ATHABASCA - The Athabasca region now has 105 active cases of COVID-19.
The Government of Alberta's geospatial map was updated this afternoon and now shows 105 active cases within the borders of Athabasca County, which includes the Town of Athabasca and Village of Boyle. Seven of those cases are in Boyle.
The active rate per 100,000 people is now at 803.2 — currently the highest in the province.
Athabasca mayor Colleen Powell posted to her personal Facebook page this afternoon, saying CAO Rachel Ramey has requested more testers be dispatched to Athabasca.
"Our CAO requested more testers for COVID, given the current numbers we are experiencing. This is part of the email she sent council — I just received a call from AHS indicating that they have now sent more help our way and opened up more appointments here, beginning tomorrow (April 2). I was also informed that if you are a close contact of a variant case that you require a second test 10-14 days after your contact. They will be making sure that there is extra staff around for when that requirement is expected to take place as well."
No variants have officially been confirmed in the region by AHS, but several parents and town residents have told the Advocate there is at least one case in the area.
Aspen View Public Schools reported 47 cases at Edwin Parr Composite School Tuesday, and communications officer Ross Hunter said he expects another media release with an update on the situation, but could not provide a timeline.
There are currently 417 schools in the province, about 17 per cent, on alert or that have outbreaks, with 2,024 cases in total. Outbreaks are declared in 143 schools, with a total of 1,458 cases. In-school transmission has likely occurred in 318 schools. Of these, 129 have had only one new case occur as a result, said a government media release this afternoon.
Over the last 24 hours, 875 cases have been identified in Alberta, bringing the total number of active cases to 8,653. There are 292 people in hospital— 59 of them in intensive care. There were also four more deaths, bringing that number to 1,994.
An additional 322 cases involving variants of concern were also reported today, bringing that number 4,377, but the number within the region is not publicly available.
A post on the Town of Athabasca's Facebook page this afternoon provided important information regarding variant cases, providing links to the government website.
Alberta Health information on the Variant
https://www.alberta.ca/covid-19-variants.aspx
Information on close contact including of Variant cases
https://www.albertahealthservices.ca/topics/Page17221.aspx
Information on Isolation for positive variant cases and close contacts of variant cases