Alberta reports 465 new cases of COVID-19, 197 variant cases

The day after the province announced it would delay a move to Step 3 of itsreopening plan, Alberta reported a rise in hospitalizations and a new daily high for COVID-19 cases identified as highly infectious variants of concern.

The province announced 465 new cases of COVID-19 Tuesday, bringing the provincial total to 1,971, along withthree new deaths from the illness.

A total of 197 new variant cases were also detected 195 cases of the B117 variant first identified in the United Kingdom, and two cases of the P1 variantfirst detected in Brazil.

The province currently has1,127active variant cases, representing slightly more than 18 per cent of the total active cases in Alberta.

• Alberta plans to hand out another 2M free COVID-19 rapid test kits

There were 290people in hospital across Alberta on Tuesdayincluding 52inintensive care. Hospitalizations increased by 10 from the previous day.

On Monday, Health Minister Tyler Shandro said the provinceexpects to have 300 people in hospital within a week.

Alberta has almost reached the half-million mark for COVID-19 vaccine doses administered. As of end of day Monday,497,280 doses of vaccine have been administered.So far, 93,681 Albertans have been fully immunized with two doses.

Tuesday's update reported 6,321 active cases of COVID-19.The regional breakdown of those active cases is:

• Calgary zone: 2,724
• Edmonton zone: 1,378
• South zone: 800
• North zone: 740
• Central zone: 578
• Unknown: 11

The next COVID-19 update with Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta's chief medical officer of health, is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.