CALGARY (660 NEWS) – It may feel longer but Friday marks one year since Alberta’s first reported case of COVID-19.
That case was a woman in her 50s from the Calgary Zone who became infected while aboard the Grand Princess cruise ship in California.
WATCH: First presumptive case of COVID-19 in Alberta
In the year since that positive case, over 134,000 cases have been confirmed with 1,911 deaths while 128,261 Albertans have beaten the virus.
Just days after that positive case was discovered, Alberta introduced its first of many series of measures to curb the spread of the virus by limiting indoor gatherings. Eventually, the province would order the closure of all non-essential businesses to flatten the curve.
Despite restrictions still in place for many sectors of the province and cases still popping up, Alberta’s top doctor believes there is light at the end of the tunnel.
“We are close, we just need to keep going until we have widespread immunization,” said Dr. Deena Hinshaw during a COVID-19 update on Thursday. “Until that happens, for just a few more months, we must continue to act as each other’s vaccine. By doing so we can help to contain the virus and variants of concern.”
As of Wednesday, 266,231 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered with the province recently announcing bookings for Phase 2A of the rollout program will begin Mar. 15.
The government is anticipating all Albertans who wish to receive their shot can do so by the end of June.
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Hinshaw said Albertans have stayed resilient throughout the entire thing and it’s paying off.
“We are so much closer to returning to a normal way of life than we were a year ago then even a few weeks back,” Hinshaw said. “We are in a very different place than we were in one year ago. We know much more about how the virus spreads, we have much greater testing and contact tracing capacity.”
In the latest update, Hinshaw confirmed 331 new cases of COVID-19 along with 33 of the B.1.1.7 variant. A total of 245 Albertans are in hospital with the virus with 77 in intensive care.
