LETHBRIDGE, AB – A province-wide decline in active cases of COVID-19 Friday as well as declines in both hospitalizations and ICU admissions.
Active cases dropped by 245, hospitalizations declined by 10 and ICU admissions were down by 12.
There were 785 new cases reported out of 13,575 for a provincial positivity rate of 5.8 percent.
An 13 additional deaths were reported.
Here in the South Zone of Alberta Health Services there were 50 new cases and 16 of them were in Lethbridge.
The city’s active case count continues to creep up, going from 86 to 132 in one week (Jan. 7-14).
Cardston County also added 12 new cases in the past day and the number of active cases in that municipality has risen to 89 (from 36 on Jan. 7).
Across Alberta, 74,110 vaccine doses had been administered as of Thursday.
However, Health Minister Tyler Shandro announced on Friday there would be a temporary delay in vaccine shipments due to expansion plans at the Pfizer manufacturing facility in Europe.
He says Pfizer is temporarily reducing delivery to all countries that are receiving vaccine manufactured at its European facility, which includes Canada.
Shandro says deliveries will continue but the number of doses will be reduced and he’s waiting for more information from the federal government on how Alberta’s shipments will be impacted.
He says this supply interruption will delay the vaccination rollout schedule but that doses already in the province, and arriving in the coming weeks, will be given out as quickly as possible.
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