With 3,203 active cases, Hinshaw said right now the province is at a critical point.
“We’re in a danger zone where the coming weeks will really tell that story about whether we are able collectively to bend that curve downwards by following all of that guidance that’s already out there, that’s up online,” Hinshaw said.
“Or if we start to tip the wrong way, and start to see our hospitals fill up, and impair our ability to do elective surgeries, impair our ability to offer services that our health-care system needs to be able to offer to others that are not COVID related. So we’re not yet again at that point where our system is not able to cope. But we are getting closer.”
Hinshaw continues to be concerned by the high number of cases of COVID-19 in the Edmonton Zone where additional voluntary measures to prevent spread of the virus were implemented almost two weeks ago. There are currently 1,607 active cases in the zone that includes the City of Edmonton and surrounding municipalities, or about 50 per cent of the province’s active cases. Over the last 24 hours, 147 new cases were identified in the region.
The City of Edmonton has 1,318 active cases or 129 per 100,000 people.
“There is some good news in Edmonton,” Hinshaw said. “The rate of growth has started to slow somewhat and the R-value (reproductive rate) in Edmonton has come down from 1.35 to 1.17.
“This is a good start but the bad news is anytime the R-value remains above one, the number of cases is still growing. We need to bring this value below one to reduce the burden on our health system.”
COVID-19 in schools
About eight per cent of schools across the province have one case of COVID-19 or have an outbreak of two or more cases, Hinshaw said, with 512 confirmed cases currently in these schools.
Ninety-six schools have an outbreak with 26 of those on the province’s watch list after five or more cases have been identified.
In Edmonton, J. J. Bowlen School declared an outbreak after a second case was confirmed on Monday.
Source: – Edmonton Sun
