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Chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw also announced one new variant case, bringing the province’s total to 104 since mid-December.
Of those, 97 have been cases of the COVID-19 strain first identified in the U.K., along with seven of the strain first identified in South Africa.
“I know there are concerns about one of these more contagious variants becoming the dominant strain in the province,” said Hinshaw, noting that the variant cases represent very few of Alberta’s total cases.
“Variant cases made up a quarter of a per cent of all the cases identified from Dec. 15 onward,” she said.
“So far, variants are still very rare and we are working hard to keep it that way.”
On Monday, Alberta loosened restrictions for some industries, including restaurants and fitness centres. But Hinshaw said the province hasn’t set benchmarks specifically related to variant cases that would determine the pace at which restrictions are loosened or tightened.
“The important thing we are watching closely is how our cases are trending; whether our cases are declining, whether they’re starting to rise,” she said.
“If we start to see more variants, there is of course a greater risk that our cases may start to rise, but there is no specific variant benchmark because what is most important is that we keep our COVID cases trending down.”
With variant cases escalating across Canada, provincial governments lifting lockdown restrictions should be ready to reinstate them at a moment’s notice, chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam said earlier in the day.
