EDMONTON — Alberta now has 57 cases of the variant strains of COVID-19, with a daycare and three Calgary school classrooms affected.
Chief medical health officer Dr. Deena Hinshaw says there are 50 cases of the variant first found in the United Kingdom and seven originating in South Africa, for a total rise of six cases in the last 24 hours.
Most are from returning travellers, but eight of the cases have no known link to travel, and four of those have been linked to an outbreak at a daycare.
In the Calgary zone, variant forms of the virus spread from returning travellers to children, and those children went to school while infectious.
Students in three classrooms from two schools are isolating as a result.
The variants spread in the same way as the original COVID-19 virus but are more contagious, and officials fear they could quickly overwhelm the health-care system if allowed to spread unchecked.
Hinshaw declined to give more specifics to identify the location of the schools or daycare.
“There is no evidence right now that there has been any spread of the variant at these schools,” Hinshaw told a news conference Tuesday.
She noted Alberta has struck a specific contact tracing team tied to the variants. It can screen 300 samples a day for variants and run full genetic sequencing on 400 samples a week.
Alberta is one of many provinces dealing with variants.
It has also seen its case numbers and hospitalizations drop since new measures were introduced in December to reduce public interactions.
Indoor gatherings are banned and outdoor get-togethers are set at a maximum of 10.
Retail stores are set to a maximum 15 per cent capacity and entertainment venues such as casinos and movie theatres are closed.
Premier Jason Kenney has announced future relaxation of public health rules will be tied mainly to declining hospitalization cases.
The first change starts Monday, when restaurants can reopen to in-person dining and one-on-one fitness training can resume with restrictions.
Hinshaw said despite the uncertainty with the variants, officials feel comfortable continuing with the reopening plan.
“We of course know that seeing additional cases of the variants without a clear link to travel is concerning,” she said.
She added officials will be monitoring the case counts carefully.
“We know if we continue to follow all public-health protocols in every aspect of our daily lives, that we can continue to keep our transmission low.”
Hinshaw announced 268 new cases of COVID-19. There were 556 people in hospital, 97 of whom are in intensive care. There have been 1,662 deaths.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 2, 2021.
Dean Bennett, The Canadian Press
