Alberta reports 115 new cases of COVID-19, lowest daily total since September

Alberta reported 115 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, the lowest daily total since Sept. 11, and one new death, as the province continues its push to get more people vaccinated.

As of end of day Sunday, about 68.8 per cent of eligible Albertans have received one or two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. 

Nearly 29,000 doses of vaccine were administered on Sunday, inching the province closer to the 70 per cent mark of eligible Albertans, the threshold for Stage 3 of Alberta's reopening plan.

Looking forward to the implementation of the final step in Alberta's reopening plan, which would see current mask and distancing mandates move to recommendations, Health Minister Tyler Shandro expressed hope that the end of the pandemic is in sight, although the virus is likely here to stay. 

"I think this is us moving from a pandemic to an endemic," Shandro said at a news conference unveiling more details of a $3-million vaccine lottery aimed at convincing more Albertans to get vaccinated. 

Shandro said the decision on when masking and distancing recommendations will be lifted depends on continuing research in other jurisdictions.

"As we move to greater community protection, we are going to continue to live with the virus in our community and we can do it while assessing our own risk profile as each individual Albertan," he said. 

At a news conference Monday unveiling more details of a $3-million vaccine lottery aimed at convincing more Albertans to get vaccinated, 

As of Monday's update, there were 270 people in hospital with the illness, including 73 in intensive care units.

One new death from the disease was recorded Monday — a woman in her 40s who died in the Central zone on Saturday.  Alberta Health said in a news release that a previously reported death was determined post-mortem to be unrelated to COVID-19, so the total number of deaths remains unchanged from the previous day at 2,270.

Provincial labs completed 3,315 tests for the disease on Sunday, with a positivity rate of around 3.8 per cent. 

Total active cases continued to dip Monday to 3,089, down 91 from the previous day.

Here is how active cases breakdown by health zone: 

• Calgary zone: 1,283
• Edmonton zone: 750
• North zone: 570
• Central zone: 366
• South zone: 118
• Unknown: 2

As for coronavirus variants, 104 new variant cases were reported Monday, for a total of 2,356 active variant cases.