Alberta has confirmed 1,227 new cases of COVID-19 over the past day.

Those new cases are out of 16,284 tests which equates to a provincial positivity rate of about 7.6 percent.

There are now 14,217 active cases in the province (as of end of day Nov. 26) with 405 people in hospital and 86 of them are in the ICU.

There were also nine more COVID-related deaths, two of them in the South Zone and both reported in the MD of Taber.

This region confirmed 40 new cases of the virus in the past day and 17 of them were in Lethbridge.

The city how has 191 active cases.

Alberta’s Justice Minister Kaycee Madu was on hand for Friday’s daily COVID briefing to talk about enforcement of the new rules enacted this week.

He says depending on the nature of the infraction, fines could range from $1,000 to $100,000 through the court system.

Madu says the province is also increasing the number of peace officers who can hand out fines by 700.

He says if we want to protect vulnerable populations and the health care system, social gatherings need to stop, adding there will be fines for those who disobey.