Alberta reports 430 new cases of COVID-19 and 13 more deaths

Alberta reported 430 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday and 13 more deaths from the illness.

Across the province there were 4,545 active cases, with 307 patients being treated in hospitals, including 56 in ICU beds.

Laboratories completed 9,467 tests over the past 24 hours, with a positivity rate of about 4.6 per cent.

As of Tuesday, 186,572 doses of vaccine have administered.

Public health officials reported another 22 cases of a more-contagious variant of the coronavirus first identified in the United Kingdom. A total of 316 cases of variant B.1.1.7 has now been identified in Alberta, along with seven cases of variant B.1.351, first identified in South Africa.

The regional breakdown of active cases was:

• Calgary zone: 1,564

• North zone: 942

• Edmonton zone: 925

• Central zone: 759

• South zone: 353

• Unknown: two

A total of 1,866 people have now died from the illness in Alberta since the pandemic began last March.