a tweet.
On Monday, the province had a positivity rate of 9.9 per cent with 9,102 tests completed. There are 312 people currently in the hospital with 76 in intensive care.
Over the weekend, the province learned of four new COVID-19-related deaths.
There are 10,582 active cases in the province.
