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Additionally, AHS confirmed the emergency department at Peter Lougheed Centre was placed on COVID-19 outbreak watch Wednesday, in what they called a “precautionary step” after six staff members tested positive.
The watch status was not publicly disclosed by AHS, as there has not been evidence of transmission within the department. AHS said Peter Lougheed remains a safe place to receive emergency care and added there are no concerns with staffing.
The decrease in daily case counts may be an early effect of public-health orders introduced in Alberta 10 days ago, Hinshaw said. Those measures banned all indoor and outdoor social gatherings in Alberta and introduced a provincewide mask mandate.
However, it will still be multiple weeks before the full impact of remaining restrictions, including closures of non-retail businesses, Hinshaw said. She added she was confident the ongoing plateau in case count along with full impacts of restrictions would be successful in reducing spread.
There are now 19,607 active cases of COVID-19 in Alberta, the lowest count since the first week of December. The Calgary zone now has fewer than 7,000 active infections, accounting for about a third of the province’s total.
But Hinshaw cautioned the current decline could be reversed if Albertans gather with people outside their households for Christmas next week, saying the province saw a notable spike in infections following Thanksgiving.
“Even though this is a plateau, our new cases numbers are extremely high, and if Christmas were to serve as an accelerating factor with this current case level, we could easily be well beyond 2,000 new cases a day within a few weeks after Christmas,” Hinshaw said.
“I’m asking all Albertans, stay the course. We need to make good decisions for each other, for our communities, for our families, for our loved ones and for ourselves.”
Twitter: @jasonfherring
