EDMONTON, AB – Another 25 COVID deaths have been reported to Alberta Health Services in the past day.
Over the last 24 hours 1,413 new cases were confirmed out of 19,538 for a provincial positivity rate of about 7.4 percent.
There are 759 people in hospital province-wide and 141 of them are in the ICU.
However, Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw shared on Friday what she calls “some early positive signs.”
She says on Dec. 15, there were 1,286 new cases of COVID-19 which is the lowest daily total since Nov. 26.
Hinshaw also says the province currently has 19,607 active cases of the virus – the lowest active case count since Dec. 5.
And, she says while the provincial positivity rate fluctuates on any given day but is on a downward trend from the record high 10.97 percent seen on Dec. 3.
Hinshaw warns though, that the number hospitalizations and ICU admissions will continue to increase in the coming weeks as these are lagging indicators.
This means it takes several weeks for changes in case counts to be reflected in the acute care system.
In the South Zone there were 29 new cases of COVID-19 reported in the past day and one additional death in Medicine Hat.
Lethbridge added six new cases but its active case count declined by 14 to 182.
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