Weekend COVID-19 statistics reported by the province showed 86 new cases diagnosed in St. Albert since Friday with 55 more people recovering.
One death that had originally been reported for St. Albert has been reclassified elsewhere, bringing the total number of COVID-19 deaths the province has reported so far for the city to nine.
St. Albert currently has 391 active cases of COVID-19. So far, 1,025 people have recovered since the pandemic began.
In Sturgeon County, there are 95 active cases with 384 recovered and a total of 480 cases officially diagnosed by Alberta Health since the beginning of the pandemic.
Morinville has 89 active cases with 175 people having recovered. The town has seen a total of 267 total cases diagnosed since the beginning of the pandemic.
Across Alberta, the province reported Monday there were 1,240 new cases diagnosed in the past 24 hours. Some 18,300 tests were conducted with a positivity rate of 6.8 per cent.
There are currently active alerts or outbreaks in 448 schools in Alberta, or 19 per cent of all schools. There are 1,992 cases linked to these schools.
Currently, 795 people are in the hospital with 151 in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
In the past 24 hours, there have been nine more deaths reported in the province from COVID-19.
Alberta Chief Medical Officer of Health Deena Hinshaw clarified the rules around outdoor activities and said activities where you come within two metres of one another, including any form of hockey or shinny, is not allowed.
Hinshaw said skating can take place but only as long as people from different households are more than two metres apart.
Hinshaw said with Christmas coming up, we must continue to stay vigilant and follow all COVID-19 rules in place.
“We must not relax our guard or gather with friends or families outside our households. We know celebrations can quickly turn to outbreaks,” Hinshaw said.
Alberta’s top doctor is asking all travellers from the United Kingdom that have arrived in the past two weeks to get tested for COVID-19 immediately and said any travellers who arrived through the border rapid testing pilot project must quarantine, due to a new possible genetic variant of the virus that causes COVID-19.
Hinshaw said the virus appears to be more easily transmitted and that while the genetic variant is not fully confirmed, there is sufficient evidence to prompt action.
Vaccines, testing and health guidelines will still work against this new strain and Hinshaw said it is not uncommon for new strains of viruses to emerge from time to time.
Hinshaw called on the province to have compassion for those arriving from the U.K.
“These individuals have done nothing wrong. Getting tested does not mean they are automatically at risk,” Hinshaw said.
