Two more deaths, 106 new cases of COVID-19 in Alberta

Alberta reported two moredeaths from COVID-19 on Saturday, bothwomen in their 90swho lived at the MckenzieTowne Continuing Care Centrein Calgary.

That brings thetotalnumber of deaths in the province to 20, according to the provincial government.

Albertareported 106 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday 51of those were confirmed by a laband 55are probable. This raised the total number of casesin Alberta to 1,181 as of Saturday, with 240 patients having recovered from the illness.

As of Saturday, there were 42 people in the hospital due to COVID-19, including 14 in intensive care units. Nine outbreaks were recorded at continuing care centres, with 93 cases stemming from those facilities.

• Alberta surpasses 1,000-case mark, provincial death toll from COVID-19 reaches 18

The regional breakdown of cases is:

• Calgaryzone: 734 cases, 13deaths.
• Edmontonzone: 290cases, 4 deaths.
• Centralzone: 66cases.
• Northzone: 68cases, 3 deaths.
• Southzone: 18.
• Unknown: 5.

While there are no live updates planned over the weekend, the Alberta government is providing updated case numbers and statistics.

Forestry sector relief

The government also announced a relief measure on Saturday for forestry companies, citing the sector as the third largest in the province behind energy and agriculture.

Timber dues from the use of publicly owned forest resources will be deferred for six months to support companies with self-isolating staff or remote work constraints.

The industrydirectly employs 18,700 Albertans and contributed close to $2.2 billion to the provincial GDP in 2018, according to the release.