Dr. Deena Hinshaw is set to give an update on COVID-19 in Alberta on Monday afternoon.
Alberta’s chief medical officer of health will speak at her usual time of 3:30 p.m. MT. Her update will be streamed live in this story post.
The update comes the same day the province began Step 1 of its relaunch plan to lift restrictions, including allowing limited in-person dining, one-on-one gym training, and minor sports training.
Read more:
COVID-19: What you can and cannot do in Alberta on Monday, Feb. 8
Restaurants, cafés and pubs can now reopen for dine-in services and a maximum of six people per table is allowed, however everyone must be from the same household or the two close contacts for people living alone. Establishments have to collect the contact information of one person from the dining party, and there are limited operating hours.
The eased restrictions are contingent on hospitalization numbers and are the first of a four-step approach to reopening the economy.
Step 2, which include relaxed retail and indoor fitness restrictions, requires hospitalization numbers in the province to be below 450 — on Sunday, there were 434 Albertans in hospital.
However, Step 2 also states it must be implemented at least three weeks after Step 1, regardless of if hospitalization numbers are lower first. The earliest a decision on Step 2 will be made is Feb. 28. The province said the same re-evaluation period will be used for all subsequent steps.
Of those in hospital on Sunday, there were 81 Albertans in intensive care. Also Sunday, there were 6,242 active cases of COVID-19 in the province and 1,709 had died the disease.
Alberta Health said Friday there have been a total of 71 cases of the U.K. COVID-19 variant and seven cases of the South African variant, both of which have a higher infection rate.
The province officially updates variant numbers online on Tuesdays and Fridays.