Pearl Lorentzen
Lakeside Leader
From August 7 to 13, the M.D. of Lesser Slave River, including the Town of Slave Lake, remained at zero active cases. However, three more people died from COVID-19 elsewhere in the AHS North Zone. (The Aug. 14 report had data from the end of the day on Aug. 13).
Three deaths
The deceased were a man aged 60 to 69, a woman over 80, and a man over 80. Two were the fourth and fifth deaths in MacKenzie County. The other was in the M.D. of Greenview, just south of the City of Grande Prairie. One of the routes to Grande Prairie from Slave Lake runs through Greenview (see map at bottom of article).
The person in Greenview died some time between Aug. 7 and 10. By Aug. 12, the final two active cases in that county recovered. Greenview numbers were eight cases – seven recovered and one died.
Active cases
MacKenzie County has the most COVID cases in the North Zone.
Last week, it had the most new cases (33). The number of COVID-19 recoveries (31) and deaths (two) in MacKenzie county equaled the number of new cases (33). MacKenzie cases 214 – 55 active, 154 recovered, and five died.
The City of Grande Prairie had 11 active cases, the second most in the North Zone.
North Zone active COVID-19 cases
| Municipality | Active cases |
| MacKenzie County | 55 |
| City of Grande Prairie | 11 |
| Wood Buffalo | 7 |
| Grande Prairie County | 6 |
| County of Northern Lights | 6 |
| Municipality of Jasper | 5 |
| Fort McMurray | 5 |
| County of St. Paul | 2 |
| Clear Hills County | 1 |
| M.D. of Peace | 1 |
| City of Cold Lake | 1 |
| unknown | 1 |
| Westlock County | 1 |
| Big Lakes County | 1 |
| Total | 103 |
Near Slave Lake
Closer to Slave Lake, two people recovered from COVID-19 in Athabasca County, so there were active cases in only two municipalities which border Lesser Slave River. These were Big Lakes County (one) and Westlock County (one). Big Lakes numbers didn’t change, but there was one new case and one recovered in Westlock.
Outbreaks
As of Aug. 13, there was a third outbreak in the North Zone. This was at an oil sands camp in Wood Buffalo. However, the people in the outbreak are likely listed by their residence on their drivers license, so the numbers may be scattered throughout Alberta and Canada. Wood Buffalo had 60 cases – seven active (two new) and 53 recovered. Fort McMurray had the second most in the North Zone – 75 cases – five active (four new) and 70 (10 new) recovered.
The other two outbreaks were in La Crete – one connected to family gatherings and one at a seniors’ facility. At least one of the five, MacKenzie deaths was connected with this outbreak.
This region is under a COVID-19 watch. If the number of active cases per the population gets too high, added health measures may be imposed. These are out of 100,000 people, but MacKenzie doesn’t have that large of a population. The population is 24,171.
One of the three people who died from COVID-19, in the AHS North Zone was a resident of Greenview.
Map courtesy of Wikipedia.