COVID-19: 313 new cases announced day before Alberta heads into Stage 2 reopening

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Alberta reported 313 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, the day before the province moves into Stage 2 of the summer reopening plan.

Wednesday’s cases were up slightly after a week of less than 300 new daily cases. The number of people falling seriously ill from the disease continued on a downward trend, with 329 in hospital, including 83 in ICU.

Active COVID-19 cases also continue to fall across the province to 4,204: 1,114 and 1,691 in the Edmonton and Calgary zones, respectively.

Five more deaths from the disease were reported.

Stage 2 takes effect tomorrow

The province moves into Stage 2 of the summer reopening plan on Thursday, the government has confirmed.

Indoor entertainment and recreation can open with some attendance caps and restrictions, and restaurants can seat parties with up to six people both indoors and outdoors, and the outdoor gathering cap will increase to 20 people with distancing still in effect.

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This phase was to be triggered two weeks after 60 per cent of Albertans 12 and up had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and hospitalizations were below 500 and declining.

The next reopening stage is expected to take effect two weeks after 70 per cent of Albertans 12 and up have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. As of Wednesday, 67.2 per cent of Albertans in this category had one dose, and 15.7 per cent had two.

Alberta Health Services is doing a vaccination blitz this week with walk-in appointments available this week at the Edmonton Expo Centre.

The City of Edmonton has announced some recreation centres and activities will begin reopening this week.

More to come…

lboothby@postmedia.com

@laurby