Alberta reported 105 new cases of COVID-19 Friday, bringing the number of active cases in the province to 859.
More than half of the active cases, 455, are of unknown origin.
On Thursday, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, blamed the high unknown rate on younger adults who attend larger social gatherings.
“I think this is a reflection of many people feeling that they are tired of the restrictions, they don’t want to be held back any more from interacting socially with their friends, from doing the things that they enjoy,” she said.
While new cases a few months ago had on average about six close contacts, recently new cases have 15 to 20 contacts during their infectious period, Hinshaw said.
Still the vast majority of deaths caused by COVID-19 are older adults.
That trend continued Friday with two additional deaths: a woman in her 80s linked to the outbreak at the Father Lacombe Nursing Home in Calgary and a woman in her 90s linked to the Good Samaritan Southgate Care Centre in Edmonton.
Of 167 people to die so far of the disease in the province, 121 are residents of long-term care facilities.
Currently 68 people are in hospital, 13 of them are in intensive care. So far, 8,193 people have recovered from COVID-19 in Alberta.
The regional breakdown of active cases on Friday was:
- Calgary zone: 385
- Edmonton zone: 213
- South zone: 99
- Central zone: 92
- North zone: 64
- Unknown: 6
Provincial labs have completed 566,972 tests.
