Alberta Premier Jason Kenney joined the COVID-19 update on January 7th to announce that in-class learning will be returning for all students on Monday, January 11th.

“The decision to resume in-class learning on January 11th is based on carefully considering the importance of attending school in-person as well as the latest evidence of cases dropping in all school-related age groups in December,” said Kenney. 

The Premier said that in-person learning can have many benefits for the mental and emotional health and the well-being of young people. 

Kenney said cases in schools have remained relatively low and will pose a minimal risk to the public. 

“I know that some of you might feel anxious about putting your backpacks on and returning to class on Monday, but it’s important to note that between September and the winter break only 0.4 per cent of students and school staff tested positive for COVID-19,” said Kenney. 

Although COVID-19 cases are going down slowly in Alberta, the Premier noted that it is not yet time to make adjustments to the ongoing public health restrictions. 

“Even though we’ve seen numbers drop pretty substantially over December the reality is we are ahead of most of other provinces on the per capita basis for total active cases, new cases, and most sadly COVID fatalities. We need to understand that we made progress but we are far from getting out of this,” explained Kenney. 

Another aspect behind maintaining the current restrictions is that the case numbers from the holidays are still unpredictable. 

He added that the current COVID-19 restrictions will not be reviewed until January 21st. 

January 7th new case numbers:

  • 968 new cases of the virus for January 6th
  • 13,298 active cases in Alberta
  • 71 people are hospitalized 
  • 139 people have been admitted to ICUs 
  • 24 new deaths in the last 24 hours
  • 1,217 total deaths from the virus
  • 33,864 vaccinations have been administered on January 6th.

Active case numbers in the Central Alberta area:

  • 34 active cases in Lacombe County
  • 42 active case in the City of Lacombe
  • 252 active cases in the City of Red Deer
  • 56 active cases in Red Deer County
  • 428 active cases in Ponoka County
  • 36 active cases in the Town of Sylvan Lake
  • 6 active cases in Stettler County
  • 33 active case in Mountain View County

*Not all cases in the Central Zone have been included.