The province has provided the latest COVID-19 update.
Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, provided an update on the COVID-19 situation and the new Omicron variant in the province on Tuesday (Dec. 7).
According to Hinshaw, no new cases of the Omicron variant were identified in Alberta on Tuesday, although more are expected.
“Given our current aggressive testing program, it is likely we will continue to detect more cases and respond to them as we have to date,” she said.
She explained the province aims to slow the spread of Omicron to buy time and learn more about the variant, stressing the importance of following public health guidelines. The current case count remains at 11.
When asked whether the variant will affect Christmas plans, Hinshaw recognized that while making holiday plans is challenging in light of the uncertainty, they need more time to look at early trends and data, and a decision has not yet been made.
Hinshaw pointed to early evidence of the variant being more transmissible than the Delta variant but milder of an illness, particularly in vaccinated people.
The province reported 240 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday (Dec. 7). There are 373 people in the hospital and 76 in the ICU.
There are 4,105 active cases in Alberta.
Five new deaths were reported on Tuesday, bringing the total to 3,268 since the start of the pandemic.
A total of 6.99-million doses of the vaccine have now been administered. 89 per cent of Albertans over 12 have received at least one dose of the vaccine, while 84.4 are now fully vaccinated. 17.4 per cent of Alberta kids aged five-11 have now received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Local update
Here is the number of active cases in each area:
Strathmore: 15 active cases
Chestermere: 50 active cases
Wheatland County: 3 active cases