“The vaccines we have save lives,” said Dr. Deena Hinshaw during her COVID-19 update with the public.

Hinshaw spoke about an international report of a rare form of inflammation of heart muscles that is found sometimes in younger males.

“Myocarditis is inflammation of the heart muscle and pericarditis is inflammation of the lining of the heart. In both conditions, the body’s immune system causes inflammation often in response to infection or some other trigger. This is being reported after vaccination in males, and more frequently after a second dose of vaccine,” she said.

Hinshaw said the reports are very rare and there have been no reports of the condition after vaccination in Alberta.

Over the last 24 hours, there were 296 new cases of COVID-19. There are 411 people in hospital due to COVID-19, including 120 in intensive care, and there are 5,831 active cases in the province. There were also five new deaths in the province in the last 24 hours.

Today the Chief Medical Officer of Health shared new data related to vaccines in the province.

“It’s clear that vaccines are remarkably effective.” She said since January 1, 96 per cent of all confirmed COVID-19 cases in Alberta were either unvaccinated or diagnosed within two weeks of receiving their first dose while their immunity was still building. She said just 0.2 per cent of all people who had one dose of vaccine in that time frame got COVID-19 once 14 days had passed since that shot

She said people can expect the number of deaths due to COVID-19 and hospitalizations to decrease more as more of the population is protected by first and second doses.

In Strathmore right now there are 6 cases of COVID-19 while there are 10 in Wheatland County.