Hospitalizations drop below 450 as Alberta records 4 more COVID-19 deaths

Alberta reported four more deaths due to COVID-19 on Sunday, along with 351 new cases.

Currently, there are 6,242 active cases in the province, down slightly from 6,266 reported Saturday.

Hospitalizations also dropped below 450 on Sunday, with 434 people in hospital with the illness, including 81 in intensive care unit beds. On Saturday, there were 457 people in hospital with the illness, with 84 in intensive care.

As active cases and hospitalizations continue to go down, the province will move ahead with the first round of eased COVID-19 restrictions, including limited school and minor sport training.

"Let's continue to make safe, responsible choices to help keep our cases and hospitalization numbers on their downward trend," said Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the province's chief medical officer of health, on Twitter.

While 450 was the number that hospitalizations would have to drop below to ease restrictions further, the next phase of Alberta's reopening plan would only kick in at least three weeks after the first stage, which begins Monday, Alberta Health said.

Provincial labs completed 8,241 tests as of end of the day Saturday for a positivity rate of 4.3 per cent, which was slightly higher than the positivity rate of 3.6 per cent from the previous day.

Of the four deaths reported Sunday, all of them were linked to outbreaks at continuing care centres, three in the Edmonton zone, and one in the Calgary zone. The deaths occurred between Jan. 4 and Feb. 5, bringing the totalnumber of deaths in the province since the pandemic began to 1,709.

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Here is how the active cases break down among health zones, as reported on Sunday:

• Calgary zone: 2,508 cases
• Edmonton zone: 1,889 cases
• North zone: 814 cases
• Central zone: 694 cases
• South zone: 318 cases
• Unknown: 19 cases

The number of doses of vaccine administered by the end of the day Saturday was 118,816, up 2,100 from the previous day.

The next live update by Hinshawwill be on Monday.