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Alberta’s top doctor is slated to give an update on COVID-19 in the province Tuesday afternoon.
Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw’s 3:30 p.m. press conference will be her first this week ahead of Stage 2 of the province’s reopening plan taking effect Thursday.
On Monday, Premier Jason Kenney urged unvaccinated Albertans to book their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, warning that Stage 3, the lifting of all restrictions, could be delayed amid a “diminishing demand” in appointments in the province.
“If you’ve been holding back for one reason or another, now is the time over the next week to get the jab so that we can move forward more quickly with the full open for summer plan,” Kenney said at an unrelated press conference.
Nearly 67 per cent of Albertans aged 12 or older have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. The province needs 70 per cent of eligible Albertans to get the shot to proceed to Stage 3.
Cases and hospitalizations have fallen in the province in recent weeks, and Kenney and Hinshaw have attributed the declines to vaccinations.
Alberta reported 127 new cases of COVID-19 and a total of 4,707 active cases on Monday.
As of Monday, 351 Albertans were hospitalized – far fewer than the Stage 2 benchmark of 500 hospitalizations – with 94 in intensive care.
Two more deaths due to COVID-19 were reported Monday, bringing the total number of fatalities to 2,248 since the start of the pandemic.
More to come
With files from Anna Junker
