Check against delivery.
Thank you, Minister, and good afternoon everyone.
As you heard earlier, over the last 24 hours, we have identified 1,341 new cases of COVID-19 in Alberta, and completed about 16,350 new tests.
This means our positivity rate currently stands at 8.2%. This is a continuation of the plateau in cases that I talked about yesterday.
As the Premier mentioned, there are 742 people in hospital, including 137 who have been admitted to the ICU.
These hospital numbers continue to be alarming.
As I have said before, this pandemic has not stopped all of the other health concerns that Albertans face every day.
Babies are still being born, people are still suffering heart attacks and having car collisions.
Every COVID-19 hospitalization is an additional stress on our acute care system.
We each need to continue to do everything we can to help prevent one more person from ending up in hospital – for our health, for our loved ones, for our healthcare workers and for the system that we all rely on.
Sadly, 11 new deaths were reported to us in the last 24 hours.
My thoughts and sympathies are with all those grieving the loss of family or friends from any cause.
Looking to schools, there are currently active alerts or outbreaks in 456 schools, or about 19% of all schools in the province.
Currently these schools have a combined total of 1,943 cases.
This number includes 129 schools on the watch list.
While junior and senior high students are currently learning at home, these outbreak numbers do include junior and senior high schools for transparency and completeness.
COVID-19 has taught us many things over the past year – including patience, perseverance and perspective – but I think the biggest lesson is about shared responsibility.
Just like no one measure alone can put an end to this virus, no one person can stop it either.
The only way we can get transmission under control is by all of us doing our part.
For the rest of the month, we all need to make good choices and to rigorously follow all legal orders in place.
This includes not crowding into shopping malls or other retail locations.
We have implemented capacity limits for a reason.
It is essential that we limit in-person interaction and gatherings, including those that happen in malls.
It is critical that you stay physically distanced from anyone outside your household – and this includes any time you are inside a mall.
We will be reaching out again to operators this week to ensure they’re aware of the new measures. I also want to reinforce these are legal orders.
If we don’t see compliance, Alberta Health Services and law enforcement are able to take action.
I also ask all Albertans to help out.
If you see a mall is crowded, consider returning at another time or arranging for curbside pick-up. If you are going shopping, go with just one person. Or, perhaps, if two, only your household members.
Together we can protect each other – and our health care system – and show the rest of the country just who Albertans are – people who work together to protect each other
Thank you and we’re happy to take questions.