Alberta’s chief medical officer of health will give an update Wednesday on the COVID-19 situation in the province.
Dr. Deena Hinshaw will speak at her usual time, 3:30 p.m., and her update will be live streamed in this post.
The update comes one day after the province announced it would be expanding its free self-isolation hotel program and financial supports to targeted communities in Edmonton and Calgary that are seeing high rates of COVID-19 transmission.
The province also officially started its rollout of its vaccination program Tuesday.
A respiratory therapist at the University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton and an ICU nurse at Calgary’s Foothills Medical Centre were the first people in the province to get the Pfizer vaccine.
On Tuesday, the province confirmed 1,341 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the province’s active case total to 20,849. With 16,353 tests done in the last 24 hours, the province’s positivity rate for Tuesday sat at 8.2 per cent.
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AHS hires more contact tracers
On Wednesday, Alberta Health Services confirmed to Global News it had recently hired 400 new staff to support contact-tracing efforts in the province.
That brings the current total to 1,100.
Before the pandemic, AHS had 50 contact tracers on staff. In July, that number was increased to 300 and in September it increased again to 700.
The agency said it plans to hire 500 more by the end of the year to reach a total of 1,600.
“AHS has continued to enhance our contact-tracing teams to meet demand,” AHS spokesperson Kerry Williamson said in an email Wednesday.
“We are rapidly increasing our response to the unprecedented volume of COVID-19 cases in the province.”
The province remains under strict restrictions meant to curb the spread of the virus, including a 15 per cent capacity limit for retail and grocery stores, as well as places of worship.
All restaurants, bars, pubs and cafes have closed in-person dining but can still offer takeout. All entertainment venues, recreation facilities, casinos, personal and wellness services have also closed.
Masks are now mandatory in all indoor public spaces and workplaces across the province, with the exception of farm operations and rental accommodations.
All indoor and outdoor social gatherings are also banned.
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