Alberta’s total cases from the start of the pandemic is 186,679
There have been 27,921 variant cases ID’d in the province, 1,058 new today. There are 1,383 in the South Zone.
13,193 active cases (63.2 per cent of total) have been identified as variants of concern.
There are 1,839 total new cases in the province today.
There are now 643 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, 145 of which are in ICU, and 2,073 deaths.
The province completed 18,976 tests in the past 24 hours.
The positivity rate is about 9.8 per cent.
Alberta has administered 1,497,256 of vaccine at the latest update.
Dr. Deena Hinshaw’s next update will be later this week.
By Jaryn Vecchio
Composite High School // Steph Seidel - Harvard Broadcasting
The Fort McMurray Public School Division won’t pilot the provincial government’s draft K-6 curriculum.
A board meeting was held last week where the administration voted in favour of keeping the current curriculum for the next school year.
The government of Alberta announced in March schools would soon focus on four themes: literacy, numeracy, citizenship, and practical skills.
However, it has received heavy backlash over the lack of alleged consultation, focuses, and more.
“This has been and continues to be, a very challenging time for our students, staff and their families,” said Linda Mywaart, FMPSD Board Chair.
Unity photographer, Nick Senseshen, shared these pictures taken during a tour across Canada by Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip that stopped in Unity July 21, 1959. Her majesty and the prince arrived by train and paraded down Main Street waving to hundreds of adoring fans and subjects. Prince Phillip died April 9 at age 99. Photos courtesy of Nick Seneshen.
Mayor Sharon Del Frari holds Batrick, one of the educational bats brought by bat biologist, Melanie Elliott, who helped educate town staff on these creatures before their return to the community in May. Photo submitted We are all tired. However, there is no time like the present to get your vaccine when eligible, adhere to necessary pandemic protocols and enjoy the great outdoors when you can. Ultimately, it is up to all of us to continue to do what we can, where we can, when we can in order to stop the spread.
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Leduc Composite High School students will be learning from home for the next week.
Classes were moved online on Friday, April 16 after approximately 385 students and close to 10 teachers were in isolation due to COVID-19, along with additional students that chose to stay home. When BGSD sought provincial permission to move to online classes, there were 15 active COVID-19 cases in the school.
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BGSD Superintendent Bill Romanchuk said they implemented virtual learning to keep staff and students safe.
“For us the other issues were, we couldn’t get enough substitute teachers in to cover all the teachers that were away … the other thing is that our teachers were trying to teach the students in class and those being isolated. They were basically pulling double duty and that’s not fair to them and not healthy for them,” Romanchuk said.
By Steph Seidel
Composite High School // Steph Seidel - Harvard Broadcasting
Both the Fort McMurray Public School Division and the Catholic School District are moving select grades to virtual learning.
Beginning April 19, grades 7 to 12 will be switching to online learning until April 30th.
A joint application for the move was made to the Ministry of Education on Thursday due to the continual increase of COVID-19 numbers and staff and students in isolation.
“We all agree in school is the best place for learning, but the overall COVID-19 numbers in Fort McMurray right now are very worrisome,” said George McGuigan, FMCSD Superintendent.