Alberta reports 512 new COVID-19 cases, 60% of population vaccinated

There were 512 new cases of COVID-19 reported in Alberta on Friday, a difference of only one case from Thursday’s count of 513 infections.

Also on Friday, the provincial government announced that over 60% of eligible Albertans have now received one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

This means that, as long as hospitalizations are below 500 and trending downwards, Alberta could move into Stage 2 of its Open for Summer Plan on June 10 and begin easing more public health restrictions.

Stage 2 includes an increase in the number of people who can attend an outdoor social gathering, wedding, or funeral, permitting restaurants to seat groups of up to six people indoors or outdoors, and allowing gyms and indoor fitness facilities to open for solo and drop-in activities, among other changes.

Here is Alberta’s #OpenForSummer Plan!

Albertans have stopped the spike and now we can start safely lifting restrictions so we can have a truly great Alberta summer.

If we stay on track with vaccines and hospitalizations, Alberta will be fully open by July! (1/2) pic.twitter.com/j5Bx1ODt3I

— Jason Kenney (@jkenney) May 26, 2021

“The next two weeks will be a critical time for Alberta,” Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, said in a news release.

“The more we can drive our numbers down in the next few weeks by all following public health measures, and the more Albertans who are protected by immunization, the more successful we will be in our opening.”

As of May 27, there have been 2,615,747 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine administered in Alberta, with 60.3% of the population having received at least one dose. There are 363,926 individuals who are fully immunized with two doses.

• See also:
  • Alberta has over 100K COVID-19 vaccine appointments open
  • Calgary is getting Alberta’s first drive-thru COVID-19 vaccine clinic
  • Here’s what you can (and can’t) do in Alberta next month

With Friday’s count of 512 new COVID-19 cases, there are now 9,277 active infections in Alberta. This marks the first time that the number of active cases has been below 10,000 since April 2.

There are currently 517 Albertans in hospital due to the virus, including 147 in intensive care. While this remains above the “500 hospitalizations and declining” benchmark to move into Stage 2 of the province’s Open for Summer Plan, it is a decrease of 21 people since Thursday.

There were seven new COVID-19-related deaths reported over the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of deaths to 2,206.

Alberta has now seen 226,449 cases since the pandemic began, and 214,966 individuals have recovered from the virus.