Photo Credit: Government of Alberta

By Shane Clausing

COVID-19 UPDATE: December 14

City of Grande Prairie records seventh COVID-19 fatality

Dec 14, 2020 | 4:46 PM

Alberta added a record of 1,887 new COVID-19 cases for Sunday, December 13. There are currently 21,123 active cases in the province.

The record number of COVID-19 cases came as the province recorded 15 new deaths, one of which was recorded in the City of Grande Prairie.

It is the seventh COVID-19 reported in Grande Prairie. Alberta Health tells EverythingGP that the death was a man in his 60’s and was related to the COVID-19 outbreak at the QEII Hospital.

There were six new cases of COVID-19 added in the City of Grande Prairie and there was also 12 recoveries. There are 117 active cases in Grande Prairie.

Three new cases and a recovery were added in the County of Grande Prairie. The County currently has 27 active cases.

Updated case totals among Peace Region municipalities as of the end of day December 13 are as follows:

• City of Grande Prairie: 613 cases (117 active, 489 recovered, seven deaths)
• County of Grande Prairie: 200 cases (27 active, 172 recovered, one death)
• M.D. of Greenview: 117 cases (23 active, 93 recovered, one death)
• Birch Hills County: Seven cases (all recovered)
• M.D. of Spirit River: 32 cases (all recovered)
• Saddle Hills County: Nine cases (one active, eight recovered)
• M.D. of Smoky River: 85 cases (six active, 69 recovered, ten deaths)
• Big Lakes County: 91 cases (26 active, 60 recovered, five deaths)
• M.D. of Lesser Slave River: 90 cases (21 active, 69 recovered)
• M.D. of Peace: 171 cases (30 active, 141 recovered)
• M.D. of Fairview: 54 cases (two active, 51 recovered, one death)
• Clear Hills County: 98 cases (97 recovered, one death)
• Northern Sunrise County: 59 cases (26 active, 33 recovered)
• County of Northern Lights: 69 cases (all recovered)
• Mackenzie County: 462 cases (28 active, 420 recovered, 14 deaths)

Across the province, 716 Albertans are in hospital with COVID-19, 136 of which are in ICU. In the North Zone, 34 people are in hospital, four of which are in the ICU.

Over the last 24 hours, there were 20,416 COVID-19 tests completed, resulting in a eight per cent test positivity rate.

During a news conference on Monday afternoon, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw said that it appears the reproductive values (R-Value) cases plateaued over the last week.

A reproductive value of one shows that each person with the virus is, on average, infecting one other person.

Edmonton’s reproductive value stood at 1.0, Calgary at 0.92 and at 1.01 in the rest of the province.

Hinshaw says a plateau is better than an increase, but it is not enough and that a single week’s r-value does not indicate a trend.

“R is also not useful when looked at alone,” said Hinshaw. “We also need to look at our new daily case numbers, which remain high.”

“What we need to achieve together is several weeks of an R-value well below one, with a corresponding decrease in new case numbers,” she said. “We are continuing to see growing hospitalizations and ICU admissions, which are straining our health system. We all must keep doing our part to limit in-person interactions whenever possible.”

The first shipment of 3,900 COVID-19 vaccines also arrived in Alberta on Monday. Another 25,300 doses is expected next week.