Alberta's new COVID-19 cases remain steady with 257 more infections

Alberta reported 257 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday and announced two more virus-related deaths.

Of the new cases, 35 are variants of concern, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw said. Alberta has now seen 492 variant cases in total.

There are currently 261 people in hospital, a slight increase from Monday, including 54 in intensive care.

Hinshaw said the positivity rate is still hovering just below 5%.

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On Monday, provincial officials announced Alberta would move into Step 2 of its phase reopening approach. However, it didn’t relax all the restrictions associated with Step 2. The only changes are that libraries are reopening and more activities will be allowed at indoor fitness centres.

Currently, low-impact exercises are allowed at indoor fitness centres, but high-impact ones are not because they increase people’s breathing rates which increase the amount of droplets exhaled into the air, Hinshaw said.

She and Health Minister Tyler Shandro have not made a cut-and-dry list of high versus low impact activities. Instead, they asked gym and fitness centre operators to use their best judgement.

“The goal is compliance, not sanctions,” Shandro said.