Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw noted that Alberta’s contact tracers continue to have difficulties with the increase of active cases.

A couple of weeks ago, the doctor announced that contact tracers would only be calling contacts in high priority settings but now the increase is further damaging Alberta Health Service’s response time. On November 6th, Premier Jason Kenney announced the province would be hiring 380 contact tracers.

“With the significant increase in new cases over the past several weeks, despite Alberta Health Services efforts to recruit and train new contact tracers and to make calls only to contacts in high-priority settings the team has not been able to keep up with the current demand to do the case investigation,” explained Hinshaw.

Even with more tracers and a targeted approach, AHS will have to take a new approach to contact tracing.

“In order to maximize the effectiveness of the team, I have asked AHS to start with the most recent diagnosed cases and work backwards trying to reach as many cases as possible but prioritizing the cases which will have the  greatest benefit of reducing further transmission,” announced Hinshaw.

AHS will no longer call individuals who have received a positive COVID diagnosis if 10 days has passed for contact tracing. Additionally, those who test positive for COVID-19 will receive notification of their ending isolation period by text rather than by phone call but will still be required to self-isolate for 14 days.

The Chief Medical Officer will take part in the Premier’s cabinet meeting to advise the province on the steps needed to reduce the spread of transmission.

“As Chief Medical Officer of health my role is to provide advice to government on how to protect the health of Albertans. Today, I will meet with the priority’s implementation committee of cabinet to discuss a series of new measures to reduce the rising spread of COVID-19. Based on their decisions, we will provide a detailed update to Albertans tomorrow,” said Hinshaw.

Additionally, the doctor said she will be providing a daily update this week.

New case numbers as of November 23rd, 2020:

  • 1,549 new cases were identified
  • 13,166 active cases in Alberta
  • 328 people are hospitalized with COVID-19
  • 62 people are currently in ICUs
  • 34,779 total recovered cases
  • 476 total deaths from the virus 

Active case numbers in Central Alberta area:

  • 28 active cases in Lacombe County
  • 17 active case in the City of Lacombe
  • 141 active cases in the City of Red Deer
  • 44 active cases in Red Deer County
  • 212 active cases in Ponoka County
  • 24 active cases in the Town of Sylvan Lake
  • 3 active cases in Stettler County
  • 13 active case in Mountain View County

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

 *Bracketed number represents the case difference from the last update.