Your weekly COVID-19 update

Every Tuesday, the Maclean's daily newsletter will catch you up on what you need to know about Canada's fight against the coronavirus. Patricia Treble will focus on one story worth watching, and you can get a sneak peek here. You'll also get the same mix of Maclean's stories you expect every day if you scroll down below.

“I know many are tired of hearing me say that COVID-19 is not over,” said Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, on Monday, July 27. “Sometimes, I’m tired of saying it. The truth is, though, that COVID-19 is still here.”

July has been a bad month for the province. On Alberta’s first daily update of the month, it reported 94 new cases. A week later, that daily tally had dropped to 37. Any hope that the number of new cases would stay so low, however, was quickly dashed as they surged into triple digits and stayed there day after day.

The reasons for the outbreaks weren’t hard to find, as Hinshaw noted on July 25: “Two weeks ago, we had widespread reports of overcrowding, inadequate physical distancing and general disregard for public health measures at Alberta beaches.” In addition, there have been outbreaks at long-term care facilities, and the virus is spreading to rural areas in Alberta that had previously been spared high numbers of cases.

“The curve is no longer flat in Alberta,” Hinshaw said two days later as she announced another 304 cases in the past three days. The province’s number of active cases has surged to more than 1,425 from 590 on July 9. “It’s important for us to realize that these are real people behind numbers. It’s important for us to realize that these are real people who simply caught COVID-19 while living their lives,” she said.

Hinshaw is concerned about the climb in COVID-19 hospitalizations, which are getting closer to the previous peak of 113 admissions on April 30, when the province was still in lockdown. On that last day in April, Alberta had a cumulative tally of 5,355 cases and had recorded 89 deaths. As of July 27, Alberta’s tally is 10,390 cases and 186 deaths, including eight deaths added to the grim toll on Monday. In the past week, the per capita number of new cases has stayed above 26 daily cases per million population, more than double the national average.

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