by The average of new cases reported in one day had decreased for the second week in a row. That message was communicated to Alberta Health Services employees in a memo from president Dr. Verna Yiu and senior medical officer of health Dr. Laura McDougall on Thursday.
There was an average of 1,273 daily new cases for the six-day period ending Dec. 22, compared to 1,587 cases the previous week (Dec. 10 to 16), a 20 per cent decrease. There were still more than 1,000 daily new cases during this six-day period, reads the letter, noting the average only included six days because of the holidays.
The total number of active cases in the province also decreased each day over the past week, and every zone reported a drop of active cases.
The memo also says AHS has created a new temporary lodging program to support staff and doctors who are willing to pick up extra shifts for the COVID-19 response effort, and for those frontline staff who work overtime and travelling back-and-forth would not be safe or limits availability, among other circumstances.
Health Canada data from Wednesday shows Alberta is now behind Ontario and Quebec in active cases of COVID-19. Alberta led the countrys active cases for weeks despite the provinces significantly lower population.
On Wednesday, 1,301 more cases were reported and 19 deaths, bringing the death toll to 890 in Alberta. There were 17,821 active COVID-19 cases province-wide with 8,427 in the Edmonton Zone, the highest of any Alberta health region. Hospitalizations were at 821, including 146 in ICU.
All indoor and outdoor social gatherings are currently prohibited in Alberta, however single people have been given an exemption to attend one holiday event between Dec. 23 and Dec. 28. Households can host two single people during that period.
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