Check against delivery.

Thank you, Sherene, and good afternoon everyone.  

Before I begin, I want to note that the weekend data were uploaded onto the website yesterday, so today I will report on the last 24 hours.

However, I do want to comment on a number of developments over the weekend.

First, I want to offer a short explanation about a data system upgrade that happened this weekend, resulting in the erroneous reporting of 74 cases as part of the case count for Friday, August 14.  

Our teams have now had time to do the rigorous investigation of these 74 cases and have identified that these were duplicate reports generated by the data system upgrade.

As a result, Friday’s new cases stand at 103, rather than 177 as reported yesterday.

I apologize to Albertans for this error and any confusion or anxiety it may have caused.

A positive development in the past several days is the end of the outbreak at the Misericordia Hospital, which was declared over on August 14th. That hospital is implementing a phased approach to return to normal operations.

Some other developments that I want to flag are the quick actions of Covenant Health and Alberta Health Services to respond to a situation where a staff member tested positive over the weekend at the Grey Nuns Community Hospital in Edmonton.

The staff member had been working on a unit that was caring for three people who had tested positive with COVID-19 acquired in the community, not at the hospital.

Covenant Health closed the unit to patient transfers and discharges, took additional patient precautions, limited visitors to exceptional circumstances only, and has been performing enhanced cleaning.

Other developments over the weekend arose out of a religious gathering in the hamlet of Deadwood, near Manning and north of Grande Prairie, and a second development at the Bible Pentecostal Church in Edmonton.

The ‘It Is Time Canada’ religious gathering in Deadwood took place over the August long weekend. This is a good reminder that identified cases often are the outcome of activities that happened up to several weeks before.

The gathering resulted in 15 lab-confirmed cases in Alberta, and 17 in British Columbia so far, and it is likely that we will be identifying more.

An estimated 200-300 people attended over the course of the three-day gathering. We are working with BC Health to ensure that contact tracing is completed for all those who attended.

I want to ask that anyone who attended the event in Deadwood between July 30th  and August 2nd, or who is a close contact of an attendee, should book a COVID-19 test online through Alberta Health Services and continue to monitor for symptoms. 

Also, in an unrelated event, despite precautions being taken during in-person services, there are now 15 confirmed cases linked to the Bible Pentecostal Church in Edmonton. The church has about 150 members.

Anyone who attended the church between July 26 and August 12, or who is a close contact of someone who attended, likewise should book a COVID-19 test online and continue to monitor for symptoms.

It is a stark reminder that coming together in large gatherings risks sharing more than fellowship, it risks sharing the COVID-19 virus.

It is critical not to stigmatize those who test positive or those who have come in close contact as we do not want to discourage people from being tested.

Instead we need to take this as a reminder that all of us have to follow all measures tenaciously, even if we are tired of washing our hands, wearing a mask, and not being able to hug the people we care about.

We must all keep following public health advice if we are to continue to flatten the curve and protect our friends, families, neighbours and communities.

Turning to today’s numbers: We identified 89 new cases in the last 24 hours. There are now 1,169 active cases in the province.

Currently, 48 people are in hospital, including 11 in intensive care.

Tragically, I am reporting one additional death today. My heartfelt condolences go out to anyone who has lost a loved one whether to COVID-19, or any other cause during this pandemic.

The lab has completed more than 8,000 tests in the last 24 hours.

We expect to add thousands of tests to this total this week and next.

Alberta’s 90,000 teachers and school staff working in schools have been invited to get tested before the start of the school year.

That’s a lot of tests in just a few weeks.

So I am very pleased to announce that Shopper’s Drug Mart and its parent company Loblaw Canada are taking on an even bigger partnership role in offering testing in communities right across the province.

More than 50 Shoppers Drug Mart locations and pharmacies in Real Canadian Superstores already offer asymptomatic testing.

Under a new agreement with Alberta Health Services, within the next two weeks all 234 Alberta-based affiliated pharmacies in Loblaw-owned stores will offer COVID-19 testing.

The Loblaw family of stores includes such familiar names as Superstore, Wholesale Club, Extra Foods, No Frills, Independent, and Loblaws City Market.

Thank you to Shoppers Drug Mart and Loblaw for making testing highly available in every community, including – and maybe especially – outside of the big urban centres.

Overall, it increases Alberta’s testing capacity by about 3,000 to 4,000 tests a day. That would serve half or more of Alberta’s teachers and school staff.

We will need this added capacity – plus that of all community pharmacists who are already testing for the virus – if we are to test 90,000 teachers and school staff in just a few weeks.

With that in mind, I repeat my request to teachers and school staff to book your test now and do not leave it to the last minute so the volume does not overload the system.

I also repeat my request to anyone who does not work not in a school setting who feels completely well and who has not had an exposure to COVID-19 – please hold off getting tested until later in September.

For children, testing is only recommended if there are symptoms, or a medical condition such as allergies that can mimic COVID-19 symptoms.

Parents need to arrange testing for these children through Alberta Health Services. Pharmacy testing is only for those with no symptoms and no known COVID-19 exposures.

Testing for anyone who has symptoms or known exposure to COVID-19 must be arranged online through Alberta Health Services at www.ahs.ca/covid. You cannot go to a community pharmacy for your test.

Thank you to Shoppers Drug Mart and pharmacies in Loblaw stores for stepping up to help test the educators of our children.

Thank you to all the community pharmacies who are already providing this valuable service to Albertans to support our COVID-19 surveillance.

And I invite all remaining community pharmacies to consider joining in offering asymptomatic testing through the voluntary pharmacy testing program.

For Albertans who are wondering if their local pharmacy is providing testing you can go to the Blue Cross website and check to see which pharmacies in your area are providing testing at this time.

The knowledge we gain from testing will inform future pandemic-related public health decisions, and will be a foundation of learning for years to come.

Testing is a powerful tool.

But even more powerful are the other measures, such as staying home when sick, staying distanced from those outside your household or cohort, wearing a mask when you can’t, enhanced sanitizing, and washing hands to minimize spread.

The best thing we can do to prepare for a safe re-entry to school is to keep our community transmission low. We are currently sitting at an average of about 2 new cases per day per 100,000 population over the past week per day.

This compares with average new daily case rates of over 25 per 100,000 in Florida, Georgia and Texas where school re-opening issues have been identified. In fact, our average new daily case rates per 100,000 are lower than almost all of the U.S.  states with the exception of New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont, which are sitting at approximately 1.5 new cases per day per 100,000.

This indicates that we are in a different context than states where we are watching some of those issues take place and we need to strive to make sure our community transmission is as low as possible.

Together we can minimize the risk to students and staff in schools, and help our children reclaim this part of their normal educational and social development.

For all of us, taking precautions is part of living in the new normal of COVID-19.

And as always, we are all in this together.

Thank you, and I would be happy to take questions.