Alberta reports 1,592 new cases of COVID-19, alongside 5 additional deaths

The province reported 1,592 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, and an additional five deaths.

In the last 24 hours, 17,725 lab tests for COVID-19 were completed, witha positivity rate of around nine per cent.

Alberta identified another 1,132 variant cases. Of the province's 19,702 active cases, just over 60 per cent are variants.

On Saturday, there were 584 people in hospital with the illness (an increase of 35 from Friday), including 129 in intensive care unit beds.

The five deaths additional deaths occurred on Thursday and Friday. They included four in the Calgary zone in their 50s, 60s and 70s, and a woman in her 90s in the Edmonton zone.

The regional breakdown of active cases on Saturday is:

• Calgary zone: 8,283
• Edmonton zone: 5,536
• North zone: 2,766
• Central zone: 2,105
• South zone: 954
• Unknown: 58

On Saturday, Alberta reported 1,361,365 doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered as of end of day Friday.