Courtesy of Alberta Health

By Shaun Penner

COVID-19 UPDATE: March 26

Grande Prairie adds 15 new COVID-19 cases, 17 recoveries

Mar 26, 2021 | 3:54 PM

The City of Grande Prairie recorded 15 new COVID-19 cases and 17 recoveries for March 25, bringing the active case total down by two to 172.

The County of Grande Prairie added 13 new cases and six recoveries for Thursday as well, raising the active caseload there to 68.

Across Alberta, there were 717 new cases identified, after 13,308 tests were completed. The positivity rate on those tests was about 5.4 per cent.

The province also added 325 new cases involving variants first identified in the United Kingdom. The province now has 1,654 active cases involving variants of concern, which accounts for 23.4 per cent of all active cases in the province.

In the North Zone, there have now been 88 cases of the UK variant confirmed (26 more than the day prior), while no cases involving the variants first identified in South Africa or Brazil have been confirmed in the zone.

Updated case totals among Peace Region municipalities as of the end of day March 25 are as follows:

• City of Grande Prairie: 1,982 cases (172 active, 1,787 recovered, 23 deaths)
• County of Grande Prairie: 598 cases (68 active, 526 recovered, four deaths)
• M.D. of Greenview: 449 cases (30 active, 416 recovered, three deaths)
• Birch Hills County: 12 cases (all recovered)
• M.D. of Spirit River: 51 cases (four active, 47 recovered)
• Saddle Hills County: 14 cases (all recovered)
• M.D. of Smoky River: 112 cases (102 recovered, 10 deaths)
• Big Lakes County: 476 cases (11 active, 454 recovered, 11 deaths)
• M.D. of Lesser Slave River: 261 cases (eight active, 253 recovered)
• M.D. of Peace: 494 cases (18 active, 476 recovered)
• M.D. of Fairview: 61 cases (three active, 57 recovered, one death)
• Clear Hills County: 106 cases (105 recovered, one death)
• Northern Sunrise County: 243 cases (three active, 239 recovered, one death)
• County of Northern Lights: 99 cases (one active, 98 recoveries)
• Mackenzie County: 1,230 cases (164 active, 1,047 recovered, 19 deaths)
  

Hospitalizations in Alberta dropped by 10 to 284 as of Thursday night, with 59 of those individuals in an ICU, an increase of four from the day prior.

In the North Zone, 26 people are in hospital, five of whom are in intensive care.

Three more deaths were reported to Alberta Health over the last 24 hours, raising the provincial death toll to 1,979 as of March 25.

As for vaccine distribution, the province has now administered 558,763 doses of vaccine, which equates to about 12,636 Albertans per 100,000 who have received at least one dose.

94,947 Albertans have been fully immunized with two doses.