by: nathan martin
alberta is growing closer to the stage 3 reopening plan benchmark.
on saturday, the province reported 63,400 more albertans received a covid-19 vaccination shot. the province now sits at 68.5 per cent of albertans 12 and up who have received at least one dose and
19.2 per cent of albertans who are fully vaccinated.
the benchmark for stage 3 is 70 per cent of albertans with one jab.
nearly all health restrictions will be removed two weeks after meeting the stage 3 goal. alberta entered stage 2 on thursday.
active covid-19 cases in the edmonton zone continue to fall.
there were 179 new confirmed cases of covid in the province saturday. the number of active cases went down by 90, bringing the total to 839.
across the province, the number of people in the hospital due to covid-19 also continued to go down, with 290 in the hospital saturday, down six from the last report, and icu cases have also decreased to 74.
recovered cases in the province also continue to go up. as of the end of friday, there have been 457 more people who have recovered from the virus, bringing the provincial total to 224,782.
there were four more deaths announced saturday: a 50-year-old man in the calgary zone, a 60-year-old man in the calgary zone, a 50-year-old woman in the central zone, and a 50-year-old man in the south zone. a total of 2,269 albertans have died from covid-19.