More than 1,000 cases of COVID-19 are active in the Edmonton Zone, a new milestone for the region.
Tuesday’s provincial data shows 1,062 active cases in the Edmonton Zone, including 966 in the city of Edmonton, up by 82 in the zone and 72 in the city. The Edmonton Zone’s total cases show an increase of 158 from Monday with a total of 5,886 active and recovered cases.
There have been 276 new cases of COVID-19 across the province including one death, the third day in a row with more than 200 new cases discovered.
Five deaths at Millwoods Shepherd’s Care
Five long-term care residents at Millwoods Shepherd’s Care have died since the outbreak was declared at the end of September, according to the company’s website.
As of Sunday, a total of 56 people have tested positive, including 39 residents and 17 staff. Shepherd’s Care spokesman Zachary Penner previously attributed the outbreak to a visitor.
Five Shepherd’s Care facilities in Edmonton — Kensington Village, Vanguard, Greenfield, Heritage Condos and Millwoods — have seen outbreaks since the pandemic began: .
Kensington Village has had two outbreaks. Thirty-six people contracted COVID-19 in the first outbreak in March and four residents died. A second outbreak was declared at the same facility in August when four staff tested positive.
In July, one resident died after an outbreak at Greenfield. Vanguard also saw an outbreak in August after two staff members tested positive. The outbreak at Heritage Condos was lifted in August.
Manufacturing outbreaks
Two Edmonton-area manufacturing plants have been added to the province’s outbreak list. They are Recochem Inc. in Nisku and CCI Manufacturing in Edmonton.
Recochem Inc. temporarily closed last week after employees tested positive, said an email statement from Recochem Inc. CFO and senior vice president, Alain Tanguay. Thirteen employees have tested positive, 73 tested negative and 29 are awaiting test results.
“Encouraging results allowed Recochem to begin safely opening its Nisku plant yesterday,” the statement said.
“Recochem’s health action plan was executed quickly allowing the team to act promptly and effectively. The company is closely following Alberta Health’s guidelines and recommendations to limit the virus’s transmission and spread.”
Postmedia has reached out to CCI Manufacturing, which has six active cases, according to data provided by Alberta Health spokesman Tom McMillan.
There are 25 health care and other facilities on the outbreak list in the Edmonton Zone.
39 school outbreaks
Meantime, 39 schools in the Edmonton Zone have outbreaks including 10 on the province’s watchlist, according to Alberta’s school status website.
Alberta Health considers two cases of COVID-19 in a school within two weeks an outbreak where others are mandated to self-isolate as a result.
Two additional Catholic schools have outbreaks with two cases each at St. Oscar Romero and Archbishop Joseph MacNeil. St. Matthew was recently added to the province’s outbreak list.
Edmonton public’s Michael Strembitsky School is also under an outbreak, as are private schools Thomas More Academy, Edmonton Islamic Academy and AlBaqir Academy.
Since Monday, single cases have also been reported at St. Lucy, St. Vladimir, St. Vincent, LINC Program One World Centre, St. Nicholas, J.J. Bowlen, Bishop Motiuk, Eastglen School, Scott Robertson School, L.Y. Cairns School, Calder School, Elizabeth Finch School and Steinhauer School.
Nationally, there have been 171,323 COVID-19 cases to date, including 9,530 deaths. The World Health Organization reported 35,347,404 cases globally including more than one million deaths on Tuesday.
