Fort McMurray is seeing its active total of COVID-19 rise over the past 24 hours.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, announced on Monday 1,549 new cases across Alberta.

This raises the provincial total to 48,421 with 13,166 currently active.

Locally, Fort McMurray added 13 new cases and six recoveries which puts the active total at 147.

The rural area didn’t see any new changes in the past 24 hours keeping the total of active cases at 26.

In total, 531 individuals across the RMWB – 460 in Fort McMurray and 71 in the rural areas – have recovered.

They are among the 34,779 who’ve recovered across the province. This represents over 71 per cent of reported cases.

There were also five new deaths from COVID-19 in Alberta over the past day – raising the total to 476.

To date, two individuals in Fort McMurray have died as a result of the virus.

Potential New Measures

New provincial measures could be implemented starting on Tuesday.

Dr. Hinshaw says she plans on providing recommendations to the provincial cabinet Monday afternoon.

She hasn’t given any hints as to what may be implemented, noting the GoA will make the final decision.

Meanwhile, those who recently tested positive for COVID-19 may not be contacted directly by Alberta Health Services to conduct contact tracing.

Everyone who contracts the virus will still be notified immediately, however, the rise in cases is creating a large backlog with AHS having a hard time trying to pinpoint where each individual contracted the virus.

Moving forward, individuals who test positive and aren’t contacted for contact tracing will get a text message after 10 days have passed from their positive case.