Share this Story: COVID-19 Update: The province reported 452 cases on Monday | COVID-19 vaccination clinics at Alberta-US border cancelled
COVID-19 Update: The province reported 452 cases on Monday | COVID-19 vaccination clinics at Alberta-US border cancelled
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Cassandra Uthgenannt enjoys the canopy of pink blossoms on the trees outside The Cathedral Church of the Redeemer in downtown Calgary Monday, May 17, 2021. Photo by Gavin Young/Postmedia
With news on COVID-19 happening rapidly, we've created this page to bring you our latest stories and information on the outbreak in and around Calgary.
COVID-19 Update: The province reported 452 cases on Monday | COVID-19 vaccination clinics at Alberta-US border cancelled Back to video
The province reported 452 cases on Monday from 5,085 tests, as well as seven additional deaths.
Alberta Health says the remaining outbreaks in Calgary care homes are a tiny fraction of what was seen in the second wave.
The congregation of Street Church met Saturday without pastor Artur Pawlowski in defiance of provincial health orders.
Alberta reported Saturday 621 new cases of COVID-19 on approximately 9,500 tests and six additional deaths.
The province reported Friday an additional 89,111 jabs, by far the biggest jump ever counted in a single day.
Calgary renewed its state of local emergency on Friday.
In a video, Premier Jason Kenney said summer festivals and events can take place if enough people get vaccinated.
The province relaxed some quarantine rules vaccinated people if they are close contacts of confirmed cases.
Education Minister Adriana LaGrange said Wednesday all students will return to in-class learning starting on Tuesday, except those in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, who will go back to school one week later.
The province unveiled the Alberta Jobs Now training program to retrain workers in new roles.
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Hardy Albertans brave May long weekend weather and head out of town
The Richards family didn't let the Victoria Day rain stop them from enjoying the day with a walk in Eau Claire on Monday, May 24, 2021. Gavin Young/Postmedia Gavin Young/Postmedia
Cool, soggy conditions didn't keep Albertans from flocking outdoors over the Victoria Day long weekend with campgrounds outside Calgary reporting full bookings and B.C. border towns seeing more traffic.
On Saturday, Cpl. Troy Savinkoff with the Cochrane RCMP said officers issued a "bunch" of speeding tickets in the Kananaskis region early into the weekend, although final numbers on enforcement and traffic data won't be available until Tuesday.
'Sad and disappointed': COVID-19 vaccination clinics at Alberta-US border cancelled
A feel-good story in which a Montana First Nation was holding COVID-19 vaccination clinics at the Canada-United States border in southwestern Alberta has come to an end.
The Blackfeet Tribe, 150 kilometres south of Lethbridge, began offering shots of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna at the Carway border crossing a month ago. Initially it was being offered to members of the Blackfoot Confederacy, but it was later opened up to anyone who wanted it.
The proposal received approval from the tribal administration and both the Canadian and United States governments to set up the mobile clinic on the U.S. side of the border.
Vaccine deliveries poised to slow this week with Canada expecting 600K Pfizer doses
Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is seen at the Walden Shoppers Drug Mart in Calgary on Monday, April 5, 2021. Photo by Gavin Young/Postmedia
Canada is set for a relatively quiet few days on the COVID-19 vaccine front with only about 600,000 Pfizer-BioNTech doses set to arrive this week.
The two pharmaceutical firms were originally scheduled to deliver two million shots in the next seven days, but shipped 1.4 million of those doses last week instead in anticipation of the May long weekend.
Alberta reports 563 new cases of COVID-19, 2.5 million doses of vaccine administered
Calgarians line up to enter the COVID-19 vaccination clinic at the Telus Convention Centre on Saturday, May 22, 2021. Gavin Young/Postmedia
Another 46,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered in Alberta, as the province reported a decline in hospitalizations and 563 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Sunday.
Alberta has now administered 2,506,919 doses of vaccine, which includes a second dose for 351,541 individuals. About 48.2 per cent of Albertans — and 56.6 per cent of Albertans age 12 and over — have received a first dose, while 7.9 per cent of the population is fully immunized with both.
Alberta reported 563 new cases of COVID-19 Sunday. The new cases came from 6,944 completed tests for a test positivity rate of 8.1 per cent.
