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UPDATE: Alberta declares COVID-19 outbreak at CNRL Horizon site

Last Updated May 13, 2020 at 8:22 pm MDT

IMAGE. Supplied by Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.

(EDIT: A previous version of this article listed the number of recoveries from COVID-19 at 5766 when the actual number is 5076. We apologize for the error.)

Alberta Health Services (AHS) confirmed an outbreak of COVID-19 at Canadian Natural’s Horizon facility.

Dr Deena Hinshaw, chief medical officer of health, said five confirmed cases have ties to the site.

According to COVID-19 response definitions, a site has an outbreak when there are at least five confirmed cases of the virus.

“When there are one or two cases at a particular worksite, that isn’t considered to be proof of transmission at that work site, and therefore, the public disclosure does wait until five cases where it does seem that there has been on-site transmission.”

This is the second confirmed outbreak at an oilsands facility in the RMWB.

To date, Kearl Lake confirmed links with 107 total COVID-19 cases over a six-week period.

Hinshaw said she is confident AHS and company officials can contain and reduce the spread.

“When you think about the thousands of people that go in and out of these work camps on a regular basis, I think that it’s a testament of work being done to reduce spread.”

She added they will extensively test all employees at the Horizon work camp.

Premier Jason Kenney also said oilsands industries in Alberta did an exceptional job with its pandemic response.

For 12 days in a row, the province reported no new cases of COVID-19 in the RMWB.

Over the last 24 hours, Alberta upgraded two active cases in Fort McMurray to resolved.

Fort McMurray has only one active case and 21 recoveries with two recoveries outside the urban service area.

Premier Jason Kenney announced the start of Stage 1 of the Alberta Relaunch strategy in many regions across the province.

IMAGE. Supplied by the Government of Alberta.

 

Restrictions remain in Calgary and Brooks in the short term to monitor trends in those hotspots.

READ MORE: RMWB experiences 11 days of no new COVID-19 cases

There were 62 new cases in the province to bring the number of the total number of COVID-19 cases to 6407.

Alberta reported 5076 recovered cases and 1211 active cases.

70 Albertans received hospitalization, including 11 who are in intensive care.

The province also reported two more deaths to bring the death toll to 120.

AHS completed 4072 tests over the past 24 hours for a total of 195,402.