Alberta's new COVID-19 cases remain steady with 717 more infections

Alberta reported 717 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, which is only slightly lower than the previous day’s new infection count of 764.

There are currently 284 people in hospital, a number that hovers just below the province’s requirement of “300 hospitalizations and declining” before the government will consider moving into Step 3 restrictions.

Of those in hospital, 59 Albertans are in intensive care due to the virus. There were also three new deaths related to COVID-19 reported over the last 24 hours, raising the province’s death toll to 1,979.

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There were also 325 new cases of variants of concern found. Alberta now has 1,654 active COVID-19 variant cases, representing 23.4% of all active infections.

Ahead of holidays like Easter and Holi, and for those celebrating the arrival of the new season or making Spring Break plans, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, urged Albertans to be extra careful and limit in-person interactions as much as possible.

Dr. Hinshaw reminded people in a series of tweets that indoor visits are still not allowed. She said that, even while outdoors, Albertans need to keep a two metre distance from anyone outside of their household, wear a mask when interacting with others, and follow all current public health restrictions.

Celebrate outdoors with people outside your household, keep a 2m distance from others & continue to follow all other public health measures that are in place. The choices we make now will determine if cases are still growing in the days and weeks ahead. (2/2)

— Dr. Deena Hinshaw (@CMOH_Alberta) March 26, 2021

Dr. Hinshaw will be providing a live update about COVID-19 on Tuesday, March 30.