The number of active cases provincewide dipped again Sunday to 14,533, which is down from 15,502 the day before.
There was a decline in hospitalizations since Saturday's update when 617 COVID-19 patients were in hospital. By Sunday, there were 581 in hospital, including 162 in intensive-care units.
Alberta reported an additional six deaths from COVID-19 Sunday, bringing the death toll to 2,176.
Read more .
'No one cares about us': Calgary Cancer Centre construction staffer fears working amid COVID-19 outbreak
Construction continued on the Calgary Cancer Centre on Wednesday, May 19, 2021. Photo by Gavin Young/Postmedia
Lax safety practices are fuelling a significant COVID-19 outbreak at the Calgary Cancer Centre construction site, says one of its staffers.
The man, who wouldn't give his name for fear of being fired, said he's amazed the site is still open, adding hygiene standards to reduce the spread of infection are poor.
Washrooms that would supply running water aren't functioning and hand sanitizer dispensers are often empty, he said.
Many workers are concerned the use of personal protective equipment and social distancing isn't enough to slow the spread of COVID-19 after case numbers shot up from last week, he added.
"And we dogs keep on working at the site, as no one cares about us," he said.
"Everyone is (concerned)."
Wuhan lab staff sought hospital care before COVID-19 outbreak disclosed: WSJ
This file photo taken on Feb. 3, 2021 shows the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, in China's central Hubei province, during a visit by members of the World Health Organization (WHO) team investigating the origins of the COVID-19 coronavirus. Photo by HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images
WASHINGTON — Three researchers from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) sought hospital care in November 2019, months before China disclosed the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing a previously undisclosed U.S. intelligence report.
The newspaper said the report — which provides fresh details on the number of researchers affected, the timing of their illnesses, and their hospital visits — may add weight to calls for a broader probe of whether the COVID-19 virus could have escaped from the laboratory.
The report came on the eve of a meeting of the World Health Organization's decision-making body, which is expected to discuss the next phase of an investigation into the origins of COVID-19.
A National Security Council spokeswoman had no comment on the Journal's report but said the Biden administration continued to have "serious questions about the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, including its origins within the Peoples Republic of China."
Canadian troops lining up in droves to be vaccinated, with 85% receiving one dose
A Canadian flag sits on a member of the Canadian forces in Trenton, Ont., on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2014. Photo by THE CANADIAN PRESS/Lars Hagberg
OTTAWA — Canadian military personnel have come forward in droves to be vaccinated for COVID-19, with the Department of National Defence reporting more than 85 per cent of all troops having received at least one dose.
That stands in contrast to an apparent rash of vaccine hesitancy in the United States military, where some reports have suggested as many as one-third of American troops have declined to get a shot.
Defence Department spokesman Daniel Le Bouthillier says the majority of unvaccinated Canadian service members haven't declined to get a jab, they just haven't had an opportunity to bare their arms.
"A significant portion of currently unvaccinated personnel appear to be those who might be on various forms of leave or in more remote locales with limited access," he said. "As things stand, we are quite happy with our members' acceptance of vaccines."
Trained on smelly socks, bio-detection dogs sniff out COVID-19
A dog that has been trained to sniff out the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), screens a sweat sample at Chulalongkorn University, in Bangkok, Thailand on May 21, 2021. Photo by REUTERS/Jorge Silva
LONDON — Sniffer dogs trained using smelly socks worn by people infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus could soon be used at airports or mass gathering venues to pick up the "corona odor" of COVID-19-infected people, British scientists said on Monday.
Working in teams of two, the COVID-trained dogs could screen a line of several hundred people coming off a plane within half an hour, for example, and detect with up to 94.3 per cent sensitivity those infected, the scientists said.
After fall in COVID-19 infections, Israel reopens its borders to small groups of tourists
A woman wears a face mask as she sits by the Mediterranean Sea in Tel Aviv as COVID-19 restrictions were eased in Israel on May 21, 2020. Photo by Amir Cohen /Reuters
Israel reopened its borders to foreign tourists on Sunday after a fall in COVID-19 infections but said it would take time for visitors to start arriving and to revive the tourism industry.
Under an easing of coronavirus restrictions, the government went ahead with a plan to start letting in small groups of tourists from countries using vaccines it has approved.