Three people took to the podium on Monday during a COVID-19 update. 

Premier Jason Kenney provided a relaunch update and a numbers count being as follows:

There are now three active cases in Cochrane-Springbank.

  • 676 active cases in the province
  • 55% of the active cases are in people under the age of 40 with the highest increase in the 20-39 age group 
  • 45 in hospital with 10 in ICU which continues on a downward trend
  • the province is averaging 7000 test per day 
  • Saturday saw a new testing record of 10,000 tests in one day 
  • 7989 people have recovered from the virus 
  • 161 have died in the province

The second person to speak was Health Minister Shandro who made the announcement that 20 million more masks are now available for distribution in the province through restaurant partners. A&W, MacDonalds and Tim Hortons will hand out masks at drive thrus and now people can pickup masks at the counter inside the establishments.  Another new feature is the masks are now in packages of eight as opposed to four. 

Finally, Dr Deena Hinshaw, returning from a week of holidays, addressed the fact that active cases seem to be rising. "Spread of the virus is growing, however, with 54 new cases on July 10 and 96 on July 11 and 80 new cases on July 12. There are also more cases with unknown sources now than there were a week ago. We cannot do this alone, we need each other to get through this. Everyone of us has a role to play in keeping each other safe."

As for the use of masks, Premier Kenney says he is asked many times if Alberta will make masks mandatory. He says, "To quote Dr Hinshaw, we cannot enforce our way out of the pandemic and the vast majority of Albertan's, I don't think, need to be told to do the right thing. We all know by now that it is out civic duty to reduce our risk of exposure and transmission as much as possible. That means wearing a mask in crowded indoor public spaces where physical distancing is not possible."

Alberta's top doctor says, "I am strongly recommending that all of us wear masks anytime we are out and cannot maintain a two metre distance from others especially in indoor spaces. Wearing a mask is a common sense precaution that should be everyone's new normal."

For all information pertaining to COVID 19 click here.