Check against delivery.
Thank you, Sherene, and good afternoon everyone.
I’d like to start today’s update by sharing this weekend’s data with you.
For the 24 hours starting on Friday, August 21, we identified 83 new cases and two deaths. The provincial lab completed 10,175 tests.
For Saturday August 22, we identified 106 new cases and no new deaths. On that day, there were 10,098 tests completed.
Finally, over the last 24 hours we detected 69 new cases and two deaths. There were 8,489 tests completed.
My sympathies go out to all who lost loved ones this weekend. Whether to COVID-19 or any other cause.
Today, there are 1,172 active cases in the province. Forty-five people are in hospital, including nine in intensive care.
In all, 11,600 Albertans have recovered.
I also must report several outbreaks of note in the province. Before I list these outbreaks, I want to emphasize that each one of these locations is working closely with public health to prevent spread.
It is imperative that these locations and their employees not be stigmatized or targeted because they are being transparent and proactive.
Sharing this information ensures we are communicating with the public about trends. Unfairly targeting any worker or activity participant is counter-productive and risks driving COVID-19 and sickness underground.
Those involved in any of these outbreaks are cooperating with public health to limit the risk of spread to others.
At health facilities, the Peter Lougheed Centre in Calgary currently has five active cases. The Grey Nuns Hospital in Edmonton has two active cases.
The Good Samaritan Southgate Care Centre now has only three active cases and 80 recovered cases. Sadly, two of the deaths over the weekend were at this facility, bringing the total deaths there to 31.
At religious gatherings, the event in Deadwood near Manning is now linked to seven active and 10 recovered cases in Alberta. The Bible Pentecostal Church in Edmonton now has 75 active cases, with two recovered.
At workplaces, the Lilydale chicken plant in Calgary has 11 cases and two recovered, and the Cargill Case Ready plant has no active cases.
Alberta Health Services has confirmed three positive COVID-19 cases in staff members of the Health Link team.
Contact tracing is underway and there is no significant staffing impact to Health Link at this time.
I note that Edmonton still leads the province with 631 active cases.
As we’ve seen Edmonton numbers rise, I’ve received many questions from Albertans looking to understand why. I have been working with my team to find out more about what is happening.
Today, I can share some details on trends we’re seeing that contribute to these numbers.
The reasons are not new, and there is no one single factor.
Primarily, we’re seeing growth in cases linked to gatherings, weddings, funerals, family reunions, prayer meetings, informal gatherings of friends, backyard parties, and community groups.
There has been a particularly high attack rate in family gatherings.
Social connection is vital to our mental wellbeing and I know that we have all missed these activities immensely.
We crave hugs with grandchildren, we want to share meals and we are keen to catch up with our extended family members.
We miss our aunts and uncles, cousins, parents and grandparents, and we’re tired of only connecting through telephone or video chats.
We are hard wired to want to be together.
However, when organized by even the most well meaning family members, it can be challenging to maintain physical distance with loved ones or to ask your parents or grandparents to wash your hands…and to ensure that nieces or nephews who are sick stay away and don’t come.
It’s natural for families to want to move gatherings indoors when the weather cools, to sit close together, to hug one another and to share food.
When we let our guard down, the virus has its opportunity.
It is possible to hold a safe gathering. And when we do, we must be diligent in ensuring proper infection control protocols.
Keep gatherings small, and meet outside rather than inside whenever possible. Asking someone to wash their hands or reminding them to maintain two metres of distance is the most loving thing we can do for each another at the moment.
I also urge the hosts of any type of gathering, big or small, to keep a written list of attendees for at least two weeks.
It may seem silly to write down which family members come over for a visit, but quick access to accurate information speeds up contact tracing immensely.
Keeping this type of information will not get people into trouble, and it has the potential to save lives.
Today, I want to remind families that if they are choosing to send their children back to in school learning, they need to be extra vigilant when considering family gatherings with older relatives.
I have said it before and will repeat it today: while children are less likely to have severe outcomes with this virus, they can pass it on to older family members who are more susceptible to severe outcomes.
