Hinshaw says Alberta 'making progress' as she reports 474 COVID-19 cases

One week since students returned to class Monday marks one week since Alberta students returned to the classroom, and Dr. Deena Hinshaw says the virus isn’t spreading in classrooms.

EDMONTON — Alberta had a positivity rate of 5.4 per cent Sunday when 474 people out of more than 8,500 tested positive for COVID-19, its chief medical officer of health reported this afternoon.

A technical issue means the province will not update its COVID-19 data until later Monday, but Dr. Deena Hinshaw said there are 739 Albertans in hospital with the disease, including 120 patients in ICU.

Nine of the 11 deaths Hinshaw reported Monday are linked to continuing care facilities across the province.

There have been 181 confirmed cases of the coronavirus at 133 schools since in-person classes resumed last week.

“Over the last month, we have seen active cases, hospitalizations, ICU admissions and our transmission rate decline,” Hinshaw said. “This is a testament of the hard work and sacrifices of so many. At the same time, our numbers are still far higher than they were three months ago.”

She highlighted Alberta had just over 3,000 COVID-19 cases and 120 people in hospital then. Now, there are approximately 12,000 infections and six times the amount of patients.

“We’re making progress, but we’re not out of the woods yet,” Hinshaw said.