COVID-19 in Alberta: 60 new cases as province reports lowest daily increase in months

Alta. says Pfizer and Moderna are interchangeable The new recommendations for vaccines comes as Canada is reporting shipping delays of Pfizer. David Ewasuk reports.

Edmonton — Alberta reported its lowest new daily case count of the pandemic since last August as it added 60 new cases Monday.

It's the 12th straight day with under 200 new cases and the first time with fewer than 100 new cases since Oct. 2.

At the end of Sunday, 70.7 per cent of the province's eligible population had received at least a first dose of vaccine.

More than 1.1 million Albertans, just over 29 per cent of the province's eligible population have gotten a second dose.

There are now 214 COVID-19 patients in hospital including 56 in intensive care units.

Active cases fell to 2,003.

Two more Albertans were reported to have died: a man in his 50s and a man in his 80s, both in the Calgary Zone.

There have now been 2,292 COVID-19 deaths since the start of the pandemic, including 183 individuals under the age of 60.

The province added 33 new cases of variants of concern, including 27 of the Delta variant which now makes up 16.7 per cent of all variant cases since June 1 when screening of all cases resumed.

The province's reproduction value, a measure of how quickly the virus is spreading, remained mostly unchanged from last week at 0.75

Alberta reported a 1.76 per cent positivity rate and administered 2,800 tests.

Alberta is scheduled to begin Stage 3 of its reopening plan, which lifts almost all public health restrictions, on July 1.