COVID demands another life in the park
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Strathcona County has reached the somber milestone of 70 residents dying from COVID.
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During the province’s weekly COVID-19 update on Tuesday, May 16, Alberta Health reported that one additional person at Sherwood Park had succumbed to the virus within the past seven days.
This is the third death in as many weeks in the county’s urban area. Previously, the province reported two COVID-19-related deaths in Sherwood Park on May 11 and 4.
This was followed by two local deaths reported in late April, one in early March and five deaths in February.
Currently, 70 Strathcona County residents have died from COVID-19 — 60 in Sherwood Park and 10 in the rural area.
“All deaths are devastating and my thoughts are with everyone who has lost a loved one due to COVID or otherwise,” Mayor Rod Frank said The news. “COVID is still a very real problem and Strathcona County remains vigilant in following strict health and safety procedures to protect everyone in our community.”
In the past week, 67 new cases of the virus have been reported in Strathcona County — 55 cases in Sherwood Park and 12 in the rural part of the county. These statistics do not include rapid at-home tests.
The province continues to not report the total number of active cases within a municipality.
This weekly case load continues to improve week by week. There were 72 new cases reported last week. Two weeks earlier there were 105 new cases reported and three weeks ago there were 151 new cases.
Last week, Sherwood Park continued Alberta Health’s designation of an area with a “high” seven-day case rate. Last week, the rural area fell from a “medium” rating to a “low” rating, but that has reverted to a “medium” rating over the past seven days, according to May 16 data.
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Last week, the province reported a seven-day fall rate of 74.9 per 100,000 residents in the park, down 9.5. The drop was only small compared to the past two weeks, when the province reported a drop of 25.8 points (a rate of 84.4) last week and 45 points two weeks ago (a rate of 110.2).
In the countryside, the seven-day case rate per 100,000 population was 46.5, up eight points (a rate of 38.3 was reported last week). Two weeks ago, rural areas reported a rate of 54.3 points.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, 11,292 Strathcona County residents have been reported by the province to have contracted COVID-19 (this does not reflect rapid home testing, so this number is believed to be less than what actually happened) – 8,623 people in Sherwood Park and 2,669 residents in the rural part of the county.
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