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The province announced 165 additional COVID-19 cases in the province, bringing Alberta’s total to 2,652 with one additional death in the Calgary zone.

Of the identified cases, 1,162 have now been confirmed as recoveries, a provincial news release said Saturday. There are currently 1,400 active cases in Alberta with 57 people in hospital, three less than the day before, and 14 people admitted into intensive care units.

A total of 450 cases are suspected to have been acquired through community transmission.

There were no additional details regarding the age or gender of the latest death that brings the provincial total to 51. Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, is not holding her daily updates this weekend.

Of all the cases in the province, 1,820 are in the Calgary zone, 433 are in the Edmonton zone, 137 are in the north, 77 are in the south and 76 are in central Alberta. Eighteen cases are not currently linked to a certain region.

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Calgary has been the hardest hit region in the province to date with 36 total deaths — including at least 21 at the McKenzie Towne Care Centre — followed by eight in the Edmonton zone, seven in the north region and one in the central portion of the province.

As of Saturday, there have been 293 cases and 32 deaths at long-term care homes. There were 34 long-term homes with at least one identified case of COVID-19 as of Friday.

Hinshaw announced Friday the province will now test all residents and staff at seniors facilities with an outbreak regardless of whether they are showing symptoms or not. She said the new measures will help the province paint a fuller picture of the outbreaks and help detect cases at an earlier stage.

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“We have put strong measures in place to limit the spread of infection at these facilities. We must do more,” said Hinshaw. “Given that we now know people who may be infected with COVID-19 can potentially spread the illness before they show symptoms, testing more residents and staff in continuing care facilities will help us prevent further infections.”

In the last 24 hours, there have been 4,092 tests completed at provincial labs, bringing the total to 96,897.

In addition to the long-term care outbreaks, a Cargill meat processing plant in High River, approximately 66 km south of Calgary, has been linked to 358 cases. Hinshaw has said the majority of that spread has been through close contact through households in nearby communities.

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Earlier this week, provincial and federal bodies announced they have released new protocols surrounding COVID-19 cases at food processing plants where there is an outbreak. Employers must now report all cases in their workplaces and once a case is brought forward, Alberta Health Services will investigate and decide what operations can continue as normal and what needs to be limited.

Hinshaw said Cargill has been fully cooperating and that a specialized outbreak team is now being put together to help track and control the spread of that outbreak.

An outbreak at the Kearl Lake oilsands work camp has now been linked to 12 cases across Alberta and an undisclosed number of cases in other parts of the country, Hinshaw said Friday.

In Canada, there are 32,412 total cases of COVID-19 and 1,346 related deaths, the latest numbers from Health Canada show. Globally, there are currently 2,160,207 confirmed cases and 146,088 COVID-19 related deaths according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

dshort@postmedia.com

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