Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw. (Government of Alberta)

By David Opinko

Anti-racism protesters commended for wearing masks, but should get tested for COVID-19

Jun 8, 2020 | 3:40 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health spoke about last week’s anti-racism protests across the province and provided the daily COVID-19 update for Monday, June 8.

The demonstration in Lethbridge saw a crowd of at least 900 protesters gathered outside of Lethbridge City Hall.

“I want to commend all those who wore masks and stayed two metres away from others while showing up to rally and support this cause,” says Dr. Deena Hinshaw. “The freedom to protest is a critical one, and yet, we face a challenge in this time of pandemic to do so without risking super-spreader events.”

She said she has seen photos of gatherings at numerous Albertan protests and recognizes that the majority of people were doing their best to stay safe.

“I want to encourage all those who encouraged protests this weekend to go for COVID-19 testing, whether or not you have symptoms.”

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Contact tracing is difficult in events like these where many people are standing close together, so protesters are also asked to closely monitor their activities over the next couple of weeks.

Dr. Hinshaw has been in contact with some of the organizers of these protests to discuss how they can be structured in the future to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and other illnesses.

Monday’s daily update for COVID-19 includes data from Monday and Sunday since data was not released yesterday.

Over the last 48 hours, 64 new infections were confirmed provincially, bringing the total to 7,202. Of those, 355 cases are still ongoing while 6,698 people have recovered.

Another three deaths were announced, all of which were in the Calgary Health Zone, meaning the virus has now claimed the lives of 149 Albertans.

44 patients remain in hospital, six of whom have been admitted to intensive care units (ICU).

Alberta passed a new benchmark in COVID-19 testing as just over 300,000 tests have been completed to date.

The regional breakdown is as follows:

• Calgary zone – 4,955 cases, 198 active
  • 110 deaths
  • 31 in hospital, four in ICU
• South zone –1,254 cases, nine active
  • Nine deaths
  • Two in hospital, one in ICU
• Edmonton zone – 598 cases, 92 active
  • 13 deaths
  • Six in hospital, one in ICU
• North zone – 243 cases, 16 active
  • 16 deaths
  • Five in hospital
• Central zone – 87 cases, zero active
  • One death’

It appears as though the province has changed the way that they display the geospatial map on their website, which is how we get information for the South Health Zone breakdown by community. Many of the numbers appear to be inconsistent with what we have previously reported, so we will not be providing the regional breakdown for today.