CALGARY—Alberta has three new cases of COVID-19, bringing the provincial total to seven as numbers continue to climb in Canada.

All seven cases in Alberta are confirmed, according to Chief Medical Officer of Health Deena Hinshaw. British Columbia has 32 confirmed cases, Quebec has four and Ontario has 34.

All seven Alberta cases are travel related, according to Hinshaw. The first was announced Thursday, a Calgary woman returning from the Grand Princess cruise ship. The second case, an Edmonton man, was announced the next day.

Two more cases were announced over the weekend, one in a man returning on Feb. 21 from a Grand Princess cruise, and the other a close contact of someone who had recently returned from travel in Europe, including Ukraine, Turkey and the Netherlands.

The fifth case is a woman in her 70s from the Edmonton area, a close contact of an Edmonton-zone man whose case was announced over the weekend. The sixth is a Calgary-area man in his thirties, the person who recently travelled to Europe.

The seventh case is a woman from the Calgary-area in her 50s who was on the MS Braemar cruise ship from Feb. 11 to March 4.

Health officials are reaching out to Albertans who returned from these two cruises as well as their close contacts.

According to Hinshaw, Alberta no longer requires positive COVID-19 tests to be confirmed by the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, as the province is able to test and confirm cases itself.

She said that while Albertans are not currently at a high risk of contracting COVID-19, this could change in the coming weeks.

“We need to start thinking about what our new normal will look like in the coming months,” she said, suggesting elbow bumps and waves instead of hugs or handshakes.

“We need to protect each other.”

Hinshaw said anyone with loved ones in long-term care facilities or hospitals should refrain from visiting them at this time. Individuals thinking of travelling or returning from trips should be extra vigilant in watching for symptoms. Albertans showing signs of influenza should call 811 to be directed to an assessment centre.

Hinshaw said that on Sunday alone, around 700 tests for COVID-19 were done, making almost 1,000 in the past two days.

On Sunday, the federal government announced it has plans to bring home the Canadians still aboard the Grand Princess cruise ship, which is quarantined off the West Coast of the United States after a COVID-19 outbreak aboard the vessel. The passengers will be quarantined for 14 days in Ontario before being allowed to return home.

The spread of COVID-19 has raised concerns that the Alberta government will no longer be able to balance its budget — on Friday, Premier Jason Kenney said the virus is affecting the Alberta economy.

“If there is a major, prolonged global downturn, that would obviously affect our plan to get to balance in (two years),” he said.

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Initiatives are underway in Ontario and Quebec to ease the pressure the virus has put on hospitals, by creating screening clinics where patients can be isolated, assessed and tested.

Last week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau created a committee to help prepare Canada to deal with COVID-19.

The rise of COVID-19 cases in Canada has prompted many to stock up on household necessities such as toilet paper, as well as face masks and hand sanitizer in an effort to prevent the spread of the virus. It will likely be at least a year until a vaccine for the virus is developed, according to health officials.

Though the virus isn’t deadly to everyone, with a mortality rate of more than double the regular flu, as of Monday more than 3,800 people had died worldwide.

With files from The Canadian Press and Margaryta Ignatenko

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