Albertans have a civic responsibility to protect our elders – which unfortunately, means considering moving to virtual visits with grandma and grandpa as school starts up.
While this is a sacrifice, and may be hard for grandparents, parents, and grandchildren – it is the right thing to do to have these conversations as we move into this next phase of reopening.
In addition to encouraging safe gatherings, I would also like to speak directly to younger adults today.
It is easy to feel invincible and believe that COVID-19 is only a concern for older Albertans.
It is easy to forget the virus’s potential to cause harm if you don’t know anyone who has suffered from it.
It is easy to believe this is someone else’s issue.
You are less likely to have severe outcomes from a COVID infection, but because of the way the virus is spreading in your age group, you are now more likely to pass on this virus unknowingly and to do so rapidly.
We’re seeing this in Edmonton right now.
You must keep your circle of friends small to protect others from the virus. Your circle of friends needs to be doing the same.
Sunday afternoon’s brunch and Wednesday’s dinner combined with last night’s drinks at a local bar and a mid-week movie at a friend’s house, each with a different group of friends, means a large number of contacts.
While none of these activities individually are problematic if they’re occurring with the same small group, when combining different friend cohorts, they create many exposures and contribute to contact tracing challenges.
Be wise. Wear a mask. Maintain distance.
Wash or sanitize your hands regularly. If you are meeting up with different groups, and anticipate it will be hard to follow public health guidance, keep groups small and plan to gather no more than once a week at most to reduce the chance of many exposures. Meet up outside instead of inside whenever possible.
Critically, if you’re feeling even a bit under the weather, don’t go out. Stay at home and arrange to be tested.
And although we’re seeing these trends in Edmonton right now, tomorrow they could be in other communities…
By looking at the overall case numbers, it can be easy to think of COVID-19 as a “city” problem, and that the virus will not show up in rural Alberta.
While 987 out of 1,172 current active cases may be in Edmonton and Calgary, this overall number does not tell the complete story.
There are 185 active cases right now outside of Edmonton and Calgary.
And when precautions aren’t taken, we have seen even a single case quickly multiply to many more.
Even though the majority of the current active cases are in large cities, there are a number of rural communities with high case rates in comparison to their population.
These have affected people going about their daily lives – in workplaces and continuing care facilities, and while participating in different kinds of gatherings.
I do not say this to be alarmist, or suggest that any community is doing something wrong.
I say this to make the point that COVID-19 is not limited to any one region in the province, and to remind us all that rural communities have not gone untouched.
We must all continue to avoid crowded places and close contact with those outside our household or cohort, and to stay home and away from others when we are unwell, regardless of where we live.
Whether there are only a few cases in your community, or your community has not yet had a confirmed case, COVID-19 can spread rapidly if given the chance.
Some may think that there is no way for them to get COVID-19, since they do not know anyone personally who has had it.
But we need to remember that no Albertan or community operates in isolation.
Albertans regularly travel into neighbouring towns or cities to run errands, shop, attend appointments, sell goods or visit loved ones.
While these are necessary outings, they can potentially result in transmission and introduction of COVID-19 from one community to another.
It is also important to be aware of any additional restrictions, such as mandatory mask bylaws, that may not be in place where you live, but which may be in effect in communities you are travelling to.
The same can be said to Albertans visiting rural communities.
I know many Albertans may live and work in larger towns and cities, but regularly go to their hometowns on the weekend to help with family responsibilities or to visit.
It can be easy to get comfortable and feel like you can take a break from being careful since it seems like “no one in town is sick.”
But the most caring thing you can do when you go home is to remain vigilant.
And as we enter the final weeks of summer, there are still many Albertans vacationing in summer communities – visiting the mountains and beaches.
I encourage all Albertans to be respectful of smaller communities and take precautions to prevent potential exposure to COVID-19, or spreading it if we have been unknowingly exposed.
I want to be clear – I am not trying to create an us versus them mentality between rural and urban or younger and older Albertans.
The message here is that we all still have a responsibility to protect one another.
Although I’m sure we all wish there was another way, our caring actions are still each other’s only protection.
Thank you and I am now happy to take any questions.