New COVID cases, hospitalizations see significant drop over weekend

Over the last 72 hours, the COVID situation in Alberta has improved significantly.

Since Friday, nearly 1,600 new cases were reported in the province, including a promising report for Sunday.

The breakdown for the last three days is as follows:

• 709 new cases reported on Friday;
• 515 new cases reported on Saturday;
• 368 new cases reported on Sunday.

In total, nearly 26,000 tests were completed since Thursday, giving the province an average positivity rate of just over 6.1 per cent for the weekend.

Of the new cases reported, more than 60 per cent are in unvaccinated Albertans.

The province also dropped below 10,000 active infections for the first time in nearly two months, with 9,481 active cases.

Meanwhile, 25 new deaths from COVID-19 were reported over the last three days.

This brings the province’s total death tally from COVID to 3,051.

As for hospitalizations, there are now 821 people in hospital, a decrease of 68 people from Friday’s update.

Of those in hospital, 182 are in the ICU.

When it comes to the vaccination status of those in hospital, nearly 70 per cent have yet to receive a shot, while 80 per cent of people in the ICU are also unvaccinated.

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To date, Alberta has administered more than 6.46 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine.

Of those 12 and older in the province, 86.6 per cent have received at least one dose of vaccine, while 78.9 per cent are fully immunized.