Cochrane adds 35 new COVID-19 cases since April 1st

There are now 328 people in the hospital, with 76 of them in intensive care, which Alberta Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw described as a sharp increase.

Alberta's top doctor says an outbreak of the COVID-19 variant first found in Brazil appears to be linked to a large employer with multiple sites across Western Canada.

Following news about the PTW Energy outbreak, Hinshaw added a separate, unrelated P.1 outbreak was reported at a workplace in the Calgary zone with 5 cases linked to the outbreak, including 1 confirmed case of the P1 variant.

"The outbreak started with a traveller returning to Alberta from out of province".

She says the spread has been confined to three work sites in the central and north zones in which employees travelled between locations.

Kevin Zahara says he wants to know how big a risk there is to the wider community, but he hasn't heard from Alberta Health Services.

Those variants now account for 39.2 per cent of active cases in the province.

On Tuesday, the province recorded 931 new cases of COVID-19, 676 of which are variants of concern.

Kenney notes if the current trend continues, there will be 2,000 new daily COVID cases by the end of the month and up to 1,000 people in the hospital.

Hinshaw said four more deaths have been reported to Alberta Health since April 1.

Eligible Albertans can also book their COVID-19 immunization at participating pharmacies by visiting the AHS website.