Alberta Health puts northeast Edmonton in 'watch' category as active COVID-19 cases spike

A drive-thru COVID-19 test centre in Calgary. (Credit: Alberta Health Services)

EDMONTON — Alberta health officials are keeping a close eye on northeast Edmonton as COVID-19 continues to spread in the municipal district.

The province is tracking COVID-19 cases in every municipal district through an interactive map and classifying them in three different categories: enhanced, where there are additional measures in place; watch, where cases are above the threshold but there are no additional measures; and open, where there are no additional measures.

"If a local municipal district has 50 active cases per 100,000 population with at least 10 active cases, we move it into the watch category," Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta's chief medical officer of health, said last week. "This simply means that public health will work with local public health officials and municipal officials to see if we need to implement additional measures to prevent spread."

Northeast Edmonton, with a population of 88,901, currently has 45 active cases of the coronavirus, which accounts for a 50.6-active case rate per 100,000 residents.

"It's important that this list is simply an indicator that health officials need to take a closer look of what is going on," Hinshaw said Tuesday.

The City of Edmonton now has more active infections than Calgary, with 226 and 215, respectively. However, the Calgary Zone has nine more cases as a whole than the Edmonton Zone with 245.

Clear Hills County, located approximately 650 kilometres northwest of Edmonton, is the only other Alberta municipal district under the watch category.

With a population of 2,998, the county has 10 active cases — a 333.6-active case rate.

There are no municipal districts under the enhanced category.