Alberta Saw A Massive Increase Of 368 New COVID-19 Cases Over The Weekend

There's been a recent boom in new COVID-19 cases in Alberta. Coronavirus case counts are at the highest they've been in months and the daily increases in cases have jumped to highs not seen in a long time. According to the province's top doctor, many of the recent cases were people in their twenties and thirties.

According to the province's latest data from Monday, July 20, there were 368 new COVID-19 cases identified over the past three days.

Friday, June 17 saw an increase of 165, Saturday, June 18 saw 106, and on Sunday, June 19, 97 new cases were identified. That's an average of roughly 123 new cases a day.

Over the weekend, three more deaths were also confirmed in the province, bringing the total count to 170.

Less than one week ago on Tuesday, July 14, the province reported 86 new cases of COVID-19 — four days later it was practically doubled.

Currently, Alberta has 1,109 active cases. It's the highest it's been in over two months, since Tuesday, May 12.

Spikes in COVID-19 infection have been seen in the province's western neighbour, too. B.C. similarly announced a large increase over the weekend that was pretty atypical for them.

The new increase in cases also comes with a dramatic change in the demography.

Alberta's chief medical officer of health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, announced in her update on Tuesday, July 14 that people were growing "fatigued" by the pandemic and starting to "tune the messages out."

She also said that most of the new cases are in people in their twenties and thirties.

The same is being seen in B.C. with their latest increase, according to Dr. Bonnie Henry.

Henry attributed their increase to people hanging out in clusters, attending parties, and seeing people outside their social bubbles.

She asked locals to keep fighting, however, and repeated her well-worn advice: "Stay two metres apart when you can and wear a mask when you can't. Wash or sanitize your hands. Stay home if you are sick and get tested."

Hopefully, locals are able to act in time before the spike grows any higher.