Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw gave the provincial update on COVID-19 today (January 18)

She started by apologizing to health care workers who had felt singled out by her words last week when she encouraged those who are eligible to make appointments over the weekend, especially given the new information released today about the lack of supply of the vaccine in Alberta.

Hinshaw also echoed Premier Jason Kenny's comments from earlier today in regards to not having enough doses of the vaccine and having to cancel vaccination appointments. She says they are working to try and get all of those who are at risk vaccinated as soon as possible.

It's been one week since in class schools returned to in-school learning, Hinshaw noted there are currently 181 cases in 133 schools since classes resumed, she also said these were community-based transmissions and not in school transmissions. 

Some of the previous restrictions in place were lifted starting today and Hinshaw is happy to see numbers going down across the province but reminds us to keep doing our best to stop the spread, as we still have a way to go, "Please continue to take every precaution you can and make good choices, choices that will help reduce the spread of Covid-19, choices that will help save lives and our health care system and choices that will help lead us in a direction where we may be able to safely relax more measures in the weeks ahead." 

Another 474 new active cases have been found from approximately 8,500 tests in the past 24 hours, meaning the province's positivity rate sits at 5.4%.

Of these active cases, 739 people are in hospital with 120 in ICU. 11 more deaths were also announced.

Hinshaw stressed that Covid-19 is far more deadly than the flu, she shared data that shows over the past ten years, the total deaths per year due to influenza is 58 and 11 new deaths from COVID-19 in just the last 24 hours are equal to almost 20 percent of an average full year of influenza data and should not be taken lightly

Update to our earlier story below:

Currently, within the City of Airdrie, the number of active cases is down 3 and now sits at 145 with a total of 1,537 Airdronians having recovered from COVID-19. The number of Airdronian deaths from COVID-19 is 14.

The number of active cases in Rocky View County is 77 cases with 4 deaths and 701 recoveries.

Previous story:

The website is having technical issues and will be updated later today. We will update this story once local numbers are available.

The most recent information is from Saturday:

New cases totalled 717 coming from 12,439 tests performed. The total number of active cases is was 12,713, an increase of 524 from Friday's number.

In Airdrie the active case count was unchanged from Friday, remaining at 148. Three more recoveries were noted for a total of 1,520 and no more deaths were reported.

Rocky View County's active cases grew by eight to 86 while there were no more recoveries with that number staying at 686. There were no additional county deaths.

Fifteen more deaths brought the number of Albertans who have died to 1,417. Provincial hospitalizations fell from 796 on Friday to 765 Saturday with two fewer people being treated in intensive care with 122.

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