EDMONTON — Alberta’s chief medical officer of health is scheduled to deliver a COVID-19 update on Wednesday afternoon, a day after expressing concerns over rising variant cases and the province’s positivity rate.
Dr. Deena Hinshaw announced Tuesday that Alberta added 50 new cases of the B.1.1.7. variant over the weekend, bringing the total variant cases to 221.
As of Wednesday morning, Alberta’s known cases of the U.K. variant (214) represented more than a third of the total number of B.1.1.7. cases confirmed in Canada (618). Ontario has identified the most U.K. variant cases at 338 and British Columbia the third most with 40.
Meanwhile, Alberta’s total active COVID-19 cases dropped below 5,000 for the first time since October.
Despite that, the province saw the overall positivity rate hit the five per cent mark Tuesday for the first time in more than two weeks. Dr. Hinshaw said case rates were highest outside the main urban centres.
The briefing is set to begin a half hour later than usual at 4:00 p.m.
The premier is scheduled to make a pandemic-related announcement at 2:30 p.m.
You can watch both events at CTVNewsEdmonton.ca
