Officials including newly appointed Health Minister, Jason Copping will be taking to podium this afternoon at 3:30pm MDT to address the COVID-19 crisis in Alberta.

Yesterday, the province reported 5,181 new cases of COVID-19 reported since Friday.

Doctors continue to sound the alarm of a near-collapse of the healthcare system and are calling for more extreme restrictions to be implemented.

There are 1,063 people in the hospital and a record number of 265 patients in ICU. Over 90% are not vaccinated.

Another 23 have been reported since Friday bringing the total in the province to 2,645.