Everything you need to know about COVID-19 in Alberta on Wednesday, April 21

The latest COVID-19 numbers and restrictions:

• Alberta provided limited data Wednesday due to a technical issue, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the province's chief medical officer of health, said. Detailed updates are expected to resume Thursday.
• The province reported 1,699 new cases of COVID-19 Wednesday — with a positivity rate of 9.5 per cent — as the province continues to see case counts in the range seen last December during the height of the pandemic's second wave.
• Alberta's total active cases now sits at 18,873, up from 18,481 on Tuesday.
• About 43 per cent of the active cases were in Calgary, while a quarter were in Edmonton.
• More than 153,000 Albertans have recovered from COVID-19.
• The more dangerous and highly transmissible variant cases continue to surge and are now the dominant strains of the virus in Alberta, accounting for 59 per cent of total active cases.
• The province did not update hospitalization numbers on Wednesday. As of Tuesday, there were 476 people in hospital, 105 of whom are in intensive care. Five more people have died, for a total of 2,048 deaths.
• The provincial positivity rate is 9.5 per cent, and the R-value is 1.09.
• There were alerts or outbreaks at 567 schools —23 per cent of all schools in Alberta — with 3,208 cases in total. 

(Note the latest daily count of new cases in the above chart will usually vary slightly from the net new cases Alberta Health announces each day. For more on why, click here.)

The latest on vaccines:

• Hinshaw said on Wednesday, 35,785 more vaccine doses were administered bringing the total administered doses to around 1.23 million. As of Tuesday, 1,196,428 doses of vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca-Oxford) had been administered in Alberta and 239,277 people had been fully vaccinated. 
• On Tuesday, Premier Jason Kenney thanked eligible Albertans ages 40-55 for their overwhelming response in signing up to receive the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine, after an additional 575,425 people in that age group were made eligible to book on Tuesday.
• More than 65,000 Albertans had received AstraZeneca doses as of Wednesday — Alberta Health said that number increased by 20,000 in the last two days. 

• People wanting a shot can also book through the AHS online booking tool and through Health Link 811. Many pharmacies are also taking bookings, although some haven't received the vaccine.
• Alberta had 160,000 doses of AstraZeneca left as of late Tuesday and it's not yet known when the next shipment will arrive.
• Calgary's walk-in COVID-19 immunization site has moved to the Telus Convention Centre. Edmonton's mass clinic remains at the Edmonton Expo Centre. 
• The Alberta government announced Wednesday it plans to change employment standards to allow workers three hours of paid leave to get vaccinated against the illness.
• NDP Leader Rachel Notley had urged Kenney and the government to work with the Opposition to fast-track the legislation on Tuesday.
• Alberta officials say they are battling some hesitancy brought on by reports of extremely rare blood clots occurring in people who have received AstraZeneca, also known as Covishield.
• The risk of a blood clot is exponentially higher for people who become infected with COVID-19 than for those who receive AstraZeneca, Hinshaw has repeatedly stressed.
• About one in four people hospitalized with COVID-19 get blood clots, she said, while Canada has seen just two cases of blood clots associated with more than 700,000 AstraZeneca doses given out. 
• People are far more likely to experience blood clots from smoking, falls/injuries and other common occurrences.
• Conversely, AstraZeneca's first dose reduces infection by 60 to 70 per cent, and hospitalization and risk of death is reduced by 80 per cent. 

• Meanwhile, Phase 2C of the rollout of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines began on April 12, expanding to include 240,000 nurses, doctors, dentists and any health-care workers in patient care facilities or providing direct patient care in the community.
• Other groups in 2C — such as residents and support staff at congregate living facilities at risk for large outbreaks like correctional facilities, homeless shelters, meat-packing plants and group homes, and caregivers of Albertans at risk of severe outcomes — are expected to begin in the following weeks. 

Kenney urges all eligible Albertans to get vaccinated

4 years ago

Duration 2:09

Premier Jason Kenney is urging all eligible Albertans to get their COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible, even if it is not their first-choice vaccine. “This vaccine works,” he says of AstraZeneca.

The latest on more dangerous variants:

• There were a record 1,332 new cases involving variants of concern reported on Wednesday. Variants now comprise 59 per cent of all active cases. 
• As of Tuesday, there were 10,520 active variant cases, 8,026 people had recovered and 57 people had died from variant infections.
• Alberta had 18,390 cases linked to variant B117, first detected in the United Kingdom, 31 cases linked to variant B1351, first detected in South Africa, and 182 cases linked to variant P1, now spreading in Brazil.

The latest on restrictions and reopenings:

• On April 6, the Alberta government reimposed Step 1 restrictions, including closing restaurants and bars to in-person dining, lowering retail store capacity to 15 per cent and banning low-intensity group fitness activities.
• Communities on both sides of the Alberta-B.C. border are bracing for travel restrictions that the B.C. government says will come Friday.
• B.C. Premier John Horgan said Monday that travel restrictions would be in place through the Victoria Day weekend in May.
• Edmonton and Fort McMurray public and Catholic schools have shifted all students in grades 7 to 12 to online learning for two weeks, after Calgary public and Catholic schools did the same Monday.

See which regions are being hit hardest:

Alberta only provided limited data on Wednesday due to a technical issue, and said detailed updates would resume the following day. Here is the detailed regional breakdown of active cases as reported Tuesday by the province:

• Calgary zone: 8,098, up from 8,025 reported on Monday (60,065 recovered).
• Edmonton zone: 4,899, up from 4,887 (57,567 recovered).
• North zone: 2,543, down from 2,575 (14,881 recovered).
• South zone: 969, up from 938 (8,442 recovered).
• Central zone: 1,900, down from 1,930 (12,026 recovered).
• Unknown: 72, up from 69 (21 recovered).

You can see active cases by local health area on the following interactive map. Scroll, zoom and click on the map for more information:

Find out which neighbourhoods or communities have the most cases, how hard people of different ages have been hit, the ages of people in hospital, how Alberta compares to other provinces and more in: Here are the latest COVID-19 statistics for Alberta — and what they mean.

Here are the latest Alberta COVID-19 stories:

How Alberta compares to other provinces and territories: